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1775 American Revolution - The War Begins

1775

In late April 1775, Gen Gage sent British troops to seize colonial military supplies and arrest opposition leaders in the towns of Lexington and Concord, west of Boston. The military clashes there and along the British retreat route began what became the Revolutionary War. News of the fighting spread quickly, and volunteer soldiers rushed to a provincial camp in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Soon this force had the British army bottled up in Boston, at that time a peninsula with just one narrow link to the mainland. Meanwhile, other colonial forces took the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in New York, seizing valuable military supplies. The Second Continental Congress, after assembling on May 10, took charge of the makeshift Massachusetts force and appointed Virginian George Washington to command this "Continental Army." In June British troops frustrated an American attempt to fortify Breed's Hill overlooking Boston, but suffered heavy losses in the "Battle of Bunker Hill." Thereafter, Gen. William Howe replaced Gage as commander of the British forces. In July, Washington arrived at Cambridge and began a rigorous program to discipline the American army. Late in August, Congress sent troops to take Canada, an operation that would take the rest of the year and end in disaster. But, as the year closed, American troops under Col. Henry Knox began dragging 55 cannon from Ticonderoga to the siege at Boston. - NPS