The Battle of Concord took place in the late morning hours of April 19, 1775. After British soldiers fired on the militiamen of Lexington they were frustrated in their attempt to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams. So, they headed for Concord. Spies had informed the British Governor of Boston, Thomas Gage, that there was a large collection of weapons and gunpowder in Concord. In the early hours of the morning, British soldiers set out in secret to capture the traitors Hancock and Adams and to confiscate these weapons and gunpowder. By the time they arrived in Concord (about 9:00 a.m.), the word had spread throughout the Massachusetts countryside that they were on their way. Although Paul Revere never made it to Concord, riders had been sent throughout Massachusetts to alarm the countryside (see the map from The Minuteman Museum, below)

The British Regulars couldn't find any of the weapons or gunpowder their spies had told them they would find in Concord. So, British officers sent their men out to search the houses in town and just outside of town. One group of soldiers found themselves just Northwest of town, crossing The Old North Bridge, when they came upon a large group of militiamen, who had been gathering since the alarm was given late the night before. The 400 or so Patriot soldiers watched as the British soldiers checked a nearby farmhouse for weapons. Then they noticed smoke rising from Concord, where British soldiers were burning the Liberty Tree and whatever gun-racks they could find. The Patriots began to worry that their town was being burned.

The British soldiers returned across the bridge, some of them trying to take the bridge apart to prevent the Patriots from following them. The Patriots couldn't stand to let these soldiers march away while their town burned and came closer to the bridge. Seeing the approaching Patriot militia, the British soldiers lined up on the other side of the bridge and, in the confusion, three British regulars fired on the Patriots. With that, the Patriots started firing back. Badly outnumbered. the 100 or so British turned and fled. All the others in Concord followed their lead and the regulars quick-marched back to Boston, fired on by militia in the forests and behind stone walls all along the way. To see a re-enactment of Patriot soldiers firing on the British as they march back to Boston, click here.