While these great minds pondered over a "Declaration of Rights" and wrote letters to the Kind and to the Parliament, the public continued their protests to the Tea Act. On October 19, 1774, merchant Anthony Stewart of Annapolis, Maryland, set fire to his own ship, the Peggy Stewart, to pacify a lynch mob accusing him of having imported 17 packagesof tea. While cooler heads continued to avoid armed rebellion, "tea parties" and other acts of protest occured in villages and cities from Fredericktown, Maryland to Edenton, North Carolina. Opposition to the Crown was spreading through the colonies at a feverish pitch.

It was no secret to Gen. Thomas Gage, commander of British troops in Boston, that the Americans were militarily active. The redcoats often stood by and watched the militia drill. What Gage did not recognize was the cold determination with which the colonists intended to resist British force. At no time was it more evident than the spring of 1775 when Capt. John Parker's men stood in formation across the Lexington Green in open defiance to the Crown.

On April 15, 1775, it was learned that Gage intended to send 700 troops on an unknown mission. Correctly assuming that the British had learned of the Patriot's storehouse of arms and ammunition at Concord, a "committee of safety" sent out word to move the supplies. On the night of April 18 the alarm sounded--British troops were being ferried across the Charles River for the march on Concord. On prearranged lantern signals from Old North Church ("one if by land, two if by sea"), Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night warning of the approaching troops. By the time the column of British regulars, under Lt. Col. Francis Smith and Maj. John Pitcairn, reached Lexington, about 70 local citizens had assembled with arms.

Sensing the hopelessness of the odds, Parker ordered his men to disperse. They slowly drifted away. Then "the shot hear 'round the world" was fired, by whom no one will ever know. Pitcairn reported he gave no such order; the Americans denidedit came from their ranks. But when the brief skirmish was over eight Americans were dead and two lay wounded. The day was not over. The Patriot fire was so heavy at Concord that Pitcairn withdrew and headed back to Boston.

What started as an orderly retreat, however, turned into a rout. From every stonewall, every tree, every house along the way, the colonials fired at the British. Every town along the way bristled with angry militia. Pitcairn limped into Boston with 73 dead and 174 wounded. The Americans suffered 49 dead and 41 wounded. But casualty figures meant little--it was a memorable day in history. The Americans had openly challenged the Crown. Nothing would ever be the same again on the North American continent.

Lexington and Concord set the stage for the years to come. Within days Boston was land-locked by 17,000 rebel troups and the British were in a state of seige. Things began happening rapidly. Fort Ticonderoga on the southern tip of Lake Champlain was captured by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. Patrick henry thundered in the Virginia Legislature, "Give me liberty or give me death." And on June 15, 1775, George Washington was unanimously elected by the Congress to command the Continental Army.

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