MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Even as the First Continental Congress adjourned Oct. 26, 1774, we saw last week that many delegates were still hoping for peaceful reconciliation with England. Each colony had formed a citizen committee which comprised the Continental Association to enforce trade sanctions until Parliament might repeal the Coercive Acts. Yet within a few months, shots were fired at Lexington and Concord which would turn debate and cautious expectancy into open war. We’ll explore some causes and events that explain why.

British leaders refused to recognize colonial petitions or to allow agents to speak, viewing them as “unruly children”. Though Benjamin Franklin in London warned British leaders that colonists were serious, Parliament and King George underestimated colonial resolve. Former war minister William Pitt introduced a bill prohibiting Parliament from further taxation and recognizing the Continental Congress - but it was rejected.

The Coercive Acts, meant to isolate Massachusetts, were instead uniting the colonists. Most notably, Parliament’s Massachusetts Government Act, designed to strengthen royal authority, was causing its collapse. General Gage reported that mobs were shutting down the courts and forcing royal-appointed council members to resign and flee.

In February 1775, first minister Lord North suggested that Parliament declare Massachusetts in rebellion. Parliament passed the New England Restraining Act, which banned all trade in New England, except with the mother country or with the British West Indies. Later, Parliament extended these commercial limitations to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. Rather than bringing about cooperation with England, the measures forced hesitant colonial merchants into alliance with their more radical neighbors.

George III had already decided that only arms could hold the empire together. He wrote to Lord North that the New England governments were “in a state of rebellion” and “blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent”. While this sounds like a prophetic challenge, most British leaders believed that the regular British army, in combat with amateur colonial soldiers, could easily force loyalty to the mother country.

General Gage had earlier shared that belief, but by early in 1775, he reported that colonial forces were not simply “Boston rabble” but “freeholders and farmers of the country” and that they were in a “fury”. He requested that England increase his force of 3,000 troops to 20,000. His suggested alternative was that Parliament suspend the Coercive Acts and allow colonial representation in Parliament. The king’s response was an attempt to replace Gage with General Amherst, whom he’d replaced a decade before, but Amherst declined.

Lord North took the offensive and ordered Gage to arrest provincial leaders John Hancock and Sam Adams. The king’s minister for American affairs, Lord Dartmouth, described them as “rude rabble without plan, without concert, and without conduct.” Dartmouth’s letter was received in the colonies on April 14, 1775; four days later, Gage sent a contingent of around 700 men to capture militia supplies stored at Concord.

Before the troops set out at 2am on April 19th, colonial riders headed west warning of their approach. Paul Revere and William Dawes rode to Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock. Dr Samuel Prescott carried the information on to Concord. When troops came through Lexington, local militiamen had lined up on the village green, intending simply to make a statement. But, as they began to disperse, a shot of unknown origin rang out. Later, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of the “shot heard round the world”. British soldiers fired into the fleeing men, killing eight and wounding ten. The army continued on to Concord, but found supplies and ammunition already removed. By noon, the British were driven from the North Bridge and retreated back toward Boston.

Along their route, thousands of militia from nearby towns attacked them from behind trees and walls. Troops made it back only after Gage sent a relief force of 900 men to hold a line east of Lexington. Suffering significant losses, the once invincible British army found itself besieged in Boston, a peninsula linked by a narrow neck of land they could guard, and where they would remain for nearly a year.

The next month, May 10th, Massachusetts troops under Colonel Benedict Arnold, and Connecticut and Vermont militia under Ethan Allen seized Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. Gaining control of this British fort, with valuable supplies and strategic position, led to the Hudson River and ultimately, New York City. Two days later, they took the British stronghold at Fort Crown Point.

Another month, and provincials on June 17th engaged British forces at what is known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. By this time, Gage had received his reinforcements. He sent 2400 British regulars and attempted to overtake a colonial entrenchment north and east above Boston, from which Americans overlooked the city and its harbor. Technically, the British won that battle, but at the cost of 1,054 dead and wounded, as opposed to 400 Americans. The myth of the regular British soldier was further shattered.

By the time of Bunker Hill, the Second Continental Congress had already assembled at Philadelphia in May. With the news of Lexington, Concord, and other clashes spreading throughout the colonies, it was obvious this second Congress would not be like its predecessor. What started as peaceful protest had become revolution. The path to independence was now an armed conflict.