The first fighting during the American War of Independence. While the action itself was on a relatively small scale, it marked the moment when the last chances of a peaceful resolution of the differences between the American colonists and the British Government disappeared. Tension had been building since the end of the Seven Years War, but in the previous years the agitation had reached a new level. General Thomas Gage, the British commander-in-chief and Governor of Massachusetts, began to feel dangerously exposed in Boston as the strength of the local militias kept on increasing, while his own command did not. His requests for extra troops were refused on the grounds that all he faced was a “rude rabble”. Despite this refusal to send reinforcements, there was a general feeling in Britain that it would be better to provoke what was seen as an inevitable rebellion before the colonists could further increase their strength.
For some time Gage had been unable to send his men out into the Massachusetts countryside. Attempts to scout out the local area had been foiled, but he still had his sources of information. Amongst the things he did know was that there were sizable stores of militia weapons at Concord and Worcester. Gage began to make secret preparations to raid this arms dump. His plan was to use the elite grenadier companies and the highly mobile light infantry companies from each regiment to form a special force. However, the requirement for secrecy meant that the troops involved did not know of their mission until very close to the day itself. The same was true of the two commanders, Colonel Francis Smith, famous for his obesity, and his second in commander, Major John Pitcairn of the marines, not a logical choice to command a purely army operation.
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