American Revolution

April 19, 1775: British attempted to seize a stockpile of weapons and capture patriot leaders in this Massachusetts town. During the conflict the "shot heard around the world" is fired.

April 19, 1775: The second attempt by British troops to capture patriot weapons and leaders. After leaving this town British troops came under heavy fire and suffered nearly 150 casualties on their retreat to Boston.

This city was the center of revolutionary activity and the site of many early acts of defiance by colonists against British authority.

Patriot leader and president of the Second Continental Congress; first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.

American Revolutionary leader and patriot, Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence

American silversmith remembered for his midnight ride (celebrated in a poem by Longfellow) to warn the colonists in Lexington and Concord that British troops were coming

Companies of civilian soldiers who boasted that they were ready to fight on a minutes notice.

British General who ordered troops to Lexington and Concord

Commander of the 77 militiamen who fought the British in Lexington

A leader of the American Revolution and a famous orator who spoke out against British rule of the American colonies,

Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution ; 1st President of the United States;

A Vermont blacksmith. Led the Green Mountain Boys in a surprise attack to capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British.

A gathering of representatives from all thirteen colonies in 1774; it called for a total boycott of British goods in protest against taxes.

Met in May 1775, originally the Congress opposed the drastic move toward complete independence from Britain. However after not receiving a satisfactory answer from King George, it met again in 1776 and drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence, which justified the Revolutionary War and declared that the colonies should be independent of Britain.

American patriot who rode with Paul Revere to warn that the British were advancing on Lexington and Concord.