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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Gen. Thomas Gage, commander of the troops in Boston, was ordered to seek out and seize the arms and supplies collected by the rebellious colonists. Troops led by Lt. Col. Francis Smith marched from Boston on the evening of the 18th of April and early the next morning confronted Lexington's town militia on its commons. They then continued on to Concord where an unauthorized provincial congress had been meeting. They escaped and the British seized their supplies. But as his troops marched back to Boston they were set upon by the many militias of neighboring towns, who had been roused by the news of Lexington. The British lost 73 dead, 174 wounded, 26 missing out of 700; in addition to the 40 militiamen mourned on this propaganda poster, another 53 were wounded or missing.

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