On April 19, 1775, colonial militia and British troops clashed at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. British forces had been sent to seize colonial weapons and arrest leaders. At Lexington, a brief skirmish left several colonists dead. At Concord and along the road back to Boston, militiamen used guerrilla tactics to attack the British column. The fights marked the first open battles of the American Revolutionary War. They signaled that political dispute had turned into armed conflict.
