Then seeing words had no effect, he gave the order to fire. The
soldiers obeyed, and eight minute men fell dead, and several more
were wounded. The minute men returned the fire, but just then more
British soldiers appeared in sight. And seeing that it was useless
to try to resist so great a force the Americans dispersed.
Thus the terrible war, which was almost a civil war, began. The
British now marched on to Concord. They had failed to arrest the
men they had been sent to arrest at Lexington. So there was all
the more reason to hurry on to Concord, and seize the war stores
before there was time to spirit them away. But when about seven
o'clock in the morning the troops arrived at Concord the stores for
the most part had been already safely hidden. A gun or two they
found, and a few barrels of flour. The guns were spiked, the barrels
staved in, the court house set on fire.
But meanwhile the minute men had been gathering, and now a force
four hundred strong appeared on the further side of a bridge known
as the North Bridge. The bridge was held by two hundred British,
and when they saw the minute men approach they began to destroy
it.
There was a sharp exchange of fire. Then the minute men charged
across the narrow bridge, sweeping all before them. The British
fled back to the village, and the minute men, hardly knowing what
they had done, retired again across the bridge and waited.
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