Why Did General Thomas Gage Order British Troops To March To Concord In April 1775?

On 18th April 1775, under the command of General Thomas Gage, 700 British troops marched towards Lexington and Concord with two main purposes.

Their purposes were to arrest the rebellious colonists without any armed conflict and destroy their weapons stored at Concord.

These were the main reasons why did British General Thomas Gage order his troops to march towards Lexington and Concord on the night of 18th April 1775.

However, General Gage and his troops failed to fulfill their purposes because spies like Paul Revere and some other patriots’ midnight ride made their plan entirely flop.

Paul Revere and his other associates already sounded the American patriots (militias) the alarm of British Red Coats’ mobilization.

But How Paul Revere Came To Know About The British Troop’s Movement?

On 18th April 1775, a member named Joseph Warren from the patriotic organization Sons of Liberty came to know from a secret source that the night the British troops were planning to march towards Concord.

Getting the information about the threat, he immediately sent the news to William Dawes and Paul Revere, who was then a silversmith at Boston.  

The same night, Paul Revere informed American militias that the British troops were coming there.

After getting the news, militias immediately relocated their armaments to a safe place and started mobilizing for the confrontation.

Around 700 British troops were departing from Boston, Massachusetts, to Concord and Lexington.

Finally, on 19th April 1775, it resulted in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

This battle became the very first armed conflict between the British Red Coats and American militias.

The incident fully triggered the revolutionary war of America’s independence.

The event was the first spark that later grew into a massive fire.

[Did You Know? The Battle of Lexington & Concord Was A Strategic Victory For American Patriots. The Conflict Boosted Their Morale For Future Inevitable Conflicts]

Why Were American Militias Gathering Armaments At Concord?

During the First Continental Congress meeting, colonies collectively decided to set up their militia groups and gather armaments for inevitable armed confrontations against British Red Coats.

After the British Parliament passed the 5 Intolerable Acts, the relationship between the 13 colonies and Great Britain went all-time low.

The colonies intended to create pressure over the British Parliament to repeal the five bad laws.

So, to make that happen, they met in the First Continental Congress, and here they decided to get militarily ready.

As an act of execution of this concurrence, rebels of the Massachusetts province started gathering armaments at Concord.

What Would Happen, If Paul Revere Didn’t Make His Midnight Ride?

If that were the case, the British soldiers would have seized the weapons and succeeded in arresting American rebels.

This may have led to a shortage of arms among the rebels and probably the British dominated the battle of Lexington and Concord.

Although, it would not make a much significant impact on the colonists’ morale.

Because they made up their morale so strong to counter the unjust of the British authority, and they wouldn’t step back from it.

But in reality, all in all, nothing happened like this.

Whatever happened at Concord and Lexington, we Americans get a fantastic story for today as Paul Rever’s midnight ride and the famous line British are coming.