Rebel leaders knowing they did not have anything like a consensus amongst the colonists for them to seize control, started organising gangs of thugs to intimidate isolated government officials and royalists, particularly in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Intimidation quickly turned to persecution, which included all sorts of torture, one form widely used was 'smoking’ (leaving someone tied up in a sealed room overnight with a fire and a blocked chimney) only letting them out if they resigned their posts or signed a pledge opposing British authority. British soldiers were sent to protect citizens, but there were nowhere near enough of them to stop the rebel's random attacks, even staunch Loyalist areas became unsafe. In response various groups tried to organise a defence, but not being the malicious ruffians employed by the rebels they were nearly always met with overwhelming savagery, this caused a steady stream of families arriving in Boston, to the point of overcrowding, which then drove out the rebel supporters. The majority of the colonists did not want the breakdown of law and order these gangs and their leaders would bring, so determined Loyalists covertly supplied the British with good intelligence, including that rebels were amassing small arms and cannon at Concord. Lt General Gage commander of British forces who thought with good reason that the rebels were sly, artful, hypocritical, and cruel, knew that any wrong move would spark a civil war, so wishing to avoid bloodshed, devised a counter revolutionary plan to confiscate the rebel’s stockpile of gunpowder, musket balls and cannons. The redcoats didn’t expect any hostilities and were confident of success so only took 35 rounds each, but Gage’s wife Margaret, an American, had conflicting allegiance (indicated by a lament to a friend 'Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose') so deliberately or unwittingly informed the rebels of the plan. Folklore has credited Paul Revere with alerting Concord of the approaching regulars, but his horse was taken at Lexington by a British patrol and it was Samuel Prescott who managed to get through to set off their warning system of other riders, (who Loyalists called ‘minutemen’) which enabled them to assemble approx. 3600 armed men from all over New England. On arrival at Lexington the redcoats who were only 900 strong, confronted Parker’s militia and convinced them to disperse, but just as doing so, shots were fired at both sides from behind a wall (most probably by wealthy smuggler Hancock and rebel leader Samuel Adams, who were known to be there at the time) this started both sides firing at each other in which several Militiamen were killed. Although heavily outnumbered the British pressed onto Concord, not knowing they had been betrayed obviously found nothing left at Barrett’s Farm, so started searching the surrounding area and colonist's homes. They did find 3 buried cannons that they knocked the trunnions off and a large number of musket balls It was this that the rebels used to enrage other colonists to get them to attack the redcoats. Then under attack the redcoats were quickly out of ammunition, but just as seriously they were also out of water, forcing them to withdraw. But on returning along the only road, they were like half dead fish in a barrel and were being decimated, wounded redcoats were set upon to barbarically break their skulls, so they would live for an hour or so before expiring. At Arlington redcoat discipline had broken down and anyone caught sniping at them from house windows (mainly women) were either bayoneted or had their homes burnt down. The Rebels planned aggression had killed/murdered 273 redcoats, but would have killed even more had Gage not been informed and able to send out a relief column under the command of Gen. Percy who deployed flankers that kept the rebel’s rolling sniper tactics at bay. Having provoked the conflict they wanted, wealthy rebels then chartered Quero, a fast schooner to race across the Atlantic empty and deliver their version of events blaming the British to English newspapers before Gage’s official report to ministers could arrive on a heavily laden merchant ship two weeks later. The rebel propaganda had started its devious mudding of the water which confused the British response, so when Generals: Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne (already on their way) arrived in Boston on May 25th they didn’t know what they were dealing with, resulting in them losing many men at the battle of Breed’s (Bunker) hill on June 17th, becoming surrounded, beleaguered, eventually having to vacate the city and with so very many Loyalists losing their property, the thieves had triumphed. HomePage