ly sent out a lot of soldiers to march to Concord
and destroy what they found there.

[Footnote 14: Congress: this word means a meeting or assembly of
persons. The General or Continental Congress was an assembly of
certain persons sent usually by all of the thirteen American colonies
to meet at Philadelphia or Baltimore, to decide what should be done
by the whole country. The first Congress met in 1774, or shortly
before the Revolution began, and after that from time to time until
near the close of the Revolution.]

[Footnote 15: Concord (Con'cord).]

134. Paul Revere;[16] the fight at Lexington and Concord; Bunker
Hill.--But Paul Revere, a Boston man, was on the watch; and as soon
as he found out which way the British were going, he set off at a
gallop for Lexington, on the road to Concord. All the way out, he
roused people from their sleep, with the cry, "The British are
coming!"

[Illustration: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE.]

When the king's soldiers reached Lexington, they found the Americans,
under Captain Parker, ready for them. Captain Parker said to his men,
"Don't fire unless you are fired on; but if they want a war, _let
it begin here_." The fighting did begin there, April 19th, 1775; and
when the British left the town on their way to Concord, seven
Americans lay dead on the grass in front of the village church. At
Concord, that same day, there was still harder fighting; and on the
way back to Boston, a large number of the British were killed.

The next month, June 17th, 1775 a battle was fought on Bunker Hill
in Charlestown, just outside of Boston. General Gage thought the
Yankees wouldn't fight, but they did fight, in a way that General
Gage never forgot; and though they had at last to retreat because
their powder gave out, yet the British lost more than a thousand men.
The contest at Bunker Hill was the first great battle of the
Revolution; that is, of that war which overturned the British power
in America, and made us a free people. Many Englishmen thought the
king was wrong. They would not fight against us, and he was obliged
to hire a large number of German soldiers to send to America. These
Germans had to fight us whether they wanted to or not, for their king
forced them to come.

[Footnote 16: Revere (Re-veer').]

135. Colonel Washington at Mount Vernon; Congress makes him General
Washington, and sends him to take command of the American army.--At
the time the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, Col