Which 1775 battles are commonly regarded as the opening military engagements of the American Revolution?

The Battles of Lexington and Concord are commonly regarded as the opening military engagements of the American Revolution. They took place in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775.

British troops marched from Boston toward Concord to seize colonial military supplies. Colonial militiamen confronted the British at Lexington, where the first shots were fired, and later fought them at Concord and along the retreat route back to Boston. The exact identity of the person who fired the first shot remains uncertain.

The clashes transformed political resistance into open warfare. Colonial forces surrounded Boston, and the Second Continental Congress soon appointed George Washington commander in chief of the Continental Army. The Battle of Bunker Hill followed in June 1775, but Lexington and Concord are generally identified as the conflict’s beginning because they produced the first large-scale armed confrontation between British regulars and American colonists.