Which battles are generally regarded as the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War?

The Battles of Lexington and Concord are generally regarded as the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War.

Fighting began on April 19, 1775, when British regulars marched from Boston toward Concord to seize colonial military supplies. Colonial militia confronted the troops at Lexington, and clashes continued as the British column withdrew through Concord and surrounding towns.

The conflict is associated with the phrase “the shot heard round the world,” popularized later by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 poem “Concord Hymn.” The phrase refers to the opening of the revolutionary struggle, not to a precisely identified first shot.

The battles did not immediately create an independent United States. The Second Continental Congress still pursued reconciliation for a time, and the Declaration of Independence followed in 1776. Bunker Hill, fought in June 1775, was an early major battle, but it came after Lexington and Concord and is therefore not usually identified as the war’s opening engagement.