"In the early spring of 1775, on a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, British army spies located four brass cannon belonging to Boston's colonial militia that had gone missing months before. British general Thomas Gage had been searching for them, both to stymie New England's growing rebellion and to erase the embarrassment of having let cannon disappear from armories under redcoat guard. Anxious to regain those weapons, he drew up plans for his troops to march nineteen miles into unfriendly territory. The Massachusetts Patriots, meanwhile, prepared to thwart the general's mission. There was one goal Gage and his enemies shared: for different reasons, they all wanted to keep the stolen cannon as secret as possible." --Publisher.

"A Journal of the American Revolution Book."

"A work of difficulty": communication networks, newspapers, and the common cause -- Interlude: the "shot heard 'round the world" revisited -- "Britain has found means to unite us": 1775 -- Merciless savages, domestic insurrectionists, and foreign mercenaries: independence -- "By the American Revolution you are now free": sticking together in trying times -- "It is the cause of heaven against hell": to the Carlisle Commission, 1777-1778 -- Interlude: Franklin and Lafayette's "Little book" -- "A striking picture of barbarity": Wyoming to the disaster at Savannah, 1778-1779 -- "This class of Britain's heroes": From the fall of Charleston to Yorktown -- "The substance is truth": after Yorktown, 1782-1783 -- "New provocations": The political and cultural consequences of revolutionary war stories.