What events led to the battles of Lexington and Concord?

This battle was actually started by accident! No one knows which American shot first, but it was done so out of fear or nervousness. Not often is it mentioned in American History regarding the British the fact that the Americans hated the British because they were taxed to death. Where the British went (in other countries such as Ireland, etc.) taxes would bend the backs of the poor men! The 13 American colonies revolted against their British rulers in 1775. The war on April 19, when British regulars fired on the Minutemen of Lexington, Mass. The fighting ended with the surrender of the British at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781. In 1783 Great Britain signed a formal treaty recognizing the independence of the colonies. General Thomas Gage the military governor of Massachusetts had received orders from England to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, accused of stirring up rebellion in the colony. On April 18th Gage sent a detachment of 800 troops to Lexington, where the "traitors" were staying. The troops were to arrest the 2 men, then push on to Concord to destroy military supplies stores there by the colonists. News of the expedition leaked out, and 2 minutemen (as colonial militia were called), William Dawes and Paul Revere, rode through the country warning people that the British regulars were coming. Revere was captured by Samuel Prescott. When the troops reached Lexington they found approx. 50 minutemen in the open square in the center of town. John Pitcairn, the British commander, ordered the rebels to disperse. Both sides milled about in confusion and shooting broke out. No one knows who shot first (out of fear and nervousness) and 9 Americans were killed and 10 were wounded. The others scattered and the British went on toward Concord. Hancock and Adams, warned of their coming, had already fled. The soldiers arrived at Concord at 7 AM. During the night the colonists had hidden most of their stores and ammunition. What they had not been able to hide, the British set about destroying. Then they met the minutemen of the Old North Bridge over the Concord River and fired upon them. The Americans fired back, and the war had begun. In this skirmish the British numbered about 200 and the Americans 400. The Americans poured over the bridge. The British began a retreat to Boston at about noon. Meanwhile, the farmers, from behind rocks, fences, and building, picked off the British soldiers. At Lexington the fleeing redcoats met another detachment of 1500 soldiers sent out by General Gage. Thus strengthened, the British returned to Boston, having suffered 274 killed and wounded and 25 missing. The American loss was 88 killed and wounded.