More vigorously than ever now he
applied himself to the training of the sturdy militia; hoping for
continued peace, perhaps, but preparing for nothing less than war. When
war broke finally, with the first blood shed at Lexington, it found the
minutemen of New England better prepared than their enemies believed,
and when the news of this epoch-making event reached Israel Putnam, this
great exemplar of the minutemen proved a model worthy their emulation.
The messenger with the doleful tidings found him plowing in the field
back of his house at Brooklyn Green. His son Daniel was with him
driving the oxen, and when the patriot had gathered the full meaning of
the news he left the boy to unyoke the team, and himself hastened to his
barn, where he saddled and mounted his best horse and started out to
arouse the country again, as he had done seven months before. He had no
doubts this time as to the truth of the rumor, for it had come direct
and contained its own confirmation on its face.
The British, eight hundred strong, had left Boston for Concord, where
they hoped to find some military stores.
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