Minute Man National Historical Park was the starting place of the American Revolution. Here the resolve of citizens willing to risk their lives for the ideals of liberty and self-determination was instrumental in the formation of the American identity. This park preserves sites where colonial militia men and British soldiers clashed on April 19, 1775. A force of 700 British Regulars left Boston to seize military supplies stockpiled in Concord. Paul Revere and other alarm riders alerted the countryside. In area towns, militia companies assembled, ready to defend their communities and their liberties. A brief but bloody skirmish on Lexington Green (5:00 a.m.) left eight Colonists dead. At the North Bridge (9:30 a.m.), the first ordered firing by Colonists upon British troops killed two British soldiers, with a third mortally wounded, the “shot heard around the world.” As the British soldiers marched back towards Boston, Colonial militia companies poured in. Fighting erupted along “Battle Road” (12:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) as nearly 1,000 Colonists unleashed “an incessant fire” upon the British Regulars. At the end of the day, the Colonists surrounded and laid siege to Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun.