On this day 250 years ago in Concord, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolved that

This Congress, deeply sensible of the high-handed insult offered the town of Billerica, the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, and this continent in general, in the vile and ignoble assault in the person of Thomas Ditson, by a party of the king’s troops under general Gage’s command, do highly approve of the manly and resolute conduct of the town of Billerica, by their manifesting a due resentment to the general, and demanding a constitutional satisfaction.

Notwithstanding you have not received that satisfaction from the general which you had a just right to expect, yet this Congress humbly hope, under Providence, that the time is fast approaching, when this colony and continent will have justice done them, in a way consistent with the dignity of freemen, on such wicked destroyers of the natural and constitutional rights of Americans.

Source: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 133-34 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/132/mode/2up?view=theater; see my March 8, 2025 blog for the story of Ditson’s mistreatment by the British at https://kevinsrevolutionarywarchronology.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4005&action=edit

Also on that day, the British lowered the longboats from the Royal Navy ships in Boston Harbor to the water so that they would be ready to transport troops across the Back Bay to Cambridge. Based on this action and the prior intelligence that British officers had scouted the road to Concord, Joseph Warren and the members of the Boston Committee who were still in town issued orders to Paul Revere to ride to Concord to warn the Congress that the British Army was planning a raid on Concord. However, they misjudged the date and predicted the raid would occur on Sunday, April 9.

Source: Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride at 87.