Worcester Militia Responds to Lexington

Worcester militia companies mustered and marched east when news of the fighting at Lexington reached the town. The forty-mile distance meant they arrived too late for the day's fighting, but they joined the siege force that would surround Boston for the next eleven months.

Worcester's rapid response was not improvised. The militia had already demonstrated its organizational capability during the court closures seven months earlier. The same committees and communication networks that had coordinated the September 1774 action now channeled men toward Boston.