Why did British troops march to Concord in April 1775?

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American Revolution *The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis* (at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781), oil on canvas by John Trumbull, completed in 1820; in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. The painting captures the moment when major fighting during the American Revolution ended and the colonies achieved independence.

In April 1775, British troops marched to Concord under the orders of General Thomas Gage, the royal governor of Massachusetts.1

Following instructions from London to suppress the growing rebellion, Gage sought to seize military stores that the colonists had been accumulating in preparation for armed conflict. Additionally, Gage had been ordered to arrest and imprison the principal leaders of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which had effectively become a revolutionary government in opposition to British rule.123

By targeting these supplies and leadership, the British intended to dismantle the colonial resistance, which had been increasingly active since the passage of the Intolerable Acts.123