two in the morning
American troops have , many times since that event , fired upon rioters in the streets , under circumstances no stronger than those which brought on the fight at Lexington . From all parts of New England the militia and volunteers poured in , and in three days after the fight , twenty thousand armed men were encamped between the rivers Mystic and Roxburgh , thus besieging Boston . They at once set to work throwing up formidable earthworks , the English troops remaining within their intrenchments across the neck of land joining Boston with the mainland . The streets of Boston were crowded with an excited populace when Captain Wilson and his party rode into it at two in the morning . No one thought of going to bed , and all were excited to the last degree at the news of the battle . All sorts of reports prevailed . On the colonial side it was affirmed that the British , in their retreat , had shot down women and children ; while the soldiers affirmed that the colonists had scalped many of their number who fell in the fight .