midnight
It was December when Harold returned home to his parents , and for the next three months the lull before the storm continued . The disaffected of Massachusetts had collected a large quantity of military stores at Concord . These General Gage , who commanded the troops at Boston , determined to seize and destroy , seeing that they could be collected only for use against the Government , and on the night of April 19 the grenadier and light infantry companies of the various regiments , 800 strong , under command of Lieutenant Colonel Smith of the Tenth Regiment , and Major Pitcairne of the Marines , embarked in boats and were conveyed up Charles River as far as a place called Phipps ' Farm . There they landed at midnight , having a day 's provisions in their haversacks , and started on their march to Concord , twenty miles distant from Boston . The design had been discovered by some of the revolutionary party in the town , and two of their number were dispatched on horseback to rouse the whole country on the way to Concord , where the news arrived at two o'clock in the morning . Captain Wilson and his household were startled from sleep by the sudden ringing of the alarm-bells , and a negro servant , Pompey , who had been for many years in their service , was sent down into the town , which lay a quarter of a mile from the house , to find out what was the news . He returned in half an hour .