about noon
The Americans were preparing themselves . Companies were formed in most of the New England towns , whose members , receiving the name of minute-men , stood ready to march anywhere at a minute 's warning . Israel , for the last eight months , sojourning as a laborer on a farm in Windsor , enrolled himself in the regiment of Colonel John Patterson of Lenox , afterwards General Patterson . The battle of Lexington was fought on the 18th of April , 1775 ; news of it arrived in the county of Berkshire on the 20th about noon . The next morning at sunrise , Israel swung his knapsack , shouldered his musket , and , with Patterson 's regiment , was on the march , quickstep , towards Boston . Like Putnam , Israel received the stirring tidings at the plough . But although not less willing than Putnam to fly to battle at an instant 's notice , yet -- only half an acre of the field remaining to be finished -- he whipped up his team and finished it .