In April of 1775, the British Government ordered its armies to disarm the citizen military forces in the North American Colonies. British troops invaded the Massachusetts countryside, fired on the Lexington militiamen, and began to burn patriot supplies. But militia companies from surrounding counties and colonies rushed to repel the invaders. They swarmed upon the British troops, drove them back to Boston, and bottled them in. As Britain amassed armies and ships from around its empire, and hired thirty thousand German soldiers to subdue the Colonies, General Howe in June ordered a surprise attack on the American militia besieging British troops in Boston.Andrew Hendricks and Nathan Edwards found themselves caught up in the American move to fortify Bunker Hill and forestall the British offensive. Under the ferocious bombardment of British warships in Boston Harbor, seventeen hundred American citizen-soldiers await the assault of General Gage's twenty-five hundred professional soldiers and marines. The war for American independence had begun.