[Footnote: Paul Revere caused two lights to be hung up in the steeple of Christ Church. They were seen in Charlestown; messengers set out, and he soon followed on his famous midnight ride. (Read Longfellow's poem.)] When the red-coats, as the British soldiers were called, reached Lexington, they found a company of minute men gathering on the village green. Riding up, Pitcairn shouted, "Disperse, you rebels; lay down your arms!" They hesitated. A skirmish ensued, in which seven Americans--the first martyrs of the Revolution--were killed. [Illustration: PUTNAM SUMMONED TO WAR.] The British pushed on and destroyed the stores. But alarmed by the gathering militia they hastily retreated. It was none too soon. The whole region flew to arms. Every boy old enough to use a rifle hurried to avenge the death of his countrymen, From behind trees, fences, buildings, and rocks, in front, flank and rear, so galling a fire was poured, that but for reinforcements from Boston, none of the British would have reached the city alive. As it was, they lost nearly three hundred men. _Effects of the Battle_.--The news that American blood had been spilled flew like wild-fire. Patriots came pouring in from all sides. Putnam left his cattle yoked in the field, and without changing his working clothes, mounted his fastest horse, and hurried to Boston. Soon twenty thousand men were at work building intrenchments to shut up the British in the city. Congresses were formed in all the colonies. Committees of safety were appointed to call out the troops and provide for any emergency. The power of the royal governors was broken from Massachusetts to Georgia. [Footnote: Israel Putnam, familiarly known as "Old Put," was born in Salem, Mass., 1718. Many stories are told of his great courage and presence of mind. His descent into the wolf's den, shooting the animal by the light of her own glaring eyes, showed his love of bold adventure; his noble generosity was displayed in the rescue of a comrade scout at Crown Point, at the imminent peril of his own life. He came out of one encounter with fourteen bullet-holes in his blanket. In 1756, a party of Indians took him prisoner, bound him to a stake, and made ready to torture him with fire. The flames were already scorching his limbs, and death seemed certain, when a French officer burst through the crowd and saved his life. At Fort Edward, when all others fled, he alone fought back the fire from a magazine in which were stored three hundred barrels of gunpowder, protected only by a thin partition. "His face, his hands, and almost his whole body, were blistered; and in removing the mittens from his hands, the skin was torn off with them." The British offered him money and the rank of major-general if he would desert the American cause; but he could neither be daunted by toil and danger, nor bribed by gold and honors.]