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Old March 17, 2009, 03:55 PM   #21
johnwilliamson062
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Join Date: May 16, 2008
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Quote:
...with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy... all Military stores... But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property.
I think if you look at the issue in detail you will see the British went to a lot of trouble not to seize the personal arms of colonists. What was at concord was stock piles of powder and lead ball. They were also specifically after artillery pieces that were stored there, supposedly buried, although likely not in PVC. Specifically several pieces that would have been effective in the bombarding Boston. Of all that the British did that day, the only thing they really destroyed or concentrated on were these pieces of heavy artillery. Soldiers that found other caches of musket balls etc. destroyed them, but the British were there for the cannons.

I have never seen anything to indicate that there were personal firearms seized from families responsible for quartering troops. On multiple occasions defectors traded their brown bess for passage out of Boston and colonists got tied up in treason charges.
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