Note: The newest installment of The Road to the American Revolution is now live on Substack. Follow the series on Facebook, Instagram, and X to keep up with new essays and join the conversation. An excerpt from the article appears below.

On February 26, 1775, the American Revolution nearly began in Salem, Massachusetts.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leslie led more than 250 soldiers of the British 64th Regiment onto transport vessels in Boston Harbor, acting on orders from General Thomas Gage. Loyalist informants had tipped Gage to artillery that colonial militias were secretly stockpiling near the North River in Salem, and he sent Leslie to find it—sailing from Castle Island to Marblehead, then marching inland to seize it. The mission was timed for a Sunday, when the British expected the townspeople to be at church and the roads to be clear. Leslie anticipated no resistance.

He anticipated wrong.

Locals in Marblehead spotted the redcoats disembarking almost immediately, and word spread fast. Messengers rode for Salem as the column of soldiers fixed bayonets and began their march inland. Later accounts would credit Major John Pedrick with racing ahead on horseback to the North Church to sound the alarm. But that story is likely apocryphal. Writer J. L. Bell has noted that the tale first appeared in print more than a century after the event, traced only to family reminiscence, and contemporary records do not place Pedrick at the center of the confrontation. In fact, he says that some evidence suggests he was aligned with the royal government at the time.

What is certain is that Salem was warned. Bells rang. Drums sounded. Minutemen assembled. By the time Leslie and his men reached the North River—the only practical crossing into town—the drawbridge had been raised. The river itself was impassable without it. Militiamen stood on the far bank while townsmen moved the artillery out of reach.

What followed was a standoff neither side seemed eager to settle by force. Leslie’s soldiers waited on the riverbank as daylight faded and the air turned cold. The townsmen, for their part, had no interest in firing the first shot. Instead, they offered Leslie a way to “save face.” The bridge would be lowered. The regiment could cross and march a short, symbolic distance into town. Then Leslie and his men would withdraw.

Leslie agreed. His men crossed, advanced only far enough to satisfy their orders, found nothing, and turned back. They returned to Marblehead and sailed to Boston. No shots were fired…

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