They were volunteer soldiers, ready to take up arms at a minute’s notice, who fought for the American colonies against the British during the Revolutionary War. The minutemen, who were trained and organized into the militia, are most well known for the battles at Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, which marked the beginning of the war. They had been alerted to the approach of the British troops, or “redcoats,” by the patriot Paul Revere (1735–1818). After the fighting at Lexington and Concord, which left 250 British killed or wounded and about 90 Americans dead, word spread quickly of the fighting, and the Revolutionary War had begun.