<P> A few mounted militiamen on the road would dismount, fire muskets at the approaching regulars, then remount and gallop ahead to repeat the tactic . Unmounted militia would often fire from long range, in the hope of hitting somebody in the main column of soldiers on the road and surviving, since both British and colonials used muskets with an effective combat range of about 50 yards (46 m). Infantry units would apply pressure to the sides of the British column . When it moved out of range, those units would move around and forward to re-engage the column further down the road . Heath sent messengers out to intercept arriving militia units, directing them to appropriate places along the road to engage the regulars . Some towns sent supply wagons to assist in feeding and rearming the militia . Heath and Warren did lead skirmishers in small actions into battle themselves, but it was the presence of effective leadership that probably had the greatest impact on the success of these tactics . Percy wrote of the colonial tactics, "The rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance and resolution, nor did they ever dare to form into any regular body . Indeed, they knew too well what was proper, to do so . Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself very much mistaken ." </P> <P> The fighting grew more intense as Percy's forces crossed from Lexington into Menotomy . Fresh militia poured gunfire into the British ranks from a distance, and individual homeowners began to fight from their own property . Some homes were also used as sniper positions, turning the situation into a soldier's nightmare: house - to - house fighting . Jason Russell pleaded for his friends to fight alongside him to defend his house by saying, "An Englishman's home is his castle ." He stayed and was killed in his doorway . His friends, depending on which account is to be believed, either hid in the cellar, or died in the house from bullets and bayonets after shooting at the soldiers who followed them in . The Jason Russell House still stands and contains bullet holes from this fight . A militia unit that attempted an ambush from Russell's orchard was caught by flankers, and eleven men were killed, some allegedly after they had surrendered . </P> <P> Percy lost control of his men, and British soldiers began to commit atrocities to repay for the supposed scalping at the North Bridge and for their own casualties at the hands of a distant, often unseen enemy . Based on the word of Pitcairn and other wounded officers from Smith's command, Percy had learned that the Minutemen were using stone walls, trees and buildings in these more thickly settled towns closer to Boston to hide behind and shoot at the column . He ordered the flank companies to clear the colonial militiamen out of such places . </P> <P> Many of the junior officers in the flank parties had difficulty stopping their exhausted, enraged men from killing everyone they found inside these buildings . For example, two innocent drunks who refused to hide in the basement of a tavern in Menotomy were killed only because they were suspected of being involved with the day's events . Although many of the accounts of ransacking and burnings were exaggerated later by the colonists for propaganda value (and to get financial compensation from the colonial government), it is certainly true that taverns along the road were ransacked and the liquor stolen by the troops, who in some cases became drunk themselves . One church's communion silver was stolen but was later recovered after it was sold in Boston . Aged Menotomy resident Samuel Whittemore killed three regulars before he was attacked by a British contingent and left for dead . (He recovered from his wounds and later died in 1793 at age 98 .) All told, far more blood was shed in Menotomy and Cambridge than elsewhere that day . The colonists lost 25 men killed and nine wounded there, and the British lost 40 killed and 80 wounded, with the 47th Foot and the Marines suffering the highest casualties . Each was about half the day's fatalities . </P>

Who won battle of lexington and concord summary