<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> <P> The British troops crossed the Menotomy River (today known as Alewife Brook) into Cambridge, and the fight grew more intense . Fresh militia arrived in close array instead of in a scattered formation, and Percy used his two artillery pieces and flankers at a crossroads called Watson's Corner to inflict heavy damage on them . </P> <P> Earlier in the day, Heath had ordered the Great Bridge to be dismantled . Percy's brigade was about to approach the broken - down bridge and a riverbank filled with militia when Percy directed his troops down a narrow track (now Beech Street, near present - day Porter Square) and onto the road to Charlestown . The militia (now numbering about 4,000) were unprepared for this movement, and the circle of fire was broken . An American force moved to occupy Prospect Hill (in modern - day Somerville), which dominated the road, but Percy moved his cannon to the front and dispersed them with his last rounds of ammunition . </P>

Causes of the battles at lexington and concord