In October 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress directed towns across the colony to prepare for imminent conflict with England. In response, the Merrimack Valley adopted a wartime posture, forming minute companies, stockpiling weapons, ammunition, and supplies, and establishing a defense network ready to mobilize if British forces advanced from Boston. Join Alexander Cain as he examines the Merrimack Valley's response, focusing on Andover, to the British threat and explores the region's buildup to war, the formation of the Massachusetts minute-man system just before the battles of Lexington and Concord, and Andover's role in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Alexander Cain is a well-respected and highly sought-after speaker who frequently lectures on the military and social influences of 1775 Massachusetts. He has published multiple research articles that have shed new light on the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, the Siege of Boston, and the loyalist refugee experience during the American Revolution. Alex has also published two books, We Stood Our Ground: Lexington in the First Year of the American Revolution and I See Nothing but the Horrors of a Civil War and is the author of the blog and podcast “Historical Nerdery.” Alex directs a Merrimack Valley-based vocational program that introduces high school students to advanced manufacturing and skilled trades careers