Textbooks, historians and descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers agree: the earliest live rounds of combat broke out at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
But where the revolt against British rule actually began is open to interpretation — and little-known details of bold uprising point farther west.
Elaine Gardella, who leads the Worcester chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, says that by the time the minutemen and redcoats clashed on Lexington Common in 1775, the British had already lost control of most of the colony. In a wave of nonviolent rebellions, colonists took over local courthouses in Western and Central Massachusetts in 1774 and left the British reeling…