The Patriots set up a shadow government which the British Army attacked on April 18, 1775, at Concord, Massachusetts. British troops were forced back to Boston by the local militias on the 19th in the Battles of Lexington and Concord where the famous "shot heard 'round the world" was fired. The British army controlled only the city of Boston, and it was quickly brought under siege. The Continental Congress took control of the war, sending General George Washington to take charge. He forced the British to evacuate in March 1776. After that, the main warfare moved south, but the British made repeated raids along the coast, seizing Newport, Rhode Island and parts of Maine for a while.