A few days before the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Walpole resident Philip Robbins took a trip to Boston. While at tavern, Robbins overheard a group of British soldiers claiming it would be easy for General Gage to march through the country from Boston to New York. Robbins confronted these men and said, "Friends [ . . . ] you are much mistaken. You have as good officers and men as there are in the world; but Americans will fight better without officers than your men with officers. If you go out into the country in a riotous way they will take your men two to one and cut them all off for breakfast." The British soldiers called Robbins a traitor and placed him under arrest for several hours.