The fascinating book, Paul Revere's Ride (author's name not in memory bank) must be read. It indicates that it wasn't just a case of hiding in the woods and getting off a shot. Rather, the road passed seemingly numberless stone walls. Each one had to be taken by a flanking party charging across the field, so that the militia was not allowed to snipe at the main column. When attacked, the small group of militia behind the wall would disperse, and join the main body of militia pressing the rear of the British column. One thing to charge a wall like that once--but there were so many walls . . . exhausting work!This group became quite numerous, but had to be cautious not to concentrate too much of a target for the two cannon the British had. The British, for their part, had limited ammunition for the cannons . . .
The salient point was that the colonies were pretty much spring-loaded to rebel. It was just a matter of when.