Constant skirmishes between the colonists and the royal military led to armed resistance. Members of Congress from the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia in May 1775 decided to begin mobilizing the militia, led by George Washington. The rebels captured Boston and retreated to New York. In 1773, a group of daredevils boarded three English ships in Boston Harbor and threw 342 boxes of tea overboard. This "Boston Tea Party," so named afterward, caused repression, the prohibition of sea trade an, an, and legislatures' dissolution