New Hampshire played a prominent role in the War for Independence, although no actual fighting occurred there. In 1774, before the war broke out, Paul Revere rode to the colony with warnings about the deepening crisis to the south. In December, 1774, several months before Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts forces under John Sullivan led a raid on Fort William and Mary at New Castle in order to secure arms and ammunition. Sullivan was elected to serve in the Second Continental Congress and was appointed by that body as a brigadier general in the Continental Army. He went on to serve with some distinction, particularly with General James Clinton in August 1779, when American soldiers defeated the combined Iroquois and Loyalist forces at the Battle of Newtown (near Elmira, New York).