[6][7] Shays joined the militia immediately prior to the American Revolution and attained the rank of sergeant in the regiment commanded by Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge.

[13] He subsequently served as commander of a company under the Marquis de Lafayette, which patrolled farmland on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River to prevent British troops from foraging.

[15] Shays sold his for cash to help pay off debts; he argued that there was nothing wrong with his action, because he already owned a sword, but his decision to sell his was frowned upon by his peers.

[15][16] After British officer John André was captured while collaborating with Continental officer Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British, Shays was assigned as one of the captains of the guard who oversaw André's imprisonment, a task for which Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington personally selected him.

[19] Upon returning home, Shays was summoned to court for unpaid debts, which he could not pay because he had not been paid in full for his military service.

At commoners' meetings veterans asserted that they were treated unfairly upon release, and that businessmen were trying to squeeze money out of smallholders in order to pay their own debts to European war investors.

Such inflationary issues would depreciate the currency, making it possible to meet obligations made at high values with lower-valued paper.

[25] Protests in rural Massachusetts turned into direct action in August 1786 after the state legislature adjourned without considering the many petitions that had been sent to Boston.

[26][27] On August 29, a well-organized force of protestors, Shays among them, marched on Northampton and successfully prevented the county court from sitting.

[28] The leaders of this and later forces proclaimed that they were seeking relief from the burdensome judicial processes that were depriving the people of their land and possessions.

[28][30] When the court in Worcester was shut-down by similar action on September 5, the county militia (composed mainly of men sympathetic to the protestors) refused to turn out, much to Bowdoin's amazement.

"[33] On September 19, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion as "disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons.

Shays and Day were able to recruit a similar number, but chose only to demonstrate, exercising their troops outside Shepard's lines, rather than attempt to seize the building.

Shepard withdrew his force, which had grown to around 800 men (to the Regulators' 1,200), to the federal armory, which was then only rumored to be the target of seizure by the activists.

"The seeds of war are now sown", wrote one correspondent in Shrewsbury,[38] and by mid-January rebel leaders spoke of smashing the "tyrannical government of Massachusetts.

[43] The rebels had planned their assault for January 25, but Luke Day changed this at the last minute, sending Shays a message indicating he would not be ready to attack until the 26th.

Shays led the rebel force generally north and east to avoid Lincoln, eventually establishing a camp at Petersham.

"[49] Although Lincoln claimed to capture 150 men, none of them were officers, leading historian Leonard Richards to suspect the veracity of the report.