Most American school children have not heard stirring stories of the battles of Concord Bridge and Lexington Green because their communazi public school teacher's agenda does not permit it. Whether these "minor skirmishes" are really minor is a matter of debate. In the very least, they helped convince English Citizens that they could stand up to the Empire forces.
I'd say it's not a matter of debate at all---Lexington and Concord were hardly "minor skirmishes" to be resigned to the dustbin of history, except for that they were the first. At Lexington and Concord, the British suffered over 250 casualties. Had not Pickering delayed in coming down from Salem, and had not Percy been able to re-enforce the stragglers with cannon, it is entirely possible that not a single member of the British expeditionary force would have returned from that little jaunt into the countryside with his ghost fully encased in his body.
As it was, the British barely escaped back to the island of Boston. They were pent up there by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut militias for months, and after they failed miserably in their attempt to break out to the north (Breed's Hill), the British were rendered 100% impotent in New England.
"Minor" skirmishes were things like the Powderhouse Alarm or the Salem/Marblehead Alarm. Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill were major engagements that convinced the British that it was futile to fight in New England.