Depiction of Paul Revere's ride
John Hancock (1737 - 1793)
Paul Revere (1735 - 1818)
Samuel Adams (1722 - 1803)
April 18th 1775: Paul Revere’s ride
On this day in 1775, Boston patriot Paul Revere made his famous ‘Midnight Ride’ to warn of the arrival of British troops. On the night of April 18th, he was sent by Dr. Joseph Warren and instructed to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn revolutionaries Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were coming to arrest them. He also arranged two lantern signals in Boston’s Christ Church to indicate that the British arrived ‘by sea’ rather than land, now immortalised in the famous phrase ‘one if by land, two if by sea.’ Revere rowed to Charlestown, and from there borrowed a horse and rode towards Lexington, stopping at houses along the way to spread the warning. However, he did not actually shout the famous phrase ‘the British are coming!’, as he needed to be discreet to avoid detection by British forces and their supporters. Upon being joined by two more riders once he reached Lexington and delivered his message, Revere and his peers headed for Concord, but were apprehended by the British. Revere was released, but had his horse confiscated and had to return to Lexington by foot. He was in Lexington when the famous battle of the Revolution broke out, which marked the first shots fired of the Revolution that would lead to an independent United States. Revere was not the only rider sent by the Sons of Liberty to warn of the imminent British arrival, but he has become the most well known. His fame mostly owes to an 1860 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which romanticised Paul Revere’s ride. The ride has become a famous story of American history, and Revere is exalted as an American hero.
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