Once again, someone edits the actual words to avoid damaging our poor children's sensibilities. Colonel Smith's exact words were, "Lay down your arms, God damn you! Disperse, you rebel bastards!" "Bastard" was the favorite epithet of the day because so often it was true. It was the Golden Age of Illegitimacy.
The story about Paul Revere's horse is priceless. Most people today assume that everyone in that era knew basic horsemanship, but that wasn't necessarily true. John Adams, for example, hated horses and never learned how to ride. Paul Revere's story is a good example.
Silversmith Paul Revere's experience with horses was limited to hitching one up to a carriage. Then in the year before hostilities broke out, Revere took lessons and learned how to handle a horse. He found the experience intoxicating. After closing up shop, he could be found on the back roads near Boston running his horse flat out with the wind whistling through his hair. If you were on a back road in the evening and someone on horseback flew by you at high speed, it was safe to shout out, "Good evening, Mr. Revere." When the men of Boston were looking for volunteers to ride messenger duty, I have this image of Revere raising his hand and jumping up and down, saying, "Me! Me! Me! I'll ride!"
It should be noted that a whole host of riders went out that night, including Israel Bissell, who did in fact complete his mission, unlike Mr. Revere who was stripped of his horse by the British.
There were very few bastards in Massachusetts at the time. Those Great Migration puritans might have had a lot of six month babies but they did get married.
Interesting story about Revere. I seem to remember that he occasionally rode between NYC and Boston carrying messages between the Sons of Liberty in those cities.