Posted on 04/18/2004 7:29:39 PM PDT by goodnesswins
Paul Revere's Ride The primary goal of the Brittish regulars was to aprehend the leaders of the opposition, Sam Adams and John Hancock. There secondary goal was, to disarm the populace along the way. Here's the whole story of Paul Revere's ride:
Revere confronted 2 British regulars manning a road block as he headed north across Charlestown Neck. As he turned around, the regulars gave chase and he eluded them. He then continued on to Lexington, to the home of Jonas Clarke where Sam Adams and John Hancock were staying. There, his primary mission was fulfilled when he notified Adams and Hancock that "The Regulars are coming out!" (he never exclaimed, "The British are coming". This would have made no sense at the time since they considered themselves British).
Revere and Dawes then headed for Concord and came across Doctor Prescott who then joined them. They decided to alarm every house along the way.
Just outside of the town of Lincoln, they were confronted by 4 Regulars at another road block. They tried unsuccessfully to run their horses through them. Prescott, who was familiar with the terrain, jumped a stone wall and escaped. Revere and Dawes tried to escape and shortly into the chase they were confronted by 6 more regulars on horseback. Revere was surrounded and taken prisoner. Dawes got away as they were taking Revere into custody.
The British officers began to interrogate Revere, whereupon Revere astonished his captors by telling them more than they even knew about their own mission. (HA!) He also told them that he had been warning the countryside of the British plan and that their lives were at risk if they remained in the vicinity of Lexington because there would soon be 500 men there ready to fight. Revere, of course, was bluffing.
The Regulars had Revere remount his horse and they headed toward Lexington Green, when suddenly, they heard a gunshot! Revere told the British officer that the shot was a signal "to alarm the country!". Now the British troops were getting very nervous (hehe).
A few minutes later, they were all startled to hear the heavy crash of an entire volley of musketry from the direction of Lexington's meeting house and then the Lexington town bell began clanging rapidly! Jonathan Loring, a Lexington resident captured earlier, turned to his captors and shouted "The bell's a' ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!"
The British officers then talked urgently among themselves and decided to release their captives so as they would not slow their retreat. ********************
A few notes:
The purpose of the British road blocks was to prevent the colonists from communicating with each other outside of their towns. Their primary mission to capture Hancock and Adams, they thought, was top secret.
The town bell was actually ringing to alert the Lexington Company of Militia to assemble on the town common because the British regulars were on the march. It was a general alarm, not an alarm of an imminent threat.
The heavy crash of an entire volley of musketry was the result of a group of men discharging their guns prior to entering the tavern - many of the taverns at that time prohibited their patrons from entering with loaded weapons and the only way to unload a musket is to discharge it.
-Dave Kleber http://www.city-net.com/~davekle/
BTW, as a side-note, I've come across several accounts of public school teachers, who for some reason, are determined to dismiss the importance of Revere's ride. They all have the same comment which is simply, "Revere was captured by the British".
Imagine if you were a child in the public school and you bought that line. What a shame!
I'd rather our children are not even be taught pre-civil war history (as is the case in my school district) if they are going to re-write it or brush over such important and interesting facts.
One book I would highly recommend for all those out there interested in the beginning of the Revolution, would be "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett-Fisher.
Back to Dave and Kelly Kleber's main page.
When the weather was decent, Revere liked to ride the back roads around Boston after he closed up shop. If someone rode past you on horseback at dusk at breakneck speed, you could be sure it was Revere.
He must have been frantic to volunteer for this assignment.
Joseph Warren is one of the great unsung participants in the Revolution because of his early death at Breed's Hill, the correct name for the location of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Warren was Grand Master of all the Masonic lodges in America. When Warren wrote a letter to the American lodges coming out in favor of independence, and the letter was read in town squares, grown men wept. If Dr. Warren favored independence, then it could no longer be considered treason. Thus was his influence.
Months after Breed's Hill, his lodge brothers went to the battlefield where had been hastily buried, disinterred him and brought his corpse back to Boston for proper Masonic funeral rites. Thus was the respect for him.
For five hours the British lingered in Concord. There was no reason for it; they simply hung on like men too tired or too stunned to move. They evidently felt that the business of destroying the patriot military dumps was a full morning's work. Their accomplishment was a joke. All these passionate protectors of Empire did on that bright spring morning was to spike two cannon in the tavern yard while Pitcairn nodded over his whisky, break up a few barrels of flour, and throw about five hundred pounds of ball into the river. A dozen healthy schoolboys could have done the job in less than an hour. They spent the rest of the time stamping about, throwing out their chests, making an ungodly racket, and trying to bluff the colonials into dread of the dapper and beautifully groomed forces of the Crown.
--John Hyde Preston
One of the most unusual works of fiction about that period was written by fantasy writer Katherine Kurtz. Called Two Crowns for America, in the opening pages it features Dr. Joseph Warren as a character -- after he's died at Breed's Hill! The book explores the Masonic connections among almost all the major Founders.
I'm waiting for someone to write a scholarly biography of Dr. Warren.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.