Posted on 04/14/2007 4:23:19 PM PDT by Pharmboy
BOSTON -- Paul Revere gets all the glory for his midnight ride. After all, it was a stirring tale of patriotism told by a great storyteller.
But one young messenger who called the colonists to arms during a remarkable five-day dash across five states is a mere footnote -- a man mentioned in historical documents that didn't even get his first name right. They called him Trail. His name was Israel Bissell, and he is one of the Revolutionary War's most unheralded heroes.
Bissell, a 23-year-old postal rider when the war broke out on April 19, 1775, rode day and night with little sleep during an exhausting 345-mile journey from Boston's western edge to Philadelphia. On the first leg, he rode one horse so hard that the animal collapsed and died beneath him as he arrived in Worcester, roughly two hours after leaving Watertown.
"To arms, to arms. The war has begun," Bissell shouted as he passed through each little town.
Dozens of other messengers also raced on horseback to spread the word, making it likely that Revere was a composite of these brave men, said J.L. Bell, a Massachusetts writer who specializes in Revolutionary War-era Boston.
In response to their cries, church bells were rung and muskets were fired: British redcoats were attacking. The American Revolution had begun.
But there were no bells pealing for Israel Bissell, whose ride was obscured in history's annals by Revere's 20-mile gallop, which was so greatly amplified by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His 11-verse poem, first published in 1860 as "Paul Revere's Ride," became familiar to generations of American schoolchildren because it was a more dramatic story.
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"... So through the night rode Paul Revere
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!"
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"Very few people know about poor Israel because Longfellow wasn't writing a poem about him," said Kay Westcott, a librarian at the Watertown Free Public Library.
Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of television and popular culture, said the poem marginalized Bissell's accomplishment and enhanced Revere's for reasons that have little to do with fact.
"Paul Revere rhymes with a lot more than Israel Bissell," he said. "And it is one of those poems that gets in your head and won't let go. It has a meter like the gallop of a horse. It's like taking the ride yourself."
History is built on facts, but Thompson noted that facts can be overwhelmed by the fame spawned by culture, art and fiction.
Christopher Columbus has been credited with discovering the New World despite ample evidence that vikings reached North America centuries earlier. And men such as Nikola Tesla and Edwin Armstrong pioneered key developments in radio even though Guglielmo Marconi is credited with inventing it.
"History is not filled with people who got overlooked, but that's because they got overlooked," Thompson said.
When he set out on his ride, Bissell carried with him a handwritten letter dated April 19, 1775, and signed by Massachusetts militia Gen. Joseph Palmer.
It read: "To all friends of American liberty, be it known that this morning before the break of day, a brigade consisting of about 1,000 or 1,200 men ... marched to Lexington, where they found a company of our colony militia in arms, upon whom they fired, without any provocation, and killed 6 men and wounded 4 others. By an express from Boston, we find that another brigade are now upon their march from Boston, supposed to be about 1,000."
The letter asked those Bissell encountered "to furnish him with fresh horses, as may be needed."
At each stop along the way, town leaders would keep the document Bissell delivered and hastily transcribe a new version that Bissell would carry to the next city or town. Although Palmer asked Bissell to deliver the news throughout Connecticut, the young messenger pressed ahead.
He arrived on Wall Street in New York City around 4 p.m. on April 23.
Roughly 24 hours later, he reached Philadelphia, where the pealing of what eventually became known as the Liberty Bell drew a crowd of 8,000 who would learn that war had begun. By then, the portion of the document bearing Bissell's name inaccurately listed his first name as Trail.
That document resides today in Philadelphia, in the American manuscripts section of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Bissell rested then made his way back to his home in East Windsor, Conn. He eventually joined the army and served alongside his brother, Justis. After the war, Bissell moved to Middlefield in western Massachusetts, where he bought property and became a sheep farmer. He married Lucy Hancock, and the couple had four children.
He lived his final years in the nearby hamlet of Hinsdale, where his grave is marked by a plain marble stone with the simple inscription, "IN MEMORY of Mr. ISRAEL BISSELL, who died October 24th 1823, Aged Sev'nty One Years."
Bissell's plot remained unadorned until 1967 when the Daughters of the American Revolution placed near his headstone a bronze plaque commemorating his participation in the nation's tumultuous birth.
Revere’s ride captured the imagination because he carried the news that the British were advancing (eventually to Lexington and Concord) and his journey was the beginning of an epic 12 hours that changed the world forever.
Bissell’s journey was taken well after the first shots had been fired. Pharmboy, you might be interested to know that it was possibly Bissell who passed through Hopewell, New Jersey on his way to Philadelphia and who played a part in the following event.....
Col. Joab Houghton, while attending worship in the Baptist meeting-house at Hopewell, N. J., met a messenger out of breath with the news of the defeat at Lexington. He kept silence till the services were closed, then in the open lot before the sanctuary detailed to the congregation:
‘The story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops, the heroic vengeance following hard upon it, the retreat of Percy, and the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims around the beleaguered city of Boston. Then pausing, and looking over the silent crowd, he said slowly: “Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren in New England. Who follows me to Boston?” Every man in that audience stepped out into line and answered, “I!” There was not a coward nor a traitor in old Hopewell meeting-house that day.’
Mr. Bissell did not get his due because like the postal workers of today, he had parked his horse in the back of the local hardware store and was reading the paper. His objective was to turn a 4 hour delivery route into an 8 hour day.............
I don't know about Paul Revere, but many of the big name masons then, (and now), were only token members, invited in so their notoriety could lend credence to the secret society. But one of the most little known historical facts is that the bad actions of freemasons in America is what actually caused the very first third party, (in 1823); it was known as the "anti-Mason party".
No, you didn't miss it - in a rush to trash Revere, Dawes was flushed down the memory hole. If they acknowledged Dawes, then they'd have to agree that Paul Revere did ride that night.
The premise that Revere was a composite is ridiculous. There is plenty of evidence that he played an important role that night. Now, perhaps it was just sloppy writing or editing, and what J. L. Bell meant was that the poem was the composite. Otherwise, he'd be saying that Paul Revere was a fictional character.
Plenty of unsung heroes played an important role on those historic days in April 1775. But it is hardly Paul Revere's fault that they went unsung. Why must they take it out on him?
My choice for headline would have been "Bissell got swept under the rug"
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
You had me going for a while there ‘99. :) WELCOME ABOARD!
Why so long? those darn Joisey Troopers pulled him over, ticketed him and made him stand before the judge in Newark! He was bailed out by a Revolutionary friend Antonio "Subito" Soprano who urged Isreal and his steed onward with a slap on his behind and a call, "Bada Bing!"
Headline:
Bissell has brush with greatness.
Story to follow.
can’t really say LOL— more like GOL(groaning out loud); but that can be fun
Re #20: LOL. Really! Out loud!
LOL! I was going to post that if you didn’t.
Great story...thanks for posting. I am always interested in the esoteric facts of the RevWar in NY and NJ.
At the end of his ride, having been hampered on every side by indifference, he shot everyone in sight! Yes, Mr. Bissell was the very first one to “go postal!”
Headline:
Must comb thru details to find Bissell’s involvement.
After having the same reaction as you, and re-reading the sentence a couple of times, I figure that's what was meant. But what a ridiculous trashing of Revere just to point out that Bissell wasn't given his due.
Now I shall take Bell to task for not giving credit to the horses...were the names of any of them mentioned, especially after dying for the cause?! :-)
This reminds me a bit of the Gary Larson “Far Side” pane where Clark’s mother warns him “You better be careful of that Lewis guy, or it’ll be ‘Lewis & Clark’ for the rest of history.”
The reason he was not recognized was because he was black.
His first name was Israel and Bissel is a Yiddish name so he had to have been Jewish. Sorry.
The traditions also omit the midnight pub crawl of John Joseph Edward Patrick Kennedy, who informed everyone within two blocks of his house that, “The British are something,” and that he needed another pint.
Lovely read....thanks!
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