Paul Revere's Ride

As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)

Told by unattributed — the collector names no informant · collected by Samuel Adams Drake · 1884 · Boston and eastern Massachusetts

Green Dragon Tavern in Union Street. They were directed how to act for the interests of the common cause by Adams, Hancock, Warren, and one or two others of the acknowledged leaders. Between Warren and Eevere there grew up a sym- pathy so especially close and intimate, that when Adams and Hancock left it, and Warren alone remained to observe and direct events in the town, Eevere became his chosen lieutenant. This brings us to the event recorded in the inscription. The Province of INIassachusetts was on the verge of open re- volt. It had formed an army, commissioned its officers, and pro- SIGN OF THE GREEN DEA60N. mulgated orders as if there were no such person as George III. It was collecting stores, cannon, and muskets, in anticipation of the moment Avhen this army should take the field. It had, moreover, given due notice to the British general-in-chief, as well as the rest of mankind, that the first movement into the country made by the royal troops in force would be considered as an act of hos- tility and treated as such. If this was not raising the standard of open rebellion, it certainly was something very like it. The King had sent General Gage to Boston to put down the rebellion there, and he had promised to do it with four bat- talions. He was now in Boston with a small army. Yet he 82 NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. hesitated to act. Neither party would recede an inch, yet on both sides the commission of an overt act which any moment might precipitate war was awaited in the utmost suspense and dread. At length General Gage resolved to strike a crippling blow, and if possible to do it without bloodshed. The i^rincipal depot of the patriots was forming at Concord, in the County of Middlesex, about twenty miles from Boston, where it was considered quite safe from any sudden dash by the royal troops. General Gage was kept thoroughly informed by his spies of what was going on, and he determined to send a secret expedition to destroy those stores. The patriots, on their side, knew that something was in agitation, and it was no diffi- cult matter for them to guess what was its real purport and aim. Still, so long as these remained in doubt, they were anxious and fearful and restless. They, however, redoubled their vigi- lance. All the landing-places of the town, the soldiers' bar- racks, and even the Province House itself, were closely Avatched, while guards were regularly kept in all the surrounding towns, promptly to give the alarm whenever the head of a British col- umn should apjDear. General Gage held the capital of the prov- ince, but outside of its gates his orders could be executed only at the point of the bayonet. Fully appreciating the importance of secrecy, General Gage quietly got ready eight hundred picked troops, which he meant to convey under cover of the night across the west bay, and to land on the Cambridge side, thus baffling the vigilance of the townspeople, and at the same time considerably shortening the distance his troops would have to march. So much pains was taken to keep their actual destination a profound secret, that even the officer who was selected for the command only received an order notifying him to hold himself in readiness. The guards in the town were doubled, and, in order to intercept any couriers who might slip through them, at the proper moment mounted patrols were sent out on the roads leading to Concord. Having done what he could to prevent intelligence from reaching the PAUL REVEEE's ride. country, and to keep the town quiet, the British General gave his orders for the embarkation ; and at between ten and eleven of the night of April 18th the troops destined for this service were taken across the bay in boats to the Cambridge side of the river. At this hour his pickets were guarding the de- serted roads leading into the country, and up to this moment no patriot courier had gone out. The General had thus got a long start of the patriots. But their vigilance detected the move- ment as soon as it was made. As Lord Percy was returning from an interview with Gen- eral Gage, he met groups of tlie townspeople talking excitedly together, and upon going near enough to overhear the subject of conversation, one of them said to him defiantly : " The British troops have marched, but they will miss their aim." "What aim?" asked the Earl. " The cannon at Concord," was the reply. Percy instantly retraced his steps to the Province House. After listening in silence to his report, the General broke out with, "Then I have been betrayed ! " It is now believed that a member of the General's own house- hold was the medium through which his secret had become GRENADIEK, 1775. 84 NEW-ENGLAND LECxENDS. known to the rebels. Their difficulty now was to transmit the news seasonably, to prevent the loss of the provincial magazines. There were only two modes of egress from the town, one being by the old ferry to Charlestown, the other by the neck connecting Boston with the mainland, Avhich was only wide enough for a single road. The ferrydanding was kept by a subaltern's guard, and it was commanded by the batteries of a frigate anchored off in the stream. The road was blocked by a fortress extend- ing across it, the gates of Avhich were shut at a certain hour, after which no one could pass in or out except by order of the General himself. To provide against this, Revere, only a day or two earlier, had concerted signals which should apprise his friends in Cliarles- town whenever a movement of troops was actually taking place. When these signals should be displayed, the watchful patriots there knew what they had to do. The signals agreed upon were lights to be shovm from the belfry of the North Church: two if the troops went out by water, and one if by land. The redcoats had scarcely got into their boats, when Warren sent in great haste for Paul Revere and William Dawes. He knew that the crisis had now come. Telling them in two words that the soldiers had started, and that he feared…

Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)