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News Gram™ December 2005

December 2005 ~ Volume 12, No. 5

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm
For the country folk to be up and to arm,”

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 forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

So wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of one of America’s legendary heroes. In fact, Revere was not quite the larger-than-life personage the poet portrayed. Instead, he was a silversmith and craftsman who, over the years, built a fine business that served him and his family well until his death. Perhaps the reason Revere is so great a figure in American history is Longfellow’s famous poem. And beyond a doubt, one of the finest ways to experience something of the American Revolution is to visit the grand, elegant and historically heavy city of Boston.

Revere was born in Boston’s North End in December 1734, though his birthday is also listed as January 1st, 1735. The reason is that the calendar in use in the British Empire until 1752 was an “old style” one which, when corrected advances the date to the next day. Old or new, the records of Revere’s birth can be found in Boston’s New Brick Congregational Church. His father was a French Huguenot (Protestant) immigrant who married Deborah Hichborn from a local family of artisans. Both the Revere and Hichborn homes are favorite tourist attractions in the city, well worth visiting when you find yourself in the city. Rivoire change his name to Revere and the couple had between nine and 12 children. Paul was the second born of their progeny.

Having learned the silversmith trade from his father, Revere married Sarah Orne at the age of 22. From them issued eight children. The year before his marriage, young Paul volunteered to fight the French at Lake George where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the colonial artillery. Other than this military stint, he remained a private citizen. He was hardly the type to cut a heroic figure, apparently, but by April 18, 1775, he was to enter history and gain eternal stature in the tales of this country’s provenance. In his case, at least, it was the events of the day that were to make him into such a providential character in whom Longfellow saw the spirit of a nation aborning.

Revere’s involvement in the politics of his day followed on the tail of  his commercial pursuits. He joined the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, where he met James Otis and Dr. Joseph Warren just a year before the Revolution was to begin. Through them he inherited the task of monitoring British troop movements. For the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety he served as a courier to the Continental Congress in far off Philadelphia. It was also Revere who spread the word of the Boston Tea Party to New York and Philadelphia.

Then on the night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Warren instructed  him to ride to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that  the British were  approaching. The war exploded and Revere served as a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts State Train of Artillery and commander of Castle Island in Boston Harbor. He and his men saw almost no action at this post, though they did participate in some expeditions to Newport, Rhode Island and Worcester, Massachusetts. Overall, Paul Revere’s military career was not particularly distinguished, though it was more circumstance than personal  trait that rendered this experience of little interest.

The map provides a picture of Revere’s route. It is a path anyone can ride today. Doing so will make American history come alive. Consider Boston as a family vacation spot. By the way, the Boston’s  North End has some of the best  Italian restaurants on the continent!

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