Paul Revere Made Two Epochal Rides for American Liberty

It is one of the ironies of American history that Paul Revere should be best remembered for a horse ride he never completed -- and which triggered a war that might never have happened had he not galloped about in the night alarming the countryside.

Of greater significance, and a triumph of horsemanship, was another ride a year earlier by Revere in 1774.

Patrick Henry had dared to suggest independence from Great Britain during the Spring of that year with his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech.

This sparked a determination of the colonies to call a Continental Congress in Philadelphia to try and persuade King George to repeal certain taxes they considered “coercive and intolerable.”

Radicals in Massachusetts -- led by Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren -- felt the approach of that first Congress was weak. They called their own convention of towns in Suffolk County to hear Dr. Warren read a set of stern resolutions he had drafted.

The resolutions became known as the Suffolk Resolves, and they set the tone for the eventual Revolution. They declared that a king who had violated chartered rights of his subjects forfeits their allegiance, and that the “regulating act” depriving Massachusetts of rights and liberties without notice was null and void.

The resolves urged the people of Massachusetts to form a government of their own to collect taxes and withhold them from royal authorities until the coercive acts were repealed. Citizens were urged to gather arms and form a militia. A boycott of British goods was recommended.

Finally, the resolves warned that if patriots were arrested for political reasons, royal officers would be seized and held as hostages. Terrorist tactics are not recent inventions.

Congress Convenes

The Congress had convened in Philadelphia only three days earlier, and the Massachusetts firebrands were anxious to influence the colony-wide convention.

Dr. Warren handed the resolves to Revere two days after were adopted. The Boston silversmith then set out to deliver the packet of 19 resolutions to the Congress.

Revere traveled the 319 miles in six days, wearing out dozens of horses provided along the route by other patriots. It was a remarkably rapid journey for that time and an impressive feat of endurance by Revere.

The urgent delivery of the resolves impressed Congress with the feeling and intent of the heavily populated New England colonies bent on independence from Britain.

Presiding officer of the First Continental Congress was Peyton Randolph. It was he who read the resolves whisked to the hall by Revere.

The room exploded when Randolph finished reading. Men swarmed to the Massachusetts delegation, cheering and shouting. Emotion swept higher, and the representatives brushed aside pleas for calm deliberation. The next day, Congress adopted the Suffolk Resolves without changing a comma.

To implement the resolves, a Continental Association was formed. Committees of Safety were appointed in every town to see that the resolves were carried out.

The die was cast for defiance of the crown and ultimate independence.

Midnight Rides

In addition to composing the Suffolk Resolves and dispatching Revere on his dash to Philadelphia, Dr. Warren sent Revere and William Dawes on the poetic “midnight ride” in April 1775.

The mission of Revere and Dawes was to warn the militia at Concord -- where a cache of rifles had been buried in a corn field -- that the British were about to go there in search of the weapons.

The riders took different routes but met on the Concord Road outside Lexington. There, they were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott who was on his way home after visiting his sweetheart.

Shortly thereafter, the three Americans were stopped by a British patrol. Revere and Dawes meekly turned back. However, Dr. Prescott spurred his horse and leaped it over a stone wall. He rode on to Concord to alert the militia.

The contingent of 700 British regulars arrived at Lexington early in the morning. It found 77 “minutemen” -- organized in accordance with Dr. Warren’s resolves -- drawn up to greet them. Their order by Capt. John Parker was: “Don’t fire unless fired upon; but if they want a war, let it begin here.”

The militia had almost been persuaded to retire when an unidentified shot rang out. In a spontaneous reflex, British soldiers fired at the Americans, killing eight and wounding 10. The remainder returned fire but fled. Three soldiers were injured.

The British proceeded to Concord but were ambushed at a bridge by 150 minutemen. The soldiers fired back but rushed into town to regroup after three of their number were killed.

The delay was costly to the British. As they fruitlessly ransacked homes for weapons, American militiamen rushed to the Concord-Boston road.

On the return trip, the Red Coats were fired on by an estimated 4,000 minutemen scattered along the way and shooting from behind trees and walls. They killed 73 Red Coats and wounded 200. American losses were 49 killed, 39 wounded.

Battle of Breed’s Hill

Dr. Warren had become chairman of the Committee of Safety for Boston. In his capacity, he ordered a siege of British-held Boston.

The British attempted to lift the siege by attacking the colonial militia entrenched on Breed’s Hill -- not on nearby Bunker Hill, as some history books assert.

Dr. Warren hastened to the battlefield but arrived only minutes before the attack. As the ranking militia officer, he was offered command by Capt. William Prescott. Instead, Warren took a musket in the front line. Prescott’s battle order was: “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”

The Americans, accomplished riflemen, poured withering fire against three waves of Welsh Fusiliers. Nevertheless, Prescott’s men retreated to Bunker Hill when they ran out of ammunition.

A British rifle ball killed Dr. Warren who was hastily buried on the battlefield so the enemy could not desecrate his body. He had organized the New England Grand Lodge of Freemasons and was its first grand master. His grave was marked with a secret Masonic sign which enabled Paul Revere and other Masons to find Dr. Warren’s body months later for honorable burial.

The British sent 2,250 regulars into the battle. Of these, 226 were killed and 2,024 wounded. The American casualties were 140 killed and 271 wounded. Both sides claimed victory -- by the British for driving the rebels off Breed’s Hill, by the Americans for driving the British back to their Boston barracks.

British General John Burgoyne, defeated at the battle of Saratoga three years later, described the battle of Breed’s hill at the time as “the end of the British empire in America.” Indeed, Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered the war to the United States after his defeat at Yorktown in Oct. 1781,

It is interesting to speculate what the chain of events might have been if Paul Revere had not been successful in his first horse ride -- and unsuccessful in his second.

May 9, 2004

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Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at:

LinWms@earthlink.net or LinWms@lindseywilliams.org

Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with over a thousand of Lin's Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years.

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