1775 - The Midnight Ride

The Midnight Ride

During the American Revolution, a large spy network was created on both sides. Sam Adams created a large spy network in Boston to watch over the British activities. The British had their spies in Boston too. In fact, General Thomas Gage (British) learned that the Massachusetts Militia was collecting and storing arms and ammunition in Concord, Massachusetts, which was 20 miles North of Boston. On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage ordered his troops to arrest Sam Adams and travel to Concord to destroy the supplies. Paul Revere, a member of the Sons of Liberty and an American spy, had planned for an evening such as this, and road off on his horse, accompanied by William Dawes to warn the people of Concord that the British were coming. The poem explains his ride. Although Revere and Dawes were eventually stopped by the British, Dr. Samuel Prescott, another American spy, continued to spread the message to Concord. Because of this spy network and planned system, 70 American militia troops were waiting when the 700 British troops arrived in Lexington (a town close to Concord). It was here the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.  

Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

(an excerpt)

1775

By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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."