Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn

by Robert Martello

  Alone and in enemy hands, Revere demonstrated why he held the trust of the Patriot leaders. His own words best describe the interrogation he faced:

  one of them, who appeared to have the command, examined me, where I came from, and what my Name Was? I told him. He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the afirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston? I told him; and aded, that their troops had catched aground in passing the River, and that There would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up. He imediately rode towards those who stoppd us, when all five of them came down upon a full gallop; one of them, whom I afterwards found to be Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, and told me he was going to ask me some questions, and if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out. He then asked me similar questions to those above.

  Threatened at gunpoint, Revere calmly bluffed the soldiers into releasing him. He offered detailed knowledge of the soldiers’ march from Boston and predicted that British reinforcements would be slow to arrive, while “five hundred Americans” would momentarily surround them all. In reality, Revere and the British patrol stood dangerously close to Hancock and Adams while far fewer than five hundred Patriots had gathered nearby. The agitated soldiers fell for his ruse, released Revere near the center of Lexington after taking his horse, and, in their own words, “galloped for their lives.”27 As a final coda to his long night’s work, Revere helped John Lowell, Hancock’s clerk, carry a heavy trunk of important Patriot papers out of the tavern into the woods just moments in advance of the soldiers’ arrival. Revere lugged the chest right through the hastily formed lines of the Lexington militia, barely making it into the woods a mere hundred or so yards from the action when he heard the firing of a single pistol, then two more guns, and finally the roar of the many muskets that had just begun the Revolutionary War.

  Revere had no way of knowing on the 19th of April in 1775 that he had already completed the activity that would immortalize him and outshine the rest of his life’s work. In the years that followed, countless observers, Patriots, and historians reinterpreted the Midnight Ride and ensuing militia actions in Lexington and Concord in different ways. For example, Revere’s compatriots did not approve of his narrative of the ride because of the way he planned certain measures in advance: the Patriot leaders preferred an image of American innocence, in which the British soldiers’ secretive and provocative actions were only overcome via swift and virtuous American responses. Patriots also kept the names of individual actors secret, which explains why Revere requested in vain that his name not be included in printed versions of his 1798 retelling of the Midnight Ride. Revere remained silent on the matter through the end of his life, but myths of the founders and heroic inflations of the Revolutionary struggle had already taken hold of Revere’s story by the turn of the nineteenth century, and even though he did not become famous outside New England until Longfellow wrote his poem, he had a reputation as a local hero as early as 1795.28

  But back in 1775, Revere had pressing matters on his mind. The seven hundred British regulars had begun surrounding the seventy or so militia upon the Lexington Green when, in spite of orders on both sides to hold all fire, shooting quickly escalated into a confusing melee that killed eight militia and wounded nine. The British regulars marched on to Concord, where they encountered hundreds of American militia who grew ever more numerous as new companies joined their ranks from distant towns. Recognizing that time was not on their side, the regulars wisely decided to return to Boston before matters grew worse. Even though the British soldiers received support from a relief force sent from Boston, thousands of Patriots arrived throughout the next day and turned the British march to Boston into an exhausting and deadly rout.29 By April 20, more than twenty thousand militia had surrounded the town of Boston, trapping General Gage, his army, and many Loyalists and other citizens on the inside, and Paul Revere on the outside.

  Following his Midnight Ride, Revere searched for the best way to aid the Patriot cause and support his family. He took a forced vacation from silver-working for the next five years: he had no way of returning to his shop while the British occupied Boston, and besides, his skills were needed elsewhere. Revere ambitiously undertook an array of new activities that included militia leadership, engraving for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, designing a gunpowder factory, and cannon casting. Revere moved in many directions at once, often switching between two or more tasks while planning his next opportunity, but for the sake of clarity we will untangle the threads of his Revolutionary activities and study them one at a time.

  After the Ride: Martial Longings and the Pursuit of Honor

  Revere began a period of exile from British-occupied Boston the morning after his Midnight Ride, lasting until the British soldiers finally left the city in March 1776. The rest of his family joined him in a Watertown boarding house by mid-May, with the exception of 15-year-old Paul Jr., whom Revere asked to remain behind in Boston to look after their property. Revere’s instructions to his teenage son blended affection and pragmatism: “My Son, It is now in your power to be serviceable to me, your Mother, and yourself. I beg you will keep yourself at home or where your Mother sends you. Don’t you come away till I send you word. When you bring anything to the ferry tell them it is mine & mark it with my name. Your loving father, P.R.”30 This was not the last time Revere, and the entire family, leaned upon one of its younger members. Paul Jr. took on weighty responsibilities from an early age and soon stood at his father’s side as co-owner, and eventually the solitary owner, of the silver shop.

  Beginning on April 20, 1775, Revere earned much-needed money by continuing to serve as a courier for the Committee of Safety under the direct command of Joseph Warren. Warren exited the town of Boston on April 19 and immediately sprung into his leadership role by coordinating the actions of the many independent militia companies encamped around Boston, directing ongoing Patriot propaganda activities, and staying in touch with the Continental Congress and other groups. Revere’s services as a resourceful and experienced courier offered great benefits to the overworked Warren.31

  Revere lobbied for an artillery officer appointment shortly after the start of the siege of Boston, again showcasing his high aspirations. He certainly could have enlisted without delay as a soldier, but officers carried more authority, particularly the artillery officers whose specialized knowledge and control over the military’s most advanced technology added extra prestige. Becoming an officer was easier said than done, as the military recruiting system did not follow merit-based guidelines. Officers overwhelmingly came from the upper classes of society: for example, 84 percent of New Jersey Continental officers originated in the richest one-third of the population and none came from the poorest one-third. Across America, nearly all officers were highly respected members of their community, if not leaders or the sons of leaders. George Washington later made this hiring tendency even more explicit when he told officer recruiters to “Take none but gentlemen.” Revere possibly felt his many patriotic services and success as a master artisan earned him a leadership position, or might have counted upon his French and Indian War artillery experience to prove his military potential. But in spite of America’s shortage of skilled artillery experts, Revere did not receive an officer’s commission and moved on to other endeavors.32

  Revere tried a different approach a year later. In March 1776, shortly after George Washington placed a number of artillery pieces on Dorchester Heights within firing range of Boston, the British troops damaged any military supplies that they could not carry and sailed off, leaving the town in the hands of the Patriots once more. The main theater of the war soon shifted to New York, but the Patriots understood they could not leave a town of Boston’s importance undefended. Paul Revere received an appointment on April 10, 1776, to join the Massachusetts militia’s first regiment with the officer’s rank of major. Surviving records do not indica
te whether or how Revere might have lobbied to receive this appointment, but he did have some useful local connections and his prior militia experience related to this appointment. A month later he transferred to the artillery regiment, a move that certainly reflected his interests and technical skills. He must have served well in this position because he received a promotion to the next highest rank of lieutenant colonel on November 27, 1776, a bit more than seven months after first joining the militia.33

  Revere exercised real authority during his early service; following his promotion to lieutenant colonel he usually stood third in command behind Colonel Thomas Crafts and Major General William Heath. On several occasions he acted as the commander of Castle William, and on at least one occasion in March 1778 Major General Heath put him in charge of Hull, Long, and Governor’s Islands as well. He also presided over many court-martial proceedings and issued a number of written orders to the officers and soldiers under his command, typically dealing with mundane issues such as maintenance, the granting of leaves of absence, punishments against deserters, and procurement of supplies.34

  Revere’s memoranda books reveal some of the effort he put into his command. In using and maintaining a variety of armaments, gunpowder, and ammunition that might have originated in France, Britain, or inexperienced colonial foundries, he had to improvise solutions to unpredictable problems and pass on these insights to his men. Revere’s books reveal a painstaking attention to technical details, including directions for making gunpowder, signal rockets, fireworks, smoke bombs, fuses, and charcoal. He also recorded his ideas on the optimal use of many of these items, such as the mechanics of firing behind parapets and the use of delayed detonation shells. And he drew upon his manufacturing skills on at least one occasion when he engraved, and almost certainly constructed in their entirety, a pair of calipers for his own use. These calipers enabled him to measure the caliber of a cannon bore as well as the diameter of iron cannonballs, to ensure a tight fit that would not jam under fire. Without any significant military education, Revere had the sensibilities and methodical approach of a military engineer, and acquired an impressive quantity of technical knowledge in the process.35

  Repetitive and quotidian militia responsibilities do not offer inspiration, and the situation grew more depressing when the primary theater of war moved to the New York area in the summer of 1776, leaving the real action to the Continental army. Revere revealed his disappointment in an April 5, 1777 letter to his friend John Lamb, commenting, “I did expect before this to have been in the Continental Army, but do assure you, I have never been taken notice off, by those whom I thought my friends, am obliged to be contented in this State’s service.” Shortly after that, he and Colonel Crafts, both chafing at their militia service, asked Samuel Adams to help the officers in their militia regiment receive rank privileges equal to officers in the Continental army. Samuel and John Adams discussed the request with their colleagues in the Second Continental Congress and had no choice but to reject it: state militia officers could not be considered equivalent to officers in the American army. At the same time Revere undertook several minor positions in Boston’s restored town government, including repeated terms as fire ward; service on the Committee of Correspondence, Safety, and Inspection; and membership in various official and unofficial groups attempting to locate and punish Loyalists.36 None of these positions proved particularly satisfying or noteworthy, accounting for Revere’s continuing restlessness and search for new work.

  Revere finally had an opportunity to lead soldiers on an expedition in 1777, when his regiment marched to Newport, Rhode Island, but they failed to see any action. They returned in 1778, hoping this time to engage and rout the British forces. Revere, enjoying the high point of his military career, demonstrated his great patriotism and familial affection in a letter to Rachel in August 1778: “It is very irksome to be separated from her whom I so tenderly love, and from my little Lambs, but were I at home I should want to be here. It seems as if half Boston was here. I hope the affair will soon be settled, I think it will not be long first. I trust that Allwise being who has protected me will still protect me, and send me safely to the Arms of her whom it is my greatest happiness to call my own.”37 But the 1778 expedition again ended when the American forces returned to Boston without engaging the enemy, due to British reinforcements, naval support, and American militia unreliability. Monotonous daily routines and aborted excursions only seemed to confirm the pointlessness of militia service. Little did Revere know, life would soon be far worse.

  The following year Revere received the opportunity to command the artillery train in a major assault against a British fort located in Penobscot Bay, Maine. In late July 1779 Massachusetts launched a huge force of armed privateers, warships, marines, Indian allies, militia, and artillery, easily the largest American naval expedition of the Revolutionary War. The expedition misfired almost from the beginning. After some of the ground forces landed and secured their positions in opposition to the British fort, the commanders of the American land and sea forces began arguing over the chain of command, nervously avoided any major actions, and continually fortified their positions in lieu of attacking. After squandering the element of surprise, the long-delayed American assault finally took place on August 13, but soon after the attack began a British naval squadron consisting of seven warships appeared in the bay. The Americans hastily called off their attack and commenced a disorganized retreat that rapidly degenerated into an all-out rout, culminating in the loss of all American vessels and most of the equipment, followed by a humiliating march home. The Penobscot expedition was a fiasco from start to finish.38

  The Massachusetts council relieved Revere of his militia command shortly after he returned to Boston and the board of inquiry censured him for contributing to the disaster, even placing him briefly under house arrest. Revere later contended that these attacks and charges against him originated from several other officers who had personal grudges against him. The hint of a scandal devastated Revere’s aspirations: not only could he never achieve a higher military rank, but a dishonorable discharge would cast doubt upon his honor and prevent him from ever entering the ranks of the gentry. He tirelessly petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to convene a court-martial to rule on the charges against him and mounted a vigorous defense in several hearings. But to his horror the ambiguous first verdict condemned or exonerated other officers without mentioning Revere at all, and a more specific second ruling dismissed many of the charges against Revere but still found him guilty of two charges. Revere continued pressing the General Court for a formal court-martial to reassess these charges, and vindication finally took place in 1782, when the court formally rebuked all the charges against him, stating that Revere should be treated “with equal Honor as the other Officers in the same Expedition.”39 By this point the war and his military career had long since ended. Revere obviously considered his military reputation essential, as illustrated by the ferocity with which he attempted to defend his record as well as the fact that he sporadically referred to himself using his military title for the remainder of his life.

  Of all Revere’s experiences during the war, the premature termination of his military career became his greatest defeat, effectively closing off the one opportunity he had to advance himself through non-technological means. Unlike his aborted military career, his technological work took place in an environment that used a more transparent merit-based system to allocate responsibility. Revere continued offering his technical expertise to the Patriot cause and became quite successful in three productive endeavors, even though the artisan who wanted to be a gentleman found them far less glamorous than military command.

  Mechanic for the Revolution: Engraving, Mill Design, and Cannon Casting

  The Patriot establishment, if not Revere himself, deemed manufacturing and managerial experience nearly as important as military leadership because of America’s scarcity of technical versatility. During the war, America suffered from
a serious shortage of many manufactured goods previously imported from Great Britain, and prices skyrocketed. American manufacturing took on heightened practical and ideological significance when armament procurement became essential to the war effort. Individuals and local governments constructed iron, steel, and gunpowder plants to meet this new demand, but America’s manufacturing efforts faced many obstacles: minimal supplies of raw materials and investment capital, chronic labor shortages exacerbated by military recruitment, and virtually nonexistent production and distribution networks. America’s Patriots never reached self-sufficiency, always relying on imports of critical materials such as guns and powder in spite of determined efforts in each colony.40

  Almost immediately upon resettling in Watertown, Revere worked as an engraver and printer for the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. His prewar printing and engraving work had already given him all the skills needed to cut copper plates to the correct size, smooth their surface, engrave desired text and images, and ink and print copies off them through the use of a press. Revere connected this new work to his prior printing by engraving several currency notes on the back of his earlier copperplates, including his famous “Boston Massacre” plate. Even though he recycled these plates as a matter of efficiency—high-quality copper was hard to find and the existing plate saved the effort of making a new one—Revere hopefully appreciated the symbolism of this gesture, as the same technological artifact contained Patriot propaganda on one side and Revolutionary financial instruments on the other.