Paul Revere's Ride

by David Hackett Fischer

27.New York Journal, Dec. 29, 1774; “A Letter from a Gentleman in New Hampshire to a Gentleman in New York,” Dec. 17, 1774, Nathaniel Bouton et al. (eds.), Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire, 40 vols. (Concord, N.H., 1867-1943), VII, 423; the major documents are collected in Charles L. Parsons, “The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774,” New Hampshire Historical Society Proceedings 4 (1890-1905): 18-47. The mansion of Samuel Cutts stood on Market Street, next to what is today called the Ladd House, directly across from his wharf on the Piscataqua River. The house burned in 1802. See Cecil Hampden Cutts Howard, Genealogy of the Cutts Family in America (Albany, 1892), 518—19.

  28. Capt. John Cochran to Gov. John Wentworth, Dec. 14, 1774, AA4, I, 1042; also William Bell Clark (ed.), Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C., 1964+), I, 18-19.

  29. Capt. John Cochran to Gov. John Wentworth, Dec. 14, 1774, AA4, I, 1042; also NDAR, I, 18—19; Parsons, “Capture of Fort William and Mary,” 22.

  30. Capt. John Cochran to Governor John Wentworth, Dec. 14, 1774, ADM 1/485; AA4, 1,1042. Capt. Andrew Barkley, R.N., to Vice Adm. Samuel Graves, Dec. 20,1774, NDAR, I, 38; Parsons, “Capture of Fort William and Mary,” 19—23. Lord Percy wrote home, “What is most extraordinary in this event is, that notwithstanding the Captain fired at them, both with some field pieces and small arms, nobody was either killed or wounded,” Percy to Grey Cooper, after Dec. 13, 1774, Percy Letters, 46—47. Percy was mistaken. Cochran and at least one other soldier were wounded.

  31. Wentworth to Gage, Dec. 16, 1774, AA4, I, 1042; Parsons, “Capture of Fort William and Mary,” 23—25.

  32. New York Journal, Dec. 29, 1774.

  33. Captain’s Log of HMS Scarborough, Dec. 15—19, 1774, PRO Admiralty 51/867; Captain’s Log of HMS Canceaux, Dec. 15-18, 1774, ADM 51/4136; Capt. Andrew Barkley to Vice Adm. Graves, Dec. 20, 1774, ADM1/485, published in part in NDAR, I, 35, 38.

  34. Providence Gazette, Dec. 23, 1774.

  35. Wentworth to Graves, Dec. 14, 1774; Graves Papers, Gay Transcripts, MHS. Percy to Grey Cooper, post Dec. 13, 1774, Percy Letters, 46.

  36. Percy to Grey Cooper, after Dec. 13, 1774, ibid.

  37. Percy to Duke of Northumberland, Sept. 12, 1774, ibid., 38.

  38. Gage to Dartmouth, March 4, 1775, Gage Correspondence, I, 393-94.

  39. Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., to Elisha Hutchinson, March 4, 1775, Hutchinson Papers, Egerton ms. 2659, BL; Ann Hulton to Mrs. Adam Lightbody, Nov. 25, 1773, Harold Murdock et al. (eds.), Letters of a Loyalist Lady (Cambridge, Mass., 1927), 63.

  40. The 64th Foot knew Salem well; two of its companies had been assigned there to guard General Gage during his sojourn at the nearby Hooper mansion in Danvers.

  41. Forbes, Revere, 235-38, makes this inference. I have found no primary evidence to confirm it, but it seems a reasonable supposition. Flucker had been a conduit for other information; see Revere to Belknap, 1798; and French, General Gage’s Informers, 164; for Gage’s suspicion of Henry Knox, and Knox’s association with Paul Revere in intelligence activities, see North Callahan, Henry Knox; General Washington’s General (New York, 1958), 30.

  42. The source is a letter to the Sons of Liberty in New York signed by Joshua Brackett, keeper of the Cromwell Head; Paul Revere, Benjamin Edes, printer; Joseph Ward, distiller; Thomas Crafts, painter; and Thomas Chase, distiller:

  “Boston 1st March 1775

  “Sir, Agreeable to what Mr. Revere wrote you by the last Monday’s Post, the subscribers have this day met and have determined to send you weekly the Earliest and most authentic intelligence of what may be transacted in this Metropolis and Province, relating to the public affairs and general concerns of America; that you may have it in your power to contradict the many infamous lies which are propagated by the Enemies of our Country. And we beg it as a particular favor that you would appoint or agree with a number of gentlemen for the above purpose in your city that we may have early information from you of whatever transpires in your city and province of a public nature. At this critical period we conceive it to be very important to our Common Cause to have weekly or frequent communications. We are Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servants, [signed] Joshua Brackett, Paul Revere, Benj. Edes, Joseph Ward, Tho. Crafts Junr., and Thomas Chase” “P.S. Enclosed you have an account of the late Expedition which terminated to the honour of Americans. In addition to the secrecy with which the maneuvre to Salem was conducted, we inform you that three [italics added] persons were occasionally at the castle on Saturday afternoon and were detained there till 10 o’clock on Monday lest we should send an Express to our brethren at Marblehead and Salem.”

  The original letter is in the Lamb Papers, N-YHS; the transcript in Goss is inaccurate, substituting “these” for the italicized “three” in the postscript. Forbes (pp. 236-37) built an entire new interpretation on this misreading. She took “these” to refer to all of the signers of the letter and concluded mistakenly that Paul Revere himself had been imprisoned. There is no evidence that this is the case.

  43. William Gavett, “Account of the Affair at North Bridge,” EIP 1 (1859): 126-28; Joseph Story, “Account Dictated,” ibid., 134—35; Charles M. Endicott, “Leslie’s Retreat or the Resistance to British Arms at the North Bridge in Salem, etc.,” ibid., 120; James Duncan Phillips, “Why Colonel Leslie Came to Salem,” EIHC 90 (1953): 313; “Leslie’s Retreat,” EIHC 17 (1880): 190-92.

  44. An excellent account appears in James Duncan Phillips, Salem in the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1937), 350-60, 464-65.

  45. “Leslie’s Retreat,” EIHC 17 (1880): 190-92. This source, described as a “Narrative found in the Family Papers of Major John Pedrick,” was written long after the event, apparently by one of Major Pedrick’s descendants. It contains many inaccuracies.

  46. George A. Billias, General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners (New York, 1960), 64.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Salem still remembers that event as “the first blood of the American Revolution.”

  49. Gavett, “Account of the Affair at North Bridge,” I, 126-28; Joseph Story, “Account Dictated,” EIP 1 (1859): 134-35; Charles M. Endicott, “Leslie’s Retreat,” ibid., 120 Essex Gazette, Feb. 28, March 7, 1775; (Boston) Massachusetts Spy, March 2, 1775.

  50. AA4, I, 1267-68; Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., to Elisha Hutchinson, March 4, 1775, Egerton ms. 2659, BL; “The regulars attempt to seize cannon at Salem, but are frustrated,” Jonas Clarke Diary, Feb. 26, 1775, ms., LHS. Galvin, Minute Men, 95, writes that from the moment when the Regulars reached the North River Bridge “the story of Leslie’s march really becomes two very different tales,” one more or less as told here, the other as related by Loyalists, who asserted that Leslie marched to the town as ordered, found that the guns did not exist except for some “harmless old ships’ cannons,” and returned to Boston. Galvin argues that “the British were convinced they had achieved a minor victory, and this is important, because it increased Gage’s reliance on these short marches as a way to control the province” (p. 97). Other evidence, such as that of Hutchinson above, suggests that in this instance the Whig version of events was credited by Loyalists as well, and confirmed by evidence from both sides.

  51. Gage to Dartmouth, March 4, 1775, Gage Correspondence, I, 393-94.

  4. Mounting Tensions

  1. Percy to the Rev. Thomas Percy, April 8, 1775, Percy Letters, 48—49.

  2. Ibid.

  3. John Barker, Diary, published as, The British in Boston, Being the Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776., ed. Elizabeth Ellery Dana (Cambridge, Mass., 1924), 5.

  4. Ibid., 12.

  5. Samuel Adams to Arthur Lee, March 4,1775, Cushing (ed.), Writings of Samuel Adams, III, 197; Barker, The British in Boston, 11; John Andrews, Letters, MHSP 8 (1865): 405 (Dec. 16, 1774).

  6. Robin May, The British Army in North America, 1775—1783 (London, 1974), 11.

  7. Barker, British in Boston, 1
1; Pitcairn to Col. John Mackenzie, Feb. 16,1775, Mackenzie Papers, add. ms., 39190, BL; Pitcairn to Lord Sandwich, March 4, 1775, The Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1771—1782, ed. G. R. Barnes and J. H. Owens, 4 vols. (London, 1932—38), I, 59—62.

  8. Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1930), I, 7 (Feb. 1-4, 1775); Dirk Hoerder, Crowd Action in Revolutionary Massachusetts (New York, 1977), 191.

  9. Regimental Rosters, 23rd Foot, W12/3960, PRO; Gage to Haldimand, July 3, 1774, Haldimand Papers, add ms. 21665, BL.

  10. Rowe, Diary, Sept. 9, 1774, MHS; for the doubling of guards, Sept. 9, 1774.

  11. Barker, British in Boston, 14 (Dec. 24,1774); Mackenzie, Diary, I, 9 (March 4-9,1775); Deposition of Samuel Marett, July 1774, Papers of Admiral John Montagu, ADM 1/484, PRO; deposition of Pvt. John Clancey, Gage Papers, WCL; in Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, doc. 717, p. 2015.

  12. Barker, British in Boston, 21-22 (Jan. 21, 1775); Mackenzie, Diary, I, 4; Andrews, Letters; “Proceedings of a Court of Enquiry held at Boston the 23rd January 1775,” Gage Papers, WCL; printed in Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, document 420, pp. 1353— 73. American accounts and the testimony of British officers involved were directly contradictory. John Andrews reported that “last evening a number of drunken officers attacked the town house watch between eleven and twelve o’clock when the assistance of the New Boston watch was called, and a general battle ensued; some wounded on both sides.” The British officers insisted that they were innocent victims. It appears even from their testimony that after an exchange of insults (“Tory Rascal!” “The General is a Rascal!” “The King is a rascal!”) a British officer attacked a citizen, and he and his friends were soon involved in a fight with the watch. The private diaries of two British officers, Barker and Mackenzie, both contradict the public testimony of the Regulars involved, and support the American version of events. But it should also be noted that the Regulars were subject to constant verbal abuse from Bostonians, and to sporadic acts of physical violence as well.

  13. Mackenzie, Diary, I, 13 (March 27, 1775); Barker, British in Boston, 27 (March 23, 1775)

  14. Major John Pitcairn to Col. John Mackenzie, Dec. 10, 1774, Mackenzie Papers, add. ms. 39190, BL.

  15. Pitcairn to Col. John Mackenzie, Feb. 16, 1775, Mackenzie Papers, add. ms. 39190, BL.

  16. Pitcairn to Sandwich, March 4, 1775, Sandwich Papers, I, 59—62; reprinted in Clark (ed.), NDAR, I, 124—26; Pitcairn to Col. John Mackenzie, Dec. 10, 1774, Mackenzie Papers, add. ms. 39190, BL.

  17. Mackenzie, Diary, I, 10 (March 6, 1775).

  18. John Rowe, Diary, March 9, 1775, MHS; Sam Adams to Richard H. Lee, March 21, 1775, Writings, IV, 205-9; Gage to Dartmouth, March 28,1775, Gage Correspondence, I, 394; Depositions of Thomas Ditson, March 9, 1775, and Private John Clancey, March 14, 1775, Gage Papers, WCL; published on microfiche in Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, docs. 716-17, pp. 2013-18.

  19. Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings, 79—92.

  20. Paul Revere, “A Certain Cabinet Junto,” Royal American Magazine 2 (1775), plate I; reproduced with British sources in Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings, 92.

  21. Authors and artists borrowed freely from one another in that way during Paul Revere’s era. This was a world without our highly developed sense of individual creativity, and therefore without a strong imperative against plagiarism. It was an ethos with a stronger sense of collective belonging, and weaker ideas of individuality than in our own thinking. In all of this there was an important parallel to ideas of “publick liberty” which pervaded Revere’s revolutionary consciousness; that is, liberty as a collective possession, rather than a purely personal freedom.

  22. Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America (1810; rpt. New York, 1970), 272n.

  23. (Newburyport) Essex Journal, Feb. 22, 1775.

  24. Samuel Adams to Arthur Lee, Jan. 29, 1775, Writings of Samuel Adams, III, 169.

  25. Gage to Arthur Lee, March 4, 1775, ibid., Ill, 195.

  26. (Worcester) Massachusetts Spy, June 12, 1775, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence; The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764-1776 (New York, 1958), 234.

  27. Gage to Dartmouth, April 22, 1775, Gage Correspondence, I, 396.

  28. The 17th Light Dragoons adopted its death’s head badge in 1759 to mourn the death of General James Wolfe. Later they added the motto “Or Glory,” and acquired the nickname “Death or Glory Boys.” They were at Bunker Hill in 1775, and they led the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. In World War I they were the escort of Field Marshal Haig.

  29. The “principal actors” were not identified by name.

  30. A. D. L. Cary and Stouppe McCance, Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Late the 2 3rd Foot) (London, 1921), 1, 151; J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-17 95 (Oxford, 1981), 46-96; W. A. Smith, “Anglo-Colonial Society and the Mob, 1740-1775,” unpublished dissertation, Claremont, 1965, 29.

  31. Dartmouth to Gage, Jan. 27,1775, Gage Correspondence,1, 179-83; for a discussion of this dispatch, see John R. Alden, “Why the March to Concord?” AHR 49 (1944): 446-54.

  5. The Mission

  1. Sam Adams to Jonathan Augustine Washington, March 23,1775, Cushing (ed.), Writings of Samuel Adams, III, 211.

  2. “List of General and Staff Officers on the Establishment in North America,” Gage to Richard Rigby, July 8, 1775, Gage Correspondence, II, 687—88.

  3. Some of these intelligence reports survive in the Gage Papers, WCL, and have been published in part in French, General Gage’s Informers, 3-33; Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, docs. 670-95, pp. 1967-94.

  4. French, General Gage’s Informers, 15.

  5. Gage to Dartmouth, Aug. 27, 1774, Gage Correspondence, I, 366.

  6. Gage to Captain John Brown and Ensign Henry De Berniere, Feb. 22, 1775, AA4, I, 1263.

  7. Ensign Henry De Berniere, Report to Gage, n.d., ca. March 1, 1775, AA4, I, 1263—68.

  8. A batman was (and is) a private soldier assigned as an officer’s personal servant. A large proportion of Gage’s army were detailed as officers’ servants.

  9. De Berniere, Report to Gage, n.d., ca. March 1, 1775, AA4, I, 1263.

  10. Ibid.

  11. A shire town was the county seat. A half shire town was a community in which the county courts also met.

  12. De Berniere, Report to Gage, AA4, I, 1268.

  13. French, General Gage’s Informers, 13. These letters were actually written from Boston, but the writer of them was exceptionally well informed about Concord, Worcester, and other country towns.

  14. Mackenzie, Diary, I, 24, 29 (April 18-20, 1775).

  15. French, General Gage’s Informers, 29—30.

  16. Gage to Dartmouth, March 4, 1775, Bancroft Collection, NYPL; French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 57—58; this document is not included in the Gage Correspondence.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Earlier, the 4th Foot and other “off duty” regiments had “marched into the Country to give the men a little exercise.” A British officer commented that “as they marched with knapsacks and colours the People of the Country were allarm’d.” Barker, British in Boston, 11 (Dec. 16, 1774).

  19. Mackenzie, Diary, I, 14—15 (April 7, 1775).

  20. Jonathan Hosmer to Oliver Stevens or Joseph Standley, April 10, 1775, privately owned; excerpts published in a dealer’s catalogue, Joseph Rubenfine, The American Revolution, List 114 (West Palm Beach, Fla., n.d.), n.p.; a copy is in the Concord Antiquarian Museum. I am grateful to David Wood for calling this document to my attention.

  21. Amelia Forbes Emerson (ed.), Diary and Letters of William Emerson, 1743—1776 (Boston, 1972), 71 (April 15, 1775).

  22. Alden, General Gage in America, 227.

  23. Barker, British in Boston, 64.

  24. William Lincoln (ed.), The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Colony) in 1774 and 1775, and of the Com
mitte of Safety, with an Appendix (Boston, 1838), 513, Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, doc. 592, pp. 1830-88.

  25. Revere to Belknap, ca. 1798, RFP, microfilm edition, MHS.

  26. French, General Gage’s Informers, 32.

  27. Galvin, Minute Men, 123.

  28. Six of these men can be identified. The patrol included Major Edward Mitchell (5th Foot), commanding; Capt. Charles Cochrane (4th Foot), Capt. Charles Lumm (38th Foot),Lt. Peregrine Thorne (4th Foot), Lt. Thomas Baker (4th Foot), and Lt. Hamilton (64th Foot). Some were noncommissioned officers, and others were described by Americans who observed them as servants.

  29. William Munroe, Deposition, in Elias Phinney, History of the Battle of Lexington, on the Morning of the 19th April, 1775 (Boston, 1925), 33-35; Solomon Brown, Deposition, in Lemuel Shattuck, History of Concord (Concord, 1835), 341.

  30. Richard Devens, Memorandum, in Richard Frothingham, Jr., History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston, 1849), 57-

  31. Hancock’s reply to Elbridge Gerry is reproduced in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 57:

  Lexington April 18, 1775

  Dear Sir:

  I am much obliged for your notice. It is said the officers are gone to Concord, and I will send word thither. I am full with you that we ought to be serious, and I hope your decision will be effectual. I intend doing myself the pleasure of being with you tomorrow. My respects to the Committee.

  I am your real friend,

  John Hancock

  32. Munroe, Deposition, Phinney, Lexington, 33—35.

  33. Eljah Sanderson, Depositions, Phinney, Lexington, 31—33; Solomon Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah Sanderson, Depositions, April 25, 1775, AA4, II, 490.

  34. Sanderson, Deposition, Phinney, Lexington, 31—33.

  35. John C. Maclean, A Rich Harvest: The History, Buildings and People of Lincoln, Mass. (Lincoln, 1907), 264—65; citing Abram E. Brown, Beneath Old Roof Trees (Boston, 1896); Hurd, Middlesex County, II, 619.

  6. The Warning