A lonely walk home for Paul Revere

ANN ARBOR—Having learned of British General Thomas Gage’s plans for a midnight raid on the town of Lexington, Mass. to seize the rebel colonists’ leaders and weapons, silversmith Paul Revere borrowed a horse and rode off into the night on

He left his wife Rachel at home in North Boston, and rode to warn patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the impending attack.

Revere was already well known to the British for his insurgent activities, and the mission would make him a "wanted" man for whom returning home would dangerous. Concerned that her husband would be stranded away from home with no means of feeding himself or the horse, Rachel sent prayers and cash.

Today, Rachel Revere would simply speed-dial her husband’s cellular phone to warn him of the danger of coming home as the British troops advanced. But in 1775, the best she could do was to write Paul a wax-sealed letter, enclosing 125 pounds in British currency, and entrust it to Benjamin Church for delivery to her husband. Church was a member of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and the surgeon general of George Washington’s troops and seemed able to pass through British lines.

Unfortunately, Dr. Church was also a spy for the British. So, instead of conveying the letter to Paul Revere, Church handed it over to General Gage. History gives no mention of Rachel’s cash, and it is presumed that either Gage or Church kept the 125 pounds.

Rachel’s letter was slightly incriminating but not terribly revealing:

My Dear, by Doctor Church I send a hundred & twenty-five pounds & beg you will take the best care of yourself and not attempt coming into this towne again & if I have an opportunity of coming or sending out anything or any of the Children I shall do it. Pray keep up your spirits & trust your self & us in the hands of a good God who will take care of us. Tis all my Dependence, for vain is the help of man. Aduie my love.

from your

Affectionate R. Revere.

That letter now resides at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library in first person accounts of this pre-battle action from the personal records of General Gage. Once housed in several large wooden chests, one of which is also at the Clements, these records are now bound in leather folios, having been purchased in 1929 by William Clements from the Gage Family and subsequently purchased by the library in 1937 from the Clements estate.

After delivering his message to rebel leaders, Revere continued on to Concord intent on warning the citizenry along the way. En route, the unarmed Revere was captured on the Concord Road and questioned by ten British Regulars. In their haste to join the impending fray at Concord, the British officers decided to release the rider. But they kept his borrowed horse, forcing Revere to return to Lexington on foot. While the journey was a modest distance, Revere’s heavy riding boots and silver spurs made the cross-country trek cumbersome at best.

Though it was partially foiled, Paul Revere’s ride brought 130 Minutemen to meet the British troops before they entered Concord. The patriots were outnumbered and began to disperse, when the British fired a shot starting a skirmish that left eight colonists dead and ten wounded. The British continued to Concord and were met by 150 Minutemen. The fighting was light, but the British withdrew to Boston after a search for hidden patriot weapons revealed none.

The origin of the initial shot at Lexington that began the war for independence is still disputed. "Clements has depositions saying the Brits started it," said John C. Dann, director of the Clements Library. "But there is a letter from a Brit at the scene at Lexington that describes how the Americans fired the first shot."

Perhaps "who was first" will never be truly known, but Dann has a theory. "Eyewitness accounts from both sides report that the British and American troops were ordered ‘not to fire,’ " Dann said. "But it was so noisy and the troops so nervous that they most likely heard only one word of the order and that was ‘fire,’" he said.

By this time the patriot Minutemen had raced ahead of the British army, hiding behind trees, rocks, houses and barns alongside the road. The red uniforms of the army made an easy target for the patriot snipers, leading the British troops to return to the safety of the Bunker and Breed’s hills outside Charlestown where they were protected by the gunships lying in the Charles River.

Dr. Church was captured by the rebels in
Related links:

Clements Library

Spy letters of the American Revolution