Paul Revere's Ride (63 page)

New interpretations of Paul Revere are as diverse as the topics and problems that are being studied. In general, Paul Revere is approached today as a figure of high complexity who is interesting both for what he was and what he did. One new theme is beginning to emerge. In new work on the design of his silver, on his business career, on his civic activities, and in this monograph on his midnight ride, Paul Revere is increasingly interpreted as a man who made a difference in the world. At a time when we are witnessing the rebirth of free institutions in many nations, it is interesting to observe that this ever-changing historical figure is perceived in terms of choice, contingency, and agency.

For our subject, the new trends inevitably mean another turn of the interpretative wheel. Through two centuries, the myth of the midnight ride has been continuously reinvented by Americans in response to changing circumstances. In every generation we have been given a new Paul Revere—the injured innocent of Whig propaganda, the ardent patriot of the new republic, the historic loner of Longfellow’s romantic poem, the man on horseback of the late 19th century, the “man of solid substance” of the American Anglophiles; the colonial clown of the debunkers; the “simple artizan” of Esther Forbes, the capitalist-democrat of the Cold Warriors, the patriot-villain of the post-Vietnam iconoclasts, and in a new age of global democracy a leader of collective effort in the cause of freedom.

To the passing generations, Paul Revere has been all of these things and more—a man and a myth that has grown with the nation that he helped to found. Like the reflective surfaces of Copley’s portrait, each of the many reconstructions of his life reflects the circumstances of their creators. But nearly all of them have added to our understanding of a complex figure. Every generation does not merely rewrite the history books. It also revises them, and refines our knowledge of the past. Through that long process, Paul Revere is not only a creature of changing fashion. He is also an enduring symbol of an historical truth that by changing grows deeper and yet more true. That may be his most important message for our time.

Selected Primary Sources

Amid all the terrors of battle I was so busily engaged in Harvard Library that I never even heard of … [it] until it was completed.”

—a scholar on the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775
¹

No other happening in early American history has left such an abundance of evidence as did the events of April 19, 1775. This selected survey is limited to primary materials (and the means of access to them). Secondary and tertiary works are included only if they contain primary materials. The survey is organized in the following parts:

Bibliographical sources

Primary sources

Depositions

Depositions taken from American militia

Depositions taken from British troops

Pension applications

Claims for damages

Personal papers and accounts

Papers of Paul Revere

Papers of Thomas Gage

Personal records of other American participants

Personal records of other British participants

Official records

American government documents

Provincial and State Records

Town Records

British government documents

Colonial Office

War Office

Admiralty

Other primary sources

Published collections of primary documents

Newspaper accounts

Anniversary sermons and orations

Material artifacts

Terrain studies

Secondary works that contain primary materials

Biographical studies

Paul Revere

Thomas Gage

Other participants

Local histories

Town studies

County histories

Histories of military units

The British army

The American militia

Naval history

Weapons and equipment

Histories of events

The coming of the Revolution

The Powder Alarms

The Midnight Ride

The Battles of Lexington and Concord

The aftermath

Historiographic Studies

Bibliographies

The most comprehensive general bibliography of the American Revolution is Ronald Gephart,
Revolutionary America, 1763-1789: A Bibliography.
2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1984). Dwight L. Smith and Terry A. Simmerman,
Era of the American Revolution: A Bibliography
(Santa Barbara, 1975), is a helpful compilation of 1400 abstracts from
America, History and Life.
A remarkably comprehensive work is Lawrence H. Gipson,
A Bibliographical Guide to the History of the British Empire, 1748-1776,
published as Volume 14 in his
History of the British Empire Before the American Revolution
(New York, 1968).

W. J. Koenig and S. L. Mayer,
European Manuscript Sources of the American Revolution
(London and New York, 1974), surveys primary materials in foreign archives.

On the coming of the Revolution: a helpful work is Thomas R. Adams,
American Independence, The Growth of an Idea: A Bibliographical Study of the American Political Pamphlets Printed Between 1764 and 1776 Dealing with the Dispute Between Great Britain and Her Colonies
(Providence, 1965); and
idem, The American Controversy: A Bibliographical Study of the British Pamphlets About the American Disputes, 1764-1783. 2
vols. (Providence, R.I., 1980).

J. Todd White and Charles H. Lesser (eds.),
Fighters for Independence: A Guide to Sources of Biographical Information on Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution
(Chicago, 1977), lists 538 narratives, diaries, journals, and autobiographies by men and a few women who fought for American independence. Many of these works refer to events at Lexington and Concord.

In 1959 Arthur Tourtellot printed privately
A Bibliography of the Battles of Lexington and Concord
(New York, 1959). A much abridged version was appended to his own popular history of these events, first published as
William Diamond’s Drum
(New York, 1959) and then reissued as
Lexington and Concord; The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution
(New York, 1963).

The Paul Revere Memorial Association maintains an unpublished bibliography, “Research Papers on File in the PRMA Library” (revised to Sept, 1992), which lists the studies of Paul Revere in its holdings at the Revere House in Boston.

Depositions: American Militia and Minutemen

Among the richest source material for this inquiry are American depositions taken a few days after the fighting on April 19, 1775. They were recorded for the specific purpose of proving that British soldiers fired the first shots at Lexington Green and Concord’s North Bridge. Depositions that supported this case were published as
A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops
(Worcester, 1775). This pamphlet has often been reissued: in print by Peter Force (ed.),
American Archives,
4th ser., II, 487-501; on microprint in the Readex microprint edition of
Early American Imprints,
Evans 14269; and on microfiche in Kinvin Wroth
et al.
(eds.),
Province in Rebellion,
document 591, pp. 1804-29. Depositions not clearly supportive of the American position were revised before publication, or not published at all.

The manuscript depositions themselves are scattered through several repositories. Many are at the University of Virginia and Harvard University. John Parker’s deposition
is in the Lexington Historical Society. Paul Revere’s depositions (not published by the Provincial Congress) are in the Revere Family Papers, in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Early transcripts of Lexington depositions are in WCL.

American signers from Lexington include: James Adams, Joseph Abbott, Ebenezer Bowman, John Bridge, Jr., James Brown, Solomon Brown, John Chandler, John Chandler, Jr., Isaac Durant, Thomas Fessenden, Isaac Green, William Grimer, Micah Hagar, Daniel Harrington, John Harrington, Levi Harrington, Moses Harrington, Moses Harrington III, Thaddeus Harrington, Thomas Harrington, Isaac Hastings, Samuel Hastings, Thomas Headley, Jr., John Hosmer, Benjamin Lock, Reuben Lock, Jonathan Loring, Abner Mead, Levi Mead, John Monroe, Jr., William Munroe, William Munroe III, Nathaniel Mullekin, John Muzzy, Ebenezer Parker, John Parker, Jonas Parker, Nathaniel Parkhurst, Solomon Pierce, Joshua Reed, Joshua Reed, Jr., Nathan Reed, John Robbins, Philip Russel, Elijah Sanderson (2 documents), Samuel Sanderson, Joseph Simonds, John Smith, Phineas Smith, Timothy Smith, Simon Snow, Phineas Stearns, Jonas Stone, Jr., Benjamin Tidd, Samuel Tidd, William Tidd, Joel Viles, Thomas Price Willard, Enoch Willington, John Winship, Simon Winship, Thomas Winship, and James Wyman.

From the town of Lincoln: John Adams, Abraham Garfield, John Hoar, William Hosmer, Benjamin Munroe, Isaac Parks, Gregory Stone, John Whitehead.

From the town of Concord: Thaddeus Bancroft, James Barrett, John Barrett, Nathaniel Barrett, Samuel Barrett, John Brown, Joseph Butler, Nathaniel Buttrick, Joseph Chandler, Jonathan Farrer, Stephen Hosmer, Jr., Thomas Jones, Ephraim Melvin, Timothy Minot Jr., Nathan Peirce, Edward Richardson, Bradbury Robinson, Samuel Spring, Silas Walker, Francis Wheeler, and Peter Wheeler.

From other towns: Paul Revere (2 drafts).

More depositions were collected through the next half-century for other purposes, mainly by local historians in various controversies that arose among the towns. These materials were recorded long after the event, and are sometimes inaccurate in matters of detail, but they tend to be more full and comprehensive than the earlier depositions.

Elias Phinney,
History of the Battle at Lexington
(Boston, 1825), printed depositions by Abijah Harrington, Amos Lock, Ebenezer Munroe, John Munroe, Nathan Munroe, William Munroe, James Reed, Elijah Sanderson, William Tidd, and Joseph Underwood.

Ezra Ripley,
History of the Fight at Concord
(Concord, 1827, 2nd ed., 1832), a reply to Phinney, included four new depositions from five participants: Robert Douglass (May 3, 1827), John Harwell (July 19, 1827), John Richardson (June 25, 1827), Joseph Thaxter (Feb. 24, 1825), and Sylvanus Wood (June 17, 1826).