Paul Revere's Ride (68 page)

Boston newspapers of general interest in the period 1774-75 include Isaiah Thomas’s
Massachusetts Spy
and Benjamin Edes’s and John Gill’s
Boston Gazette,
both strongly Whig; the
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter,
a moderate Tory paper; the
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post Boy,
a strong Tory paper; and the
Boston Evening Post,
which tried to remain neutral.

Specially helpful were the
Salem Gazette,
April 21, 1775; Salem’s
Essex Gazette,
April 25, 1775; (Worcester)
Massachusetts Spy,
May 3, 1775; (Portsmouth)
New Hampshire Gazette,
April 21, 28, 1775;
New York Journal,
May 25, 1775;
New York Gazetteer,
April 27, 1775;
New York Weekly Gazette and Mercury,
April 1775.

Anniversary Sermons and Orations

Every year on the day of the battle, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress sponsored sermons to mark the event. Some were delivered by eyewitnesses, and included primary material. Those published during the War of Independence included: Jonas Clarke of Lexington,
The Fate of Blood-thirsty Oppressers and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People
(Boston, 1776); Samuel Cooke of Cambridge,
The Violent Destroyed and Oppressed Delivered
(Boston, 1777); Jacob Cushing of Waltham,
Divine Judgments
(Boston, 1778); Samuel Woodward of Weston,
The Help of the Lord, in Signal Deliverances and Special Salvation, to be Acknowledged and Remembered
(Boston, 1779); Isaac Morrell of Wilmington,
Faith in Divine Providence
(Boston, 1780); Henry Cummings of Billerica,
A Sermon Preached in Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1781
(Boston, 1781); Phillips Payson of Chelsea,
A Memorial of Lexington
Battle and of Some Signal Interpositions of Providence in the American Revolution
(Boston, 1782); Zabdiel Adams of Lunenberg,
The Evil Designs of Men Made Subservient by God to the Public Good, particularly illustrated in the Rise, Progress and Conclusion of the American War
(Boston, 1783).

Military Manuals

These works are indispensable for a study of formations and tactics used by both sides on April 19, 1775. Some of the relevant works are as follows:
Gentleman’s Compleat Military Dictionary
(18th ed., Boston, 1759);
The Manual Exercise, as Ordered by His Majesty in 1764
(Boston, n.d. [late 1774 or early 1775?]); William Windham,
Plan of Discipline Composed for the Use of the Militia of the County of Norfolk
(London, 1759); Humphrey Bland,
A Treatise of Military Discipline
(7th ed., London, 1753); William Brattle,
Sundry Rules and Directions for Drawing Up a Regiment, Posting the Officers, etc.
(Boston, 1773); Richard Draper, “A
Plan of Exercise for the Militia of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay,” Extracted from the Plan of Discipline for the Norfolk Militia
(Boston, 1772); Phineas Lyman,
General Orders of
1757, ed. William S. Webb (New York, 1899); Timothy Pickering, Jr.,
Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia
(Salem, 1775); Thomas Simes,
The Military Guide for Young Officers
(3rd ed., London, 1781).

Material Artifacts

Any student of Paul Revere’s life has much to learn from his silver, and that of his father. The major public collections are in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at Yale University. Their work contains many clues to character and personality, as well to the culture within which they lived. There is today much fashionable interest in the study of “material culture,” but scholars have so far had little success in moving beyond an academic antiquarianism and linking material culture to large historiographical questions. With imagination and creativity, important work can be done, but here is an interpretative problem that remains to be solved. Paul Revere offers many possibilities.

The Revere House itself is a primary source, much altered through the years, but still the building speaks to us of Paul Revere’s world; as also do Old North Church, Fanueil Hall, the Old Boston State House, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, and the streets of the North End. Of the wooden buildings that stood along the Battle Road in 1775, a remarkable number survive, some still bearing the scars of the conflict more than two centuries later. The Lexington Historical Society maintains the Hancock-Clarke house (with a very strong collection of original furnishings), the Buckman Tavern and the Munroe Tavern, and welcomes many thousands of visitors each year.

For the battles of Lexington and Concord, many material artifacts have survived. With others of the period, they may be studied in the British National Army Museum, and in regimental museums, as well as in the Concord Museum and the Museum of Our National Heritage (Lexington, Mass.).

Terrain Studies

The historian of any battle must attend carefully to the ground. The scene of the events of April 18 and April 19, is today much changed. All of it lies within metropolitan Boston, and most of the Battle Road is today a busy suburban highway. I was fortunate to be able to tour the road with Douglas Sabin, historian of the Minuteman National Historical Park, who himself has written a detailed history of the battles. It is still possible today to observe
major terrain features at the North Bridge, Ripley’s Ridge, Revolutionary Ridge, Meriam’s Corner, Brooks Hill, the Bloody Curve, Nelson Road, and Parker’s Hill, Fiske Hill, and Concord Hill. A not entirely successful attempt was made some years ago to restore the Nelson Road area to something like its appearance in 1775

A pioneering terrain study is Joyce Lee Malcolm,
The Scene of the Battle, 1775, Historic Grounds Report
(Boston, 1985), a published examination of land use along the Battle Road, mainly from an investigation of deeds and other records. Another general project is presently under way by Brian Donahue, Brandeis University, linking deeds to topographical surveys, soil maps, and other sources in computer-generated maps of the area.

The staff of the Minuteman National Historical Park has sponsored many specialized studies in the form of National Park Service Reports. All can be consulted at the library at the Park. Among the most useful for this project are: L.J. Abel and Cordelia T. Snow, “The Excavation of Sites 22 and 23, Minuteman National Historical Park, Massachusetts” (Concord, 1966), a study of the area where Paul Revere is thought to have been captured; Cynthia E. Kryston, “The Muster Field: Historical Data” (Concord, 1972), on the field near the Buttrick house; John F. Luzader, “Elisha Jones or ‘Bullet Hole House’” (1968), on Monument Street in Concord;
idem,
“Samuel Hartwell House and Ephraim Hartwell Tavern” (1968), on the Battle Road in Lincoln; David H. Snow, “Archeological Research Report, Excavation at Site 264” (1973), on the Thomas Nelson house near the Lincoln-Lexington line; Clifford A. Kaye,
The Geology and Early History of the Boston Area of Massachusetts, a Bicentennial Approach
U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1476 (Washington, D.C., 1976); Ricardo Torres-Reyes, Captain Brown’s House: Research Report (Washington, D.C., 1969).

Biographical Works on Paul Revere

This list is confined to works that contain primary material not available elsewhere. For secondary and tertiary interpretations of Paul Revere, see Historiography, pp. XX, above.

[Joseph Buckingham], “Paul Revere,”
New England Magazine
3 (1832): 304-14, was an early biography by an author who knew him well, and included some primary material that has not appeared in any subsequent biography before the present volume. Elbridge Henry Goss,
The Life of Colonel Paul Revere.
2 vols. (Boston, 1891), is a documentary history, still very useful for the materials that it includes. Charles F. Gettemy,
True Story of Paul Revere
(Boston, 1905), has somewhat of a debunking flavor. Harriet E. O’Brien,
Paul Revere’s Own Story; An Account of His Ride as Told in a Letter to a Friend, Together with a Brief Sketch of His Versatile Career
(Boston, privately printed, 1929), is especially valuable for its rich trove of illustrative materials. Esther Forbes,
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In
(1942, rpt. Boston, 1969), is a lively modern biography by a New England novelist, weak on the ride and political and military events but very strong on the details of domestic life. In general, it was carefully done, but it must be approached with caution in matters of fact. Walter S. Hayward, “Paul Revere and the American Revolution, 1765-1783,” is an unpublished Harvard dissertation, 1933. Nina Zannieri, Patrick Leehey,
et al., Paul Revere—Artisan, Businessman, and Patriot
(Boston, Paul Revere Memorial Association, n.d. [1988]), is an important collection of scholarly essays on various aspects of Paul Revere’s career, and also the catalogue of an exhibition, sponsored by the PRMA. A review of the exhibition itself by Alfred Young appears in
Journal of American History
76 (1989): 852—57. The volume includes Patrick M. Leehey, “Reconstructing Paul Revere; An Overview of His Ancestry, Life and Work.” pp. 15-40, a meticulous work by an able and very careful scholar who is head of research at the Paul Revere House.