Paul Revere's Ride (79 page)

27
. Jeremiah Loring to Wheildon?, Oct. 1876, Wheildon,
Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns,
34-36.

28
. Sheets,
Robert Newman; His Life and Letters
…, 3.

29
. Watson,
Paul Revere’s Signal,
argued that Capt. John Pulling displayed the lights from the tower. Wheildon
(Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns)
responded that the work was done by Newman, an interpretation repeated by Goss, Forbes, and Sheets. There is good evidence that both men were involved, and Bernard as well. Given the intrinsic difficulty of carrying two lanterns to the top of the tower, lighting them with flint and steel, and displaying them simultaneously by hand out of the window, I think it probable that New- man and Pulling worked together in the tower, while Bernard kept watch below.

No source survives to establish the sequence of events in the tower. It would have been dangerous to light the lanterns on the ground floor of the church, with British soldiers passing in the street, and impossible to light them at the top of a narrow ladder.

30
. Revere’s account was confirmed by Richard Devens, who wrote, “I soon received intelligence from Boston that the enemy were all in motion, and were certainly preparing to come out into the country. Soon afterwards, the signal agreed upon was given; this was a lanthorn hung out in the upper window of the tower of N. Ch towards Charlestown.” Richard Devens, Narrative, published in Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
57.

31
. Devens, Memorandum; Frothingham,
Siege of Boston,
58—59.

32
. Goss,
Revere,
I, 188—89, based upon letters of John Revere to Goss, Oct. 11, 1876, and Charles Wooley to Goss, May 1886.

33
. Revere wrote that he kept his boat in “the north part of the town.” The story of the spurs descended in the Revere family from Paul Revere’s daughter Mary Revere Lincoln to her son William O. Lincoln, who recorded it for Goss,
Revere,
I, 189—90.

34
. The Boston lady who donated her underwear to the boatmen was an ancestor of John R. Adan; John Revere to Goss, Oct. 11, 1876, Goss,
Revere,
I, 190.

35
. W. W. Wheildon,
Curiosities of History,
36; Goss,
Revere,
I, 188.

36
. Donald W. Olson and Russell L. Doescher, “Astronomical Computing: Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride,”
Sky and Telescope
83 (1992): 437-40; Jacques Vialle and Darrel Hoff, “The Astronomy of Paul Revere’s Ride,”
Astronomy
20 (1992): 13-18;
Boston Globe,
April 19,1992.

37
. The horse was presumably “got” by the combined efforts of Deacon Larkin, Devens, and Revere. Devens later recalled, “I kept watch at the ferry to watch for boats till about eleven o’clock, when Paul Revere came over and informed that the Troops were actually in their boats. I then took a horse from Mr. Larkin’s barn and sent off P. Revere to give the intelligence at Menotomy and Lexington.” Devens, Memorandum, in
History of Charles-town,
315—16; Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
57—58; Revere also left an account of this conversation in his third account of the ride.

38
. William Ensign Lincoln, genealogist of the Larkin family, recorded in 1930 a family tradition that the horse was a mare named Brown Beauty, which belonged to Samuel Larkin, chairmaker and fisherman of Charlestown (1701-84). Lincoln writes, “The mare was borrowed at the request of Samuel’s son, Deacon John Larkin, and was never returned to the owner.”

John Larkin (1735-1807) was a merchant and deacon of the First Congregational Church in Charlestown. His estate was probated for $86,581.00, an exceptionally large holding. See William Ensign Lincoln,
Some Descendants of Stephen Lincoln, Edward Larkin, Thomas Oliver, Michael Pearce, Robert Wheaton, George Burrill, John Porter, John Ayer
(New York, 1930), 119, 123. Also very helpful on this question is Patrick M. Leehey, “What
was
the Name of Paul Revere’s Horse?”
Revere House Gazette
16 (1965): 5.

Other secondary accounts are erroneous in various details.-Richard O’Donnell mistakenly describes the animal as a “little brown mare,” but Revere’s own accounts indicate that she was a large horse, and after his capture she was taken by a sergeant of grenadiers to replace his own small mount. Cf. O’Donnell, “‘On the Eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five…’ Longfellow didn’t know the half of it,”
Smithsonian
4 (1973): 72-77.

Various names have been suggested in the literature on Paul Revere’s ride. Galvin
(Minute Men,
123-24) calls her Thunderer (without supplying a source). Popular writers have inventively named her Meg, Scherazade, Dobbin, and Sparky (after “the spark struck out by the steed that night”).

39
. Not even Paul Revere’s horse has been spared the attentions of the revisionists. Filiopietists have represented Paul Revere’s horse as a fine-boned thoroughbred, with a long gait and an elegant Arabian head. Iconoclasts have insisted, on the other hand, that she was a heavy, plodding “ploughhorse.” Both interpretations are mistaken, and the truth was not “in between.”

40
. Revere to Belknap,
ca.
1798, RFP, microfilm edition, MHS.

41
. The red door and four-stub lantern may still be found in the Buckman Tavern, which
since 1913 has been owned by the town of Lexington. It is now operated by the Lexington Historical Society. See also Willard D. Brown,
The Story of Buckman Tavern
(rev. ed., Lexington, 1989).

42
. The parsonage still stands today. It has been moved twice, and is back close to its original site. See S. Lawrence Whipple,
The Hancock-Clarke House, Parsonage and Home
(Lexington, 1984).

43
. Jonas Clarke Diary, April 7, 10, 1775, MHS.

44
. Whipple,
The Hancock-Clarke House, Parsonage and Home,
13—16; for the size of the guard, see Jonas Clarke, “Narrative of the Events of April 19.”

45
. Richard L. Merritt,
Symbols of American Community
(New Haven, 1966).

46
. Louise K. Brown,
A Revolutionary Town
(Canaan, N.H., 1975), 16.

47
. Phinney,
History of the Battle at Lexington,
17.

48
. Jonas Clarke, “Narrative of the Events of April 19.”

7.
The March

1
. Jeremy Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” Oct. 25, 1775, MHS; pub. in
MHSP
4 (i860): 77-86.

2
. Letter from a “Private Soldier in the Light Infantry,” Aug. 20, 1775, Margaret Wheeler Willard (ed.),
Letters on the American Revolution
(Boston, 1925), 187-200.

3
. Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” 77-80 (Oct. 25, 1775); Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 18 (April 18, 1775).

4
. Sutherland to Clinton, April 26, 1775, published in Harold Murdock (ed.),
Late News of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops on the Nineteenth of April, 1JJ5
(Boston, 1927); Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 18 (April 18, 1775).

5
. Barker,
British in Boston,
31; Capt. W. G. Evelyn to Rev. William Evelyn, April 23, 1775,
Memoir and Letters of Captain W. Glanville Evelyn, of the 4th Regiment (“King’s Own,”) from North America, 1774-1776,
ed. G. D. Scull (Oxford, 1879), 53~”55’ anonymous light infantryman in Willard (ed.),
Letters on the American Revolution,
187—200; Pope,
Late News,
entry for April 18,1775; French,
Day of Concord and Lexington,
73; Murdock,
The Nineteenth of April,
47; Tourtellot,
Lexington and Concord,
104; Gross,
Minutemen and Their World,
115; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” I, 9.

6
. Barker,
The British in Boston,
31.

7
. French,
General Gage’s Informers,
35.

8
. Donald W. Olson and Russell L. Doescher, “Astronomical Computing: Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride,”
Sky and Telescope,
April 1992, pp. 437-40; also Jacques Vialle and Darrel Hoff, “The Astronomy of Paul Revere’s Ride,”
Astronomy
20 (1992): 13—18; see Appendix J below.

9
. Lister,
Narrative’,
Galvin,
Minute Men,
125. There was a curious irony here; the system of regimental seniority had been established only in 1751—an example of what has been called the modernity of tradition. See J. A. Houlding,
Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army,
(Oxford, 1981), 8, passim.

10
. Lt. Edward Thoroton Gould, Deposition, April 25, 1775;
AA4,
II, 500.

11
. Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 19; French,
General Gage’s Informers,
40.

12
. Frank Smith,
A History of Dover, Massachusetts
(Dover, 1897), 93-94.

13
. Maj. John Pitcairn to Col. John Mackenzie, Feb. 16, 1775, Mackenzie Papers, add. ms., 39190, BL.

14
. Robin May,
The British Army in North America
(London, 1974), 33. May reproduces the Royal Warrant of 1768 for Infantry Clothing, 29-31.

15
. L. I. Cowper,
The King’s Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment
(Oxford, 1939), 228.

16
. Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 18.

17
. The route was reconstructed in 1912 by Frank Warren Coburn, in
The Battle of April 19, 1775
(1912; new ed., Philadelphia, 1988).

18
.
Barker,
The British in Boston,
32.

19
. Coburn,
Battle of April
19, 1775, 48.

20
. Drake,
Middlesex County,
II, 311—12.

21
. Galvin,
Minute Men,
126.

22
. Samuel Abbott Smith,
West Cambridge on the Nineteenth of April, 1775
(Boston, 1864), 18.

23
. Coburn,
Battle of April
19,
1775,
55; details of this incident must be read with caution. It was used as an electioneering weapon against Gerry when he ran as a Jeffersonian candidate for governor.

24
.
Ibid.,
55.

25
.
Ibid.,
56.

26
. Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 18.

27
. Sutherland to Clinton, April 25, 1775; on Adair, see below, Epilogue.

28
. Coburn,
Battle of April
19, 1775, 54-56.

29
. Simon Winship, Deposition, April 25, 1775,
AA4,
II, 490;
Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops
(Worcester, 1775), 664. This pamphlet has often been reissued: on microprint in the Readex microprint edition of
Early American Imprints,
Evans 14269; on microfiche in Wroth
et al.
(eds.),
Province in Rebellion,
document 591, pp. 1804— 29; and
AA4,
II, 489—501, 673-74.

8.
The Capture

1
. Paul Revere to Belknap, n.d.
ca.
1798, RFP, microfilm edition, MHS; Arthur B. Tourtellot,
Lexington and Concord
(New York, 1959), 100.

2
. Goss,
Revere,
I, 202.

3
. Paul Revere, Draft Deposition, n.d.,
ca.
April 24, 1775, RFP, MHS.

4
. Joyce Lee Malcolm,
The Scene of the Battle, 1775; Historic Grounds Report; Minuteman National Historical Park,
Cultural Resources Management Study No. 15 (Boston, 1985), 27— 35-

5
. Revere, Draft Deposition,
ca.
April 24, 1775; Revere to Belknap, n.d.,
ca.
1798; in one account Revere estimated that he was 200 yards ahead of the others, in another he estimated the distance at 100 rods, or 550 yards. In 1775 many British and New England narrators reckoned middle distances in rods of 16.5 feet.