Thanks to the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere is often credited as the sole rider who alerted the colonies that the British were coming. Yet, despite this tale, there were many riders who went out the night of April 18 and in the years following, warning the colonists of the approach and movement of the British forces. Four men and one woman made late night rides, alerting the early Americans of what dangers lay ahead. They were Paul Revere, Samuel Prescott, Israel Bissell, William Dawes, and Sybil Ludington.
Paul Revere
Poets, historians, and schoolbooks have retold the story of the legendary ride of Paul Revere for more than two centuries. The most popular retelling is the poem entitled "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It begins:
Paul Revere, Paul Revere's Ride
Paul Revere's Ride
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Thanks to Longfellow, hardly a scholar or school child alive does not know the name of Paul Revere, and why he was important. Although his role has been embellished, it was still a significant one.
Paul Revere, born in Boston in 1734 to a French Huguenot father and Bostonian mother, started his young life training to be a silversmith. After the death of his father in 1754, Paul enlisted in the provincial army to fight in the French and Indian War for the simple fact that it was the best job around.