Revere's Midnight Ride: The Shot Heard 'Round the World
Dr. Joseph Warren dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes from Boston on the night of April 18, 1775, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington that British regulars were crossing the Charles River to seize colonial weapons stores in Concord. Revere rode through Medford and Arlington (then Menotomy), alerting households along the way. His famous cry was not "The British are coming," since the colonists still considered themselves British, but rather "The Regulars are coming out." Revere was captured by a British patrol near Lexington but released without his horse. Dawes and a third rider, Samuel Prescott, continued to Concord. By dawn, the alarm system Revere activated had spread across Middlesex County through a chain of at least 40 additional riders.
April 18, 1775
251 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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