Erik Schemonia's List: Paul revere

Revere became a figure of popular history and legend, however, because of his ride on the night of Apr. 18, 1775, to warn the people of the Massachusetts countryside that British soldiers were being sent out in the expedition that, as it turned out, started the American Revolution (see Lexington and Concord, battles of). William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also rode forth with the news. Revere did not reach his destination at Concord but was captured by the British; nevertheless, it is Revere who is remembered as the midnight rider, chiefly because of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In the 1950s, two Berkshire Eagle columnists published verses responding to “Paul Revere’s Ride” that focused on another man, Israel Bissell. That was the rider named on the Massachusetts Committee of Safety’s early report on the fight at Lexington. As Bissell carried it along the Boston Post Road and south into Connecticut, people copied that message and spread the news further.

Unlike Revere, Dawes, Prescott, and other alarm riders on the night of April 18-19, Bissell was a professional postrider, carrying letters on a regular schedule. He was spreading public news, not trying to warn people about advancing troops, and he was in no danger of being stopped by the British military. On the other hand, Bissell’s total ride was longer than those three men’s combined.