Paul Revere's Ride

by David Hackett Fischer

  Less abundant are materials on Gage’s private life. One of his biographers complains that the Gage Papers “contain almost nothing of a personal nature, and after all my research I felt that I knew Gage the military bureaucrat but not Gage the man” (John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed (New York, 1976), 73). It is also important to remember that Gage’s papers document in a meticulous way what he wanted us to know. They must be cross-examined for the truths that they betray.

  Other unpublished Gage manuscripts are in the Haldimand Papers (British Library, London), which reveal more of Gage’s personality than any other source, especially in letters written during Gage’s leave in England. Other items are in the Amherst Papers at the Public Record Office, but this collection holds very little on the events of 1774—75.

  Personal Records of American Participants

  Particularly helpful to this inquiry were the many diaries kept in New England. A new computer data base at the Massachusetts Historical Society was used to identify systematically all diaries in that repository within the period Sept. 1, 1774 to May 17, 1775. Other materials are in the form of correspondence, memoirs, and narratives, as follows:

  John Adams: Diary and Autobiography. 4 vols. Ed Lyman Butterfield (Boston, 1961; rpt. 1964); Papers of John Adams. 3 vols. Ed. Robert J. Taylor et al. (Cambridge, 1977).

  John Quincy Adams: Memoirs. 12 vols. Ed. Charles F. Adams (Philadelphia, 1874-77).

  Samuel Adams: Writings. 4 vols. Ed. Harry A. Cushing (New York, 1904).

  Hannah Adams: Memoir, May 17, 1775, published in S. A. Smith, West Cambridge on the 19th of April 1775 (Boston, 1864), and Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 128.

  Nathaniel Ames: Diary, 1756-1821, ms., Dedham Historical Society, one of the great American diaries, an extraordinary record of events in a New England town by its physician, who also describes his trip to the battlefield after the fighting.

  Mrs. John Amory: Diary, published as The Journal of Mrs. John Amory with Letters from Her Father Rufus Greene, ed. Martha Codman (Boston, 1923). Katherine Green Amory: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  John Andrews: “The Andrews Letters, 1772-76,” ms., MHS, pub. in MHSP 8 (1865): 316-412; very rich for life in Boston.

  Joseph Andrews: Diary, 1752—81, MHS, events in Hingham, Mass.

  James Baker: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  Loammi Baldwin: Diary, 1775, Harvard

  Amos Barrett (var. Barret) Concord militiaman: Narrative published in Henry True, Journal and Letters (Marion, Ohio, 1906), copy in CFPL; a major document on the battle.

  Jeremy Belknap: Journal, published as “Journal of my tour to the camp …,” MHSP 4 (1858): 77-86; includes interviews with Bostonians on events of April 18 and the beginning of Paul Revere’s ride; Diary, 1774—75, MHS.

  Joshua Bentley: Reminiscence, communicated by his grandson, Charles Wooley, to Elbridge Goss, May 1886, published in Goss, Revere, I, 189n; one of the men who rowed Revere across the Charles River.

  William Bentley: The Diary of William Bentley, D.D. Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Mass. 4 vols. (Salem, 1905—14); the son of Joshua Bentley. The published edition is incomplete and inaccurate; for any serious purpose the original manuscripts should be consulted at the American Antiquarian Society.

  Samuel Bixby, a militiaman from Sutton, Mass.: Diary, 1775, MHSP 14 (1875-76), 285.

  Thaddeus Blood, Concord militiaman: Narrative, ms. CFPL; published in the (Boston) Daily Advertiser, April 20. 1886; especially valuable for the North Bridge and Meriam’s Corner.

  Benjamin Boardman: Diary, 1775, MHSP2 7 (1891-92): 400-413.

  John Boyle: “Journal of Occurrences in Boston, 1759-1778,” NEHGR 84 (1930): 142-71, 248-72, 357-82; 85 (1931): 5-28, 117-33; a very full account of events in Boston, with details of Paul Revere’s earlier rides.

  James Boynton: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  Thomas Boynton: Journal, April 19, 1775, MHSP 15 (1877): 254—55.

  Chelmsford Bridge: Diary, April 19-21, 1775, published in Brown, Beside Old Hearthstones, 253—54.

  John Buttrick, Lincoln, Mass.: Deposition, Nov. 1776, published in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 68, and Hurd, Middlesex County, II, 619.

  John Checkley: Diary, published as Diary of Reverend Samuel Checkley, ed. Henry Winchester (n.p., n.d.).

  William Cheever: Diary, MHS.

  William Clark: Diary, 1775-1812, ms. transcript, Dedham Historical Society.

  Elizabeth Clarke, “Extracts from Letter of Miss Betty Clarke, Daughter of Rev. Jonas Clarke,” Lexington Historical Society Proceedings 4 (1905—10): 91—93.

  Jonas Clarke, minister in Lexington: Almanac Diary, 1774—75, LHS and MHS; “Narrative of events on April 19,” ms., LHS; published in Hudson, History of Lexington, I, 1-7, “The Fate of the Bloodthirsty Oppressers,” Sermon, 1776 (Lexington, LHS, 1901), includes the narrative of events as an appendix; Opening of the War of the Revolution, 19th of April, 1775, A Brief Narrative of the Principal Transactions of That Day (Lexington, n.d.), a participant history.

  Benjamin Cooper: Memoir, May 19, 1775, in S. A. Smith, West Cambridge on the 19th of April 1775 (Boston, 1864); Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 128.

  Rachel Cooper: Memoir, May 19, 1775, in Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 128.

  Samuel Cooper, a refugee in Weston: Diary, 1775-76, MHS, published by Frederick Tuckerman (ed.), AHR 6 (1901): 301-41.

  Richard Devens: Memorandum, n.d., published in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 57—58. Devens was an important Whig leader in Charlestown who helped Revere to “git” his horse.

  Ebenezer Dorr: Account Book, 1766—1776, MHS.

  William Dorr: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  Eliphalet Downer, Recollections, ms., NEHGS.

  Peter Edes: Diary kept in Boston Gaol, June 19—Oct. 3, 1775, ms., MHS; harrowing account of his arrest and confinement.

  Andrew Eliot: Diary, 1740-84, MHS.

  John Eliot: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  William Emerson: Diary, 1775, published in Proceedings of the Centennial Celebration of Concord Fight (Concord, 1876), and Amelia Forbes Emerson (ed.), Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 1743—1776, Minister of the Church in Concord, Chaplain in the Revolutionary Army (Boston, 1972). A leading source for events in Concord.

  Joseph Fairbank, militia captain in Harvard, Mass.: Papers, 1775, in Castle et al. (eds.), The Minute Men, 123, includes records of the “Alarm Men,” who are not in the town’s militia and minute companies.

  Amos Farnsworth: Diary, 1775-79, published in S.A. Greene (ed.), “Three Military Diaries,” MHSP 12 (1873): 74.

  Elijah Fisher: Journal, 1775-1784 (Augusta, 1880).

  John Fitch: Diary, MHSP2 9 (1894-95): 41-91.

  Edmund Foster: letter to Col. Daniel Shattuck, March 10, 1825; Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 34; Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 253-56.

  Joshua B. Fowle: Letters to Samuel H. Newman, July 28, 1875, and August 1876, on the signal lanterns; Wheildon, Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns, 34-36. The Rev. Caleb Gannett: Diary, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  John Gates: Diary, April 1775, MHS.

  Ebenezer Gay, Suffield, Conn.: Diary, 1738-94, MHS.

  William Gordon, minister in Roxbury: Narrative published as “An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities Between Great Britain and America, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay,” May 17, 1775,” AA4, II, 625-31.

  Joshua Greene: Diary, 1775, extracts, MHS.

  The Rev. Cyrus Hamblin: My Grandfather, Colonel Francis Faulkner (Boston, 1887); valuable for the Lexington alarm west of Concord.

  Samuel Hawes: Diary, in The Military Journal of Two Private Soldiers, 1758—1775, ed. Abraham Tomlinson (Poughkeepsie, 1875), the alarm in Wrentham, Mass.

  William Heath, militia general: Memoir, published as Memoirs (Boston, 1798); manuscripts in the Massachusetts Historical Society are available on microfilm and are published in part in MHSC5 4 (1878): 1-288); MHSCy 4 (1904): 1-354; 5 (1905): 1-419.

  George R. T. Hewes: A Retrospect of the Boston Tea Part
y, with a Memoir of George R. T. Hewes, by a Citizen of New York (New York, 1834), an important source for life in Boston, and the revolutionary movement.

  Robert Honyman: Colonial Panorama, 1775; Dr. Robert Honyman’s Journal (San Marino, Calif., 1939).

  Jonathan Hosmer: Letter to Oliver Stevens or Joseph Standley, April 10, 1775, privately owned; excerpts published in a dealer’s catalogue, Joseph Rubenfine, The American Revolution, List 114 (West Palm Beach, Fla., n.d), n.p.; a copy is in the Concord Antiquarian Museum.

  Thomas Hutchinson: The Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. 2 vols. (Boston, 1884), helpful on the impact in Britain of the news of the battle; Hutchinson’s manuscripts include correspondence from Massachusetts, on the events of 1774-75. They are in the British Library, Egerton ms. 2659, 1670-73

  Phineas Ingalls, minuteman from Andover, Mass.: Diary, 1775, transcript, MHS.

  Edward Jarvis, “Traditions and Reminiscences of Concord, Massachusetts; or a Contribution to the Social and Domestic History of the Town, 1779 to 1878,” ms., CFPL.

  John Jenks, Salem, Mass.: Diary, 1775, MHS.

  John Jones, Jr., captain of minutemen, Princeton, Mass.: Letter on the alarm, muster, and aftermath, published in Frank Smith, History of Dover, Mass. (Dover, 1897), 93.

  John Kettell: Diary, 1775, MHS, a Charlestown source, good for the siege of Boston.

  John Leach: “Journal Kept … During his Confinement by the British in Boston Gaol, in 1775,” NEHGR 19 (1865): 255.

  Paul Litchfield: Diary, ms., MHS, published in part in MHSP 19 (1882): 377-79; the alarm in Scituate, Mass.

  Israel Litchfield: “Diary,” NEHGR 129 (1975): 152.

  Jeremiah Loring: Letter, n.d. [Oct. 1876], on the signal lanterns; Wheildon, Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns, 34—36.

  Benjamin Lynde: Diary, 1775, MHS; events in Salem.

  David McClure: Diary, MHSP 16 (1878): 155-61, includes an interview after the battles with British Lieutenant Edward Hull.

  Isaac Mansfield, Jr.: Thanksgiving Sermon in Camp at Roxbury, Nov. 23, 1775, in J. W. Thornton (ed.), Pulpit of the American Revolution (Boston, 1860), 236; includes material on the battles of Lexington and Concord.

  John Marrett, minister in Woburn: Interleaved almanac diary entries from Jan. 1, 1775, to Dec. 31, 1776, published in part in Samuel Dunster (ed.), Henry Dunster and His Descendants (Central Falls, 1876). Extracts are also printed in Hurd, Middlesex County, 674-80. The entry for April 19 was omitted by Hurd, as it had been published previously in Samuel Sewall’s History of Woburn, 363, 78, 573.

  Thompson Maxwell, a Medford teamster: Narrative published in Drake, History of Middlesex County I, 244-45; on the Boston Road, April 18, 1775.

  Joseph Merriam, militiaman: Diary, 1775, BPL.

  Timothy Merriam: Narrative of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1830, MHS.

  Martha Moulton, Concord: Petition to General Court, Feb. 4, 1776, published in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 369-70.

  Thomas Newell: Diary, 1773-74, MHS.

  Timothy Newell: Diary, 1775-78, published as “A Journal During the Time Yt Boston Was Shut Up in 1775-76,” MHSC4 1 (1852): 260-76; an important source on Boston affairs.

  Peter Oliver: Origin and Progress of the American Revolution (Palo Alto, 1961); a Tory polemic. Its story of the “remarkable heroine” who fired at a “house door” and was killed by British troops on the Battle Road,” is often reprinted as fact (e.g., Boston Globe, April 19, 1993), but appears to have no foundation. Oliver’s account is more useful for its insight into the mind of an American Loyalist. The manuscript of the work, and the Oliver Letter Book, are in the British Library, Egerton ms. 2670.

  Harrison Gray Otis, a Boston schoolboy: Memoir of April 19, 1775, Boston Advertiser, April 19, 1858; it was reprinted in Edward Everett Hale, One Hundred Years Ago (Boston, 1875), 156-57.

  Robert Treat Paine: Papers, ca. 1743-1814, MHS; include material on Whig activities at the beginning of the American Revolution.

  James Parker: Diary, published as “Extracts from the Diary of James Parker of Shirley, Mass.,” NEHGR 69 (1915): 117-27.

  Henry Pelham: Family Correspondence, a large body of materials especially strong on events in Boston and Newton, Mass., is in “Intercepted Copley-Pelham letters,” PRO, C05/39.

  Timothy Pickering: Papers, MHS. In 1775, Pickering was a colonel of militia whose reluctance to march or engage allowed Percy to escape. His papers include two letters describing events of April 19; published in part in French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 261.

  Robert Pierpont: Record of interview with General Gage, March 20, 1775, Adams Mss, NYPL.

  Levi Preston: Interview by Mellen Chamberlain, published as “Why Captain Preston Fought,” Danvers Historical Collections 8 (1920): 68—70.

  Dorothy Quincy, John Hancock’s fiancee: Narrative to William H. Sumner, 1825, published as “Reminiscences by Gen. William H. Sumner,” NEHGR 8 (1854): 188—91; colorful details of the Clarke parsonage and the rescue of Hancock and Adams.

  Experience Wight Richardson, Sudbury: Diary, 1775, microfilm, MHS; useful for the alarm and Great Fear.

  Jacob Rogers: Petition, Oct 10, 1775, MA.

  John Rowe, Boston merchant: Diary, ms., MHS; published in part as Diary of John Rowe (Cambridge, 1895); and Anne Rowe Cunningham (ed.), Letters and Diary of John Rowe, Boston Merchant (Boston, 1903). Published editions are incomplete; the manuscript should be consulted for any serious purpose.

  Samuel P. Savage II: Papers, MHS; include 3 letters and a memorandum on April 19, 1775.

  Hezekiah Smith, Haverhill, Mass.: Diary, 1773-74, MHS.

  Luke Smith, son of Acton militiaman Solomon Smith: Boston Globe, April 18, 1893; Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 308-9.

  William Smith: Petition and Account, MA, vol. 182, 199—300, published in Hudson, History of Lexington, 189; pagination varies in other editions.

  James Stevens: Journal, April 19, 1775; published as “Journal of James Stevens,” EIHC 48 (1912): 41.

  Nathan Stow: Journal, 1776-80, Stow Family Papers, CFPL; “Sergeant Nathan Stow’s Orderly Book,” Putnam’s Monthly Magazine 1 (1892—93): 307—8. William Tay, Woburn: Petition Sept. 20, 1775, published in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 368-69.

  Joseph Thaxter: Letter dated Nov. 30, 1824, Historical Magazine 15 (2nd ser. V: 206— 7); also in United States Literary Gazette 1 (1825): 264.

  John Tudor: Diary, typescript, MHS, on the alarm in Cambridge; published as William Tudor, Deacon Tudor’s Diary (Boston, 1896).

  Mary Palmer Tyler: Grandmother Tyler’s Book; The Recollections of Mary Tyler [Mrs. Royall Tyler], ed. Frederick Tupper and Helen Tyler Brown (New York, 1925). She was the daughter of Revere’s friend Joseph Palmer.

  Artemas Ward: Papers, MHS. The general who wasn’t there, but his manuscripts hold much material about the Massachusetts militia.

  Dr. John Warren: Diary, April 19, 1775-May 11, 1776, reported in private hands many years ago; not found.

  Samuel Weld, Roxbury: Diary, 1773-76, Rhode Island Historical Society.

  John Whiting: Diary, 1743-84, ms., Dedham Historical Society.

  Stephen Williams, minister in Longmeadow, Mass.: Diary, 1775, in Castle et al. (eds.), The Minute Men, 147.

  Hannah Winthrop: Letter (n.d.) to Mercy Warren, MHSP 14 (1875): 29-31; a good source on the Great Fear.

  Anna Green Winslow: ed., Diary of Anna Green Winslow: A Boston School Girl of 1771. ed. George Francis Dow (Cambridge, Mass., 1894).

  Personal Records of British Participants

  Many British soldiers who marched to Concord left written accounts of their experiences. Some were published immediately after the event. Others were found in British archives by American Anglophiles; a remarkable number are still coming to light. Among the most useful are the following (in alphabetical order):

  Anonymous officer in the 5th Regiment: Letter of July 5, 1775, published in Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 75.

>   Anonymous officer of the 59th Regiment: Undated letter in Ezra Stiles, Literary Diary, II, 575 (June 22, 1775).

  Anonymous officer who marched to Concord: Letter dated April 20, 1775, Farley’s Bristol Journal, June 17, 1775; Willard (ed.), American Letters on the Revolution, 76-77; Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 165.

  Anonymous officer: Diary 1775-77, reported sold Jan. 10, 1921, by the Anderson Auction Co. to a private collector; said to include an account of the capture of Paul Revere (Forbes, New England Diaries, 334). Not found.

  Anonymous seaman? on board a British ship in Boston harbor: Letter dated April 21, 1775, Letters of the American Revolution, 77-79; Kehoe, “We Were There!” I, 184.

  Anonymous soldier, 23rd Foot (Welch Fusiliers): Letter, April 30, 1775, published in Essex Gazette, May 12, 1775; rpt. AA4, II, 440-41.

  Anonymous soldiers (3?), units unknown: Intercepted letters, AA4, II, 439—40.

  Anonymous soldier’s wife: Letters, AA4, II, 439—40.

  Lt. Col. James Abercrombie, 22nd Foot: Letter to Colden, May 2, 1775, MHSP2, 11 (1897): 306.

  Lt. John Barker, 4th (King’s Own) Foot: Diary, published in part as “A British Officer in Boston,” Atlantic Monthly 39 (1877): 389—401, 544—54; a more complete transcription appears in Harold Murdock and Elizabeth E. Dana (eds.), The British in Boston (Boston, 1924); a most important first-hand account of the Concord expedition.

  Major William Basset, 10th Foot?: Letter April 23, 1775, published with Lister, narrative; a few helpful vignettes.

  Pvt. John Bateman, 52nd Foot: Deposition after capture, April 23, 1775, AA4, II, 496.

  Lt. William Carter, 40th Foot: Letters dated 1775—76, published as Genuine Detail … (London, 1784), copy in Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  Col. Samuel Cleveland, Royal Artillery: Narrative; Kehoe, “We Were There!” II, 179, citing MSS Royal Artillery Record Office.