Paul Revere's Ride

by David Hackett Fischer

  Billerica: John Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (n.p., n.d.); Henry A. Hagen, History of Billerica (Boston, 1883).

  Braintree: Samuel A. Bates (ed.), Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Randolph, Mass., 1886). Charles F. Adams, History of Braintree, the North Precinct of Braintree, and the Town of Quincy (1891).

  Brookline: Muddy River and Brookline Records, 1634-1839 (Brookline, 1875). Charles Knowles Bolton, Brookline, the History of a Favored Town (Brookline, 1897); John W. Curtis History of the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts (Boston, 1933). David Hackett Fischer (ed.), Brookline: The Social History of a Suburban Town, 1705—1850 (Waltham, 1986).

  Cambridge, Town Records of Cambridge, 1630-1703 (Cambridge, 1896). J. W. Freese, Historic Houses and Spots in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Near-by Towns (Boston, 1897); Lucius Paige, History of Cambridge, 1630-1877 (Boston, 1877).

  Carlisle: Sidney, History of Carlisle (Cambridge, 1920).

  Charlestown: Richard Frothingham, Jr., The History of Charlestown, Massachusetts (Boston, 1845). James F. Hunnewell, A Century of Town Life: Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1775— 1887. 2 vols. (Boston, 1888).

  Chelsea: A Documentary History of Chelsea. 2 vols. Ed. Mellon Chamberlain (Boston, 1908).

  Concord: David Hackett Fischer, Concord: The Social History of a New England Town, 1750-1850 (Waltham, 1983); Robert Gross, The Minutemen and Their World (New York, 1976); Lemuel Shattuck, History of the Town of Concord to 1832 (Concord, 1835); Ruth Wheeler, Concord, Climate for Freedom (Concord, 1967); Ezra Ripley, History of the Fight at Concord (Concord, 1827; 2nd ed., 1832); Alfred S. Hudson, History of Concord (Concord, 1904); Social Circle Memoirs, vols. I, II.

  Danvers: Daniel P. King, Address Commemorative of Seven Young Men of Danvers Who Were Slain in the Battle of Lexington (Salem, 1835). J. W. Hanson, History of the Town of Danvers (Danvers, 1848).

  Dedham: Robert Brand Hanson, Dedham, Massachusetts 1635-1890 (Dedham, 1976); Erastus Worthington, The History of Dedham (Boston, 1827); Erastus Worthington II, Proceedings at the 250th Anniversary … of the Town of Dedham (Cambridge, 1887).

  Deerfield: George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts. 2 vols. (Deerfield, 1896).

  Dover: Frank Smith, A History of Dover, Massachusetts (Dover, 1897).

  Dudley: Town Records of Dudley, 1732-1754 (Pawtucket, 1893).

  Duxbury: The Records of Duxbury, 1642-1770 (Plymouth, 1893).

  Framingham: William Barry, History of Framingham (Boston, 1847); Josiah Temple, The History of Framingham (Framingham, 1887).

  Fitchburg: James F. D. Garfield, “Fitchburg’s Response to the Lexington Alarm,” Fitchburg Historical Society Proceedings 1 (1892-94): 113-122. idem, “Fitchburg’s Soldiers of the Revolution,” ibid. 4 (1908): 172-232.

  Groton: Caleb Butler, The History of the Town of Groton (Boston, 1848); Samuel Abbot Green, Groton During the Revolution’, Groton Historical Series (4 vols., 1887—99).

  Harvard: H. S. Nourse, History of Harvard, Massachusetts, 1732—1893 (Harvard, 1984).

  Ipswich: Joseph B. Felt, History of Ipswich, Essex and Hamilton (1834); Arlin Ira Ginsberg, “Ipswich, Massachusetts, during the American Revolution,” diss., University of California, Riverside).

  Lexington: Elias Phinney, History of the Battle of Lexington … (Boston; 1825, rpt. 1875). Charles S. Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, Mass. … (Boston, 1868; 2 vols., 1913).

  Lincoln: Paul Brooks, Trial by Fire: Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the War of Independence (Lincoln, 1975); John C. Maclean, A Rich Harvest; The History, Buildings, and People of Lincoln, Massachusetts (Lincoln, 1987).

  Lynn: Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall, History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts … (Boston, 1865; Lynn, 1890, 1897); Howard K. Sanderson, Lynn in the Revolution. … 2 vols. (Boston, 1919).

  Lynnfield: Thomas B. Wellman, History of the Town of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, 1635— 1895 (Boston, 1895).

  Medford: Charles Brooks and James M. Usher, History of Medford (Boston, 1886); Helen Tilden Wild, Medford in the Revolution; Military History of Medford, Massachusetts, 1765-1783 (Medford, 1903); Richard B. Coolidge, “Medford and Her Minute Men,” Medford Historical Society Register 28 (1927): 40-51; Jason L. Tiner, “The Role of Medford, Massachusetts, in the Revolutionary War,” paper, Brandeis University, May 7, 1992, includes a quantitative study of Medford men serving in the War of Independence.

  Melrose: Elbridge H. Goss, The History of Melrose (Melrose, 1902).

  Natick: Oliver Bacon, History of Natick from Its First Settlement in 1651 (Boston, 1856).

  Needham: George K. Clarke, History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711—1911 (Cambridge, 1912).

  Newton: S. F. Smith, The History of Newton (Boston, 1880); Francis Jackson, A History of the Early Settlement of Newton (Boston, 1854).

  Roxbury: Francis S. Drake, The Town of Roxbury (Boston, 1905); idem, The Town of Roxbury; Its Memorable Persons and Places (Roxbury, 1878).

  Salem: Sidney Perley, History of Salem. 2 vols. (1924—26); James Duncan Phillips, Salem in the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1937).

  Sudbury: Alfred Sereno Hudson, The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638—1889 (Sudbury, 1889); Idem, The Annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard (n. p., 1891); The War Years in the Town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1765—1781 (Sudbury, 1975), extracts from military records.

  Waltham: David Hackett Fischer (ed.), Waltham: A Social History (Waltham, 1994); Charles A. Nelson Waltham, Past and Present … (Cambridge, 1882); Edmund L. Sanderson, Waltham as a Precinct of Watertown and as a Town, 1630—1884 (Waltham, 1936).

  Watertown: Watertown Records, Fifth Book, 1745-1769; and Sixth Book, 1769-1702, ed. William McGuire (Newton, 1928). G. Frederick Robinson and Ruth Robinson Wheeler, Great Little Watertown; A Tercentenary History (Watertown, 1930); Watertown’s Military History: Authorized by a Vote of the Inhabitants of the Town of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston, 1907).

  Weston: Weston Town Records, 1754—1803 (Boston, 1893); Brenton H. Dickson and Homer C. Lucas, One Town in the American Revolution; Weston, Massachusetts (Weston, 1976).

  Westford: Rev. Edwin Hodgman, History of the Town of Westfield, 1659—1883 (Lowell, 1883).

  Henry S. Chapman, History of Winchester, Massachusetts (Winchester, 1936).

  Woburn: Samuel Sewall, The History of Woburn, 1640—1860 (Boston, 1868).

  Town Histories: New Hampshire

  Many people who participated in the events of April 19 later moved to New Hampshire. Local histories with primary materials include: William Willes Hay ward, The History of Hancock, New Hampshire, 1764—1889. 2 vols. (Lowell, Mass., 1889); Charles Henry Chandler, The History of New Ipswich, New Hampshire (Fitchburg, Mass., 1914); Henry Ames Blood, The History of Temple, New Hampshire (Boston, 1860).

  County Histories

  By comparison with the wealth of town histories, and the abundance of county studies in other parts of the United States, county histories in New England tend to be impoverished. But there are important exceptions. Two works of Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massachusetts (Philadelphia, 1888) and History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1890), are careful, informed, and accurate. They reproduce much reprinted primary material that can be found nowhere else—for example, the diary of Loammi Baldwin, a leading source for the fighting at the Bloody Curve. Hurd is specially valuable for the spread of the Lexington alarm, which he followed with more attention than any other work. Also useful in a heuristic way is Samuel A. Drake, Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex (Boston, 1873), also published as Old Landmarks and Historic Fields of Middlesex Drake scooped up vast quantities of material and published them in his many antiquarian volumes. Used with caution, his writings are still valuable as a source of leads and possibilities. Also very helpful is Ronald N. Tagney, The World Turned Upside Down; Essex County During America’s Turbulent Years, 1763—1790 (West Newbury, Mass., 1989).

  Political History of the Revolution

  In a ver
y large literature, the following monographs were specially helpful for this inquiry: David Ammerman, In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 (Charlottesville, 1974); Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, 1967); idem, Faces of Revolution (New York, 1990); Richard D. Brown, Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts: The Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Towns, 1772— 1774 (Cambridge, 1970); Oliver M. Dickerson, The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution (Philadelphia, 1951); Francis S. Drake, Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents … (Boston, 1884); Bernhard Knollenberg, Origin of the American Revolution, 1759—1766 (rev. ed., New York, 1961); Benjamin Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (New York, 1964); Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution (New York, 1972, 1974); Edmund S. and Helen M. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis; Prologue to Revolution (Chapel Hill, 1953); Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution (New York, 1957); Hiller B. Zobel, The Boston Massacre (New York, 1970).

  The Powder Alarms

  On the Charlestown Alarm: Robert P. Richmond, Powder Alarm, 1774 (Princeton, 1971), is the fullest account, with a bibliography.

  On the Portsmouth Alarm: Charles L. Parsons, “The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774,” New Hampshire Historical Society Proceedings 4 (1899— 1905): 18—47; Ballard Smith, “Gunpowder for Bunker Hill,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 73 (1886): 236-43; Elwin L. Page, “The King’s Powder, 1774,” NEQ 18 (1945): 83-92.

  On the Marblehead and Salem Alarm: William Gavett, Samuel Gray, Samuel Holman, Abijah Northey, Joseph Story, EIP 1 (1859): 120-35; John Pedrick, “Narrative,” EIHC 17 (1880): 190-92; Susan Smith, “Memoir,” (Boston) Columbian Centinel, Sept. 19, 1794; anonymous account, EIHC 38 (1901): 321-52; Essex Gazette, Feb. 28, Mar. 7, 1775; Charles M. Endicott, “Leslie’s Retreat,” EIP 1 (1859): 89-120; James Duncan Phillips, “Why Colonel Leslie Came to Salem,” EIHC 90 (1953): 313; Essex Journal Mar. 1, 1775; Salem Gazette, Feb. 28, Mar. 3, 1775.

  The Midnight Ride, and Signals from Old North Church

  Remarkably little has been published in a scholarly way on the midnight ride. The few recent works are written mainly as popular history: e.g., Bernard A. Weisberger, “Paul Revere, the Man, the Myth, and the Midnight Ride,” American Heritage 28 (1977): 24—37; Richard W. O’Donnell, “On the Eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five … “Longfellow didn’t know the half of it,’” Smithsonian 4 (1973): 72-77; and Thomas J. Fleming, “Paul Revere— He Went Thataway,” Yankee 39 (1975): 94, 98-103, 112-14, 116. Gwen Ellen Brown, “A Study of Paul Revere’s Ride,” is an unpublished essay, at the Paul Revere House.

  On the signal lanterns, there are: Richard Frothingham, The Alarm on the Night of April 18, (Boston, 1876); John Lee Watson, “Revere’s Signal,” MHSP 15 (1876): 163-77; idem, Paul Revere’s Signal (Boston, 1876), (Cambridge, 1877) also MHSP1 15, 163; William W. Wheildon, History of Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns (Boston, 1878); and Charles K. Bolton, Christ Church, A Guide (Boston, 1941).

  The Battles of Lexington and Concord

  Richard Frothingham, Jr., History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston, 1851), publishes primary materials no longer available elsewhere.

  Works published for the centennial include: Frederic Hudson, “The Concord Fight,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 50 (1875), a monograph on the battle with much useful material; and the Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, “The Battle of Lexington, with Personal Recollections of Men Engaged in It” (Boston, 1877), reprints material that appeared in NEHGR, 31 (1877): 377; and Grindall Reynolds, Concord Fight, April 19, 1775 (Boston, 1875).

  Frank Warren Coburn, The Battle of April 19th, 1775 (Lexington, 1912; rev. ed., 1922), is specially helpful on the march out, and on the fighting in Menotomy and Cambridge. The second edition publishes many, but not all muster rolls; also Frank Warren Coburn, Truth and Fiction About the Battle on Lexington Common (Lexington, 1918).

  Harold Murdock, The Nineteenth of April, 17 75 (Boston, 1923), is a collection of essays by an American Anglophile; an intelligent and suggestive work, but with a strong bias.

  Ellen Chase, The Beginnings of the American Revolution. 3 vols. (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1910), is a remarkable work which gleaned much valuable material from antiquarian sources; very carefully done, with excellent citations and many good leads.

  Allen French published many important monographs, including The Day of Concord and Lexington: The Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Boston, 1925); General Gage’s Informers: New Material Upon Lexington and Concord. Benjamin Thompson as Loyalist & the Treachery of Benjamin Church, Jr. (Ann Arbor, 1932); and The First Year of the American Revolution (Boston, 1934).

  Douglas P. Sabin, “April 19, 1775: A Historiographical Study” (Concord, 1987), is a major study, historical as well as historiographical, of the battles by the historian at Minute-man National Historical Park. For many aspects of its subject, this is the most full and careful investigation. It is an indispensable work for serious students of the battles and deserves to be published by the National Park Service.

  Many works center on the role of militia from individual towns. Ezra Ripley, History of the Fight at Concord, on the 19th of April 1775 (Concord, 1827; 2nd ed., 1832), stresses the role of Concord men; William W. Wheildon, New Chapter in the History of the Concord Fight (Boston, 1885), centers on the Groton minutemen. Abram English Brown, Beneath Old Roof Trees (Boston, 1896); idem, Beside Old Hearthstones (Boston, 1897), two volumes of stories and legends by a historian of Bedford. Frederick Brooks Noyes, The Tell-tale Tomb (n.p., n.d.), stresses “Acton aspects of the Concord fight.”

  Specialized studies include John R. Alden, “Why the March to Concord,” AHR 49 (1943-44): 446-54, on Gage’s secret orders of Jan. 27, 1775; George Lincoln Goodale, British and Colonial Army Surgeons on the 19th of April, 1775 (Cambridge, 1899).

  W. E. Griswold, The Night the Revolution Began (Brattleboro, Vt., 1972), and Frank Wilson Cheney Hersey, Heroes of Battle Road (Boston, 1930).

  Military and Naval Histories: The British Army

  Richard Cannon, Historical Records of the British Army (London, 1850—70). Edward E. Curtis, The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution (New Haven, 1926). Sir John Fortescue, History of the British Army. 13 vols, in 20 (London, 1899-1930), a monument of military historiography, with an extreme Tory bias, not at its best on the American Revolution, but the maps are excellent. Sylvia Frey, The British Soldier in America (Austin, 1981). J. F. C. Fuller, British Light Infantry in the Eighteenth Century (London, n.d.). Charles Hamilton (ed.), Braddock’s Defeat (Norman, Okla., 1959). Reginald Hargreaves, The Bloody-backs; The British Serviceman in North America and the Caribbean, 1655—1783 (New York, 1968), anecdotal. J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715—1795 (Oxford, 1981). Robin May, The British Army in North America, 1775—1783 (London, 1974), is helpful on uniforms and equipment. Stanley Pargellis, “Braddock’s Defeat,” AHR 41 (1936): 253—69. John Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution (Princeton, 1965).

  British Unit Histories

  4th Foot (King’s Own): L. I. Cowper, The King’s Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment (Oxford, 1939), one of the best of the British regimental histories.

  5th Foot (Northumberland Fusiliers): Lt.-Col. R. M. Pratt, The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (Alnick, 1981); H. M. Walker, A History of the Northumberland Fusiliers, 1674—1919 (London, 1919); Walter Wood, The Northumberland Fusiliers (London, n.d.).

  10th Foot: Albert Lee, History of the Tenth Foot (The Lincolnshire Regiment) (London, 1911); Col. Vincent J.-R. Kehoe, A Military Guide: The Tenth Regiment of Foot of 1775, 2d edition enlarged, 4 vols. (Somis, Calif., 1993).

  18th Foot: G. E. Boyle, “The 18th Regiment of Foot in North America,” Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research 2 (1923): 65.

  23rd Foot; or Royal Welch Fusiliers: A. D. L. Cary and Stouppe McCance (
eds.), Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Late the 23rd Foot), Vol. I, 1689-1815 (London, 1921); also The Regimental Museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, 23rd Foot (n.p., n.d.).

  43rd Foot: Sir Richard G. A. Levinge, Historical Records of the Forty-Third Regiment, Monmouthshire Light Infantry (London, 1868).

  47th Foot: H.G. Purdon, An Historical Sketch of the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment and the Campaigns Through Which They Passed (London, 1907); Col. H. C. Wylie, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. 2 vols. (London, 1933).

  59th Foot: Anonymous, “Notes for a History of the 59th Foot,” ca. 1920, Regimental Headquarters, Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, Fulwood Barracks, Preston, Lancashire; photocopies in the library of the Minuteman National Historical Park, Concord.

  64th Foot: H. G. Purdon, Memoirs of the Services of the 64th Regiment (Second Staffordshire) 1758 to 1881 (London, n.d.).

  Royal Regiment of Artillery: Francis Duncan, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. 2 vols. (London, 1872). Royal Marines: Col. C. Field, Britain’s Sea Soldiers. 2 vols. (Liverpool, 1924); Capt. Alexander Gillespie, Historical Review of the Royal Marine Corps (Birmingham, 1803); J. L. Moulton, Royal Marines (London, 1972); Lt. P. H. Nicolas, Historical Records of the Royal Marine Forces. 2 vols. (London, 1845).

  Naval and Maritime History

  William Bell Clark, NDAR, Vol. I, American Theatre: Dec. 1, 1774-Sept. 2, 1775 … (Washington, D.C., 1964), a very full collection of documents. Marjorie Hubbell Gibson, H. M. S. Somerset, 1746-1778: The Life and Times of an Eighteenth Century British Man-o-War and Her Impact on North America (Cotuit, Mass., 1992).

  The New England Militia

  General studies include: Fred Anderson, A People’s Army, Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years’ War (Chapel Hill, 1984), an academic monograph, strong on the social history of its subject. John R. Galvin, The Minute Men: A Compact History of the Defenders of the American Colonies, 1645-1775 (New York, 1967), an important and useful work by an experienced infantry officer and onetime commanding general of NATO. Two of the most valuable works are unpublished dissertations: Archibald Hanna, Jr., “New England Military Institutions, 1693-1750,” unpub. diss., Yale, 1951; John Murrin, “Anglicizing an American Colony: The Transformation of Provincial Massachusetts,” unpub. diss., Yale, 1966. Norman Castle et al. (eds.), The Minute Men, 1775—1975 (Southborough, Mass., 1977), is a collection of fifty essays on minutemen in individual towns, with much material not available elsewhere.