Midnight Ride Of Paul Revere Essay, Research Paper

& # 8220 ; One if by land, two if by sea & # 8221 ; & # 8211 ; the supposed celebrated words spoken by Paul Revere to Colonel William Conant, an American soldier stationed in the spire of the North Church in Boston, waiting to relay the signal of the intended way of the British invasion on April 18, 1775 ( The Glorious Cause 268 ) to Paul Revere. Harmonizing to the fable Paul Revere was to be positioned across the Boston Bay from the North Church waiting for the signal from Colonel Conant. The Colonel was to hang one lantern in the spire of the church if the British showed marks of an invasion on land, or expose two lanterns in the steeple if grounds existed a sea invasion by the British. Once Paul Revere saw the two signal lanterns hanging in the spire, signaling the at hand attack by sea of the British forces, he began his drive from Charlestown to Lexington to Concord ( Lancaster 94 ) , warning the citizens of these towns of an nearing British invasion. So began the celebrated & # 8220 ; midnight drive of Paul Revere, & # 8221 ; a drive which warned the settlers of an nearing revolution that would determine the hereafter of America.

During the early formation phases of our state, there came a clip when the overmastering mother state of Britain imposed a new system of revenue enhancement to command the settlements and the settlers. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first measure in conveying the new revenue enhancement system into affect. The Sugar Act, which replaced the Molasses Act of 1733, was designed to raise gross without modulating the trading system that the settlements had established. Soon, Britain began to set up methods of revenue enhancement without any method of representation of the settlements ( The American Revolution ; an HTML undertaking ) . This revenue enhancement without representation had angered the settlers. The power of Parliament to revenue enhancement the settlements for the intent of trade ordinance had ever been accepted in theory, but non ever in pattern. But the ability of Parliament to revenue enhancement for bettering the gross of the land was something new to the settlers. The power the Parliament did hold with respects to revenue enhancement of the settlements was stated in the Revenue Act of 1764 and since the power of revenue enhancement for the betterment of the land was new to the settlers, it was problematic. The last system of revenue enhancement that was opposed on the settlers was the Stamp Act of 1765. Under the Stamp Act, an official gross cast was to put on any official papers, licence, rental, land dealing, booklet, or newspaper. The settlers and even the British merchandisers debated the series of revenue enhancements with the Parliament. The British merchandisers felt the effects of the boycotts by the settlements and in 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and modified the Sugar Act after much force per unit area of British merchandisers. In 1767, a whole new series of steps was introduced by Charles Townshend, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was called on by the Parliament to put up an wholly new financial plan sing the settlements. Townshend s program included the decrease of revenue enhancements upon the settlements by the British by doing the aggregation of responsibilities levied on American trade more efficient. Townshend s program besides included the tightening of the imposts disposal and set responsibilities on paper, lead, glass, and tea ( The American Revolution ; an HTML undertaking ) . The Boston Tea Party was an obvious presentation of the settlers disgust in their intervention from Britain. A group of nationalists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, had boarded a fleet of British ships and destroyed 23,000 lbs of monopolized tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor ( The American Revolution an A & A ; E presentation ) . After, the British Parliament continued to repeatedly quash the settlements, but other authoritiess rallied to the assistance of the settlers. And on May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress met and they realized what had to be done ( The American Revolution ; an HTML undertaking ) .

Listen my kids and you shall hear

Of the midnight drive of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five ;

Barely a adult male is now alive

Who remembers that celebrated twenty-four hours and twelvemonth. ( Longfellow )

It was decided that, on Saturday, April 15, 1775, something was traveling to go on. A move by the British was genuinely inevitable. Paul Revere was to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock, both remaining with the Reverend Jonas Clark in Lexington ( Lancaster 94 ) , of the likely British invasion. Not merely was Revere to advise Adams and Hancock of a possible invasion, he was besides to direct the two nationalists to conceal the Concord weaponries supply. On his manner back to Boston, Paul Revere stopped in Charlestown to seek out some of the nationalists and militiamen to put up a signal program to relay the way of the British onslaught to Revere and other couriers ( Middlekauff 267 ) . He found Colonel William Conant, a nationalist and militiaman of the country. Revere and Contant decided on utilizing lanterns to relay the signal to the couriers. Conant was to hang one lantern in the spire of the Old North Church in Boston if the British were to get down their run on land, or two lanterns in the spire if the British were to get down the push by sea. Once the order was given, Paul Revere made his manner back across Boston Bay by skiff to the Cambridge shores to expect the signal. During his trek across the bay, he glided right under the H.M.S. Somerset. On the shores of Cambridge awaited his Equus caballus, an animate being which belonged to Deacon Larkin ( McDowell 36-37 ) .

The British made their first move on the 18th around two o clock in the forenoon an move which was expected. The military personnels were shaken by their commanding officers that forenoon alternatively of traveling through the usual aftermath up call in order to maintain intuition low and noise to a lower limit. Early in the forenoon, companies of half-awake British soldiers marched through Boston Common and the Park Square towards the H2O forepart ( Lancaster 94 & # 8211 ; 95 ) . The British military personnels marched in complete silence through the town as they approached the seaport and silenced any noise that might upset or wake up anybody in the country. They strangled and bonneted Canis familiariss that had awoken in order to discontinue the barking ( Lancaster 95 ) . At 4:30

in the forenoon, the British reached the waterfront and Paul Revere began his drive from Charlestown. William Dawes started over Boston Neck with the same finish ( Middlekauff 268 ) .

On April eighteenth, Paul Revere was awakened at his North Square place and he headed mutely for the north shore of Boston ( Ketchum 100 & # 8211 ; 101 ) . The ship H.M.S. Somerset was anchored in the bay as Revere glided right yesteryear it on his manner to his Equus caballus ( McDowell 36 ) . While he was rowing his skiff across Boston Bay, he saw two lanterns hanging in the spire of the Old North Church & # 8211 ; the British were geting by sea. Once he had seen the signal, he mounted his Equus caballus and started his journey. His journey would take him to Menotomy ( now Arlington ) , and so to Lexington, and eventually to Concord. The habitues, or British soldiers, were out and were certainly heading for the state roads of Concord ( Lancaster 94 & # 8211 ; 95 ) . Two good traveled roads ran to Concord. The first way, the shorter of the two, ran through Charlestown, Medford, Menotomy, and Lexington. The other route swung around Boston Neck near Roxbury to Cambridge and so to Menotomy where it joined the first way ( Middlekauff 268 ) . Paul Revere, taking the first way, attempted to take a cutoff near Medford but was about captured by a British patrol squad. He escaped by difficult equitation and would make Lexington around midnight ( Middlekauff 268 & # 8211 ; 269 ) . During his drive he stopped merely briefly to strike hard on a few doors and throw crushed rock at a few Windowss. After each halt, Revere knew it was safe to continue because the people he awoke would acquire the word moving, as this was the prearranged program ( Lancaster 95 ) . Besides during his drive, he roused militiamen in Medford and Menotomy and awakened as many slumberers as he could between Menotomy and Lexington ( Middlekauff 269 ) . Revere made good clip, siting past Buckman s Tavern in Lexington about midnight. The topographic point was & # 8220 ; restlessly astir with rumours and visible radiations & # 8221 ; ( McDowell 37 ) . Once Paul Revere arrived in Lexington, he went to the family of Reverend Jonas Clark ( Lancaster 95 ) and got Sam Adams and John Hancock out of bed. The three of them sat down delay for to Dawes, who rode into Lexington a half an hr subsequently. This was in all actuality, the terminal of Paul Revere s fabled drive.

When Paul Revere arrived at the Clark abode, he was stopped by the guards and was told that the household had merely retired and did non desire any noise. Revere responded, & # 8220 ; Noise! You ll have noise adequate before long. The habitues are coming out! & # 8221 ; ( McDowell 37 ) Once he had made it into the house and warned Adams and Hancock, he waited for the other rider, William Dawes, to get. After Dawes had arrived, he and Revere rode for Concord, and shortly were accompanied by Dr. Samuel Prescott. Prescott was heading place after paying a visit to his girlfriend, a Mulliken miss ( Lancaster 95 ) . Equally shortly as the three riders met, policing British officers were upon them. Revere was captured and released to head back to Lexington by pes. William Dawes was thrown from his Equus caballus and escaped into the forests. And Dr. Prescott who knew the land highly good jumped his Equus caballus over a rock wall and made it to Concord with the intelligence ( McDowell 38 ) . When the intelligence made it to Concord, the people of the small town worked indefatigably to round up carts, packing shops and supplies. Everything was so rolled off to Worcester ( Lancaster 94 ) . & # 8220 ; Thankss to the appeals of moonshine and Miss Mulliken, the nationalists finished concealing most of the shops before forenoon & # 8221 ; ( McDowell 38 ) .

After the word of progressing British forces spread, the militiamen had begun to garner and American forces were coming together to reshape their hereafter. The Lexington reserves company had gathered on Lexington Green, shortly after Paul Revere rode in. There they waited for over an hr with no clear thought on what to make. Captain John Parker, the caput of the Lexington reserves had gathered them with hopes that they might make up one’s mind what to make. Parker retired his work forces, but ordered them to be ready at a minute s notice ( Middlekauff 269 ) . Soon the work forces were called back into action for the British were seen approaching Lexington Green. There was instant confusion on the Green. Some of the work forces failed to hear the membranophones that were to name them to order and others were missing ammo and were scampering about to fix themselves. But in merely a few proceedingss, Captain Parker had two ranks of over 70 work forces lined up on Lexington Green. Within a few proceedingss, a light foot of British soldiers, led by Pitcairn, was in sight and spliting themselves into a battlefield formation as they came upon Lexington Green. What happened following is still debated ( McDowell 38 ) . A shooting was fired, and neither side would claim duty for this first act of war. But when it was over, two monolithic British fusillades had been fired, answered by merely one, weak fusillade of American musket fire and eight militiamen were dead and 10 wounded, including Captain Parker ( Lancaster 96 ) . But this was merely the start of the Revolutionary War. In the old ages to come, many Americans and British soldiers would decease in their battle to stand up for a state and a hereafter that they believed in. As for Paul Revere, his function in naming the nationalists, the Minutemans, the reserves of the countryside together and up in weaponries will stay as critical to the survey of American history as any conflict or shooting that took topographic point in the Revolution of America.

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