Paul Revere was a well-known silversmith in Boston. He was also a spy and courier for the Sons of Liberty. It was not a secret that the British were interested in the munitions stored in Concord, but when Dr. Joseph Warren acquired intelligence about when the troops were marching (possibly from Gen. Gage’s wife), he called in Revere and William Dawes. He tasked them with warning the countryside and John Hancock and Samuel Adams in particular. The duo was hiding out in Lexington. Warren knew the British were crossing the bay and then marching via Charlestown, so Revere did not need a signal from Old North Church. In fact, it was Revere who had the two lanterns posted to warn the militia in Charlestown. He then crossed the Charles River by boat and borrowed a horse in Charlestown. He was nearly captured by a British patrol outside Charlestown. Dawes took the land route. Revere actually yelled “The Regulars are coming out!” He reached Lexington and warned Hancock and Adams. Dawes arrived a half hour later. They were joined by a Samuel Prescott. He was a young man who was returning to Concord after visiting his girlfriend in Lexington. The trio were stopped by British soldiers. Dawes escaped and turned around. Revere tried to escape, but was capture. Prescott managed to escape and got to Concord. In 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow took the facts and rearranged them a bit to create a poem he hoped would encourage patriotism instead of secession.
https://www.biography.com/news/paul-reveres-ride-facts
– Bath 2 pp. 405-406
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