Mysterious Movements in Boston—The Signal from the Church Spire—On the Road to Concord—The Messenger's Escape—The Alarm Given—Paul Revere on Lexington—Hancock and Adams Warned—Dr. Prescott Told the Story—Concord Alarmed—The British at Lexington—First Shots of Revolution—The Stores Saved—Terrible Retreat of the British—The War Begun.
On the evening of April 18, 1775, strange events were taking place in Boston. From certain streets of that town came unwonted sounds; the tread of marching feet, the occasional click of steel, low tones of command. Later there might have been seen on Boston Common, ranks of armed men, who had been marched thither quietly under cover of the night. Evidently something of importance was afoot, some mysterious expedition which it was desired to keep secret from the citizens.
But the patriots of Boston were not easily to be deceived. They were alert to every movement of the British troops, and were by no means all in their beds, as General Gage had hoped. While the soldiers were gathering on the Common, and all the avenues leading from the town were watched by guards, with orders to arrest any one who should attempt to leave, steps were taking to defeat the British plans. Late at night a small boat, carrying a patriotic citizen, was rowed heedfully across Charles River in the darkness, passing perilously close to a British man-of-war. Hidden in the deep shadows which lay on the water, the rower passed unseen, and quickly landed on the shore of Charlestown, a suburb of Boston. Here, in a retired spot, a swift horse awaited him, and he stood expectant of a promised signal, with his eyes fixed on a distant spire, whose slender length was dimly visible in the starlit night.
The watcher was Paul Revere, a man whose name has become famous in history. The purpose of the midnight expedition was no secret to the patriots. At Lexington, thirteen miles from Boston, were two prominent leaders of the people, Sam. Adams and John Hancock, whom the British authorities desired to arrest. At Concord, twenty miles away, was a collection of military stores, made by the provincials, and which General Gage proposed to seize. These stores had been gathered from various sources, even from Boston itself. Canon balls and baskets had been carried from the city under the very eyes of the guards, covered by loads of manure. Powder had been conveyed by marketwomen in their panniers, and cartridges had been taken from the city concealed in candle boxes. The material thus painfully collected was of high value to the patriots, who were bent on resisting the British even to the point of war, and they watched the movements of the garrison with a keenness that was not easily deceived. In some way they had become aware of the secret purpose of General Gage, and were taking active measures for its defeat. Dr. Warren, an active patriot, had directed Paul Revere to proceed to Charlestown in the manner described, and to take to the road as soon as signaled of the movement of the troops.
As the minutes passed, the solitary watcher stood in impatient expectation. Suddenly a double gleam of light shot from the distant spire on which his eyes were fixed. Two candles had been placed in the belfry window of the old North Church. It was the signal agreed upon. Those far-off candle gleams were the beacon lights of the American Revolution. Springing gladly to his saddle, the messenger of hostile tidings gave his uneasy horse the rein, and in a minute more the hoof beats of the mettled steed rang like hammer strokes of destiny in the streets of the sleeping town.
Revere had been bidden to be on the alert, as a force of mounted officers had been sent out to patrol the roads and prevent any one from leaving the town to give the alarm. The need of caution and alertness was soon evident, for he had not long passed Charlestown Neck before two British officers appeared in the road before him. They were part of the mounted patrol.
"Who goes there? Halt!" came the stern challenge.
Paul Revere looked keenly at his challengers. Should he seek to dash by them? No; they were armed, and his errand was too important to take the risk. He had just passed the entrance to another road. Here was an opportunity to pass his opponents. Turning his horse quickly he dashed back, heedless of a loud cry of "Halt, or we will fire!"
His horse proved superior in speed to those of the officers; and in a few minutes he was in the Medford Road, and off again at full speed towards his goal. One of the pursuers, thinking to cut off the flight of the fugitive, turned his horse into the fields between the two roads. But he soon found himself floundering in a clay pit, while Revere shot past with a cry of triumph.
On went the midnight messenger, at the full speed of his well-chosen steed, giving the alarm as he went. At every wayside house he stopped and aroused the inmates by a thundering rap upon the door. As they looked with alarm from the windows he shouted, "Up, up, the regulars are coming," and was away again, while they digested the startling news.
About the time the clocks of Boston town were sounding the hour of midnight, the assembled troops left the Common and marched as noiselessly as possible toward the Neck, on their supposed secret errand. At the same hour many of the dwellers along the road to Concord were up and arming, and shortly after the stroke of midnight, the bearer of evil tidings rode at undiminished speed into the quiet streets of the village of Lexington, within which the patriot leaders, Adams and Hancock, had taken refuge from their royalist enemies. They were sleeping within the house of the Rev. Mr. Clarke when Revere rode headlong up. Eight minute men had been stationed around the house as a guard, and they started hastily to their feet on hearing the sound of rapid hoofs. Hancock and Adams were aroused.
While they eagerly questioned him as to what was afoot, another horseman rode up to the door, and a second messenger, William Dawes by name, entered the house. He had left Boston at the same hour with Revere, but had followed a different route. Adams was by this time aroused, and the patriot leaders, not doubting that their capture was one of the objects of the expedition, prepared in all haste to leave Lexington in search of some safer retreat. This service rendered, Revere and Dawes joined company and took to the road again, riding toward Concord, and continuing to give the alarm at every house they passed.
Meanwhile the quiet of Lexington had been effectually broken. Before many minutes men with arms in their hands began to appear, and by two o'clock 150 minute men were gathered upon the village green. But as no foe appeared, and the night was chilly, they were soon dismissed to their beds again, with orders to be ready to assemble at beat of drum.
Revere and his companion meanwhile hastened along the Concord road. They were not destined to reach the goal of their journey, but by a fortunate incident they succeeded in forwarding their message of alarm. They had not got far from Lexington when they overtook Dr. Samuel Prescott, a resident of Concord, who was taking a late ride home from a visit to a Lexington friend. As they rode on together, the messengers told him of the march of the regulars and its probable purpose. After a brief companionship, the envoys pushed forward again, leaving the doctor to jog on his homeward way more slowly. They had not gone far before their journey came to an unexpected termination. They rode unawares into a group of the British officers, who had been sent out to patrol the roads. Revere, who was in advance, found himself seized before he could make a movement to escape. Dawes, who was riding on rapidly behind him, was also taken prisoner. Fortunately for Prescott, he had dropped some distance in the rear. He was near enough to see the capture of his companions, and at once made his horse spring over the roadside wall, and hasten through the fields from the vicinity of the foe. He reached Concord in safety, and told there the story which he had so opportunely heard.9When the news spread from mouth to mouth that a force of British regulars was on the march to seize precious stores, which had been gathered from all sides, active measures were at once taken for their removal. Men and women together gave their earnest aid, carrying muskets, cartridges, and ammunition in all haste to the nearest woods. Some of the cannon balls were buried in quickly-dug trenches, and over these a farmer ran his plow to give the place the appearance of a freshly-plowed field. To the people of Concord were quickly added reinforcements from the neighboring villages, to which the alarm had spread. By break of day a large body of men had gathered, while most of the precious stores had vanished from sight.
While the good people of Concord were thus occupied, events of the highest import were taking place at Lexington. There the first shots of the Revolution had been fired, and the first blood spilled; a new doorway in history had been opened. The troops came within sight of the town about four o'clock in the morning, in full confidence that the inhabitants would be taken by surprise. But the sound of clanging bells told a different tale. Colonel Smith, in command, alarmed by these sounds, sent a messenger in haste to Boston for reinforcements, and ordered Major Pitcairn to push on, with six companies, to Concord, and secure the bridges.
The critical moment was at hand. The scarlet-coated regulars soon entered Lexington, and there saw before them about a hundred militiamen, drawn up upon the green. Pitcairn's orders were to advance. Should this handful of villagers dispute his road? Throwing all thought of consequences to the winds, he galloped forward, sword in hand, and cried:—
"Disperse, you rebels! Throw down your arms and disperse!"
Not a man moved. The patriots stood firm. Turning to his men, Pitcairn bade them advance and surround the rebels. As they obeyed some shots came from their ranks. They were instantly answered by the minute men. Pitcairn discharged his pistol.
"Fire!" he cried to his troops.
Instantly a volley of musketry rang out, before which four of the patriots fell dead. The others fled. A second volley followed, and more of them fell. The remainder hid behind walls and buildings, and returned the fire with some effect. This was the finale of the colonial policy of the British king, these shots the tocsin peal of the Revolution, these victims the martyrs to a great cause, that of American liberty. From the soil fertilized with their blood the greatest of modern nations was to arise.
Elate with their success, the troops pushed on, hoping to reach Concord in time to seize the stores. It was about seven in the morning when they entered that town. By that time most of the material of war had disappeared. They found some sixty barrels of flour, whose heads they knocked in, injured three cannon, threw about five hundred pounds of balls into wells and the mill-pond, and set the court-house on fire. The flames were extinguished by Mrs. Moulton, a dame of Concord, before they could spread.
All this took time. Meanwhile the militia were gathering from all sides. About ten o'clock a force some four hundred strong attacked the enemy on guard at the North Bridge and drove them from their post. Some men fell on both sides. Colonel Smith was in a quandary. Much as he despised the provincials, they were gathering in dangerous numbers, and, if he stayed, he might be caught like a fox in a trap. At length, about twelve o'clock, he gave, with great reluctance, the order to retreat.
The march back began in order; it ended in panic and route. The story of Lexington had spread far, and from every quarter revengeful colonists were hastening to the scene. Hid behind houses, barns, and walls, they poured a galling fire upon the troops, who had to run the gauntlet of a deadly fire of bullets over those dreadful six miles between Concord and Lexington. Numbers of them were slain. It is doubtful if one of them would have reached Boston alive but for the reinforcements which Colonel Smith had ordered. These reached Lexington about two o'clock, barely in time to rescue the remnant of Colonel Smith's command. These were so worn out with fatigue that they threw themselves upon the ground to rest, while their tongues hung from their mouths through drought.
The journey from Lexington to Boston was made through as hot a fire as before, which the troops answered as well as they could. Their situation grew more and more critical, for their ammunition was rapidly running out, while strong forces of minute men were hastening from all sides to the attack. Luckily for them, they reached Charlestown before they could be cut off, and here the pursuit ceased. They had lost nearly three hundred in killed, wounded, and missing during the terrible march. The American loss was about one hundred in all.
Thus ended the first chapter in the series of events that were to convert the British colonies into the United States of America. That midnight ride of Paul Revere was big with destiny. It formed one of the principal turning-points in the history of mankind.