The midnight ride provided advance warning that enabled Patriot minutemen to resist British troops at Lexington and Concord, sparking the American Revolutionary War.
Key Facts
- Date of ride
- Night of April 18, 1775
- Primary riders
- Paul Revere, William Dawes, Samuel Prescott
- Distance to Lexington
- 10 miles (16 km) from Boston
- Riders alerted en route
- Up to 40 other Patriot riders
- Lantern signal origin
- Old North Church, Boston, by sexton Robert Newman
- Notable commemoration
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem 'Paul Revere's Ride'
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In the weeks before April 18, 1775, Patriots in Massachusetts learned that British authorities planned a crackdown on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress based in Concord. Sons of Liberty members Paul Revere and William Dawes organized an alert system, including a pre-arranged lantern signal at Boston's Old North Church, to warn colonists of the British Army's intended advance.
On the night of April 18, sexton Robert Newman hung lanterns in Old North Church to signal the British route via the Charles River. Revere and Dawes rode separately toward Lexington, warning up to 40 Patriot riders along the way. They reached Hancock and Adams in Lexington, then set out for Concord with Prescott. A British patrol intercepted them in Lincoln; Prescott and Dawes escaped, while Revere was briefly detained and later released.
Forewarned by the ride, Patriot minutemen mobilized in time to confront British regulars at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, achieving a Patriot victory in those opening battles of the American Revolutionary War. The event was later immortalized in popular memory largely through Longfellow's 1861 poem, though the poem contains notable factual inaccuracies.