Patriots’ Day…
A friend once asked: “How do you celebrate Patriots’ Day?” Which, perhaps, should spur me to share my own thoughts on this day of consequence.
Many are familiar with the poem Paul Revere’s Ride, however, far fewer know that Paul Revere actually memorialized the events of the April 18 and 19, 1775, in an eight-page letter written several years later.
Each Patriots’ Day I remind myself to read his letter from a copy handed down, and I think about how Paul Revere was really just a common man of otherwise undue significance…. yet, capable to the task at hand.
To me everything about the heart of Revere, which you can identify within his own writing, is what defines an American ‘patriot’.
There is no grand prose, there is no outlook of being a person of historical significance, there is just a simple recollection of his involvement, an ordinary man in extraordinary times.
Unsure if anyone else would enjoy I have tracked down an on-line source for sharing and provide a transcript below (all misspelling is with the original).
Paul Revere personally recounts his famous ride. – In this undated letter, Paul Revere summarizes the activities surrounding his famous ride on 18 April 1775. He recounts how Dr. Joseph Warren urged him to ride to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of British troop movements. He arranged to signal the direction of the troops with lanterns from Old North Church, and then had friends row him across the Charles River borrowing a horse for his ride.
Revere wrote this letter at the request of Jeremy Belknap, corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Revere signed his name to the letter but then wrote above it, “A Son of Liberty of the year 1775”, and beside it, “do not print my name.” Nonetheless, the MHS included Revere’s name when it printed the letter in 1798.
EXPLORE THE DOCUMENT – Or Read the incredible transcript below:
Dear Sir,
Having a little leisure, I wish to fullfill my promise, of giving you some facts, and Anecdotes, prior to the Battle of Lexington, which I do not remember to have seen in any history of the American Revolution.
In the year 1773 I was imployed by the Select men of the Town of Boston to carry the Account of the Destruction of the Tea to New-York; and afterwards, 1774, to Carry their dispatches to New-York and Philadelphia for Calling a Congress; and afterwards to Congress, several times.* [This asterisk points to a note in the left margin written by Jeremy Belknap: “Let the narrative begin here.” ]
In the Fall of 1774 & Winter of 1775 I was one of upwards of thirty, cheifly mechanics, who formed our selves in to a Committee for the purpose of watching the Movements of the British Soldiers, and gaining every intelegence of the movements of the Tories.
We held our meetings at the Green-Dragon Tavern. We were so carefull that our meetings should be kept Secret; that every time we met, every person swore upon the Bible, that they would not discover any of our transactions, But to Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Doctors Warren, Church, & one or two more.
About November, when things began to grow Serious, a Gentleman who had Conections with the Tory party, but was a Whig at heart, aquainted me, that our meetings were discovered, & mentioned the identical words that were spoken among us the Night before. We did not then distrust Dr. Church, but supposed it must be some one among us.
We removed to another place, which we thought was more secure: but here we found that all our transactions were communicated to Governor Gage. (This came to me through the then Secretary Flucker; He told it to the Gentleman mentioned above).
It was then a common opinion, that there was a Traytor in the provincial Congress, & that Gage was posessed of all their Secrets. (Church was a member of that Congress for Boston.) In the Winter, towards the Spring, we frequently took Turns, two and two, to Watch the Soldiers, By patroling the Streets all night.
The Saturday Night preceding the 19th of April, about 12 oClock at Night, the Boats belonging to the Transports were all launched, & carried under the Sterns of the Men of War. (They had been previously hauld up & repaired). We likewise found that the Grenadiers and light Infantry were all taken off duty.
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From these movements, we expected something serious was [to] be transacted. On Tuesday evening, the 18th, it was observed, that a number of Soldiers were marching towards the bottom of the Common.
About 10 o’Clock, Dr. Warren Sent in great haste for me, and beged that I would imediately Set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock & Adams were, and acquaint them of the Movement, and that it was thought they were the objets. When I got to Dr. Warren’s house, I found he had sent an express by land to Lexington – a Mr. Wm. Daws.
The Sunday before, by desire of Dr. Warren, I had been to Lexington, to Mess. Hancock and Adams, who were at the Rev. Mr. Clark’s. I returned at Night thro Charlestown; there I agreed with a Col. Conant, & some other Gentlemen, in Charleston, that if the British went out by Water, we would shew two Lanthorns in the North Church Steeple; if by Land, one, as a Signal; for we were aprehensive it would be dificult to Cross the Charles River, or git over Boston neck.
I left Dr. Warrens, called upon a friend, and desired him to make the Signals. I then went Home, took my Boots and Surtout, and went to the North part of the Town, where I had kept a Boat; two friends rowed me across Charles River, a little to the eastward where the Somerset Man of War lay.
It was then young flood, the Ship was winding, & the moon was Rising. They landed me on Charlestown side. When I got into Town, I met Col. Conant, several others; they said they had seen our signals. I told them what was Acting, & went to git me a Horse; I got a Horse of Deacon Larkin.
While the Horse was preparing, Richard Devens, Esq. who was one of the Committee of Safty, came to me, & told me, that he came down the Road from Lexington, after Sundown, that evening; that He met ten British Officers, all well mounted, & armed, going up the Road. I set off upon a very good Horse; it was then about 11 o’Clock, very pleasant. After I had passed Charlestown Neck, got nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on Horse back, under a Tree.
When I got near them, I discovered they were British officer. One tryed to git a head of Me, & the other to take me. I turned my Horse very quick, & Galloped towards Charlestown neck, and then pushed for the Medford Road. The one who chased me, endeavoring to Cut me off, got into a Clay pond, near where the new Tavern is now built. I got clear of him,
[Page 3]
and went thro Medford, over the Bridge, & up to Menotomy. In Medford, I awaked the Captain of the Minute men; & after that, I alarmed almost every House, till I got to Lexington.
I found Mrs. Messrs. Hancock & Adams at the Rev. Mr. Clark’s; I told them my errand, and inquired for Mr. Daws; they said he had not been there; I related the story of the two officers, & supposed that He must have been stopped, as he ought to have been there before me.
After I had been there about half an Hour, Mr. Daws came; after we refreshid our selves, we and set off for Concord, to secure the Stores, & there. We were overtaken by a young Docter Prescot, whom we found to be a high Son of Liberty. I told them of the ten officers that Mr. Devens mett, and that it was probable we might be stoped before we got to Concord; for I supposed that after Night, they divided them selves, and that two of them had fixed themselves in such passages as were most likely to stop any intelegence going to Concord.
I likewise mentioned, that we had better allarm all the Inhabitents till we got to Concord; the young Doctor much approved of it, and said, he would stop with either of us, for the people between that & Concord knew him, & would give the more credit to what we said.
We had got nearly half way. Mr Daws & the Doctor stoped to allarm the people of a House: I was about one hundred Rod a head, when I saw two men, in nearly the same situation as those officer were, near Charlestown. I called for the Doctor & Daws to come up; were two & we would have them in an Instant I was surrounded by four; – they had placed themselves in a Straight Road, that inclined each way; they had taken down a pair of Barrs on the North side of the Road, & two of them were under a tree in the pasture. The Docter being foremost, he came up; and we tryed to git past them; but they being armed with pistols & swords, they forced us in to the pasture; -the Docter jumped his Horse over a low Stone wall, and got to Concord.
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I observed a Wood at a Small distance, & made for that. When I got there, out Started Six officers, on Horse back, and orderd me to dismount;-one of them, who appeared to have the command, examined me, where I came from, & what my Name Was? I told him. it was Revere, he asked if it was Paul? I told him yes He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the afirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston? I told him; and added, that their troops had catched aground in passing the River, and that There would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.
He imediately rode towards those who stoppd us, when all five of them came down upon a full gallop; one of them, whom I afterwards found to be Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, & told me he was going to ask me some questions, & if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out.
He then asked me similar questions to those above. He then orderd me to mount my Horse, after searching me for arms. He then orderd them to advance, & to lead me in front. When we got to the Road, they turned down towards Lexington. When we had got about one Mile, the Major Rode up to the officer that was leading me, & told him to give me to the Sergeant. As soon as he took me, the Major orderd him, if I attempted to run, or any body insulted them, to blow my brains out.
We rode till we got near Lexington Meeting-house, when the Militia fired a Voley of Guns, which appeared to alarm them very much. The Major inquired of me how far it was to Cambridge, and if there were any other Road? After some consultation, the Major
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Major Rode up to the Sargent, & asked if his Horse was tired? He told answered him, he was – (He was a Sargent of Grenadiers, and had a small Horse) – then, said He, take that man’s Horse. I dismounted, & the Sargent mounted my Horse, when they all rode towards Lexington Meeting-House.
I went across the Burying-ground, & some pastures, & came to the Revd. Mr. Clark’s House, where I found Messrs. Hancok & Adams. I told them of my treatment, & they concluded to go from that House to wards Woburn. I went with them, & a Mr. Lowell, who was a Clerk to Mr. Hancock.
When we got to the House where they intended to stop, Mr. Lowell & I my self returned to Mr. Clark’s, to find what was going on. When we got there, an elderly man came in; he said he had just come from the Tavern, that a Man had come from Boston, who said there were no British troops coming. Mr. Lowell & myself went towards the Tavern, when we met a Man on a full gallop, who told us the Troops were coming up the Rocks.
We afterwards met another, who said they were close by. Mr. Lowell asked me to go to the Tavern with him, to a git a Trunk of papers belonging to Mr. Hancock. We went up Chamber; & while we were giting the Trunk, we saw the British very near, upon a full March.
We hurried to wards Mr. Clark’s House. In our way, we passed through the Militia. There were about 50. When we had got about 100 Yards from the meeting-House the British Troops appeard on both Sides of the Meeting-House. In their
[Page 6]
In their Front was an Officer on Horse back. They made a Short Halt; when I saw, & heard, a Gun fired, which appeared to be a Pistol. Then I could distinguish two Guns, & then a Continual roar of Musquetry; When we made off with the Trunk.
As I have mentioned Dr. Church, perhaps it might not be disagreeable to mention some Matters of my own knowledge, respecting Him. He appeared to be a high son of Liberty. He frequented all the places where they met, Was incouraged by all the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, & it appeared he was respected by them, though I knew that Dr. Warren had not the greatest affection for him. He was esteemed a very capable writer, especially in verese; and as the Whig party needed every Strenght, they feared, as well as courted Him.
Though it was known, that some of the Liberty Songs, which We composed, were parodized by him, in favor of the British, yet none dare charge him with it. I was a constant & critical observer of him, and I must say, that I never thought Him a man of Principle; and I doubted much in my own mind, wether He was a real Whig. I knew that He kept company with a Capt. Price, a half-pay British officer, & that He frequently dined with him, & Robinson, one of the Commissioners. I know that one of his intimate aquaintances asked him why he was so often with Robinson and Price? His answer was, that He kept Company with them on purpose to find out their plans.
The day after the Battle of Lexington, I came across met him in Cambridge, when He shew me some blood on his stocking, which he said spirted on him from a Man who was killed near him, as he was urging the Militia on. I well remember, that I argued with my self, if a Man will risque his life in a Cause, he must be a Friend to that cause; & I never suspected him after, till He was charged with being a Traytor.
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The same day I met Dr. Warren. He was President of the Committee of Safety. He engaged me as a Messinger, to do the out of doors business for that committee; which gave me an opportunity of being frequently with them.
The Friday evening after, about sun set, I was sitting with some, or near all that Committee, in their room, which was at Mr. Hastings’s House at Cambridge. Dr. Church, all at once, started up – Dr. Warren, said He, I am determined to go into Boston tomorrow – (it set them all a stairing) – Dr. Warren replyed, Are you serious, Dr. Church? they will Hang you if they catch you in Boston. He replyed, I am serious, and am determined to go at all adventures.
After a considerable conversation, Dr. Warren said, If you are determined, let us make some business for you. They agreed that he should go to git medicine for their & our Wounded officers. He went the next morning; & I think he came back on Sunday
evening.
After He had told the Committee how things were, I took him a side, & inquired particularly how they treated him? he said, that as soon as he got to their lines on the Boston Neck, they made him a prisoner, & carried him to General Gage, where He
was examined, & then He was sent to Gould’s Barracks, & was not suffered to go home but once.
After He was taken up, for holding a Correspondence with the Brittish, I came a Cross Deacon Caleb Davis;-we entred into Conversation about Him;-He told me, that the morning Church went into Boston, He (Davis) received a Bilet for General Gage-(he then did not know that Church was in Town)-When he got to the General’s House, he was told, the General could not be spoke with, that He was in private with a Gentleman; that He waited near half an Hour,-When General Gage & Dr. Church came out of a Room, discoursing together, like
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like persons who had been long aquainted. He appeared to be quite surprized at seeing Deacon Davis there; that he (Church) went where he pleased, while in Boston, only a Major Caine, one of Gage’s Aids, went with him.
I was told by another person whom I could depend upon, that he saw Church go in to General Gage’s House, at the above time; that He got out of the Chaise and went up the steps more like a Man that was aquainted, than a prisoner.
Sometime after, perhaps a Year or two, I fell in company with a Gentleman who studied with Church -in discoursing about him, I related what I have mentioned above; He said, He did not doubt that He was in the Interest of the Brittish; & that it was He who informed Gen. Gage That he knew for Certain, that a Short time before the Battle of Lexington, (for He then lived with Him, & took Care of his Business & Books) He had no money by him, and was much drove for money; that all at once, He had several Hundred New Brittish Guineas; and that He thought at the time, where they came from.
Thus, Sir, I have endeavoured to give you a Short detail of some matters, of which perhaps no person but my self have have documents, or knowledge. I have mentioned some names which you are aquainted with: I wish you would Ask them, if they can remember the Circumstances I alude to.
I am, Sir, with every Sentment of esteem,
Your Humble Servant,
Paul Revere
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society
“The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775,” Oil on canvas by William Barns Wollen, 1910.
Always love reading stories about our history…
Thanks for sharing this today
Determined men, armed with “weapons of war” reached a “this far and no more” stand against tyranny. They were armed with “long rifles” which had an accurate range approximately 3 or more times the range of the standard British “Brown Bess” smooth bore musket. Those kinds of weapons made a significant difference at Concord Bridge and in the hours afterward because they could hit with accuracy at 300 plus yards.
Being based on these signal historical experiences, the 2nd Amendment clearly recognizes that weapons of war an essential to enabling an armed citizenry to defend itself against governmental tyranny.
Paul Revere was hardly a common folk. He was an uncommon silversmith whose works are cherished to this day.
hard to imagine that courage…
When this site first brought up the lantern story – i came across this video from Hour Of the Time. Makes you think
The Boston Marathon is always held in the 3rd Monday In April as part of the Patriots Day Celebration. https://www.nationalworld.com/news/world/patriots-day-2022-us-holiday-boston-marathon-3658202?fbclid=IwAR2ZayyYN1Gbsyf4BnfMU0zmR0N1Z
As a proud former Boston girl, this is one of my favorite days of the year. Red Sox at 11:00 AM, and the Marathon, love it!
Red Sox?
Angels!
The strike zone when the Red Sox pitches is huge…. when the visiting team pitches it’s tiny.
Go Angels
Just pretend like it never happened.
Weak Americants still supporting the Traitors doing all they can to destroy America, So Freaking SAD. I don’t see how people who watch organized sports or Hollywood, play Chinese video games etc. can call themselves an American, let alone a Patriot, I guarantee the patriots of old stopped buying and using British products LONG before the last battle was done, just saying…
Chinese goods. We are forced to buy them because the US Government has betrayed us. Over-taxed. Over-regulated. Tons of money coming in for the traitors in DC. It is difficult for a company to do business here. Heck. Our apples go to China. Then come back as apple juice. WTF?
The US government sold us out, and the Chinese gladly accepted their offer. The CCP is indeed an enemy of the American people. But the US government is even more so.
FBI knows that too. The FBI protected criminal Whitey Bulger; were ‘familiar’ with what Tsarnev brothers were up to and ignored Russian Intelligence warning of their training. Makes you question, like Paul Revere did of the spy Church, where loyalties lie – to the Enemy or to the citizens. FBI shows Nothing has changed in 247 years.
Hmm, glad you brought up the tsarnev bros.,…if Putin was the cold hearted bastard, enemy of the U.S. they insist on portraying him as, WHY would he have had his people relay the warning to the U.S. about the bros?
One of many things that make you say,..Hmmmm,..?
My favorite Red Sox memory is 2005 when the WHITE SOX swept them out of the playoffs!
A.J Pierzynski will stay in my memories forever!
I remember Orlando Hernandez coming into Game 3 when the Carmines had the bases loaded against the Pale Hose. (I miss Ken Harrelson.) El Duque got three outs in a row, and didn’t allow a run. That’s when I knew it was DESTINY that the White Sox were gonna go all the way!
Alas, I don’t follow sports anymore, now that the Communists have ruined everything.
I wonder why the press did not make a bigger deal of the this (correlation of Boston Marathon with Paul Reveres ride) when the bombing occurred? Muzzies are big on symbolism
What of the Rev. Mr. Clark?
Pastor Clark prepared Lexington for battle
From GAB BibleSociety@BibleSociety
Excerpted from Homesteading and Off-Grid Patriots
While a minister to a small Christian congregation, Clark worked a farm of 60 acres in order to supply his family with food. On the night of April 18, 1775, as Paul Revere was making his famous ride through the Lexington, Massachusetts countryside yelling, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” he was headed for a particular house; the house of Pastor Jonas Clark.
The Rev. Mr. Jonas Clark was a Pastor in Lexington MA and on Sunday afternoons after church, he and Deacon John Parker (a captain from the French Indian War) had been organizing the Lexington men into a citizen army to fight the British if they invaded.
On the night of April 18, Pastor Clark had two special guests staying in his home, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The British had marched out of Boston to confiscate the colonists guns and ammunition informers said we’re stored at Concord and Lexington. They also heard of Adams’ and Hancock’s whereabouts and were hopeful to capture them too.
As Revere rode up to the front yard of Pastor Clark’s farm house, Clark, Adams, and Hancock ran out to meet him. When they heard the British were marching toward Lexington, Adams and Hancock asked Pastor Clark if the men of Lexington would fight. Clark responded, “I trained them for this very hour; they would fight, and, if need be, die, too, under the shadow of the House of God.”
The next morning, April 19, 1775, Pastor Jonas Clark and Deacon John Parker led the Lexington men out to face the invaders. At dawn as the British approached the assembled and armed men of Lexington, they cried out “in the name of the King of England throw down your arms.” The patriots’ reply, “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus!” Then Captain Parker said to his men, “Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” From somewhere a shot rang out! The shot heard around the world… The American Revolution began that day at Lexington led by a small group of Christians who had the courage of their convictions and values from reading the Bible.
George Washington said what makes men good Christians makes them good citizens. True Patriots have never found themselves in poor company with Bible reading Christians. A consoling thought: Reading the Bible made this country and can make it again today if it is needed.
BTW, don’t let the government today get away with disarming you. Our Founding Fathers didn’t. Be a part of making yours county a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary. Empower your sheriff to arrest federal agents like Newton County, MO. Get details from the Sanctuary County website by Noah Davis and see his GAB posts. Let’s go Patriots!
“Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
Deacon Parker would be viewed as a man of intemperate disposition by today’s flaccid church. Thank God that yesteryear’s Christians were made of sterner stuff.
Thanks so much for posting this! I grew up very near these towns in the 1950s and know their history well but wasn’t familiar with this account by Paul Revere. How stirring!
Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for posting the link to the Revere letter. It is still astounding to me how the colonists organized and conducted themselves during occupation. The courage and dedication to country is being extinguished this very moment. It is with the Spirit of 76 that American patriots must continue to press forward in order to secure the individual Rights of Man. Liberty is our natural state; slavery is the institution of men. God Bless America and the cause of Liberty.
“...astounding to me how the colonists organized and conducted themselves during occupation.”
And all without smartphones or any means of telecommunication, or fast cars or motorcycles, or body armor….. simply men on foot or horseback, armed with single-shot pistols or muskets. Those were men of a level of honorable determination and a level of courage which are very rare to find today.
I have a little different take on it. These men and women had only themselves to depend on. Their strength, skills, determination, and relationships they built to help each other survive in a harsh world.
We now have technologies undreamed of then, very superior weapons and communications abilities. Every advantage one could think of. Except the grit that comes only from having to rely on your own strength, skill, determination, and relationships.
They had everything going for them, we have crutches. And guts, integrity, courage, fortitude, and imagination have been bred out of many.
👍👍
Menagerie, we’re on the same page.
I came across that letter many years ago. I know it was a serious, portentous time, but I have laughed at the ordinariness of the events….sent back for a trunk of papers that they were hauling around. Samuel Prescott getting away from the British soldiers. And that the wealthy Hancock and Adams were so well thought of in the Puritan/Congregationalist church that they were hiding with a preacher in Lexington with a price on their heads. So many wonderful snippets from history. Thank you for posting – it was great to read it again.
We can assume that the trunk of papers included correspondence and journals that would reveal the colonists’ plans to sever the colonies’ relationship with / subservience to the British Monarchy. As such these items were evidence that had to be kept away from the British and British sympathizers (Tories), else many of those mentioned in or who were authors of or signatories to those papers would surely be hanged.
He left at midnight, tonight.
Listen my children and you shall hear…
of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere…
There’s hardly a man that’s still alive that remembers that night in ’75……………
Very interesting. I had never read Revere’s account of events he was a party to. There are other heroes that get little notice these days like Dr. Warren, Dr. Prescott, Rev. Clark, and Mr. Dawes. We today don’t hear about or sufficiently appreciate what our forefathers had to endure at great peril so we can enjoy our rapidly vanishing freedoms and Republic. Thank you much, Sundance.
We don’t hear about it for our beautiful strong country’s foundation is no longer taught. Too busy with crt and transgenderism. I went to school in the 40’s& early 50’s. We had actual history classes, US, world and other countries. No social studiesUGH. We said the pledge and in the summer the public school offered Bible classes. We walked 1 1/2 miles each way no buses as it was a small town. In 1950 the Catholic school was opened only 1 block from home. Everyone I knew Catholic or not read the Bible and knew the 10 commandments. We loved our country. I remember the end of WWII as we kids marched up and down the street banging pots pans covers singing and excited for family and friends returning from war. The black out curtains came down and rationing was to end. I returned to teach at the same Catholic school and loved teaching about our country’s history. My favorite subject, however, was and is math. It’s factual and there only one correct answer to 2+2=4 despite what the wackos push. When I saw what common core math was teaching I shook my head in disbelief.
Until 2014, I know that selected parts or the whole of this letter were required reading in at least one group of US History classes in one school. 🙂
In 1960, I began kindergarten at a brand new elementary school in a brand new suburb of Sacramento, CA named “Skycrest Elementary” … so named for our burgeoning Space Program and nearby Aerojet Space support Company. In those days, we were awakened by our parents at 5:00 am so we could watch the latest space launch of the Mercury and Gemini programs. We were swelled up with pride in our nation capable of such grand things. My suburban CA upbringing was beautiful … just past my home was nothing but rolling hills filled with springtime poppies and lupine and grasses taller than a kindergartner’s head. We ran free through those fields with no need of parental supervision till we arrived home at dusk, exhausted and filthy dirty after a day of catching pollywogs and frogs.
That same suburb is a hellish hard scape today. All the fields are paved over and my former elementary school teaches that little white suburban kids, like I was, are racists who must be hunted down by the FBI and that our nation isn’t all that great or special. Gangbangers spray 250 rounds from their Tec-9’s into a crowd of innocents. Children need to sleep on the floor to stay out of drive-by bullet trajectory. Hours and hours of zombie screen time has replaced runs through nature. Screens that teach young children to FEAR climate change and to FEAR the exact same nature that I waded through as an innocent wide-eyed child. Today, our nation is a cynical, self-loathing mess.
if you are a young person reading this … RESIST !! Don’t let the wokes make a joke of our country. Don’t let them steal your children’s innocence and wide-eyed open spirits. Don’t let them tell your daughter she really prefers to be a boy. And no … a “tomboy” isn’t a boy … never has been. Don’t let them denigrate our great nation. Don’t let them multi-culti it into a tossed salad of bitter greens. Embrace our common values … not our divisive ones. Raise your children to be FREE and independent … like that little boy on his hands and knees scooping up huge black masses of wiggly pollywogs in his hands … loving the land … and loving our nation.
What a beautiful young life you had! It must pain you to know how unlivable and sad it has become.
Extrapolate that across our nation and weep with us as we reflect and think of our former safety and values taught without words, but by imitating the lives of our parents, priests, nuns / teachers.
There are strong men and women rising today, be assured. They are the ones being scourged in the media. We will prevail by the Grace of God.
All because of judges, at both the state and federal level, appointed by democrats who were educated by the crazies in colleges, both public and private, across the US.
Any yes, all aided by BIG MEDIA, including the Big MEDIA of the Sixties.
I’ve got the same childhood story, but from the San Fernando Valley north of downtown L.A., complete with captured pollywogs.
That area today is also a hellscape.
And we took it all for granted.
Oh how I long for the CA of my youth … the State as it was before mass welfare handouts and a flood of 35M illegal squatters. Now it’s endless rows of tents and tent cities in every children’s Park.
“Son’s of Liberty” mini series that ran on A&E maybe 8 years ago was awesome…. my son’s assignment was to watch it…. i was hooked… We are very lucky that those great men did what they did…. I get teary eyed
Fun Factoids
Patriots Day is April 19th in Florida and Wisconsin.
Not every state observes Patriots Day.
Only Massachusetts, Maine, Florida (on April 19) Wisconsin (on April 19) Connecticut and North Dakota do.
The holiday was originally celebrated on April 19, the actual anniversary of the battles (fought in 1775).
Since 1969, it has been observed on the third Monday in April
Also The Boston Marathon is always run the 3r Monday in April as part of Patriots Day Celebration in Massachusetts.
Wonder what all the New England states don’t? Kinda surprised by that.
Also surprised that FL., WI. and N.D. *do* celebrate it . Good for them!
Sundance, thank you! I really appreciate the easy-to-read printed text.
Paul Revere and the other patriots were very brave. Here’s one way to thank them: Be brave ourselves. The next time that we see or hear evil, we can speak up – even if we’re worried about the opinions of other people.
Thank you very much. I love our history also.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept;
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
R.W.E.
I can’t help but think… if men were still men.
They still are… Not all men back then were against the British. Only 1/3 agreed with the Sons of Liberty.
We still have that today. And when the need is dire, they will emerge.
Do not desire those who wish to be left alone, or those who lived through the hell of war to be engaged. For once that happens, once those who escaped hell and those who can no longer simply be left alone do engage, it will be devastating.
We need men like this today.
This is a wonderful history lesson, given by the man who lived it.
I’ve thought of Paul Revere a lot lately, knowing how he was instrumental in warning fellow patriots about what was coming.
If things get as nuts as I believe they may, I wonder how myself and my patriot neighbors will warn one another about was is coming our way.
Will my neighbors 1/2 mile down the road run up the hill? Will their smart phones still work? Or will the power and networks be down? Will my old land line phone still work? Will there be anyone to call?
Will my car still start and drive? Or will all the batteries no longer be good so cars won’t start? Will I ride my bike up and down the block? Or will I run 1/2 mile up the road to where horses are boarded and see if someone there may be the modern day Paul Revere?
These are things I ponder as our country teeters on another civil war, a war where one side will be civil and the other side will be anything but civil.
All it will take is an EMP (Electro Magnet Pulse) set off in the atmosphere. All electronics will be fried and not work. The car’s computer will be worthless! The old tube radios will be a Godsend! Anything that is solid state is cooked!
🇺🇸
Redcoats.
Hate to be picky, but….. hehe.
Redcoats was then.
Reds is now – (think about it).
Just so it’s two syllables, he could say the commies are coming!
Chi-coms are coming! The Chi-coms are coming!
wait. Nevermind. They’re already here … and own our Presidency.
Well now I know how Ft. Devens got its name! Spent 18 months there in my MOS. (33G20). This also was my first day at Ft. Devens (April 18th) and wondered why it was a holiday. (Patriot’s Day) It took awhile to get used to that accent, LOL. Houses were really different and the Cape (Cod) was something else, in a good way!
Love this ツ
😃
PaulRevere’s Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – 1807-1882
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of PaulRevere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,—
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said “Good night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war:
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed to the tower of the church,
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,—
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,—
A line of black, that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked PaulRevere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now gazed on the landscape far and near,
Then impetuous stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height,
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!
A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river-fog,
That rises when the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode PaulRevere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of PaulRevere.
MAGA1776, thank you. My favorite line in the poem is “A cry of defiance, and not of fear”.
They had the attitude of “Hey everyone, we have a problem. We won’t ignore the problem, and we won’t panic. We’ll face the problem, and fix it.”
Thank you, Sundance. One huge historical fact I learned is that Dr. Church later turned out to be the Sons of Liberty member betraying them to British Governor Gage, and that Paul Revere was very suspicious of him at the time. His name should be placed alongside Benedict Arnold, Tokyo Rose, the Rosenbergs, and Liz Cheney.
… Mitt Romney … John McCain … and every other GOPe who would dare to quell the spirit of 76 that lives in the hearts of every Trump supporter.
In this firsthand account by the man himself … Revere dedicates a significant amount of his writing to expose the Traytor(sic) in their midst. It STILL bothered him all those years later. Likewise we should do with every Traytor to the TRUE American conservative cause.
Love this, especially as a Boston expat (Go Red Sox) – THANX, SD!
Fun fact: This is also the 80th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid; a.k.a. attacking the Death Star, c.1942.
Sundance, thanks for sharing!
After thinking about it for some time, it sounds more like a witness statement in regards to the actions by Dr Benjamin Church—who was discovered to have been sending coded cyphers to Gage.
I think what Paul Revere is trying to get across it that there was a spy in their midst, and that that spy notified the enemy of their intentions, which is why he was stopped twice on the road by the Torries.
I wonder if the great patriot also is laying responsibility of “the shot heard ‘round the world” on Dr Church, maybe it’s because of his treachery that the British troops marched on Lexington and Concord?
Important historical note: Nobody rode through the countryside yelling “the British are coming!” On this night, they were all British still, if not for only a few more hours…
Longfellow’s Wayside Inn flies the British flag every year from January until April 19th. Then they switch to the original American flag for the rest of the year.
For more on the story of Warren and Church read “the Adversaries: A Story of Boston and Bunker Hill” by Ned Ryun.
Thanks I’ll check it out
At this time, officially they were British subjects until independence. In their minds, if you read about the revolution, they ( 1/3 of them) considered themselves citizens of a new land and they were referred to as american colonists.
Inspiring. Too bad income taxes are due today. Feels like taxation without representation…….
“…render to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s and unto God, the things that are God’s…”
Cesar needs to learn how to live within his means.
History teaches that Caesars who don’t … Cease r to be.
I was listening to a Paul Harvey clip on YouTube while driving to my family’s for Easter Dinner…in it he says that it is written in stone that God requested of Abraham a tax of ten percent.
He then mentions that Americans, through the Sixteenth Amendment, were the first people in recorded history to voluntarily impose a tax on themselves—and without limit!
And now….you know….the REST of the the story….
Yes! Thank you for sharing this link! Good Day!
Only because it is!
I love the Boston area. I get goosebumps remembering how I felt walking over the bridge and then learning the Old Manse had a great view from the second story widow of the bridge.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of my favorites and I hadn’t realized until my visit that the Old Manse was that close to the bridge.
What really overcame me was knowing that this fairly small area of a new world had been blessed with some of the greatest of minds the world has ever produced.
We just can’t allow our good luck and their courage to be squandered.
Not luck. God’s providence.
go forth outside.. post haste..
look up.. and see what he saw..
as it was that very night..
and in the very same phase..
what Sir “do not print my name” saw..
as he looked up to the heavens..
..a Waxing Gibbous..
I had to look “Gibbous” up — thanks for that phase of the moon reference.
“…They have Men Among Them who know Very Well What They Are About…”
(in an After-Action report by Gen. Gage to the Crown)
…and here’s to Hoping We Still Do!
little mentioned in the historical accounts is what the redcoats were actually looking for….the powder, muskets, and cannon taken from Fort William and Mary in Rye,NH on December 14th and 15th of 1774….which was preceded by Revere’s first Alarm Ride to Portsmouth,NH
Check out David Hackett Fischer’s book on Paul Revere’s Ride. (He has written other books on American history.)
http://www.davidhackettfischer.com
And 8 days later, Sybil Luddington rode her ride.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/sybil-ludington
Freedom is contagious!
Thanks Aggiegirl for this piece of history. I was unaware.
Thank you for that reference! Hail all patriotic heroes of the Revolution!
Captain Isaac Davis from Acton was the first officer killed in the Revolutionary war. Testimony from eyewitnesses who were there suggests that when offered the lead at Concord fight, Concord chickened out. When Isaac Davis was then asked, he declared, “I haven’t a man who is afraid to go,” and marched by the Concord minutemen, taking the bridge. When the shooting began, Captain Davis was shot through the heart.
“As certain as Davis was about the righteousness of their cause, he was equally pessimistic about his own chances for survival. Several days before that fateful dawn, he and his wife had returned home from an excursion to discover that a large owl, a symbol of death, had flown into the house and perched on Davis’s favorite gun, which hung over the mantel. No one was allowed to disturb the brooding presence, which stayed for days and was interpreted by the captain as an omen that, if the struggle became a full-pitched battle, he would not survive.”
https://www.historynet.com/american-revolutionary-war-minuteman-isaac-davis-was-shot-during-the-battle-of-concord/
Sally Luddington, I believe, 14 at the time, a captains daughter, rode all night after being alerted by Paul Revere.
See aggiegirl’s post above.
Sybil, age 16.
Sar.org and Dar.org – Genealogy can be a fascinating journey.
Levi I was just talking about genealogy and SAR last night with a friend!
I need to contact my state office sometime soon about becoming an official member.
There’s some difficulty though, as my grandfather was adopted.
I have traced his adopted line (through which my family’s values and ethics are derived) and know without doubt that we are descendants of great men who fought in the American Revolution. We are also descended of Torries, after all it was a civil war.
Through GED Match and DNA (and public records) we know know without any doubt our blood line, and a few years ago we met our long lost relatives who still lived in Pennsylvania, where my grandparents were from. We are biological descendants of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, as well.
Sorry for getting off subject, but my grandfather died in 1965. I never knew him personally. In 2018 we discovered the bloodline and had a family reunion. It turns out in 1906 he was the first born of a woman out of wedlock and was given up for adoption. She later married and had several children. My aunt, who was then in her 80’s, met two of her aunts for the very first time at that reunion. Amazing! She and my dad both have become close to our newfound cousins.
Wow. Love it. Quite a bloodline. Yes, get your records collected and look into submission. It is an incredible honor to be recognized as a descendant of such honorable men and women. Well, it is to Americans. I’m sure the regime in charge of the destruction of this country will use it against us at some point. We have a similar story from my Mother’s side. She did an amazing amount of work to uncover some of it which included visiting small towns, cemeteries, churches, etc. but it was her passion and I am proud of her for what she did.
Thanks! This was enthralling. Paul Revere is an American Treasure. While reading I could almost hear his voice!
https://hvmag.com/life-style/history/sybil-ludington/
ff 6:30 to hear actor Robert Wuhl in his “Assume the Position” humorous video version of the story of Paul Revere/Israel Bissell and author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s telling of the story….
https://www.veoh.com/watch/v16706342cB97DkDJ
She rode ALL that way … side-saddle!?
Really! Look at her statue in the story
After the battle over the crude bridge the redoats lost about 125 men, killed, wounded or missing on their return march. A gruesome toll well deserved by the British.
When push comes to shove great people rise to the occasion, Paul Revere being one.
Here we are again, now the Imperial forces are our own countrymen and like the British Crown rule us from afar. Just like the lead up to our Revolution we have our Paul Revere’s and some have paid the ultimate price. This for going against the Imperial Federal government like Andrew Breitbart.
Though Andrew has been gone since 2012 his legacy lives on as does Paul Revere with Conservative Treehouse, Sundance and many others.
We are again at an inflection point as a nation and a world. We will need many Paul Revere’s as our entire system has been corrupted and so many that we love are still stuck in a Matrix of evil yearning for normalcy and is in essence a kind of slow suicide.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
—John Adams
I didn’t understand his phrase “where Mark was hung in chains.” Who/what?
He refers to an incident in which Mark, a slave, was accused and hanged for poisoning his owner some 20 years or so earlier. His body was subsequently tarred and gibbeted in a tree and left there to rot.
The incident would have been well known to the area residents, as the corpse hanging there in a gibbet must have been a right gruesome sight.
Hey, not a bad idea for the treatment of other “poisoners” in our day, hmmm? but I digress…
Thank You for explaining that , Geuppebarre , as I didn’t know the story about *Mark* either and wondered about that line 💐
Roger that, have a good day!
Thank you
VINCE AUT MORIRE!
Of the 2 companies of Bedford Militia, I am directly related to 74 of the total 77 men who were at the Concord Bridge Two ggrandfathers there. My ancestor Nathaniel Page carried forward The Bedford Flag (1st American flag in battle) and Ralph W. Emerson later wrote: “Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world”.
My greatest Pride!
Our Capt. Jonathan Willson was killed that day, and my ggreat uncle, Lt. Job Lane, badly wounded. He later fought with Prescott at Bunker Hill with the musket ball still in his hip.
Perhaps the greatest American hero, tho, of ALL was Capt. Isaac Davis of Acton, who was first of us shot to death leading our attack over the Bridge.
Daniel French’s Minute Man statue is of Isaac Davis !
Daniel French, who created the Minuteman statue in Concord at the Old North Bridge, that you describe, also did the Lincoln Memorial.
Why did Paul Revere get all the attention and not William Dawes, who did as much as Revere did as Revere himself noted?
Because William Dawes didn’t get famous poem written for him by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Just a bit more trivia….
Dawes d0es not rhyme with hear?
He’s famous because of the poem. In his own day he was well known as a silversmith. His picture hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. There a lot of information about him here as well as his portrait.
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401/paul-revere?ctx=a0546356-32ef-4e9a-936f-08142d8461fe&idx=15
My GR, GR, GR, grandfather several times removed was Bennett Greenwell who served in the Rev. war and entered service on 12/8/77, @ 16 yrs. of age, acting as a minuteman in the Maryland Militia. He served in the Light Horse Cavalry guarding the Chesapeake Bay, between the Potomoc and Patuxent rivers. His duty was keeping a good lookout for British vessels & maintaining 2 good horses constantly in the stable to carry expresses to troops nearest the station, until the surrender of Cornwallis. His pension [#16,391] for service was granted on 2/28/1833. $40 per annum. CG
I know there are many good Patriotic and Conservative sites on the web but articles such as this make CTH
stand head and shoulders above the rest.
May many read this and get a little ember glowing within them. An ember that ignites into a flame which
produces a fire inside their soul just as it did many years ago. A fire that burns white hot and destroys any evilness in its path.
Thank you, Sundance and all the behind the scenes folk who built the Treehouse.
A couple of years ago I self-published a two volume collection of newspaper articles that chronicles the American Revolution from Lexington and Concord in 1775 to Yorktown in 1781.
Many of the selected articles portray ordinary people who did extraordinary things.
I made a pdf of the first volume (350 pgs./25 mb) available as a free download on our website
at http://www.theraleighpress.com so treepers can see how our first revolution unfolded in the daily
news of the time.
Thx, Gerald!
Much appreciated!
Thanks for posting this.
The history is fascinating.
“A Son of Liberty of the year 1775”, and beside it, “do not print my name.” Nonetheless, the MHS included Revere’s name when it printed the letter in 1798.”
So…even back then the media doxxed a patriot?
I think mostly of our true Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin. He was the ultimate product of the Enlightenment. We have lost enlightenment.
Even though we have all kinds of electronic communication devices, if we want to spread the word around about a contingent of armed men coming into our area, we’d best not use those devices. We maybe can use cars if they do not have built-in gps which I believe locates your car.
Then, as now, beware RINOs in our midst.
Just as then, the traytors in our midst, are the biggest challenge.
Men of faith! Notice how many men of the cloth were involved. I’m not a religious person, but these men acted with conviction and without fear. His account of having a pistol pressed against his head reads as merely an afterthought. As if he’d have been fine whether they let him go or killed him. They were convicted in their belief of Divine Right!
Oh…. And…, Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Alas, we have few such men of the cloth, today.
Archbishop Vigano is one, and the preacher repeatedly arrested up in Canada, (sorry, forget his name) and IIRC there were one or two in the U.S., arrested for defying the mandates,…not nearly enough.
“To me everything about the heart of Revere, which you can identify within his own writing, is what defines an American ‘patriot’.”
This applies, emphatically, to a chap who calls himself “SUNDANCE”.
Thank You.