Ride Of Paul Revere

REVERE, Paul, patriot, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 1 January, 173;  died there, 10 May, 1818. His grandfather, a Huguenot, emigrated from Sainte-Foy France, to the island of Guernsey, whence his, father removed to Boston, and there learned the trade of a goldsmith. The son was trained in this business, and became skilful in drawing and engraving designs on silver plate, lie took part in the expedition of 1756 to capture Crown Point from the French, being appointed a lieutenant of artillery, and stationed at Fort Edward, near Lake George. 

On his return to Boston he married, and began business for himself as a goldsmith. He also practiced cop-per-plate engraving, in which he was self-taught, and produced a portrait of Reverend Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, followed in 1766 by a picture emblematical of the repeal of the stamp-act, and next by a caricature entitled "A Warm Place --Hell," in which are represented the seventeen members of the house of representatives who voted for rescinding the circular of 1768 to the provincial legislatures. In 1770 he published a print representing the Boston massacre, and in 1774 one representing the landing of British troops in Boston. He was one of the grand jurors that refused to serve in 1774 in consequence of the act; of parliament that made the supreme court judges independent of the legislature in regard to their salaries. 

In 1775 he engraved the plates for the paper-money that had been ordered by the Provincial congress of Massachusetts, made the press, and printed the bills. He was sent to Philadelphia to learn the process of making gunpowder, and the proprietor of the mill there would only consent to show him the works in operation, but not to let him take memoranda or drawings. Nevertheless, on his return, he constructed a mill, which was soon put into successful operation. He was one of the prime movers of the "tea-party" that destroyed the tea in Boston harbor. In the autumn of 1774 he and about thirty other young men, chiefly mechanics, formed a secret society for the purpose of watching the movements of the British soldiers and detecting the designs of the Tortes, which they reported only to John Hancock, Dr. Charles Warren, Samuel Adams, and two or three others, one of whom was the traitor, Dr. Benjamin Church, who communicated the transactions of the society to General Thomas Gage. They took turns in patrolling the streets, and several days before the, battle of Lexington they observed suspicious preparations in the British barracks and on the ships in the harbor. 

On the evening of 18 April they apprised the Whigs that the troops had begun to move. Dr. Warren, sending for Revere, desired him to set out at once for Lexington in order to warn Hancock and Adams in time. Crossing to Charlestown by boat, he procured a horse, and rode through Medford, rousing the minute-men on the way, and, after barely escaping capture by some British officers, reached Lexington and delivered his message. With Dr. Samuel Prescott and William Dawes he pushed on for the purpose of rousing the people of Concord and securing the military stores there. They awakened the minutemen on the route, but at Lincoln they were stopped by a party of British officers, excepting Prescott, who escaped capture by leaping a wall, and rode on to Concord, where he alarmed the inhabitants, while Revere and Dawes were taken by their captors back to Lexington, and there released. 

Henry W. Longfellow has made the midnight ride of Paul Revere the subject of a narrative poem. Revere was the messenger that was usually employed on difficult business by the committee of safety, of which Joseph Warren was president. He repaired the cannon in Fort Independence, which the British, on leaving Boston, had sought to render useless by breaking the trunnions, but which he made serviceable by devising a new kind of carriage. After the evacuation a regiment of artillery was raised in Boston, of which he was made major, and afterward lieutenant-colonel. He took part in the unsuccessful Penobscot expedition of 1779. 

After the war he resumed the business of a gold and silver-smith, and subsequently erected a foundry for casting church-bells and bronze cannon. When copper bolts and spikes began to be used, instead of iron, for fastening the timbers of vessels, he experimented on the manufacture of these articles, and when he was able to make them to his satisfaction he built in 1801 large works at Canton, Massachusetts, for rolling copper, which are still carried on by the Revere copper company. He was the first in this country to smelt copper ore and to refine and roll copper into bolts and sheets. 

As grand-master of the masonic fraternity he laid the corner-stone of the Boston state-house in 1795. In that year he aided in the establishment of the Massachusetts charitable mechanic association, of which he was the first president. He was a munificent contributor to enterprises of benevolence, and at the time of his death was connected with numerous charities.

--His grandson, Joseph Warren Revere, soldier, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 17 May, 1812; died in Hoboken, New Jersey, 20 April, 1880. He was made a midshipman in the United States navy. 1 April, 1828, became a passed midshipman on 4 June, 1834, and lieutenant on 25 February, 1841, took part in the Mexican war, and resigned from the navy on 20 September, 1850. He then entered the Mexican service. For saving the lives of several Spaniards he was knighted by Queen Isabella of Spain. He was made colonel of the 7th regiment of New Jersey volunteers on 31 August, 1861, and promoted brigadier-general of United States volunteers on 25 October. 1862. He led a brigade at Fredericksburg, was then transferred to the command of the Excelsior brigade in the 2d division, fought with it at Chancellorsville, and after the engagement fell under the censure of his superior officer. 

In May, 1863, he was tried by court-martial, and dismissed from the military service of the United States. He defended his conduct with great earnestness, and on 10 September, 1864, his dismissal from the army was revoked by President Lincoln, and his resignation was accepted. His "Keel and Saddle" (Boston, 1872) relates many of his personal adventures.

--Another grandson, Edward Hutchinson Robbins, physician, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 23 July, 1827; died near Sharpsburg, Maryland, 17 September, 1862, entered Harvard, but left in 1846, pursued the course in the medical school, and received his diploma in 1849. He practiced in Boston, and on 14 September, 1861, was appointed assistant surgeon of the 20th Massachusetts volunteers. At Bali's Bluff he was captured by the enemy's cavalry, and was kept as a prisoner at Leesburg, and afterward at Richmond, Virginia, till 22 February. 1862, when he was released on parole. He was exchanged in April, 1862, and served with his regiment through the peninsular campaign and General John Pope's campaign on the Rappahannock, was present at Chantilly, and was killed at the battle of Antietam.

--A brother of Edward H. R., Paul Joseph, soldier, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 10 September, 1832" died in Westminster, Maryland, 4 July, 1863, was graduated at Harvard in 1852, and at the beginning of the civil war entered the National army as major of the 20th Massachusetts volunteers. At Bali's Bluff he was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner, and he was confined in Libby prison until he and six other officers were selected as hostages to answer with their lives for the safety of Confederate privateers men who had been convicted of piracy in the United States court. They were transferred to the Henrico county prison, and confined for three months in a felon's cell. Major Revere was paroled on 22 February, 1862, and in the beginning of the following May was exchanged. He was engaged in the peninsular campaign until he was taken sick in July. On 4 September, 1862, he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and served as assistant inspector-general on the staff of General Edwin V. Sumner. At Antietam, where he displayed great gallantry, he received a wound that compelled him to retire to his home. On his recovery he was appointed colonel of his old regiment, 14 April, 1863, and returned to the field in May. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers for bravery at Gettysburg, where he received a fatal wound in the second day's battle.