American Revolution in Massachusetts

Although Paul Revere is the most famous of them, three men made midnight rides to alert the militias to the approach of British soldiers. William Dawes also made the ride, traveling through what is now Harvard Square in Cambridge. Samuel Prescott joined the two in Lexington.

A British patrol in Lincoln arrested Revere, leading Dawes to flee back to Lexington. Prescott was the only one of the riders to make it to Concord, after which he continued traveling west to spread the alarm. Revere was taken to Lexington where he was quickly released after being questioned.

Paul Revere was made famous in the stirring, yet inaccurate, poem Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow supposedly chose Revere as the poem’s subject because his name was easier to rhyme than Dawes and Prescott’s.

William Dawes plaque, near Cambridge Commons, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.