Site where Paul Revere was captured
42.448950°N 71.279853°W

Tribute to Paul Revere
42.448917°N 71.279769°W

Tribute to Paul Revere at the site of his capture.

Tribute to Paul Revere
42.448917°N 71.279769°W

The site of the Belfry on Lexington Common (also called Lexington Green) that rang the alarm when the British were coming.

The site of the capture of Paul Revere is in Minuteman National Historic Park. Paul Revere left Boston on April 18, 1775, to warn the countryside that the British were coming to confiscate arms and to possible attempt to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams. At about 10:00 P.M. he reached Lexington where he had meetings with Hancock and Adams along with other militia. He eventually went on to warn Concord but was captured by a British patrol at a road block here. They probed Revere at gunpoint with questions and Revere told them that if they approached Lexington they would be overrun by the numbers of militia forming. Despite the warnings, the soldiers marched on toward Lexington. As they approached, a bell began to ring alerting the area that the British were approaching. The British decided to head back to the main column and free the prisoners. They kept Revere’s horse. He made his way by foot to the Hancock-Clark house where he met up with Hancock and Adams.

On April 18, 1775, General Thomas Gage sent Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith with about 700 regulars from Boston to confiscate guns and ammunition rumored to be in Concord. The Revolutionary War began at Lexington on April 19th, 1775, when a small skirmish broke out between patriots and Colonel Smith’s men. Smith continued to move on toward Concord where they located a few cannon buried by the Colonial Army.

Colonel James Barrett commander of the Colonial Army with only 250 men surrendered the town of Concord to the approaching British and set up defenses outside of town on hills to the west of North Bridge. Smith ordered Captain Parsons to secure North Bridge while other British regulars searched the town. By the time the bridge was secured, Minutemen from around the countryside were swarming into the ranks of the Colonial Army after word spread of the fighting. There were more than 400 of them at North Bridge by the time the first shots were fired. The British decided to retreat back to Boston.

Near Meriam's Corner (named after the nearby Miriam home), the ranks of the Minutemen had swelled to more than 1,000 as news of the Lexington and North Bridge engagements spread. Fighting at Meriam’s Corner resulted in 2 British regulars killed and 6 more wounded. When the British had retreated to a point now referred to as Bloody Angel, they met more than 200 Minutemen from Bedford and Lincoln well hidden behind trees and walls along the road. They caught the British in a classic crossfire killing about 30 British soldiers while losing only 4 Minutemen. The British soldiers broke into a fast jog and escaped because the Colonials could not keep up in the swamps and brush. There were additional skirmishes all along the route back toward Boston.

By this time, Gage received messages that his troops were under attack and sent more than a 1,000 regulars under the command of Earl Percy in support of Smith. Once Percy reached Smith’s men around Lexington he assumed command and marched back to Cambridge under continued harassment from Colonials. Meanwhile, Brigadier General William Heath arrived to take charge of the Colonial Army and instructed his men to attack from concealed positions and not engage directly.

Paul Revere

Paul Revere (December 21, 1734 – May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, early industrialist, and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Paul Revere's Ride."

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul Revere
• McCullough, D., 2006, 1776: Simon and Schuster, 400p.