Thread by @USAS_WW1

Paul Revere:

1/ TUE 4/18/1775: Gen. Gage orders 700 Redcoats to assemble at Boston Common to march on Lexington and Concord to seize John Hancock, Sam Adams and Colonial stores of weapons, ammo, tents, etc.

Paul Revere AND Samuel Dawes leave Boston at night to sound the alarm.

#OTD 2/ TUE 4/18/1775: Hancock and Adams are staying in Lexington at Hancock's grandfather's home that's been passed down to his female cousin. Paul Revere boats north from Boston then borrows a horse to ride NW (~13 miles). Samuel Dawes rides south then turns NNW (~19 miles).

3/ Insurrection background... In Sept. 1768, 4,000 British Redcoats arrived in Boston after the French Indian War (1756-1763) and never left. They converted the Boston Common into their base. #history #AmericanRevolution #Lexington and #Concord

#OTD 4/ TUE 4/18/1775: I don't know at what time the 700 Redcoats left Boston, but I believe they marched all night to Lexington because they arrived there soon after daybreak the next morning WED 4/19. That’s when things got really interesting.

5/ 4/19 12:30 am. Paul Revere and William Dawes arrive where John Hancock and Samuel Adams are staying and warn them. The two leaders depart for Philadelphia. Revere and Dawes head W for Concord and encounter Dr. Samuel Prescott, 23 who's been wooing his fiancee in Lexington.

6/ 4/19 1:00 am? Revere, Dawes and Samuel Prescott are stopped by a British patrol. Dawes and Prescott escape. Revere is sent back to Lexington. Dawes is thrown from his horse. Prescott and horse vault a wall into the dark forest. He finishes the warning journey to Concord solo.

7/ Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott probably never said, "The British are coming" since the American Colonists were also British. Maybe "The Redcoats are coming..."

CORRECTION: William Dawes, not Samuel Dawes.

8/ The scene was set for the Battles of Lexington and Concord later that morning and the real start of the American Revolution.