4. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
In January, 1861, the popular magazine The Atlantic Monthly brought in the new year with a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was entitled Paul Revere’s Ride. Other than in New England, by the time of the poem’s publication Revere’s ride on the night of April 18-19 1775, was all but forgotten. Longfellow made it nationally famous at a time when the nation was teetering toward secession and civil war. The poem also fictionalized several elements of the ride and Revere’s actions, many of them deliberately. It was so widely read in the Northern states that the fictions became part of history, despite their inaccuracy.
Other riders who were on the Massachusetts roads that night, spreading the word of the British movement, were forgotten, with Revere alone appearing in history books used by schoolchildren. The fact that Revere only successfully completed half of his mission (other riders warned Concord) was also forgotten. Revere was captured by the British and held until his captors heard the sounds of alarm bells and militia drums. He was released, though the British kept his horse and his boots. The poem altered the way American history was taught and retained for over a century, and in the public mind, Paul Revere became synonymous with spreading the alarm.