The Capture of Paul Revere
Minute Man National Historical Park, Mass
While passing through Lexington at around midnight, Revere and William Dawes met Dr. Samuel Prescott of Concord, who was riding home after courting Lydia Mulliken. Prescott agreed to help spread the alarm that “the Regulars were out.”
The three men ran into a patrol of ten mounted British officers posted here to prevent word of the British march from reaching Concord. Revere was captured. Dawes escaped back towards Lexington. Prescott jumped his horse over a stone wall and eluded his pursuers. It was Prescott who carried the alarm to Concord and beyond.
Revere was questioned, held for a while and then released, but the British officers confiscated his horse. Revere walked back to Lexington in time to hear the gunfire at dawn on the town Common.
I saw four of them, they rode up to me with their pistols in their hands, and said G-d d-n you stop, if you go an inch further you are a dead man. Immediately Mr. Prescott came up, we attempted to git thru them, but they kept before us, and swore if we did not turn in to that pasture, they would blow our brains out . . . Mr. Prescott said to me, “Get on!” He took to the left, I to the right, towards a wood . . . just as I reached it, out started six officers seized my bridle, put their pistols to my breast, ordered me to dismount . . .
Paul Revere
Marker is at the intersection of N Great Road (Massachusetts Route 2A) and Mill Street, on the right when traveling west on N Great Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
