What was the importance of the midnight ride?

Answer 1

The Midnight Ride was the alert to the American colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord. ... By giving the Colonists advance warning of the British Army's actions, the ride played a crucial role in the Colonists' victory in the subsequent battles.

Answer 2

It was Paul Revere's ride to warn the colonists that the British were coming to attack them.

AnswerPaul Revere rode with two other people, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. He warned them saying "The British are coming! The British are coming!" But he was captured by the British with William Dawes. Only Samuel succeeded. AnswerHe would never yell "The British are coming! The British are coming!" A: because the mission was secret and he couldn't risk giving himself away, and B: The colonists considered themselves British and he would have yelled "The regulars are coming! The regulars are coming!" Answer: Midnight Ride of Paul RevereThe role for which he is most remembered today was as a nighttime messenger on horseback just before the battles of Lexington and Concord. His famous "Midnight Ride" occurred on the night of April 18/April 19, 1775, when he and William Dawes were instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the movements of the British Army, which was beginning a march from Boston to Lexington, ostensibly to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord.

The British army (the King's "regulars"), which had been stationed in Boston since the ports were closed in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, was under constant surveillance by Revere and other patriots as word began to spread that they were planning a move. On the night of April 18, 1775, the army began its move across the Charles River toward Lexington, and the Sons of Liberty immediately went into action. At about 11 pm, Revere was sent by Dr. Warren across the Charles River to Charlestown, on the opposite shore, where he could begin a ride to Lexington, while Dawes was sent the long way around, via the Boston Neck and the land route to Lexington.

In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the Old North Church, to send a signal by lantern to colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known; one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route, while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River. This was done to get the message through to Charlestown in the event that both Revere and Dawes were captured. Newman and Captain John Pulling momentarily held two lanterns in the Old North Church as Revere himself set out on his ride, to indicate that the British soldiers were in fact crossing the Charles River that night. Revere rode a horse loaned to him by John Larkin, Deacon of the Old North Church.

Paul Revere's rideRiding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route - many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advancement. Revere certainly did not shout the famous phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"), largely because the mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols; also, most colonial residents at the time considered themselves British as they were all legally British subjects. Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "the regulars are coming out." Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were spending the night at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington and, upon receiving the news, spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action. Revere and Dawes, meanwhile, decided to ride on toward Concord, where the militia's arsenal was hidden. They were joined by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by British troops in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to nearby Concord. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped Into the Woods; Dawes also escaped though soon after he fell off his horse and did not complete the ride. Revere was detained and questioned and then escorted at gunpoint by three British officers back toward Lexington. As morning broke and they neared Lexington Meeting-house, shots were heard. The British officers became alarmed, confiscated Revere's horse and rode toward the Meeting-house. Revere was horseless and walked through a cemetery and pastures until he came to Rev. Clarke's house where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green continued, Revere helped John Hancock and his family escape from Lexington with their possessions, including a trunk of Hancock's papers. The warning delivered by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops in Concord, who were harried by guerrilla fire along the road back to Boston. Prescott, who knew the countryside well even in the dark, arrived at Concord in time to warn the people there.

Revere's role was not particularly noted during his life. In 1861, over 40 years after his death, the ride became the subject of "Paul Revere's Ride", a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem has become one of the best known in American history and was memorized by generations of schoolchildren. Its famous opening lines are:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year

Today, parts of the ride are posted with signs marked "Revere's Ride". The full ride used Main Street in Charlestown, Broadway and Main Street in Somerville, Main Street and High Street in Medford, to Arlington center, and Massachusetts Avenue the rest of the way (an old alignment through Arlington Heights is called "Paul Revere Road").

Myths and Legends of the Midnight RideIn his poem, Longfellow took many liberties with the events of the evening, most especially giving sole credit to Revere for the collective achievements of the three riders (as well as the other riders whose names do not survive to history). Longfellow also depicts the lantern signal in the Old North Church as meant for Revere and not from him, as was actually the case. Other inaccuracies include claiming that Revere rode triumphantly into Concord instead of Lexington, and a general lengthening of the time frame of the night's events. For a long time, though, historians of the American Revolution as well as textbook writers relied almost entirely on Longfellow's poem as historical evidence - creating substantial misconceptions in the minds of the American people. In re-examining the episode, some historians in the 20th century have attempted to demythologize Paul Revere almost to the point of marginalization. While it is true that Revere was not the only rider that night, that does not refute the fact that Revere was riding and successfully completed the first phase of his mission to warn Adams and Hancock. Other historians have since stressed his importance, including David Hackett Fischer in his book Paul Revere's Ride (1995), an important scholarly study of Revere's role in the opening of the Revolution.

Popular myths and urban legends have persisted, though, concerning Revere's ride, mainly due to the tendency in the past to take Longfellow's poem as truth. Other riders such as Israel Bissell and Sybil Ludington are often suggested as having completed much more impressive rides than Revere's; however, the circumstances behind the others' rides were entirely different (Bissell was a news-carrier riding from Boston to Philadelphia with news of the battle at Lexington; Revere had made similar rides with the news in the years preceding the war. The only evidence for Ludington's ride is an oral tradition.) Longfellow's poem was never designed to be history and there are few serious historians today who would maintain that Revere was anything like the lone-wolf rider portrayed in the poem.

Answer 3

Probably the "Midnight Ride" of Paul Revere in 1775, the American Revolution, to warn re the British Army (or else Tam O'Shanter by poet Robbie Burns when he escaped from the witches!). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere

Answer 4

Paul Revere started for Concord, but was arrested outside of Lexington by a British patrol. He never finished the ride. Over 100 years later in 1860 Longfellow in his poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" changed history by telling a story of Revere riding through the countryside warning that the "British was coming". Longfellow was the civil war. Yet, the poem has been seen as fact since that time and has even been written in history books as fact. It is not.

Answer 5

to ride in midnight

Answer 6

In April 18 1775

Answer 7

April 18-19 1775