Richard Ustick

Apollos Rivoire, 13 years old, sailed to Boston on November 15, 1715. Entered the shop of a Yankee artisan. His master died 7 years later, and Apollos bought his freedom and set himself up as a goldsmith in Boston.

1729, Apollos married a Yankee girl named Deborah. Their son, Paul Revere, was baptized in Boston, on December 22, 1734.

When Paul was a child, he and his friends founded a bell ringers association, to ring the bells for the church once a week for two hours. This is seen as a foreshadow to events that would transpire later in his life. He drew up a solemn covenant with his friends, and instituted a government. They agreed to a moderator, to be changed every three months. All changes and business and differences will be voted on and majority wins, nobody will be admitted to the group without unanimous vote, and no one shall beg for money.

Apollos died in 1754, Paul took over the metalworking business. He knew the value of money and even charged his widowed mother room and board in his home, as was customary.

His chief employment was as a silversmith. Most of his business was repair and mending.

In 1757 he married his first wife, and first child came 8 months later. 8 more children were born, and his first wife died in 1773. 5 months later he remarried to a woman 11 years younger. They had 8 more children.

Of Paul’s 16 children, 5 died as infants and another 5 in early adulthood. His father died when he was 19 and his mother died when he was 42.

Paul valued the status of “Gentleman”.

Summer 1774 – General Gage was the most powerful man in North America.

Hated the town of Boston and could not comprehend the gripes of the American people.

He was the younger son of an aristocratic Angle-Catholic family in Sussex, south England.

Liked the army. Found comfort in discipline.

As a junior officer, he was present at the defeat at Fontenoy (May 11, 1745).

Commanded the vanguard against the French at Ohio valley on July 9, 1755. Was wounded and improvised a rear guard that allowed escape of a few survivors.

During the French – Indian war, he raised a Light Armed infantry regiment, which he lead in a frontal assault on a fortified position. This resulted in a disaster.

In 1759 he was promoted to Brigadier general, and given command of a British expedition to capture Montreal, which failed to even start.

As a young lieutenant, his nickname was “Honest Tom”.

General Gage’s Dilemma: Ordered to treat inhabitants on all occasions with lenity, moderation and justice, that they may be permitted to enjoy common rights of mankind unmolested. On the other hand, he declared “lenient measures and the cautious and legal exertion of the coercive powers of government, have served only to render them more daring and licentious”.

Outbreak over the Stamp Act in 1765 took Gage by surprise. He attempted bribery to encourage submission. When that failed, Gage, in 1768, brought 2 regiments of British Infantry into the town and quartered them among the population. He unwisely chose a bad regiment known for its poor discipline, violent clashes with civilians and hot-tempered officers, and this same regiment later fired into the crowd of civilians, an incident known as the “Boston Massacre”.

Gage believed democracy was the root of the problems. He proposed confining colonists to the coastlines to be more accessible to law and government influence, and abolish town meetings, to be replaced by British borough governments. He also proposed to limit access to law and shift trials involving politics to England.

In 1774, the Parliament enacted the “Coercive Acts”, that were modeled after General Gage’s ideas. The Boston port was closed, the Massachusetts government was modified, town meetings were curtailed, and trials for political offences were transferred to England.

General Gage attempted intervention into town meetings, and was usually responded to with legalistic arguments by Boston leaders.

Gage proposed to disarm New England by a series of small, surgical operations. Not intended to provoke war but to prevent one.

Early in the morning of September 1, 1774, General Gage began his plan. His first step was to seize the largest stock of gunpowder in New England, under authority as governor of Massachusetts.

Lieutenant Colonel George Maddison and 260 picked men used longboats, and at 0430, they sailed across the harbor. The keys were retrieved from the sheriff and all 250 half barrels were carried from the building to the boats and delivered to Boston.

The colonists interpreted this as an act of war, and word spread around the countryside. Colonists geared up and prepared their supplies and weaponry.

The man who told General Gage of the colonist gunpowder withdraws, William Brattle, was exiled and a fugitive for the rest of his life.

The mob visited Colonel David Phips, the sheriff who gave up the keys, and made him swear in writing that he would never enforce the Coercive acts.

Imperial leaders were laboring to remove the physical means of resistance, while the New England Whigs were promoting the spiritual will to resist.

General Gage ordered the town of Boston to be closed and fortified. Inhabitants were ordered to surrender their weapons. Stocks of powder and arms in the possession of merchants were forcibly purchased by the Crown. Gage then urged that the Coercive acts be suspended until more troops were sent to Boston.

A convention met in Worcester on September 21, 1774, and urged town meetings to organize special companies of minutemen. It also recommended that a system of alarms and express riders be organized throughout the colony.

British created a plan to secure the munitions and gunpowder in New Hampshire at Fort William and Mary. Paul Revere and his friends decided to warn the people of New Hampshire to an incoming ship, which turned out to be incorrect. The militiamen mustered to attack the British fort, which was manned by 6 soldiers. In other cities as well, cannon and munitions had been removed from forts and hidden in the interior.

Harsh winter, bad water, minimal food, and cheap alcohol took its toll on the British army. Boredom and garrison life led to drinking and desertion, and soldiers would sell their weapons for rum. General Gage even executed a few of his own men.

Colonists rewarded British army deserters with money and clothes. Some Whig leaders passed word that deserters would receive 300 acres of land for deserting.

British officers were very anxious to attack and angry that they were not permitted to do so.

Due to a auditory misunderstanding, British officers cries of “fie” were received by the colonists as “fire”, during a meeting. The meetinghouse occupants scrambled to clear out, and once outside, they heard the fifes and drums of the passing-by British, and thought they were under attack.

General Gage was the subject of many political cartoons printed in publications.

In January 1775, General Gage received a letter informing him more troops were on the way, but not the 20,000 he had asked for. He would receive 700, and if he wanted more he should seek to raise a infantry corps from “friends of government in New England”.

The King’s ministers were optimistic, as insurrections in Ireland, Scotland, the Colonies and England itself had been regularly suppressed. The trouble in Boston was perceived as nothing more than a routine disturbance.

General Gage had already begun preparations for the upcoming conflict, and vowed to avoid disasters such as those of the past.

The Whigs were too making preparations for the upcoming conflict, after receiving word from friends in England that the army was preparing to move against them.

The colonists were prepared to fight, but did not wish to sacrifice the moral advantage. If shots had to be fired, it was important that the British fired first.

Each side recognized the importance of intelligence, and were busy collecting it. The British collected from the top down. The Americans collected from the bottom up.

After General Gage sent a pair of officers on foot to survey the countryside, he decided on Concord as a target.

In his handwritten orders, General Gage made no mention of arresting Whig leaders, because he knew there was no solid command structure. He also believed in the rule of law and did not believe in arbitrary arrests.

General Gage’s error was the underestimation of the quality of leadership among the colonists.

General Gage dispatched 20 soldiers to intercept messengers. They patrolled the countryside, and one night, as a farmer came out of his house and saw them, believing them to be messengers, he asked what of the British forces. One of Gage’s men slashed him in the head, and told him never to speak of what happened. The farmer promptly bandaged his wounds and rode off to spread the news of what happened.