Paul Revere #2: The Ride and its consequences By mid-April 1775, the British army’s “secret” preparations for a mission to the Boston countryside were on sight for everyone to see. The scouting parties had largely finished their work. Soldiers and sailors were mending and replacing equipment, breaking out field equipment, and conducting maneuvers west of
In my lifetime, George Washington’s reputation has been transformed several times, from the pious jerk of the Parson Weems tales to the profiteer of Gore Vidal’s “An Evening With Richard Nixon” and “George Washington’s Expense Account” to a wooden figurehead who was neither a competent general nor an especially impressive president. In fact, the standards
Everybody knows the story of Paul Revere’s ride – or thinks they do: the lonely rider, galloping through a town, shouting “The Redcoats Are Coming!” In the broad scheme of the Revolution, Revere has been reduced to a bit part, his importance diminished by comments such as, “He didn’t even finish the ride, Samuel Prescott
For more than a century, from 1640 to 1763, England was consumed with Civil War, dynastic turbulence, and superpower land wars in Europe. During this time, England’s new American colonies enjoyed substantial autonomy. In 1763, at the end of what we call the French and Indian War, England found itself in possession of its own