The Midnight Riders

The Midnight Riders. Minute Man National Historical Park, Mass. In September of 1774, Patriot leaders initiated a system of alarms and express riders to warn all towns whenever British troops marched out of Boston., On April 18th, at about 10:00 in the evening, two riders set out from Boston ahead of 700 British troops. William Dawes took the land route south of Boston. Paul Revere crossed the Charles River, obtained a horse, and began his ride. They stopped in Lexington to warn Patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams, then headed on to Concord, where military supplies for the colony were stored., As he two men alerted the countryside, other towns sent more riders out into the night. About 4,000 Massachusetts Militia and Minute Men took up arms and arrived in time to fight on April 19th. By day’s end, about 20,000 were on the march., “One if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.” , Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Paul Revere’s Ride (1861) has helped make the alarm rider an American icon.