BOSTON – The historic midnight ride of Paul Revere is set to be reenacted Monday but with some modern-day tweaks: It will be run in the middle of the day, and the horse and rider will get a police escort.
Revere's ride took place on April 18, 1775, when the silversmith and express rider was dispatched to Lexington to warn Revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. He then headed to Concord to warn about raids on military stockpiles.
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Revere reached Lexington around midnight, and another rider, William Dawes, got there along a different route soon after with the same message.
Their efforts resulted in militiamen, muskets in hand, confronting a much larger contingent of British regulars marching from Boston on the Lexington Battle Green. The British regulars were eventually chased back to Boston, where militias pinned them down for 11 months in what became known as the Siege of Boston.
“It’s important because you have to have someone to meet the British troops,” said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which owns and operates The Paul Revere House. “It becomes a turning point. If no patriots had turned out on the green and the British had just rolled into town, it would have been different. But they actually meet resistance.”
The reenactor, dressed in Colonial costume and accompanied by another horseman, will roughly trace the route taken by Revere 251 years ago. The ride will start in Boston’s North End and head to Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Arlington before finishing in Lexington — all communities where Revere alerted militias about British movements.
Some aspects of the historic night will not be part of the event, such as Revere taking a boat to Charlestown before starting his ride.
Nor will there be Revere's brief detention by a British patrol on his way to Concord after leaving Lexington. Revere was ultimately let go without his horse after convincing the British that hundreds of patriots were waiting for them, and he returned to Lexington to see the end of the battle.
“It’s basically important that he leaves Boston. He rides. He’s alerting people. Other people are out,” Zannieri said. “He starts a chain reaction, and he accomplishes his mission even though he gets stopped and held. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.”
While Revere dodged patrols and contended with rutted and muddy roads, his 21st-century counterpart will have it easy, traversing pavement the entire way and passing through a world of stoplights, car dealerships and bustling downtowns that Revere never could have imagined. The 2026 Boston Marathon takes place at the same time, though the routes will not overlap.
Michelle DiCarlo-Domey, who organizes the ride each year for the National Lancer, the state's historic mounted cavalry unit, said thousands come out to see history come alive and show their patriotism. The National Lancer has been holding the Revere and Dawes ride for over 110 years.
“Whenever you can interact with the riders and the horses, it can help carry history on,” DiCarlo-Domey said. “Kids can relate to what they learn in school. And where else do you see two horses running down the street?”