The Regulars Are Coming!

History 4 Minutes

Everyone knows about Paul Revere’s midnight ride, but this patriot did a lot more to help America gain its independence. Here are 11 little-known facts about the Founding Father.

His father was a Huguenot.

Revere’s father, Apollos Rivoire, was a French Huguenot refugee who fled his country as a result of religious persecution. He was born in Riocaud in 1702, but with time he lost most of his connection to France—he could not read or write the language. The Frenchman later changed his name to Paul Revere, “on account that the Bumpkins pronounce it easier.” He married Deborah Hitchbourn, a member of a very old Boston family, and passed the anglicized name, Paul, to his eldest son.

As a teen, Revere worked as a church bell ringer.

When he was around fifteen, Revere would ring the bells at the Eight Bell Church near his home. The young patriot and his friends set up a bell ringers’ association. They drafted a document that detailed the rules and guidelines for membership. Members could only be allowed into the group through a unanimous vote, members could not beg for money, and a moderator was chosen every three months to delegate work and changes within the group. The simple document focused on the fundamentals of public duty, majority vote, and community.

Revere made some interesting items in silver.

Revere’s father came to Boston as an apprentice smith. He worked for a man named John Coney for several years and purchased his freedom for forty pounds. After Revere was born, he apprenticed under his father and learned how to craft things from gold and silver. Some items include a chain for a pet squirrel, an ostrich egg snuffbox, and sword hilts. You can tell an item is made by Revere by his maker’s mark—either his last name in a rectangle, or his initials in cursive.

The silversmith was also a dentist.

When dental surgeon John Baker moved to town, Revere happily studied under him. He learned how to create false teeth out of ivory and insert them using wire. Revere became so confident in his abilities that in 1768, he placed an ad declaring he “can fix [teeth] as well as any surgeon dentist who ever came from London, he fixes them in such a manner that they are not only an ornament but of real use in speaking and eating.”

He made a lot of money. Literally.

During wartime, Revere used his smithing skills to engrave printing plates to print money in Massachusetts. He was also commissioned to design the Continental currency, money used to pay the rebel army. The new bills strangely ranged from one-sixth of a dollar to 80 dollars.

During the war, Revere accidentally engaged in some super early forensics.

After Dr. Joseph Warren was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, he was buried like others in an unmarked grave. Ten months later, the bodies were exhumed and examined. Revere was Warren’s dentist, and recognized him by his teeth: Revere had given Warren a false tooth fastened with wire. This was the first body identification done by teeth in recorded history.

He had a large family.

Revere had two wives, Sarah Orne and Rachel Walker, and he had eight children with each of them. Revere was a doting father who referred to his kids as his “little lambs.” Ten of Revere’s children perished at a young age, but he still managed to acquire 52 grandchildren.

Revere was unfailingly polite and dapper.

The patriot even dressed well on his famous midnight ride. Impressed by his garb, his captors saluted him as one of equal rank (before threatening to shoot him in the head). Even with a gun in hand, the redcoat politely asked, “May I crave your name, sir?”

He was not drunk on his midnight ride.

This urban legend took hold when the media was eager to discredit the Founding Fathers during the tumultuous era surrounding the Vietnam War. One Boston newspaper ran a story in 1968 claiming that Revere drank some rum early into his midnight ride. Revere’s drunken yelling apparently roused the patriots accidentally. While Captain Hall, a patriot stationed in Medford, did own a distillery, there is no evidence suggesting that Revere’s booze-fueled yelling truly occurred. Regardless, the unfounded accusations caught on and are often still suggested as truth.

He wasn’t the only one to go on a midnight ride.

Paul Revere and William Dawes originally planned to carry news of the invasion to Concord, where military supplies were stored, and then warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who had been targeted for capture. On the trip there, the duo would ride through Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, warning patriots as they passed through. They ran into Samuel Prescott (who was just leaving a lady friend’s house at one in the morning) in Lexington, and asked him to come along.

Revere was captured about halfway through the ride, but the others managed to escape and keep going. Revere had his horse confiscated but still managed to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams. The true hero was Prescott, who actually went through with the plan and reached Concord.

So why were the more successful criers left out of the story? One very popular—but incorrect—poem is to blame. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” starts with this very familiar stanza:

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.

This poem is filled with intentional inaccuracies. Longfellow did his research, but took many liberties in order to properly convey his message. The poet wanted to create a folk hero by painting a lone man as the midnight rider. In order to do such, he removed the extra players.

We’ve all been misquoting him.

Paul Revere and his fellow patriots never shouted, “The British are coming!” That wouldn’t have made sense, since most colonists were British. The actual warning was “the Regulars are coming out.” This misconception is another result of Longfellow’s creative license—he found the real sentence to be too wordy for his poem.

Source: Mental Floss

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168 thoughts on “The Regulars Are Coming!”

  1. so what’s the PENALTY for violating the Hatch Act?
    entire article

    Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated the Hatch Act after he advocated for the election of a Democrat, a new investigation found.

    Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said in a letter to President Joe Biden that Becerra spoke “in his official capacity” at an awards gala in September of 2022, breaking the law.

    “As explained in the accompanying report, OSC concluded that Secretary Becerra violated the Hatch Act by expressing support for Senator Alex Padilla’s reelection while speaking in his official capacity at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Annual Awards Gala on September 15, 2022,” Kerner wrote.

    “In delivering his speech, Secretary Becerra impermissibly mixed his personal electoral preference with official remarks,” the letter continued. “While federal employees are permitted to express support for candidates when speaking in their personal capacity, the Hatch Act restricts employees from doing so when speaking as a government official.”

    OSC says Sect. Becerra violated the Hatch Act. pic.twitter.com/Cyh5wWIA06

    — Philip Bump (@pbump) April 18, 2023

    “With a presidential election approaching next year, this report offers an opportunity to deter violations by reminding federal employees at all levels of the Hatch Act’s restrictions.” (RELATED: Biden HHS Secretary Unable To Say How Many Gov’t Workers Actually Show Up To Work In Federal Buildings)

    Becerra said he regrets his “inadvertent violation,” according to The Washington Post.

    “While I did not realize at the time that my off-the-cuff remarks concerning my personal voting intentions were in violation of the Hatch Act, I now understand why they were not permitted.”

    https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2023%2F04%2F18%2Fxavier-becerra-hatch-act-biden%2F

    Liked by 2 people

  2. they’re all in LOCKSTEP…hmmmmmm
    damar hamlin cleared to play football?
    FTA
    “When he left Cincinnati, he came here, it was Buffalo General [Hospital],” Beane said. “He saw a couple of specialists here in Buffalo, and then since then, he’s seen three additional specialists, most recently on Friday, and they’re all in agreement. It’s not 2-1 or 3-1 or anything like that. They’re all in lockstep of what this was and that he’s cleared, resumed full activities just like anyone else who was coming back from an injury or whatever.”

    https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/36224496/bills-damar-hamlin-ok-play-suffering-cardiac-arrest

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Liked by 1 person

  5. FILLY????? ethanol plant explodes in NE!
    entire article
    WOOD RIVER, Neb. (KSNB/Gray News) – One employee is dead, while another employee, along with three contractors, were sent to the hospital on Monday after an explosion at the Green Plains Ethanol Plant in Wood River.

    The employee was fatally injured at the facility “during routine maintenance and repairs on a whole stillage tank,” said a Green Plains spokesperson.

    The spokesperson said the plant was not operational at the time of the explosion.

    Hall County Emergency Manager Jon Rosenlund told KSNB that just before 2:45 p.m., a 911 came into the dispatch center about the explosion

    Rosenlund said Wood River Fire and EMS along with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched. He deferred all questions to the sheriff’s office, who were still on the scene around 3:30 p.m.

    The second employee and three contractors on site who were injured are receiving medical treatment, the company said.

    “We send our thoughts, prayers, and condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of our employee,” the spokesperson said.

    The company said they are cooperating with the authorities and will be investigating the accident.

    This is the same facility where a fire was reported on Friday in a grain leg.

    https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/04/18/1-killed-4-hurt-ethanol-plant-explosion-nebraska/

    Liked by 1 person

  6. “After this amazing blue swirling spiral in the sky of Alaska, now this! What is this mysterious light in the sky over Detroit, yesterday?”

    “I haven’t seen many people talking about it online…”

    “A portal to another dimension? A light pillar? Another sign from the skies?”

    “Sorry! Here’s the explanation: It’s off-gassing from a petroleum refinery in the Sarnia, Ontario area. It always does that, sometimes it’s more visible than others based on atmospheric conditions…Still cool, isn’t it?”

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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