FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2023-73 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (April 18, 2023) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps from Steve Kovacs, we celebrate the anniversary of a heroic horseback ride.

Silversmith Hero

Much of what you think you know about the specifics of the following event is false.

The truth is that Paul Revere, a prosperous silversmith, and William Dawes did ride from Boston ten miles to Lexington, Massachusetts on the night of April 18, 1775, to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the approaching British military force. 

They received a lantern signal from Robert Newman as ordered by Revere, sitting at the spiral of the Boston New Church. 

All this helped the Colonists to win the soon following battles.

So what poetic license, also known as lies, did Longfellow take in his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” he wrote in 1860, a few generations later? 

Longfellow omitted that Revere ordered the lookout to be positioned at the Church.  He omitted Dawes’s key role.  He lengthened the whole event and the destination of the riders.  He fictionalized rowing across the Charles River – other Colonists did so and not Revere.  Longfellow did actually research the event, but he chose to use his poetic license.

Massachusetts is shown in this pictorial map by Ruth T White from 1938.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.