The Virginia Convention of March 23, 1775 is re-enacted every Sunday in summer at 2 pm with actors representing Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry and others. After the performance inside, costumed colonials line the path to greet tourists attending the event. Photo by Rich Grant.
America is going through a period of uncertainty in 2025, but one thing is clear. Exactly 250 years ago, in March and April 1775, two individuals uttered sentences that changed world history. They were not presidents or generals. One was a preacher, the other a silversmith. But as we approach the 250th Anniversary of their actions, it is fascinating that most of the buildings and sites associated with these events have been preserved and today offer a time travel experience to go back and live through the period that created the American Revolution. Here are the stories of Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.
Patrick Henry at St. John’s Church in Richmond VA
While the actual shooting war of the American Revolution didn’t start until a month later, it was in Virginia, the richest and largest of the 13 colonies, on March 23, 1775, that one of the pivotal events took place. Every school kid knows Patrick Henry’s stirring words, “Give me liberty or give me death,” but few people understand the context of those words or how important they were at the time.
That’s easily remedied by visiting St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA, where every Sunday this summer at 2 p.m., actors in costume re-enact the dramatic event exactly where it took place. While the 250th Anniversary re-enactment on March 23, 2025 is sold out, it will be live streamed for free here with an introduction by history filmmaker Ken Burns.
As you visit the pretty church grounds, enter the building and sit in the old wood pews, you are transported back to a deeply divided America of 13 colonies who had been feuding with England about taxation and representation for five years. Boston, hundreds of miles away, had gone into open rebellion and as a result, King George III sent thousands of British soldiers to the town to restore law and order. In the process, Boston’s economy was destroyed.
What was Virginia going to do about this? Would they risk destroying their own economy and even their lives to help a fellow colony hundreds of miles away? Or would they opt instead for compromise with the King?
Every Sunday afternoon during the summer of 2025, St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia will present in historic tableau the most inspired seeeches of 1775. The prose presentations that moved a reluctant society to rebel against their British brothers will be followed informal conversations outside the church. Photo by Rich Grant
That was the question before the regular meeting of Virginia representatives called the House of Burgesses. They usually met in the capitol of Williamsburg, but that’s where the Royal Governor had his palace and power. Instead, they met secretly in the then-small village of Richmond, away from prying British eyes. Though very small, the St. John’s Church (then known as Henrico Parish Church) was the only place large enough to hold a meeting. Into it came one of the most remarkable set of men in history. For three days men like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and others debated the big question: Was it madness to support Massachusetts and go to war against the strongest army and navy on earth? Or was it more important to risk everything for the chance of creating a new society based on liberty and personal freedom?
In the re-enactment, dramatic actors in authentic clothing and wigs portray all the key participants, throwing charge and countercharge across the room, shouting, interrupting each other, and all making a good argument for their opinion, especially the safe opinion that it was insanity to challenge the British Empire when there was still an opportunity to submit for peace.
And then Patrick Henry had the opportunity to make the last speech. It ends with him shouting, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Your hair will stand on end. In this church, with those words, Patrick Henry narrowly carried the vote, and Virginia went into a state of military preparation in support of Boston. Had they not, there might never have been an American Revolution.
As you exit the church, all the re-enactors stay in costume and in character and line a path to discuss the history of what you just witnessed. It is an event not to be missed.
The perspective of 250 years allows these costumed actors to explain the passions attending the brewing rebellion in 1775. Photo by Rich Grant
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
In 1862, during the dark days of the Civil War, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was looking for a subject that would give the Union hope. He found his inspiration in the forgotten tale of a silversmith express rider of the Revolution. His poem began:
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.
When he wrote those lines, he was correct — hardly anyone had heard of Paul Revere. The early histories of the American Revolution didn’t mention him. Today, Paul Revere is an institution. You can tour his house, see his portrait, buy reproductions of his silver work, walk the streets he walked, have a drink in his favorite tavern and even leave pennies on his grave. In a city that spawned a revolution, there is no greater figure than Paul Revere — a fact that would have surprised every Boston resident in 1775, the modest Paul Revere most of all.
In 1775 he was just another rebel, a member of a group called the “Sons of Liberty.” He led a contingent of 30 “mechanics,” as artisans called themselves, whose purpose was to watch the redcoats. Whenever the British army tried a foray into the countryside, Revere and his men acted as express riders to spread the alarm.
Boston, then the third largest city in the colonies, was divided by political differences that often spilled over into physical violence. The political divide was so strong that families had to choose a side – rebel or loyalist — with the result that relatives stopped talking to each other, including Ben Franklin, who stopped communicating with his son. Newspapers were all one-sided, giving only their political half of the story. Worst of all, there was an abundance of weapons; nearly everyone owned a gun.
By 1775, the British retaliated against the rebels by closing the port of Boston and imposing military rule. It was this action that led to Patrick Henry’s speech, throwing Virginia’s support to Boston, the powder keg of protest.
And then it exploded.
A Fatal Misunderstanding
The British colonial governor in Boston, Thomas Gage, had often sent occupying British troops out into the countryside to demonstrate that the British had complete control over the colony and could march unhindered wherever they liked. The troops, however, were under strict orders not to fire or escalate a situation if they encountered rebels.
To the Sons of Liberty, these British marches had the reverse effect. The British marches emboldened the rebels, who came to feel that if they just showed strength and stood their ground, the British redcoats would always back down.
Both views were to soon be tested in the pale light of early morning on a pretty village green in Lexington.
Like many a good tale, this story begins in a tavern. On the afternoon of April 18, a 13-year-old boy named Sam Ballard was in Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern where he overheard two British officers talking about a raid to Lexington and Concord to arrest revolutionary leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. Ballard told the landlord at the Green Dragon, who sent a messenger to Paul Revere’s house.
The original Green Dragon was torn down in 1854, but a reconstruction was built nearby at 11 Marshall Street. Although not an exact reproduction, it’s a great Irish bar with a colonial feel of wood floors, muskets on the walls, old lanterns and a large painting that helps you imagine the Green Dragon as it must have appeared in 1775.
After a pint in the tavern, it’s a pleasant ten-minute walk through Boston’s historic streets to Paul Revere’s house. Built between 1650 and 1680, the Revere House is the oldest dwelling in Boston. It is the only colonial building of this type to survive in the heart of an American city. Paul Revere lived here for 30 years (1770-1800). The gray dwelling with its second story overhang was restored in 1907 to reflect both its original 17th-century appearance and the later Revere period.
It is now a museum where on self-guided tours it is possible to rub shoulders with hundreds of international visitors as you squeeze up narrow stairways to view rooms and exhibits that continue the story.
Boston in 1775 was filled with spies, and bits of information had been coming to Revere’s house all day. No one was sure exactly what the British were up to, but something was afoot, so Paul Revere was ordered to gather up his spurs and riding boots and set off on a 20-mile ride to Lexington to spread the alarm.
His first stop, which you can follow, was right around the corner to the Old North Church. Built in 1723, it is Boston’s oldest standing church. Though the steeple was rebuilt a number of times, it is today as tall and white against a blue sky as it would have been 225 years ago. A small museum in the church continues the tale.
Historical re-enactments are scheduled throughout the summer. As was the case 250 years ago, none of the battles seem very conclusive. But all contribute to an understanding of the pace of warfare. Photo by Rich Grant
In 1775, before massive landfill projects, Boston was located on a neck of land surrounded by water. If the British sealed off the neck, an express rider would be trapped within the city. The solution was to send a message out of Boston across the river by light. Revere planned for the church sexton, Robert Newman, to watch the British troops depart and then hang lanterns in the Old North, which offered the highest steeple in the city. The code was one lantern if the British were leaving for Lexington by land over the neck, two if by sea ferried over the river.
About 10 p.m., with two lanterns dimly glowing across the water and the moon rising, Revere had himself rowed with muffled oars across the Charles River, directly under the guns of an English ship. On the other side, associates tipped off by the lanterns provided him with a swift New England Saddlebred horse named Brown Beauty, and he set off for Lexington. Wadsworth’s poem continued:
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night.
A sea of suburbia has settled around Boston into what was once farm country with stone walls and twisting dirt lanes. There is no point retracing the exact route of Paul Revere; it’s easier to follow the Concord Turnpike and head directly to Lexington. It was here, at the Hancock-Clarke House, that Paul Revere finally arrived at midnight, his horse’s flanks coated with sweat and blood. A sergeant guarding the house told him to stop making noise, people were sleeping.
“Noise!” Revere shouted. “You’ll have noise enough before long.” And then he said his famous line: “The Regulars are coming out!”
This was as close as he ever came to the famous, “The British are coming!” That would have been an insane thing to say. In 1775, everyone in Massachusetts was British. Rather than shouting that out as he rode to Lexington, an elaborate alarm system was in place. Revere knew the houses of militia captains and was able to inform them, and they in turn informed their “Minute Men” (militia trained to be ready to turn out in a minute’s notice) by ringing church bells and firing warning cannons.
A Beautiful Place For War
Lexington is still a very pretty little village and the yellow house where Hancock and Adams were staying has been preserved with furnishings and portraits owned by the Hancock family. Of particular interest are exhibits from the coming battle, which include William Diamond’s drum — the very instrument the young man beat to call the militia to the town green, which is our next stop a five-minute walk away. The traditional New England town center is a lovely grass park surrounded by white houses and churches. On the edge of the green is the Buckman Tavern. It was here that Revere later wrote, he “refreshed” himself after the long ride (no doubt with a tankard of ale) before setting off yet again, this time to spread the alarm to Concord. The Buckman Tavern is also where the militia began gathering at one in the morning while waiting for the possible arrival of the British soldiers.
You can stand in this same room today, and look out the window toward the green, trying to imagine what it would be like in the pale light of an April morning for a group of minute men to see 700 of the world’s finest troops in their bright red coats as they marched into town.
Though Revere and others did not know for certain, British General Gage had planned a special forces operation unlike any before. In 18th-century linear warfare, the flanks of an army were the most vulnerable, so every regiment had two special companies for the right and left flanks: light infantry, which were the most athletic men, trained to act independently, and grenadiers, who were all over six feet tall and wore bear skin hats to make them seem even more formidable.
Gage assembled these flank companies from every regiment and combined them with Royal Marines to make a strike force of unusual power. The troops were to carry only one day’s rations and were to make a forced march to Lexington, capture the rebel leaders if possible, and then proceed to Concord to destroy a cache of weapons and gunpowder.
As the minutemen gathered in the tavern, Revere raced for Concord, but his luck finally ran out when on the pitch-black road, he galloped into an advance party of British cavalry. An English officer clapped a pistol to his head and threatened to “blow his brains out.” There is a historic marker that indicates the site of his capture.
But for the British, it was too late. Revere had warned Lexington and his companion riders William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott (left out of the poem, no doubt, because their names are harder to rhyme) got through to Concord.
Back in Buckman’s Tavern, the rebel militia commander, Captain John Parker, began to doubt the British were coming. He sent lookouts down the road and relaxed the men. And then everything happened quickly. The lookouts came running with the news that “a thousand redcoats” were just minutes from town. Parker assembled 77 armed minutemen on the green in two rows. It’s hard to know what he was thinking. They were outnumbered ten to one. Parker must have believed that the British, as they had in the past, would just march by.
But British regulars were in a frenzy. Hearing church bells and cannons, they knew their secret operation was discovered. There was no possibility of a standoff. With shrill fifes piercing the morning air and drums beating, the redcoat column marched on to the green in anger and without orders fanned out into a line 30 yards wide. The rebel captain Parker finally realized his situation was untenable and dismissed his men, telling them to scatter. A redcoat officer yelled, “Lay down your arms, you damn rebels!”
Then a Shot Rings Out
No one knows who fired it. It was a “shot heard round the world.” The redcoats went wild and fired a volley into the standing militia. They reloaded and fired again and then broke and chased the rebels with fixed bayonets. British officers on horses rode into the chaos, slashing with their swords at their own men trying to bring them back to order, but it was hopeless as the slaughter continued.
A typical musket in 1775 fired a lead ball three-quarters of an inch in diameter. At point-blank range it did frightful damage, no matter what part of a human body it hit. Eight militia were down dead, ten wounded. Rebel Jonathan Harrington managed to crawl off the green, only to die in a pool of blood in front of his own family at his front door.
British drummers finally sounded “cease-fire” and troops returned to order, but it was far too late. Many of the British officers realized it would be suicide to continue to Concord. But orders were orders. The redcoat column reformed and with drums beating, marched once again down the road.
Rather than follow that route, it’s better to drive now to Concord and Minute Man National Historic Park. The visitor center has films and exhibits on the battle but the best is to take the short walk out to North Bridge, an elegant curving arched wood bridge that looks so tranquil and peaceful it’s hard to picture it as a battlefield.
Built in 1716, Concord’s Colonial Inn still serves excellent 18th-century cuisine. It survived British Regulars and British Colonials on the night of April 18, 1775 perhaps because the bar stayed open. Photo by Rich Grant
But a battle it was. When the redcoats arrived in Concord, they began a house-to-house search for weapons and sent three companies out to guard this bridge and protect their northern flank from the forming rebel militia who were outraged and swirling in all directions. Back in Concord, the redcoats were burning captured military supplies when a house accidentally caught fire. Ironically, redcoat soldiers joined the bucket brigade to put the fire out, but rebel militia at the North Bridge could only see the smoke and thought the soldiers were burning the entire town. Some 500 rebels advanced on the bridge. Falling back, the outnumbered redcoats formed in two lines on the bridge, and again, someone unknown fired. The single musket was followed by a full volley from the British. Two patriots fell and a rebel leader yelled, “Fire! For God’s sake fire!” Five hundred patriot muskets exploded, and two British soldiers fell dead, with eight or ten wounded. It was the first time Americans had fired at British troops.
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm yard wall.
What happened in the next few hours changed the world. The British began their long retreat to Boston, with minutemen sniping at them from behind every barn and stonewall. You can follow and walk along the retreat for five miles on the national park’s Battle Road. It is one of the great battlefield walks of the world, virtually unchanged. The road of the battle is clay and gravel and winds through the same countryside of fields and woods, passing by historic homes and a tavern that looks exactly as they would have appeared.
Muskets back then were barely accurate to 100 yards, so British light infantry were sent out as flankers to protect the retreating column and keep the rebel Minutemen farther away. But by this time in the battle, as many as 3,500 militia were swarming the countryside, steading their muskets on stone walls and blazing away at the massed red column as it snaked along the road. Thirsty and tired (the redcoats would march 40 miles this day!), the British column entered an unending nightmarish hell. Bullets zipped around them, occasionally striking bone, and flesh with terrible effect. Soldiers would try to help a wounded comrade down the road, but this only slowed progress and made both men targets for another hit. The Minutemen would fire, then run away to get ahead of the column and fire at them again.
By nightfall, 273 of the King’s troops were killed, wounded, or missing, along with 95 casualties among the colonialists. It is impossible to overestimate the impact the high casualties had on both sides. In today’s U.S. population, it would be the equivalent of 30,000 troops killed or wounded in a single day – a level of violence as shocking as Pearl Harbor or 9-11.
No Going Back
The American Revolution had begun. And it had begun to a considerable extent because of Paul Revere. His network of express riders was able to spread the message so well, that by the end of the day, almost 4,000 militia had mobilized and fought in the battle, coming from as far as 20 miles away.
Perhaps as we reach the 250th anniversary of the famous ride, and America becomes more and more divided, a new “Paul Revere” will emerge “in the hour of darkness and peril and need” with a message not of war and violence, but of peace and reconciliation that reminds us that, unlike in 1775, we are now one nation with common interests, hopes and dreams.
IF YOU GO….
Best Book To Read First: Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer, Oxford University Press 1994, is the best account of the ride and the fighting at Lexington and Concord. It reads like a novel with spies, daring escapes and bloody battles.
250th Anniversary All of the sites associated with the ride and battles will have special 250th Anniversary events, which can be found at this site.
Freedom Trail This 2.5-mile-long walk (marked by red bricks or a painted red stripe) is easy to follow as you move from the site of the Boston Common to the Boston Massacre and on to Bunker Hill. An interesting stop is the Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, John Hancock and Sam Adams are laid to rest, and the Old State House, built in 1713. Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market are two of the city’s biggest tourist stops and are along the trail and worth a look. Don’t assume everything interesting is on the trail – there are many great things to see a block or two off. The trail was created in the 1950s and many things have changed…but it’s a good start.
Opened in 1826, it claims to be America’s oldest restaurant and it’s certainly one of Boston’s most famous seafood houses. Photo by Rich Grant
Green Dragon Tavern, 11 Marshall Street. The historic-looking tavern today attracts a young crowd and has live music, but it is still worth a look and a beer. Better for meals is to head next door to the Union Oyster House. Opened in 1826, it claims to be America’s oldest restaurant and it’s certainly one of Boston’s most famous seafood houses. It’s a huge, rambling place with lots of different rooms, creaking wood floorboards and plenty of atmosphere. Sit at the unique circular raw bar on the main floor and watch them shuck your oysters and clams or ask to sit in the Kennedy room (this was John F. Kennedy’s favorite Boston restaurant and there is a plaque at the booth where he often ate). There are five Irish pubs adjacent or a short walk from Oyster House and this is one of Boston’s most popular streets of bars. If you want to go to a bar where Paul Revere drank, you must go to the Warren Tavern in Charleston. John, Paul, and George (Hancock, Revere and Washington) all drank here. It’s at the base of Bunker Hill and was the first building rebuilt after the British burned the town during the famous battle. Worth a stop, but the interior is more local pub than historic site.
The Paul Revere House, 19 North Square, It doesn’t look like much from the outside but go through the gate there’s an interesting courtyard and the interior rooms are well worth the entrance fee. Some of the rooms have the original floorboards.
Old North Church, 193 Salem Street, Open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s beautiful inside and out. The Paul Revere statue is in a park behind the church. As you walk around Boston and Charleston, always keep an eye out for the church tower. It was the highest building in Boston in 1775 (which is why it was perfect for the signal lamps) and is still one of the most prominent buildings in the North End Italian district. The neighborhood is even better. There are five Italian bakeries within a musket shot and dozens of Italian restaurants nearby.
Statue of Paul Revere with Old North Church in the background. The church steeple remains one of the highest structures in North Boston. Photo by Rich Grant
Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington contains furnishings and portraits owned by the Hancock and Clarke families and exhibits from the Battle of Lexington. 36 Hancock Street, Lexington.
Buckman Tavern, across from Battle Green in Lexington, appears very much today as it did on the fateful morning in 1775.
Minute Man National History Park, preserves 900 acres of land of the battlefields of Lexington and Concord. They have done a spectacular job of preserving parts of the road along which the battle took place, and today you can hike or bike five miles of the Battle Road Trail. It’s particularly nice from the Paul Revere Capture Site to the Minute Man Visitor Center, or from Hartwell Tavern to the Bloody Angle, scene of the most severe fighting. The Hartwell Tavern is the most picturesque stop of the trip. Walking along the trail here is like strolling into an 18th-century painting. The North Bridge in Concord is another very pretty area with a nice trail.
There was no U.S. Army at the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. The Minute Men, like the one depicted here in Lexington, were farmers and shopkeepers. Photo by Rich Grant
Longfellow National Historic Site preserves the home in which poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived from 1837 to 1882, including the time when he wrote his famous poem about Paul Revere. George Washington was headquartered here for 16 months from 1775 to 1776. Located in Cambridge at 105 Brattle St.
Docked in Charleston where Paul Revere began his midnight ride, the USS Constitution is still a recognized warship in the U.S. Navy. Photo by Rich Grant
USS Constitution. Built in 1797, this is the oldest warship still floating in the world. Paul Revere did the copper sheathing for the 54-gun frigate. A craftsman, Revere dabbled in metal trades including engraving and early dentistry. Free tours let you stroll the two-gun decks. Next door is the Constitution Museum which has interactive displays on the great battles of “Old Ironsides,” as well as fun exhibits on how to sail a three-masted frigate. You can arrive here from downtown Boston by ferry, following the same route across the water that Paul Revere took before his ride. Walk along the waterfront in Charleston and you can stumble on a marker that indicates the approximate site where Revere landed and met his horse, Brown Beauty.