Kostya Kennedy on the 250th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride

 

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of one of our nation’s most famous founding events: The legendary midnight ride of Paul Revere – now newly told with extraordinary research into little-known aspects of the story that we’ve heard about since childhood but hardly understood

"THE RIDE: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America" By Kostya Kennedy (St. Martin's Press)

On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and staunch anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on the most famous horse ride in American history. A century later it inspired the poem and legend of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” But the story is deeper and richer than we’ve all assumed. Acclaimed writer and editor Kostya Kennedy, through extraordinary and extensive research, has uncovered new and enlightening information on that amazing - including the women who were involved and African Americans in Boston - event presented now in his new book, THE RIDE: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America (St. Martin’s Press, $30.00).

Revere was not the only rider on the night of April 18, 1775, but he was by far the most critical. The Patriots best and most trusted “express rider” he had already completed at least 18 previous rides throughout New England, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years following – as the American Revolution transitioned from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war – became one of our founding tales.

In THE RIDE, Kostya Kennedy presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of Revere’s ride, informed by fresh primary and secondary research into archives, family letters and diaries, contemporary accounts, and more. What he found are never before, or rarely, discussed events, before and after the ride, including:

*On the night of the ride, Paul Revere was already the go-to rider for the revolution, called upon to make the most critical rides: in December 1773 he rode hundreds of miles south to New York and Philadelphia to deliver news of The Boston Tea Party.

*Revere never said, “The British are coming!” during the ride.

*On the night of the ride, Revere rode on a borrowed horse that was then taken from him by British officers; Revere never saw the horse again.

*The “sea,” in “one if by land, two if by sea,” refers to the Charles River.

*Revere intentionally did not carry his pistol on the night of the ride, which may have saved his life.

*At the start of the ride, Revere was rowed quietly over the Charles River from Boston to Charlestown, along the way eluding lookouts stationed on a British warship.

*Other riders galloped through the countryside that night carrying the alarm and nearly all of them were set in motion by Revere’s alarm.

*Only one other rider departed from Boston, William Dawes, who left over land across Boston Neck; as Dawes got past British guards he pretended he was a drunk country bumpkin.

Kennedy’s work shows the Revere ride to be vastly more complex than is usually portrayed. It was a coordinated ride of some 40 men that included near-disasters, capture by British forces, and ultimately success. While Paul Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, the author reveals the myriad other men – and women! – who proved crucial to the events that helped set in motion what would lead to America’s independence.

About the Author: Kostya Kennedy is an editor at Dotdash Meredith and a former Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, Pete Rose: An American Dilemma and True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson. All three won the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. He has taught at Columbia University and New York University, and lives in Westchester County, NY.