Paul Revere’s ride was a real intelligence mission on the night of April 18–19, 1775. It was one part of a larger alarm network, not a solo dash that ended in Concord.

Why the ride happened
British General Thomas Gage ordered about 700–800 regulars to march secretly to Concord to seize colonial gunpowder, cannon, and stores. Patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren also believed (incorrectly) that the column might arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were staying in Lexington. Warren sent two riders so that if one was caught, the other might still get through. nps.gov

Paul Revere took the shorter, riskier water route: rowed across the Charles River to Charlestown, then rode.

William Dawes took the longer land route out Boston Neck.
The lantern signal

Before leaving, Revere arranged a backup signal from the steeple of Christ Church (Old North Church): one lantern if the British left Boston by land, two if they crossed the water (“by sea”). Two lanterns were shown briefly so Charlestown Patriots would know the route even if Revere never made it across.paulreverehouse.org



Original illustration of the two lanterns in the Old North Church steeple.  
Revere’s actual route

Friends rowed Revere past the British warship HMS Somerset. In Charlestown he borrowed a horse from merchant John Larkin and rode through Medford and Menotomy (Arlington), waking militia captains and households as he went. He reached Lexington around midnight and warned Adams, Hancock, and the local militia. Dawes arrived about half an hour later.
paulreverehouse.org


Original illustration of Revere riding through a Middlesex village at night.  
Capture: Revere never reached Concord

Revere and Dawes set out toward Concord and were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott of Concord, who was returning from a visit. A British patrol stopped the three men near Lincoln. Prescott jumped a wall and reached Concord with the alarm. Dawes escaped but was thrown from his horse and walked back. Revere was captured, questioned, then released without his horse. He walked back toward Lexington and was there when the first shots were fired at dawn.




battlefields.orgOriginal illustration of the three riders stopped by a British patrol.  
What Longfellow changed

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem made Revere a lone hero who rode all the way to Concord shouting “The British are coming!” In 1775, colonists still called the soldiers “Regulars” or “the King’s troops.” Revere’s job was to trigger an existing network of riders and church bells; dozens of other men spread the alarm that night. The poem is civic myth, not a dispatch.
civicsforlife.org

Why it mattered

The warnings gave Lexington time to turn out Captain John Parker’s militia and gave Concord time to hide most of the stores. When the British column reached Concord, the countryside was already under arms. The “shot heard round the world” the next morning was possible because the alarm system—Revere, Dawes, Prescott, and many unnamed riders—worked.

Revere himself was a Boston silversmith, engraver, and experienced courier for the Sons of Liberty. The midnight ride was one mission in a longer career, not the whole story of the man.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow