Most folks know about Paul Revere, the American Revolutionary War hero. He was the guy who rode through the Massachusetts countryside on April 18, 1775 warning residents that the British were coming. His plan was to hang a light -
one if by land
two if by sea
- in the North Church tower in Boston. Most folks remember him and not his companions, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott.
Because the British captured him, Revere never reached Concord that fateful night when the war began. Thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, though, American school children for more than a hundred years memorized the poem that made Revere famous.
But there is another, virtually unknown story that substantially diminished Paul Revere's standing as a soldier. He stood trial on charges of cowardice and insubordination in a military court martial.