1775 Boston:  Thanks to two Liberty riders, Lexington and Concord minutemen were warned of the Redcoat advance on their towns.  Details of the midnight warning on the 18th of April are just becoming clear.

“I hung two lanterns in the Old North Church to signal a British advance by boat across the Charles River,” reported church sexton Robert Newman.  “The prearranged signal was devised in case Revere was captured crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. In that event another rider could carry the  message.  Revere rowed passed the British Somerset, arrived safely, and galloped through the countryside from Charlestown on a borrowed mare, Brown Beauty, across the Mystic River to Medford raising the alarm.  Young William Dawes carried the same warning but took the road south by way of Boston Neck, Roxbury, and Brookline and out to Lexington to meet up with Revere.  These men deserve the credit for saving Hancock and Adams and the munitions stored in Concord.”

The Boston Local