ntal in warning the countryside of the impending British attack. He was however, undoubtedly the most effective and important of those that bravely rode through the countryside, but he had help from any number of people as the message spider webbed throughout the colonies. Another popular misconception about the midnight ride that Hackett Fischer points out to be false regards the phrase that Revere supposedly screamed to warn the towns, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Hackett Fischer points out that Revere never made this exclamation. He in fact said, "The Regulars are coming out." In reality of the time, "people of Massachusetts still thought they were British”(110). This is yet another portion of the folktale surrounding Revere's midnight ride that is, in fact, false.One of the people that are mentioned in the novel as being an important "Whig express" member was William Dawes. He and Revere began the warning of towns, but took different routes. Dawes was not as effective in this process because he did not alert the correct people so that the towns could ready themselves for the British Regulars. "Paul Revere and his fellow riders on the northern route succeeded in spreading the alarm by engaging the institutions of these rural communities, in a way that William Dawes did not"(142). The description of these types of historical figures is what makes Paul Revere's Ride so interesting. Rather than merely focusing in on Paul Revere the reader gets a better idea about the full picture of events surrounding the midnight ride.Fischer also expands the image of Paul Revere by pointing out that he was an excellent artisan. He was renowned for his silversmithing, which was his most successful occupation. "He had a brilliant eye for form, a genious for invention, and a restless energy that expressed itself in the animation of his work. Two centuries later, his pieces are cherished equally for the touchmark of...
