‘One if by land, two if by sea’
By Bill Pearsall
Putnam Municipal Historian
As America is celebrating its 250th Anniversary of Independence, there is a nationwide effort to commemorate its founding.  So let’s take a look back at events that happened before our independence took place. 
To set the scene, we need to remember that America was a British colony at the time. The colonies were occupied by British authorities and the colonists were organizing to end the rule of the British.  Local “Patriots” gained wind of a planned crackdown on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress by the British army. 
According to Wikipedia, on April 7, 1775, British Army activity suggested the possibility of troop movement.  Joseph Warren, a Founding Father of the U.S., sent Paul Revere, a Sons of Liberty member, to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then sitting in Concord, of what was happening.  Concord was the site of one of the larger caches of Patriot military supplies.  After receiving the warning, Concord residents began moving the military supplies away from the town.
One week later on April 14, British General Gage received instruction from the Secretary of State William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, to disarm the rebels who were known to have hidden weapons in Concord and to imprison the rebellious leaders (Samuel Adams and John Hancock).  Gage was given instruction not to plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property fearing that doing so might spark and uprising.
Meanwhile in the days before April 18, Paul Revere had devised a plan with the sexton of the North Church, Robert Newman.  The plan was to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown when he learned the British troop movement was beginning.  It was decided that a lantern would be hung in the steeple of the church.  One lantern was to be hung if the troops were moving overland and two lanterns if they were moving over water.  
In the end the British chose the water route so two lanterns were hung in the steeple.  Paul Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charleston.  He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the Royal Navy warship HMS Somerset at anchor.  He then rode from Charleston to Lexington avoiding a British patrol and warned almost every house along the route.  The towns he rode through also sent out messengers to warn the colonists of the army’s advance.  By the end of that night, as many as 40 riders were sounding the alarm.  The results of the preparedness, the “British Regulars” were defeated at Lexington and Concord.
40 years after Revere’s death Henry Wadsworth Longfellow popularized Revere with a portion of his 1861 poem:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear / of the midnight ride of Paul Revere / On the Eighteenth of April in Seventy-five; / Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year
Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.

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The Aspinock Historical Society will be placing two battery-operated candles in the windows of the Museum in the Town Hall on School Street on April 18 and 19.  Please join us in celebrating by doing the same at home.