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Historic Portsmouth #389

By bouncing a laser beam off the sun we’re now able to photograph historic events from the past, although only in black and white. This image captures that Boston rebel Paul Revere riding into town on December 13, 1774. Okay, according to the caption in the Portsmouth Athenaeum archive it is actually Hugh Underhill of UNH pretending to be Revere in the 1974 re-enactment of the raid on Fort William and Mary. (Continued below)

As you recall, Revere rode into town on a cold slushy day to warn Portsmouth citizens that the British were coming to remove the king’s guns and gunpowder from the fort on New Castle Island. Four hundred local insurgents made a treasonous raid and stole 100 barrels of gunpowder the following day. On December 15 a crowd estimated to be over 1,000 citizens returned to the unguarded British fort (we were all British at the time) and removed muskets and canon. The American Revolution officially kicked in four months later and legend says the stolen gunpowder was later used at the Battle of Bunker Hill. (Courtesy Portsmouth Athenaeum)

READ THE ARTICLE on the RAID

See another Paul Revere photo

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