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How did Paul Revere help warn colonists before the Battles of Lexington and Concord?

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American Revolution *The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis* (at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781), oil on canvas by John Trumbull, completed in 1820; in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. The painting captures the moment when major fighting during the American Revolution ended and the colonies achieved independence.

On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere played a critical role in alerting the colonists to the movement of British troops. Earlier that week, he had already urged patriots in Concord to secure their military stores and arranged for lanterns to be placed in the steeple of Old North Church to signal the British approach.12

On the night of the march, Revere set out from Charlestown to Lexington, where he successfully warned John Hancock and Samuel Adams to flee. Revere was joined by William Dawes and Samuel Prescott as they attempted to continue toward Concord. Although the three men were intercepted by a British patrol and Revere was detained, Prescott managed to escape and complete the warning. These efforts ensured that the Minutemen were prepared to confront the British forces the following morning at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the American Revolution.3124