“LISTEN my children, and you shall hear. Of the midnight ride of…” Samuel Prescott?

On the evening of April 12, 2025 join National Park Rangers as we commemorate and explore the true story of the famous midnight ride 250 years ago. On April 19^th 1775 a midnight alarm spread across Massachusetts about the impending march of British soldiers from Boston to Concord. In 1860, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the story of Paul Revere and his midnight ride but what about the many other alarm riders that evening?

Contrary to Longfellow’s poem, Revere never made it to Concord. A British patrol captured Revere and others at the boarder of Lexington and Lincoln, Massachusetts near 1:00 am. Riding alongside Paul Revere, Concord local Samuel Prescott made a daring horseback escape and spread the alarm onward. Prescott returned to the main road near Hartwell Tavern, spreading the alarm to Lincoln before riding off to Concord. Join National Park Rangers for a nighttime open house and immersive 250th living history experience at Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Schedule of Events:
6:00 pm- Hartwell Tavern Open House
Join Park Rangers and Living Historians and explore the true story of the midnight ride.

8:00 pm- Immersive Park Ranger Program
Experience the excitement of April 19, 1775 when the midnight alarm swept through Lincoln, Massachusetts.

9:00 pm- Site closed

Parking:
Hartwell Tavern Parking Lot: 112 North Great Road, Lincoln, Ma.

This event is co-sponsored by Friends of Minute Man National Park

This event explores our region’s revolutionary past! Learn about Freedom’s Way 250 and discover the many ways the Heritage Area and its partners are commemorating and celebrating our nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary.