Blackwing1: Fischer details this British colonel and his horse, and considers him a prime suspect. Fischer however also documents all the testimony of many witnesses, and finds their reporting contradictory and inconclusive. Other possibilities exist, including the possibility that there were several shots all at once.

I’ve read so many books on the founding of our country that I forget which one this research was in; I apologize.

But the evidence the author found was that the probable cause of the conflict was a British colonel mounted on a borrowed horse. The horse was unfamiliar with the rider, and apparently bolted partway across the open field, with the discharge of a firearm coming from an unknown source. It may have been a British trooper taking the colonel’s action as a “charge”, it may have been an American patriot taking advantage of his inability to control the horse.

But it’s quite probable that the first firing followed the initial movement of the horse and rider, and the outcome was inevitable from that point forward, with both sides opening fire.

Stan Witherspoon: Yup. Washington’s Crossing is as good. It provides a worthwhile bookend to David McCullough’s 1776.

Lighthouses really weren’t used for that, though — and Boston in 1775 only had one lighthouse, waaaaay out on Brewster Island — useful to ships approaching Boston Harbor, but totally useless for signaling patriot militias. (Revere’s signal was famously in the steeple of the North Church.)

What you’re really searching for, l think, is an optical telegraph system. These were extensively used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by France, Britain, and Sweden, but not, alas, by the American colonies. Americans made up for it by being ferocious early adopters of the *electrical* telegraph when it finally got invented.

Perhaps you think they should have used Clackers.

Stan

The ride of Paul Revere didn’t impress me like the ancient Greek legend of the Marathon-to-Athens message bearer, the runners of South America, or the Pony Express..

I am surprised no one thought to make lighthouses taller so as to relay information by light color…no horse needed.