tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post5737696914756926912..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: The Legend of Israel BissellUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-38637339611032311362010-05-03T22:46:02.681-05:002010-05-03T22:46:02.681-05:00John - thank you! Your explanation answered all of...John - thank you! Your explanation answered all of my categories of the question!John L. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14827783825431694038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-52658223267642313012010-05-02T18:55:29.452-05:002010-05-02T18:55:29.452-05:00The Bissell note shows how post riders carried wri...The Bissell note shows how post riders carried written messages. When he stopped to rest or change horses, local officials made copies of the letter he carried and attested over their own names at the bottom that the copy was authentic. <br /><br />That was a way of validating the news. Otherwise, people would have had to decide whether to believe a working-class guy who just rode into town—perhaps someone you knew, perhaps not. <br /><br />As I’ll discuss tomorrow, John, Bissell wasn’t in danger of capture, so carrying a written message posed no risk to him. <br /><br />Revere, Dawes, and the other riders on 18-19 April did face the possibility of arrest, and indeed the British army officers did stop some of them. Revere and Dawes didn’t take written reports out to Lexington, but Hancock and Adams knew and trusted them already.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-45636136771452713822010-05-02T18:48:39.029-05:002010-05-02T18:48:39.029-05:00Yes, Rob, as with the similar William Dawes poem, ...Yes, Rob, as with the similar <a href="http://www.paulreveresride.org/2010/01/response-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes.html" rel="nofollow">William Dawes poem</a>, the Bissell poems are all about how their subject should have had an earlier, and presumably better, poem.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-63690743284720043152010-05-02T16:15:46.116-05:002010-05-02T16:15:46.116-05:00I was just wondering. When a post rider, carrying ...I was just wondering. When a post rider, carrying news, transferred his charge to another post rider, was the information written down somehow? Or was it just verbally transferred from rider to rider? On one hand, it would seem good not to have writing on one's person in case of capture...but on the other hand, its then totally up to the transmitting and receiving riders to accurately transfer all details. Do you or anyone know what was custom?John L. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14827783825431694038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-41430917333317474322010-05-02T15:59:28.365-05:002010-05-02T15:59:28.365-05:00I took at the two poems you linked - what's gr...I took at the two poems you linked - what's great about them is that they don't even bother hiding bitterness. Both are sure to point out, for example, that Bissell was unfairly left without a celebratory poem, despite deserving it more than Revere.Rob Velellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14284492589098267999noreply@blogger.com