On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere climbed into a small rowboat in Boston. Two friends rowed him across the Charles River. British soldiers were planning a secret march. They wanted to capture hidden weapons in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Revere was not the only rider that night. William Dawes took a different road. A third rider, Samuel Prescott, joined them later. Revere reached Lexington first. He warned Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming. These two leaders could have been arrested. Revere then rode toward Concord but was stopped by a British patrol. The soldiers held him at gunpoint and took his horse. Prescott escaped through a field and carried the warning to Concord. By morning, armed militia members lined the road. The first shots of the American Revolution were fired the next day. A poem written eighty-six years later made Revere legendary, even though he never finished the ride.