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Paul Revere was born on January 1, 1735 (or December 21, 1734 old style). He died in 1818. He was an American silversmith, engraver and folk hero, an early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member and Patriot. He is best known for his midnight ride to alert the colonial militia in April 1775 of the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatised in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem, "Paul Revere's Ride".
At age 41, Revere was a prosperous, established and prominent Boston silversmith. He had helped organise an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. Revere later served as a Massachusetts militia officer, though his service ended after the Penobscot Expedition, one of the most disastrous campaigns of the American Revolutionary War, for which he was absolved of blame.
Following the war, Revere returned to his silversmith trade. He used the profits from his expanding business to finance his work in iron casting, bronze bell and cannon casting and the forging of copper bolts and spikes. In 1800 he became the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets for use as sheathing on naval vessels.
