Music Welcome to Hub History

Jake:

[0:04] Welcome to Hub History where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe. This is episode 301 around the world with a less famous Revere. Hi, I’m Jake. I’ve been sick for most of this week, spending time in bed and staring at the TV. Instead of writing for the podcast, you can probably still hear the congestion in my voice. That’s why I’m dusting off a script that’s been in my drafts folder since September 2018.

Jake:

[0:38] Paul Revere makes a lot of appearances on this podcast having been involved in the most pivotal events leading up to our revolutionary war, including of course his famous ride. We haven’t heard that much about the rest of the Revere family. However, that ends with this episode where we’re gonna take a deep dive into the career of the famous writer’s much less famous grandson, Joseph Warren. Revere, the young Revere was a Boston boy, but a military career kept him from spending too much of his adult life here. By the time he served as a Union general in the US Civil War, Rere had fought under the flag of three nations. He’d seen war on four continents, discovered 1/5 and traveled to all of them. He had dined sumptuously with monarchs and nobles and broken bread with native peoples around the world. He was a skilled artist and mapmaker and an aggressive combat leader. None of those accomplishments however, could save his career from an ignominious end amongst charges of cowardice.

Jake:

[1:42] But before we talk about the adventures of Joseph Warren Revere, it’s time to pause and thank our Patreon sponsors for making hub history possible.

Patreon Sponsors Thank you

Jake:

[1:51] When we started the show almost eight years ago, I never dreamed that a time would come when thousands of people would tune into each episode to hear me talk about Boston history. If you would have told me back then that we go for over 300 episodes, win two awards and garner millions of downloads. I might have just laughed in your face. I never thought we’d make it this far and back in the day. I didn’t worry too much about what it would take to get here as our expenses for things like podcast media, hosting, research, databases A I tools and audio processing have grown over the years. The sponsors who support the show with as little as $2 or even $20 or more each month have allowed us to keep pace if you’re one of our 66 Patreon sponsors, thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start. It’s easy. Just go to patreon.com/hubor or visit hubor.com and click on the support us link and thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Main Topic Introduction

Jake:

[2:55] Now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

Jake:

[2:59] Way back in episode 25 not 2, 25 not 125. But episode 25 we talked about an event in the military career of Paul Revere, as a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Militia who was in charge of artillery. He was one of the leaders of a disastrous 1779 military expedition to the Penobscot Bay in Maine. It resulted in the worst defeat of the US Navy before Pearl Harbor and the complete dissolution of the Ground forces for largely political reasons. Revere was blamed for the catastrophe and he ended up insisting on a court martial to clear his name at the time. We mentioned that one of Revere’s grandsons would wind up in a similar situation during the civil war almost a century later at the outbreak of that civil war, Joseph Warren Revere was living in Morristown, New Jersey. He tried to enlist in the US Navy. He was an experienced military commander and former naval officer, but there were no officers, commissions available to him instead, he was commissioned as a colonel in the New Jersey Volunteer Infantry and was soon promoted to brigadier general.

Jake:

[4:11] His unit fought in the Peninsula campaign, the seven days battle second bull run in Fredericksburg. However, it would be his performance in the battle of Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863 that secured his place in history. Chancellorsville was a shocking defeat for the Union and what’s sometimes called Lee’s perfect battle. The confederate commander divided his forces and routed the superior Union force, after the battle, political leaders in Washington were looking for scapegoats. President Lincoln would ended up relieving general fighting Joe Hooker himself a Massachusetts man from his command of the army of the Potomac.

Jake:

[4:52] Unfortunately, for General Revere, there was plenty of blame to go around during the battle, his superior officer was killed and command of an entire division fell to Revere in the ensuing confusion. He ordered his men to withdraw about three miles from the fighting in order to regroup, soon after the battle, a court martial was convened charging Revere with misbehavior before the enemy and neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.

Jake:

[5:25] General Revere refused to provide a defense to these charges which he considered ridiculous. However, on August 10th, 1863 the court found him guilty of the lesser charge, conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. He was sentenced to be dismissed from the army review would protest this outcome in an open letter saying, at least with such a record I had a right to expect from the court even with my defense, unheard greater lenity than is shown in this cruel sentence. And from the president, even though his attention scarcely rested upon my case, some indulgence for one who has given the prime of his life without military reproach hitherto to the service of the state. President Lincoln overturned the conviction reinstated Ari’s rank, but nevertheless dismissed him from the US Army.

Retirement of Joseph W Revere

Jake:

[6:20] After this involuntary retirement, Joseph W Revere retired to New Jersey, spent time traveling the world and wrote a memoir of military life that he dedicated to his cousins, Paul and Edward. The inscription in the book Kill and Saddle reads to the memories of Colonel Paul Joseph Revere 20th mass volunteers killed at Gettysburg and of assistant surgeon Edward. Hr Revere 20th mass volunteers killed at Antietam both dying on the field of valor in the moment of victory.

Revere Family in the Civil War

Jake:

[6:54] Paul Revere had a total of 16 Children during his two marriages, 11 of whom lived to adulthood. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that three of his grandchildren served in the civil war. Joseph Warren Revere, the elder Revere’s 11th child was named after Revere’s close friend Joseph Warren, the patriot leader and spy master who died in the battle of Bunker Hill. Joseph Warren Revere would carry on his father’s business, taking control of the Paul Revere and Son’s bell casting business as well as Revere Copper company. In turn, Joseph Warren Revere would have eight sons of his own as the family expressed strong abolitionist principles. Two of the sons enlisted in the military at the outbreak of the civil war. Paul Joseph Revere enlisted as a major and was eventually promoted to colonel and brevet as a brigadier general Edward Hutchinson. Robbins. Revere was an assistant surgeon. Both men enlisted in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer infantry known as the Harvard regiment because most of the officers and some of the men were recent Harvard graduates. Their first engagement was the Battle of Ball’s Bluff near Leesburg, Virginia in October 1861 and both brothers were among over 500 us troops taken prisoner by the secessionists. They spent four months in confederate prison camps and then they are paroled back to Boston.

Jake:

[8:22] At the time, paroling was still a common practice during war and it means that they formally agreed not to fight anymore until an equal number of confederate officers were also released when they were finally cleared to rejoin the regiment. The unit was engaged in a siege at Yorktown, Virginia. The same town where a siege ended the American revolution. Their last night at home was April 30th 1862. Their father’s 85th birthday, Pauline Revere Fay remembered that with the entire family gathered around the dinner table. Her grandfather rose and said this day, I am 85 years old. It is a great age and it’s extraordinary that I have reached it. I remember the surrender of Cornwallis. I heard one night the watchman cry out in the street. He was a German sort of fellow, a Dutchman half past three o’clock of a cloudy morning. And Kalla taken, there are few now living who could remember this.

Jake:

[9:24] You are going to the scene of that surrender at Yorktown. You will do your duty and you will return though. I can hardly expect to see you all that. I could wish God bless you both. Pass that wine to Edward and Paul. Now drink with me, my sons and having bowed to each of them and raised his class in his old courtly way, he added pass the wine to the others. This was merely a matter between the boys and me. I have done all that I shall do today. The room was as still as death and the whole thing unspeakably affecting. I can see Paul’s dignified air and pale, calm face and Edward leaning forward, intently hanging upon every word his father said. They went to do their duty and they returned all that he could wish not for this world but for the other.

Jake:

[10:19] Edward was the first to fall during the battle at Antietam in Western Maryland on September 17th, 1862 he dismounted his horse to treat a wounded soldier. Future Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, who was a captain in the Harvard regiment later recalled the moment a bullet struck him in the heart. A surgeon who rode as our surgeons so often did wherever the troops would go. I saw kneeling administration to a wounded man just in the rear of our line in Antietam, his horse’s bridle round his arm. The next moment his administrations were ended. Paul Joseph Revere was wounded in the same battle and returned home to Massachusetts to recover. He soon returned to his unit the following summer. On the second day of the battle at Gettysburg, he was hit by fragments from a canister shell. He died on July 4th 1863 both men are now buried at Mount Auburn cemetery in Cambridge. Unlike his cousins, Paul and Edward, who are idealistic abolitionists who joined the army at the outbreak of war. Joseph W Revere followed a very different path to the battlefields of the civil war.

Early Life of Joseph W Revere

Jake:

[11:34] In fact, by the time Paul and Edward enlisted, it had been 35 years since Joseph Revere first joined the American military.

Jake:

[11:44] Biographer, William Chaka begins the United States was on the eve of war with Great Britain. When Joseph Warren Revere was born in Boston on May 17th, 1812, his father, Doctor John Revere was a son of revolutionary war figure, Paul Revere and his wife Rachel, Joseph Warren Revere, like one of his uncles was named after Paul Revere’s good friend Joseph Warren, a revolutionary war hero who died at the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.

Childhood and Navy Service of J.W. Revere

Jake:

[12:17] Doctor John Revere was a Harvard grad and studied medicine in Edinburgh. Throughout Joseph’s childhood, the family moved around between Portland, Richmond, Baltimore and Boston. They were in Boston when the young Revere’s famous grandfather died in May 1817, just a few days before Joseph’s sixth birthday. The family may have been living in Philadelphia or maybe Baltimore when Joseph Warren Reed joined the Navy in 1826.

Jake:

[12:47] Along with the book Kill and Saddle about his military exploits, Joseph Warn Revere also authored a tour of duty in California. Now I’ll say that we have to take some of Revere’s claims to the grain of salt as his two memoirs are the only source we have for most of the events that I describe here. And it’s possible that they’re embellished at times even so they make for one heck of a story in Keel and Saddle. Revere describes his early days in the US Navy following the bit of an early

Early Navy Service of Joseph W Revere

Jake:

[13:20] predilection for foreign travel. I entered the United States Navy at the age of 14 years as a midshipman and after a short term spent at the naval school at the New York Navy Yard I sailed on my first cruise to the Pacific Ocean on board the frigate Guerriere bearing the pennant of Commander Charles CB Thompson. In the summer of the year 1828 the Guerriere was launched in 1814 and named after the prize famously taken by the Constitution in 1812. Revere continues for three years. I served in the Pacific Squadron and was duly initiated into the tough discipline. Then in vogue in our navy, the rigorous practice of which it originated during the war of 1812, by 1832 he had completed all the requirements for the rank of lieutenant, but was forced to wait for a position to open up.

Jake:

[14:14] In the meantime, he sailed in the famous US S Constitution and his first cruise took him first to the Baltic Sea on a voyage to Saint Petersburg. He claims that the Constitution was inspected by Czar Nicholas the first who then invited the crew to attend several balls and military reviews during their stay in the Russian Empire, Nicholas, great grandfather of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas. The second saw himself as a spit and Polish military man. Apparently he made quite an impression on the young Revere who wrote after the lapse of so many years. I still remember the Emperor Nicholas as the handsomest man I ever saw in 80 country and the most perfect embodiment of the regal power and dignity that the imagination can picture, that voyage would continue into the Mediterranean where Revere apparently demonstrated an aptitude for languages. He quickly picked up a number of European tongues. And since he could be useful, the senior officers of the cruise included him in the more diplomatic elements of the mission, he toured most major European cities. Writing about how impressed he was with the ancient ruins in Rome, especially the Coliseum. He also got to meet many dignitaries and nobles. Among these, he considered Napoleon’s mo to be the most significant.

Jake:

[15:37] Even a diplomatic mission aboard the US. Constitution could have moments of adventure in Keel. And Saddle Revere describes an incident at Piraeus Greece. One morning, King Ludwig I of Bavaria came on board the Constitution for a visit. This King Ludwig was the grandfather of Mad King Ludwig who built the fairy tale castle, Neus Vonstein. That the Disney Castle is modeled after the entertainment for the day was a demonstration of the Constitution’s chambers gun, a sort of rudimentary flintlock machine gun and it almost ended in the death of a king.

Jake:

[16:16] Now we had on board. Certain repeating rifles invented by some cute Yankee intended to clear an enemy’s deck at close quarters and generally to beat all creation. This arm formidable alike to enemies and friends consisted of seven rifled gun barrels welded together in Fei Shu. The repeating principle lying in the peculiar form of the bullets which were cylindrical with a hole for a fuse through their axes. Thus communicating with a charge of powder between each pair of bullets and sam from that nearest the muzzle to the breach, the lock was near the muzzle of the arm and each barrel contained 25 charges, a shower of leaden hail could thus be thrown, which was to continue until all the 175 projectiles were discharged for the piece once fired, its contents must all be thrown out before the volley could be stopped. It was poised up on a swivel intended to be inserted on a top rim or ship’s rail and directed by a long handle called a monkey’s tail.

Jake:

[17:23] If you’re having trouble picturing this weapon, imagine seven barrels welded together in a circle appearing for all intents and purposes similar to a Gatlin gun, within each barrel, specially shaped bullets were stacked one on top of the other with gunpowder between each bullet. So after the first shot was fired, the explosion of that shot set off the powder for the next shot and on and on until all the shots were fired with no way to control the burst or to stop firing until every bullet was expended.

Jake:

[17:53] Review’s account continues at the close of the exercises. The king and the rest of our guests with the officers of the ship and those of a French frigate in the harbor assembled on the quarter deck to witness the performances of this wonderful engine which was swiveled upon the taff rail. Our old gunner seized the monkey tail to control the fire pointed his piece at the target which consisted of some barrels lashed together and dropped the start of the ship and pulled the lock string. The infernal machine began its work in an exemplary manner with the rolling fire of an infantry platoon and smashed the target at once. 123 barrels were emptied. But the piece then became hot and gave evidence of a strong desire to emancipate itself from control and to wheel upon its pivot and turn its muzzle inboard. The gunner held on manfully to the monkey tail until all but the last two barrels were discharged when the piece became completely unmanageable and suddenly bore upon the deck, distributing its leaden sugar plums indiscriminately in every direction. The spar deck was quickly cleared. Our commodore with great presence of mind, seized the king in his arms and made a plunge down the after hatchway leading to the main deck and all the company dived below through other hatchways. The ship officers gallantly following the example of the commodore with the ladies of the court.

Jake:

[19:20] Apparently, Ludwig being a king didn’t much appreciate being tackled and dragged below deck, but he did get to keep his life. Imagine the international incident that would have resulted if the crew of the US S Constitution had accidentally killed a European king while showing off their favorite toys.

Jake:

[19:39] Everyone seems to have made it out unscathed. That’s Revere notes. The quarter deck was left to the undisputed possession of brother Jonathan’s patent exterminator which continued to rake the spar deck fore and aft until the bullets were all expended. His adventures aboard the US. Constitution occupy a full 13 chapters of keel and saddle. He visited Greece Turkey, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Alexandria, dining with monarchs and nobles of all nations along the way. In his travels on land, he observed ongoing wars in Spain and Algeria.

Wartime Posting in 1836

Jake:

[20:18] After this grand voyage on the Constitution, Revere served in his first wartime posting in 1836. Now sailing on the US S flirt, he found his way to Florida where the second Seminole war was in progress. The flirt was part of what Revere called the mosquito fleet that patrolled the shallow water of the Everglades in Southern Florida. Although the flirt saw no action. Rivire did witness the effects of war as he saw casualties and captive native Americans who were transported by the flirt and other vessels.

Jake:

[20:53] After the flirt, Joseph Revere was assigned to a smaller craft which he described as a large felucca rigged boat pulling 40 oars and armed with a long 12 pounder. This voyage sent him to the Western Caribbean where he was ordered to hunt and capture a pirate named Benavides while chasing a suspicious small boat from the Bahama channel past Ko Romano. He found a secret pirate camp in an estuary in Cuba on a hill above the camp. In what sounds like a story taken directly from Robert Lewis Stevenson. His men discovered what can only be described as a secret cave full of pirate booty.

Jake:

[21:36] At about 20 paces from the entrance. We found ourselves in a circular chamber, evidently an excavation some 15 ft in diameter. Our means of illumination being scanty. We had not time to examine the contents of some kegs and barrels which together with some old rusty muskets and Cutlasses and other objects pertaining to seafaring men composed the contents of the room, as we were about to withdraw. One old tar determined not to go without carrying away some memento of the place rolled out a keg before him thinking doubtless that it contained a supply of liquor, but which being upset gave forth an ominous rattling sound that indicated something more substantial. We rolled the keg down to the camp sentinels having been placed around the camp. We went to sleep after supper, pleased with visions of untold wealth to be secured in the morning at the cave which we imagine must contain the fabulous treasures of Aladdin. For the keg we had brought with us was filled with newly minted Spanish dollars.

Jake:

[22:40] Unfortunately, the lookouts revered left on the coast, spotted more sails that night before the crew could finish excavating the pirate booty. Revere was forced to turn away in pursuit of another potential pirate. As he recalled, he wasn’t worried about leaving the horde behind. The secret of our discovery was religiously kept and the keg of dollars divided amongst the crew each receiving about $50. And we cheered each other by the prospect of soon returning to the cache and enriching ourselves with the pirates hoarded treasure before they could return to their discovery. However, the crew was forced to ride out a hurricane in Havana Harbor when they returned to the estuary, the secret pirate camp was totally destroyed and landslides had obliterated the ravine where the treasure cave was hidden. And this is where I’ll remind you that we have only Revere’s own account to go by which could have been embellished with tales of buried pirate gold in lost caves.

Pirate Adventures and Captures

Jake:

[23:44] Back on the US. S Flirt. Revere was next sent to patrol the waters off West Africa where he had the opportunity to hunt both pirates and slavers in keel and saddle. He details the capture of a Portuguese ship carrying over 300 recently captured Africans who are to be taken to the United States and sold. Looking at how the men and women were shackled in tight rows below deck. Revere commented that their accommodations looked like hell quote which may be hotter but not more uncomfortable. Importing enslaved Africans into the US had been illegal since 1808, but it was still common practice. Thus, the role of the flirt in intercepting slave ships before this captured

Intercepting Slave Ships

Jake:

[24:29] human cargo could be returned to the African coast. The ship was becalmed. No breeze blew for days and the ship drifted slowly, food and water ran out on the ship. And by the fifth day, the Americans were subsisting on rum and a dolphin that they speared below decks. The Africans had nothing not distinguishing between the white men who kept them shackled below decks with the intent of selling them into slavery. And the white men who kept them shackled below decks in order to return them to Africa, some of the captive Africans staged an uprising on the sixth day, sailors with Cutlasses and pistols went below and as Revere described it restored order.

Jake:

[25:14] The bodies of the slain Africans were thrown overboard. And the next day, the ship brought the survivors back to Nigeria while he was perfectly willing to chase slaving vessels in the name of the United States Navy. Revere was no flaming abolitionist. In fact, he seems to have been left with a poor impression of Africa and its inhabitants. Writing in my opinion, extensive colonization is the only practical mode of benefiting benighted Africa.

Shark Plague Shipwreck

Jake:

[25:44] The last adventure Joseph Revere had as his African cruise came to an end was a shark plague shipwreck after going on shore in Monrovia, Liberia to buy provisions for the trip home. He was on a small boat that capsized in the waves. There were 20 persons in the cutter altogether and finding myself in the water in a heavy surf. My first impulse was to season ore which floated near me. My situation was still full of peril for all around. I could see the dorsal fins of huge sharks always cruising in these localities gliding ominously through the water and often quite close to me. But I struck out boldly and made all the noise I could without exhausting myself until boats from the landing place at Monrovia came to our assistance. Our danger seemed an age and duration. But in fact, we had only been three quarters of an hour in the water. Only 14 persons including myself were saved from drowning in the sharks.

Jake:

[26:47] After the close of this eventful cruise, Revere settled briefly in Boston and took up a courtship with a local woman named Rosanna Lamb. However, right when they started getting serious, Revere was ordered to join the United States exploring expedition, first conceived by President John Quincy Adams in 1828 the US XX as it’s known was meant to be the first circumnavigation of the globe by an American fleet. Funding for this US. XX couldn’t be secured until the Van Buren administration and Revere sailed out of Boston on the US S John Adams on September 13th, 1837, they went from Boston to Virginia east to Madeira, then southwest to Brazil around Cape Horn and up the west coast of South America. From there, they went to Tahiti and Samoa Australia and then turned south as part of the expedition, they sailed into the icy South Sea discovering the Antarctic continent in December 1839. Having now visited every continent, even discovering one that was previously unknown. You’d think the reviewer would have more to say about it.

The Reviewer’s Silence

Jake:

[28:04] His voyage around the world is contained in a single chapter in keel and saddle while as earlier gallivanting around the Mediterranean takes up 12 chapters.

Jake:

[28:16] The US S John Adams and Joseph Warren. Revere returned to Boston in June 1840, there were more adventures including a short cruise through the Caribbean on the Corvette Saint Louis where he experienced a tsunami that briefly swamped the whole boat. However, William Chimera describes how the next chapter of Joseph W Revere’s life opened when he was finally promoted to the rank that he had been eligible to receive for nine years.

Jake:

[28:45] On February 25th, 1841 Revere was promoted to lieutenant a rank which paid $50 a month and four rations a day. Proud of his promotion and with a stronger sense of financial security. He married Rosanna Duncan Lamb on October 4th 1842 in Boston. The Boston Daily Atlas printed their marriage notice two days later starting in September 1843 he was given stateside duty in Boston.

Jake:

[29:15] The couple’s first child, John was born on November 26th, 1844 two years on the home front were enough for Revere. In the summer of 1845. He sailed on the sloop Cyanne for duty in the Pacific. After arriving on the West Coast, he transferred to the US S Portsmouth in February 1846. When they reached Alta California in the spring, they sailed first to Monterey, which was the capital of the Mexican province. At that moment, there was a great debate between the civilian government appointed by Mexico City and the growing population of American settlers who were putting down roots there. Revere was certainly aware of the rift as his second memoir, a tour of duty in California illustrates we arrived at Monterey at a very interesting time. A junta was in session composed of some of the leading Californians who had met to take into consideration what line of conduct should be adopted in the existing state of affairs.

Jake:

[30:17] The Californians had just succeeded in getting rid of the Michel Torena. The last Mexican satrap sent to plunder them and ma administer the affairs of the province. They had shipped him. And as many of his Fustian officers and scarecrow soldier as they could lay hands on back to Mexico and had elected a native of the province by the name Jose Castro as their commander in chief. The civil governor was Don Pio PICO. And the views of these two worthies entirely corresponded both being in favor of an annexation to a European power.

Monterey Politics

Jake:

[30:53] Though he was aware that there might be trouble, that was certainly not his main focus. After arriving in Monterey, California delighted Joseph Herve and he spent weeks camping, hunting, exploring and enjoying the climate and natural beauty. He wrote more pages and more effusively about this interlude in California than he did about his entire voyage around the world.

Jake:

[31:17] For example, here’s this description of the ride from Monterey to Salinas. I am not aware of any higher enjoyment of mere physical existence than this kind of traveling in California, which the world can hardly match. I have traveled in all sorts of ways in all sorts of countries in the toiling diligence of France and on the broad pack saddle of a contra band, Disa’s mule in Spain. I’ve been whisked across the Pontine marshes by half wild colts, guided by shouting, postilions been jolted half to death in Syria and Egypt on the unsteady deck of a desert ship, traveled dock in India with the last new novel in a palanquin, and once had the pleasure to back an elephant in the island of Ceylon. But all these were vulgar joys compared with the rapturous pleasure of traveling in that part of the United States of America called California, seated in your firm and chair, like saddle, your horse held well in hand but not irritated by the severe and subduing Spanish bit going on a full gallop, which is the traveling gate of the country, the shouting, Vaquero, driving on the road far ahead, a cabaletta, of rushing steeds and changing your horse for a fresh one at the slightest symptom of fatigue. What can be more delightful, more satisfying, surrounded as you are with such glorious accessories, breathing the fullness of life into every sense.

Sketches of California Life

Jake:

[32:43] Along the way, he was also making a series of sketches that are reproduced in the tour of duty in California. He drew a Spanish quicksilver or Mercury mine, a party, duck hunting from a small boat on the Sacramento river and a feast day in a local native American village. He also drew a scene illustrating what he claimed was a common accomplishment where a Vaccaro would attack a bear with just his horse lasso or Riata and a knife saying that it was a feat often undertaken by a single rat.

California Ranchero Feats

Jake:

[33:20] A feat often undertaken by a single ranchero without other aid than his horse, his inseparable friend, the Riaa, the accustomed knife worn in his garter thus equipped he will lasso the largest and most ferocious bear and drawing the brute to a tree and taking a turn or two around him will dispatch him with his knife while the sagacious horse keeps the Rita fastened to the saddle at its fullest tension. It seemed as though no matter where he traveled in this foreign land, the residents American settlers, Mexicans and native Americans alike seemed to be familiar with Revere’s hometown, the trade of this country has been mostly monopolized by a few Boston houses. And Boston is better known among the natives of all kinds than any other part of the United States. These houses dispatched to their agents assorted cargoes of plain cottons, prints, handkerchiefs, shoes, hats, coarse woolens hardware, fancy goods and in short specimens of all the cheapest fabrics of Lowell Lynn and Marblehead and a plentiful supply of the auction trash of Boston. As Joseph W Revere was galling around California, camping, hunting,

Bear Flag Revolt

Jake:

[34:35] fishing and making sketches. Tensions between Mexico and the United States finally devolved into open warfare.

Jake:

[34:44] Fighting began in April 1846 in Texas and soon spread along the border with more units from both sides rushing in news of the war wouldn’t officially reach Mexican and American units in California for months. But that didn’t stop American settlers from acting with an exploring party from the US army, scouting along the California Oregon border and the Mexican army busy fighting the Americans along the Rio Grande. The rest of settlers saw a chance to act on June 14th. About 30 men took over a Mexican military outpost at Sonoma and they raised a new flag that Revere later described as a grizzly bear rampant with one straight below. In the words Republic, California above the bear and a single star in the union. With that they proclaim California Republic by early July, the rebel, by early July, the rebels numbered over 300 they’ve been joined by the US army scouting party under John C Fremont. Together they took over San Francisco then known as Yerba Buena on July 2nd 1846.

Jake:

[35:59] When word of this bear flag revolt reached the US fleet that was cruising the California coast under Commodore John D Sloat. They believed it was official notice that the expected war with Mexico had begun, of course it had begun but nobody in California had been notified yet. The US S Portsmouth Cyanne Savannah and Lavon returned to Monterey and took over on July 7th. Commander Slote read a proclamation claiming all of upper California in the name of the US government and raise an American flag.

Jake:

[36:34] Commodore Stockton soon took over for Sloat and he pushed the fleet to take a more active part in the conflict. Officers of the Navy and Marine Corps were given leadership in the newly formed California battalion, Joseph Warren Revere wrote it fell to my lot to exchange the quarter deck for the saddle. Having been ordered to take command of the district on the north side of the bay garrison by company B California battalion mounted rifleman. Although I had often before done duty on shore with my charge of foot. This was the very first time I had ever served in the cavalry and albeit not exactly a horse marine. I found this kind of life far more to my taste. The remaining on board ship in a war with an enemy, incapable of opposing us in our proper element. The lieutenant’s first duty as a newly minted cavalryman was to march a party from Sausalito where the Portsmouth was anchored to Sonoma, the strong point and capital of the fledgling California Republic.

Jake:

[37:36] He arrived on July 9th and keel and sadly wrote, I had the honor to hoist the flag at Sonoma as the bear flag was replaced by the stars and stripes. The California Republic ceased to exist after just 25 days in the book, Revere sketch of Monterey with the American flag flying over the Capitol illustrates this period.

Jake:

[38:00] Hostilities were immediately over in northern California though he was an officer in the Navy and nominally at least a high official in the provisional California government. Revere seems to have spent the rest of 1846 basically enjoying himself, hunting, fishing and exploring his new domain. He even purchased a large estate in what’s now Marin County. The war didn’t go quite as smoothly in southern California, Mexican forces kept up a resistance around Los Angeles for months. And in January 1847 Joseph Revere fought in his only major land battle of the war under Commodore Stockton and alongside a detachment for the US army under

Revere’s Land Battle

Jake:

[38:43] General Stephen Kearney. He fought against a force commanded by General Jose Maria Flores. It was over in a single day and land operations in California came to an end. Lieutenant Revere was not done fighting. However, for the next 10 months, he commanded a series of captured Mexican ships. He fought against privateers, blockaded Mexican ports and occasionally bombarded targets on shore as the peace treaty was being negotiated, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. Unfortunately, before word of this momentous discovery reached the coast, the portsmouth had set sail for the US East coast with Lieutenant Joseph W Revere on board.

Jake:

[39:30] My ship now started her long and tedious voyage home by way of Cape Horn touching at Valparaiso. It was an uneventful voyage and it ended with our arrival at Boston in June 1848. Though he could not immediately share in the riches of the gold fields. Revere found a way to profit from his time exploring California during the months at home. In 1848 he wrote his first volume of memoir, a tour of duty in California and gave it the cunning subtitle, including a description of the gold region. A horde of would be. 49er bought the book and devoured its effusive descriptions of life in California. Giving revere a small taste of the profits that could be made from gold rush greed.

Revere’s Return Home

Jake:

[40:19] Being at home with his wife and child. After spending most of his marriage at sea, doesn’t appear to have given Revere the warm and fuzzies. Soon after arriving home, he was pursuing another scheme to make money off the multitudes of aspiring gold miners.

Pursuing Economic Opportunities

Jake:

[40:34] Biographer William Treme describes the plan despite being at sea for most of his early married years, Revere was eager to return to California where economic opportunity beckoned. He may have contemplated resigning from the Navy, but he probably realized that such a move jeopardized the financial stability of his family to be sure he might strike it rich. But the risks seem to outweigh a decision to resign. He investigated various naval offices and duties which would allow him to continue his military obligation and also take advantage of civilian opportunities in California. And he found one.

New Job in San Francisco

Jake:

[41:14] Revere offered his services as a timber agent for the Navy. And several months later on November 22nd, 1848 was given the authority by Secretary of the Navy, John Y Mason to act in that capacity for the protection of live oak and other naval timber on the public lands. The next day, Mason issued orders to Revere to receive your instructions from the Bureau of Yards and Docks and proceed by the most practicable route to San Francisco.

Jake:

[41:47] After a difficult journey back to California, during which he caught a tropical disease while crossing the isthmus of Panama. Revere found himself back in San Francisco just about one year after taking his leave of it.

San Francisco’s Transformation

Jake:

[42:01] When his steamer arrived in the bay, he found the town completely transformed. We passed through the Golden Gate on the 28th of February 1849 and landing, I saw with astonishment, the great change that had come over San Francisco, the little idle place I had left with its three or four houses and some 25 inhabitants was now by the potent power of gold metamorphosed into a Kanvas city of several 1000 people. The beach where only the year before I had shot Snipe and Curlew was thronged with immigrants from every part of the world, and the harbor formerly only visited once a year by a traitor in Hyde or an occasional whaler was now crowded with merchantmen from every seaport in Europe, the United States and South America.

Jake:

[42:52] Like everyone else who arrived in San Francisco Bay in 1849 visions of striking it rich danced in Joseph Revere’s head. However, unlike many others, he saw the miners rather than the gold mines as the source of his future fortune. He quickly struck out for the estate in purchased in Marin County where he said he proposed to inaugurate measures for supplying provisions to the hungry crowd, suddenly thrown upon these shores instead of following the diggers to the mines, before he had been ordered back to the East Coast. Reed, hired a caretaker for the estate that he called San Geronimo and he stocked it with a small herd of cattle.

Jake:

[43:37] In the months he had been gone. His caretaker had gotten gold fever and decamped to the mining country. His herd in this state of benign neglect had increased to over 500 head. Within a few short months, he gathered some friends and neighbors and drove 200 cattle to the gold country. His party spent two months trading cattle and horses for gold. And when Revere saw the incredibly inflated prices to be found in the diggings, he took a small boat to San Francisco and returned, loaded with trade goods.

Jake:

[44:10] He returned laden with dry goods, groceries, crockery and hardware. We sold all off at enormous prices, butcher knives, fetching $20 apiece. Common iron spoons, $5 and ordinary wash bowls and meter vessels. $15. I sold all the flour I brought up which came from Chile and bags of four Abas £25 to the ABA. At $100. The sack, several dozens of common calico shirts bought for the use of our company were snapped at $20 each unwashed after my partners had worn them for a week, and a digger taking a fancy to my Mexican spurs worth about $3 did not think them dear. At 25 gold was then found everywhere on the surface in the clefts and Hollows of rocks in the brooks and upon and beneath the soil.

Jake:

[45:10] Revere would turn the spoils from this trip into more trade goods, more cattle and a stock of seed potatoes which he planted at San Geronimo. Before long, he was on his way to making his fortune as a provisioner for the

Trading and Hunting Ventures

Jake:

[45:22] gold fields between cattle drives and trading missions. He still found time to go on long hunting trips in the mountains with his friends, and occasionally it seems he even made time to inspect some timber on behalf of the United States Navy, a duty that he was still collecting a government salary for performing. It was not a duty he’d have to contend with for much longer. On December 9th, 1849 Joseph Revere swore out a writ stating that a woman named Octavia Sins was imprisoned and forcibly confined against her will on a ship in the harbor of San Francisco. The alleged perpetrator was her husband. Revere soon found himself accused of perjury, kidnapping and adultery facing a court martial that would have ruined his family name back in Boston. He wrote a letter of resignation from the US Navy on June 1st 1850.

Jake:

[46:22] I get the impression that very little changed in Revere’s day to day life. After leaving the navy. After all, he had devoted precious little time to his official duties even before he was relieved of them. Now he had more time to chase his fortune. And soon he had bought a ship and begun trading with ports in Mexico to bring in cheap consumer goods and provisions that could be sold for an astronomical markup in the California market. As he plied this trade along the Gulf of California. In 1851 his crew spotted a Spanish flagged vessel that had run aground on a beach in Sonora. As the ship approached, Rivire realized the Spanish crew was in the middle of a battle against a local tribe that was trying to board the ship and they were taking heavy casualties.

Jake:

[47:11] Revere and 18 of his crew landed on the beach in small boats and managed to turn the tide of the battle. After delivering the survivors to Mazatlan, the Spanish queen granted them a knighthood as a gesture of gratitude. Translated the pronouncement reads Isabel the second by the grace of God queen of Spain and the Indies to Don Jose W Revere et cetera. The ministers of our royal hacienda having testified to your eminent services. We have been pleased to nominate you a knight of our royal order of Isabel, the Catholic fourth class. And to that end, we have ordered the grand master and the chancellor of that most illustrious order to forward you the insignia of the same, done in Aranjuez on the third day of March, the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1852 signed I the Queen.

Offer from the Mexican President

Jake:

[48:09] As he traveled widely in Mexico. Revere in time met the American ambassador who in turn introduced him to Mexican President Mariano Arria. From this introduction, the offer of a new job soon followed as were called in Keel and saddle.

Jake:

[48:27] The late war with the United States had almost utterly disorganized. The Mexican army and the artillery especially had suffered from neglect. The president aware of these deficiencies was endeavoring to re-establish the national forces on an improved basis in which enterprise he pursued a liberal policy. He had set his heart upon organizing the artillery and placing it in the state of efficiency. Never before known in Mexico, having constantly in mind, the splendid field batteries of the United States which had contributed so much to our success in the war. From consultations on this subject with the president who sometimes asked my advice, grew an offer from him of a military position in the Mexican Army which I accepted and I became a member of his staff with the rank of lieutenant colonel. I was immediately charged with the work of organizing and drilling for light batteries, giving at the same time, instruction to a class of officers twice a week in pyrotechnic dynamics and the science of projectiles illustrated by target practice and work in the laboratory. Having fought against the Mexican army just four years before Joseph W Revere now found himself a high ranking officer in that same Mexican army reporting directly to the president himself.

Ambush in Michoacan

Jake:

[49:47] In February 1852 he was ordered to accompany an expedition to put down a rebellion in the state of Michoacan. Sorry for the pronunciation. The president led a column of 1500 cavalry, 2000 infantry and two batteries of Revere’s artillery. During an ambush in a canyon. Revere ordered his men to disassemble their cannons and lug them up the impossibly steep canyon walls using lassos, having accomplished this, the unexpected artillery barrage broke the rebel advance, though he was wounded in the battle. Revere’s quick thinking and aggression earned the praise of the Mexican president, God and liberty. Mariano Arria, president of the Republic et cetera orders and decrees as follows. Don Jose W rivire, knight of the most illustrious royal order of Isabella. The Catholic decorated with the cross of Mexican valor and several medals of military merit. A lieutenant colonel of the Mexican army instructor of artillery and chief of that arm in the late campaign has deserved well of the country for a skill and conduct of the battle of Los Tros de Angus. And it is hereby made known to the army signed Miguel as Kate, retired colonel, governor of the city of Mexico May 12th, 1852.

Jake:

[51:13] When President Arria was forced to resign. Later in 1852 Colonel Revere also resigned his commission and he began the long trip home to the east coast of the US. He took a stage coach from Mexico City to Veracruz, sailed to New Orleans and got a passage on a steamer up the Mississippi to Pittsburgh on the steamer. He made a surprising new friend among my fellow passengers on the steamer was Lieutenant Thomas J Jackson of the United States Army, who seemed at first a remarkably quiet, reserved, although very intelligent officer and with whom I soon became acquainted for. There is everywhere, a sort of camaraderie among officers of the two services which attracts them to each other in a crowd of strangers. For several days, the inland voyage continued and our nights were partly spent in the hurricane deck of the steamer, engaged in conversation among the many subjects of these late night conversations was astrology. And later Jackson wrote Revere, a letter saying that he had calculated their star charts and they ran in parallel. He said it is clear to me that we shall both be exposed to a common danger at the time indicated Jackson’s calculations put that common danger in the first week of May 1863. And he believed that if he survived that period, he would never be in danger. Again.

Jake:

[52:41] These days, we know Thomas J Jackson better by his nickname Stonewall Joseph W Revere would go on to fight against Stonewall Jackson at the second battle of bull run at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The battle of Chancellorsville started on April 30th Jackson was shot by confederate centuries on May 2nd 1863 and he died on the 10th.

Encounter with Stonewall Jackson

Jake:

[53:08] Before his path crossed Stonewall Jackson’s at Chancellorsville, Revere would have more adventures after selling his San Geronimo estate in California. He built a mansion in Morristown, New Jersey and began getting reacquainted with the wife and Children that he hadn’t seen in almost four years. There’s less documentation of the years between his service to Mexico and the Civil War. But in that time, another son was born, but his two older Children both died to escape their grief. Rosanna and Joseph Revere toured Europe. Joseph also traveled alone as a military advisor to European governments and he was awarded a medal by the British Crown for his service in the 1857 revolt in India that was long known as the sappy rebellion.

Jake:

[54:00] At the outbreak of the civil war. Revere attempted to rejoin the Navy but there were no officers commissions available. He instead joined the seventh New Jersey Volunteer Infantry as a colonel and quickly rose to brigadier general. By this time, he had seen war on four continents and been decorated for bravery

Strategic Withdrawal at Chancellorsville

Jake:

[54:19] by the governments of three countries. But all that counted for nothing when he decided to make a strategic withdrawal at Chancellorsville. In order to consolidate his men after the court martial, Revere spent years defending his good name. He wrote several defenses of his conduct at Chancellorsville, as well as the memoirs that we’ve quoted from today. He died in Hoboken on April 21st, 1880 to learn about the mini exploits of Joseph Warren. Revere. Check out this week’s show notes at hubor.com/three 01. We’ll have links to Revere’s memoirs, Keel and Saddle and a tour of duty in California. We’ll also include links to the defenses. He wrote of his conduct at Chancellorsville, as well as to the map he drew of San Francisco Bay. We’ll have a link to William Turk’s biography to Pauline Revere Thayer’s remembrances of her grandfather’s 85th birthday dinner and to Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior’s account of her uncle’s deaths.

Jake:

[55:25] If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. We are Hub History on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and still most active on Twitter. If you’re on Mastodon, you can find me as at Hubor at better dot Boston where listener Bill R recently reminded me that I don’t post nearly enough, or you can go to hubhistory.com and click on the contact us link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop me a line and I’ll send you a hub history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Jake:

[56:10] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.