Unique.

In school, we all learned about Paul Revere and his famous April 18, 1775 ride through the Massachusetts countryside warning of an impending British armed force marching from Boston, MA to the small towns of Lexington and Concord. But, of course, there is much more to the story, including the British commander of all troops in North America, British spies, patriotic tavern keepers, an unsigned manuscript map, and a Boston publisher.

Tensions between the colonies and England reached a boiling point in December 1773 with the Boston Tea Party when a group of colonists dumped tea from England into Boston Harbor. As a result, the British Parliament passed a series of laws that, among other things, installed British General Thomas Gage, as the governor of the Colony of Massachusetts in May 1774. By the winter of 1774-1775, however, in the face of continued rebellious activities, General Gage argued for an 18th century troop “surge” – as many as 20,000 additional troops – to pacify the countryside.

Several years ago, I stumbled across an unsigned manuscript map with the supplied title of “Roxbury to Concord. Roads & distances, &c.” This unique map was acquired by the Library of Congress in 1867 as a part of the Peter Force Collection, which includes more than 750 Revolutionary era printed and manuscript maps transferred to the Geography and Map Division.

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