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News spreads fast. Here’s how.

On Wednesday, April 19, 1775, in Watertown MA near Boston, Joseph Palmer, a member of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, learned about what had happened that morning in Lexington. He wrote and dispatched what has become known to historians as the ‘Lexington Alarm’: “To all the friends of American liberty be it known that this morning before break of day, a brigade, consisting of about 1,000 to 1,200 men landed at Phip’s Farm at Cambridge and marched to Lexington, where they found a company of our colony militia in arms, upon whom they fired without any provocation and killed six men and wounded four others. By an express from Boston, we find another brigade are now upon their march from Boston supposed to be about 1,000. The Bearer, Israel Bissell, is charged to alarm the country quite to Connecticut and all persons are desired to furnish him with fresh horses as they may be needed. I have spoken with several persons who have seen the dead and wounded. Pray let the delegates from this colony to Connecticut see this.”

Israel Bissell, a twenty-three-year-old express rider from East Windsor, CT, set out along the Boston Post Road toward Worcester about thirty-six miles away, riding through heavy traffic of hundreds of militiamen streaming towards Concord. Before noon, he arrived in Worcester, dusty and tired, shouting: “To arms, to arms, the war has begun!” whereupon his horse fell dead from fatigue, proving Palmer prophetic. An old signal cannon was fired from the hill behind the meetinghouse and the bell was rung to alert the outlying towns of important news.

On Thursday, Bissell continued south toward Connecticut, following the route known as the Upper Post Road, which extends westward from Worcester through Springfield, MA, and then south to Hartford, through Norwich to New London, crossing the Middle Post Road at Pomfret. That morning, he arrived at the farm of the famous General Israel Putnam, veteran of the French and Indian War, as he was working in a field with his son Daniel, who later wrote of the incident: “He loitered not but left me, the driver of his team, to unyoke it in the furrow, and not many days to follow him to camp.”

When Bissell arrived in Pomfret, the battle at Lexington and Concord had been over almost eighteen hours, and no additional news had caught up with him. Two letters describing these events reached Pomfret four hours later, at 3 P.M., and did not arrive in Norwich until the following morning. Knowledge of the battle’s successful outcome apparently did not catch up with the Lexington Alarm letter for two more days.

That afternoon, the letter reached Colonel Christopher Leffingwell, a prominent citizen and successful businessman. Leffingwell was friends with Connecticut’s Governor Jonathan Trumbull. Although Trumbull was the only Whig Governor in the colonies at the time, he still maintained cordial relations with General Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts. Understandably shocked and disbelieving the news from Watertown, Trumbull dispatched express riders to obtain additional intelligence before calling a meeting of the General Assembly. Returning immediately to his home in Lebanon, Trumbull converted his general store into a supply depot for the local militia who were leaving in the “defense of Boston”.

In the late afternoon, Bissell arrived in New London, passing a small schoolhouse where Nathan Hale was schoolmaster. At a hastily called town meeting, the letter was read again. From there, a post rider would normally leave New London at 6 P.M., traveling five miles west to a rope ferry across the narrow Niantic River.

On Friday, after a brief rest, Israel Bissell traveled through the night and reached the mouth of the Connecticut River, where the Ferry Tavern, built by the Bacon family, had stood since 1763. A journalist of the day, Hugh Finlay, refers to the ferry as follows: “Cross’d the ferry, it is well attended, about 3/4 of a mile in width, the boats are good tho’ not so lage as those at Rhode Island.”  However, well attended it may have been at 1 o’clock in the morning, Bissell nevertheless reached Saybrook at 4 A.M.

Hugh Finlay’s description of the next stage of the “Lower Post Road” gives us some idea of what the post rider would have experienced next. “The Post not come up, proceeded alone towards New Haven, passing thro’ well settled Townships. Killingworth is a pleasant village, a mile long. East and West Guilford are large villages, as is Branford likewise; there must certainly pass many letters to and from these towns, but the riders I believe make them perquisite, as there’s not offices in these places to check them. The road is very good. The ferry at New Haven, or rather two miles from it is about 100 yds wide and is pretty well attended; from the ferry to the town the road was good. Many people ask’d me if I had not met the Post driving some oxen; it seems he had agreed to bring some along with him.”

The “Lexington Alarm” reached New Haven early in the afternoon and a town meeting was called at the “Middle Brick” church. New Haven conservatives voted against sending armed aid to Boston, but when Benedict Arnold heard the news from Lexington, he recognized it as an opportunity to make use of his Second Company of Governor’s Foot Guards. Fifty men agreed to leave for Cambridge the following morning. On that Saturday morning, Arnold paraded his men and the Reverend Jonathan Edwards gave an exhortation. Arnold requested supplies for his men from local selectmen meeting in a nearby tavern, and was refused. Arnold then marched his company to the tavern and dispatched a messenger to inform the city fathers that if the keys to the powder house were not delivered to him at once, he would order his men to break open the door to the magazine and help themselves. Arnold won the keys, got his supplies, and his men left immediately for Boston.

In the town of Milford a few miles further west, a fourteen-old boy named Joseph Plumb Martin was helping his grandfather that day and years later wrote down his recollection of the event: “I was ploughing in the field about half a mile from home, about the twenty-first day of April, when all of a sudden the bells fell to ringing and three guns were repeatedly fired in succession down in the village; what the cause was we could not conjecture. I set off to see what the cause of the commotion was. I found most of the male kind of the people together; soldiers for Boston were in requisition. A dollar deposited on the drumhead was taken up by someone as soon as placed there, and the holder’s name taken, and he enrolled with orders to equip himself as quick as possible. O’, I thought, if I were old enough to put myself forward, I would be the possessor of a dollar, the dangers of war notwithstanding.”

Crossing the Stratford River, now known as the Housatonic, at Peter Hepburn’s ferry the post road wound its way through Stratford and into Fairfield.

On Saturday morning in Fairfield CT, a galloping rider arrived at the brick mansion of Thaddeus Burr and gave his sealed document, Lexington Alarm, to G. Sellick Silliman. As a crowd gathered, Silliman opened the letter and said: “Friends, news from your King, hear it.” He then read Palmer’s alarm. At this point a second rider arrived at the Burr mansion with the following news from Lexington: “Since the above written, we received the following by second express,  that the contest between the first brigade that marched to Concord was still continuing this morning at the town of Lexington to which said brigade had retreated. That another brigade said to be the second mentioned in the letter of this morning had landed with a quantity of artillery at the place where they first did. Provincials were determined to prevent the two brigades from joining their strength if possible and remain in great need of Succour. The regulars when in Concord burnt the courthouse, took two pieces of cannon which they rendered useless, and began to take up Concord Bridge upon which Captain Davis who with many on both sides were soon killed then made an attack on the king’s troops on which they retreated to Lexington.” The two letters were combined.

Fairfield is the last Connecticut report, and it is interesting to note the effect the Lexington Alarm was having on the colony. In the rolls of militiamen who responded, there are listed 3,600 men from 48 towns! A letter dated Wethersfield, April 23, describes the scene: “We are in motion here, and equipt from the town yesterday, one hundred young men, who cheerfully offered their service, twenty-days provision and 64 rounds per man. They are all well armed and in high spirits. My brother has gone with them and others of the first property. Our neighboring towns are all arming and moving. Men of the first character shoulder their arms and march off for the field of action. We shall by night have several thousands from this colony on their march. We fix on our standards and drums the colony arms, with the motto ‘qui transtulit sustinet’ round it in letters of gold, which we construe thus: ‘God who transplanted us hither, will support us’.”

On Sunday, just four days after the Battle of Lexington, the news reached New York City, with a paper reporting, “Yesterday morning we had reports in this city from Rhode Island and New London that an action had happened between King’s troops and the inhabitants of Boston, which was not credited but about 12 o’clock an express arrived with the following account” after which the “Lexington Alarm” was printed in detail.

In many places along the route, the news created disturbances and excitement, but in New York City it caused a riot that developed into armed revolt. Judge Thomas Jones, an ardent New York loyalist, described the scene there when the new arrived: “The mails were stopped and opened and letters read; a mob broke open the city arsenal and forcibly removed 1,000 stand of arms. The entire city became one continuous scene of riot, tumult and confusion.” Troops were enlisted, loyalists were threatened, and the government considered several repressive actions, but because the revolt was too widespread, did nothing in hopes it would cool down.

The postal route from New York to Philadelphia had been improved by Benjamin Franklin in 1753 to include a sailboat trip from Manhattan to Elizabethport. Crossing on Monday, Bissell continued to ride throughout the night. By now, the moon, in its third quarter on the night of the 18th, had grown dim and the route across the New Jersey flatlands would have been tiring and hypnotic. Three more stops were made that night, at New Brunswick, Princetown, and Trenton, before Israel Bissell continued into Pennsylvania.

The news which had left Watertown, Mass., at 10 AM Wednesday, April 19^th, arrived five days later, in Philadelphia, 350 miles away, at 5 PM on April 24th. The bell in the state house tolled to call 8,000 people to hear the news, and they agreed to associate for the purposes of  “defending with arms, our lives, liberty and property against all attempts to deprive us of them.”

Soon after, Palmer’s letter was sent southward to Baltimore, and on its arrival, the inhabitants seized a stand of 1500 arms in the Provincial magazine. By Saturday, April 29^th, the news had reached Williamsburg, VA. Captain Patrick Henry set out for the capital with a body of armed men. When the news reached Charlestown, SC, the colony began to organize itself for defense against possible British attack.

The news spread westward across the mountains to the frontier, causing a great deal of consternation, as the very existence of these settlements depended upon the eastern suppliers. A group of campers in Kentucky, upon receiving the news, called the place Lexington.

The Lexington alarm aroused the spirit and enthusiasm of the American people to the highest level of any period in the war. There were patriotic resolves and orders for the establishment of military organizations. The colonies now had something to unite them. Recognizing that a more official bond was needed, the Continental Congress soon adopted the army surrounding Boston, and appointed George Washington from Virginia to lead it, thus converting it into a national force.

Israel Bissell returned to East Windsor where he entered service in Capt. W. Wolcott’s Co. with his brother Justis in July, 1776. He remained in the army for only one month, possibly due to the death of his father in 1776. When the war ended, the family moved to Middlefield, MA, where Israel purchased land and in 1784 married Lucy Hancock of Longmeadow. They had four children. Israel died in 1823 at the age of seventy-one in Hinsdale, MA.