The Reveres

In One April in Boston you met Paul Revere's great-granddaughter Pauline Revere Thayer. Her father Colonel Paul Joseph Revere was killed in the Civil War at the Battle of Gettysburg. Pauline's uncle, First Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon Edward H.R. Revere, had died 10 months before his brother at the Battle of Antietam. The sacrifice of these brave men, bound by duty to the country they loved, was not forgotten by their family. In One April in Boston Pauline Revere Thayer read from the Revere Memorial, a book that the Revere family had published in 1874 to honor the two brothers.

The Revere Memorial begins with the following words: "It is not easy to write the life of a young man. If in any way remarkable, whatever may be said seems, from one point of view, to indicate what he might have been, had a longer career on earth been permitted, rather than what he was." Paul Joseph seemed destined to eventually work with another brother, John, in the copper business begun by their grandfather Paul the patriot. By this time, their father Joseph Warren Revere was in his 80s. The outbreak of the Civil War changed these plans.

Colonel Paul Joseph Revere (at left) and his brother First Lieutenant Edward H. R. Revere.
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Colonel Paul Joseph Revere

The Revere Memorial brings the brothers' memory to life through stories told by family members and their comrades-in-arms. Children will surely find that they can relate to some of these tales, especially those of a young Paul Joseph Revere. In the book, Mary Robbins Revere writes of her son Paul "He was a very fine child. Early in life he took an idea so clearly that I was often surprised." Paul was told that one of his aunts lived in Singapore on the other side of the world. His mother recalls, "I remember his waking one morning when he was about five years old, in my room, where the rising sun shone in, and saying, 'I will get up and ride over to see my Aunt Maria on the sun. '"

One of Paul Joseph's sisters remembers her brother's sense of humor. "When we were children, he was always thinking of tricks and pranks that we could play together; and he had the most comical way of looking quite grave and innocent when he was found out. And then he would assure me he should never have done the mischief if I had not suggested it; until, often, I had really believed, that, some way or other, I did originate it. Finally, he would add, 'I forgive you, I forgive you,' making me feel myself the guilty one. This, however, was wholly by ourselves. He never shielded himself from punishment by any such fun.

"On Christmas Eve, when I was a little girl, he completely took me in by making me tell over to him the different presents for all the household, and then bringing in his own name so naturally, that I fell into the trap, and told him what his present was to be also, to the great amusement of father, who was listening to us."