How Does Greenburg Present The Character Of Paul Revere

When people think about Paul Revere and who he was, a lot of people will immediately think of the midnight ride of Paul Revere and not know the deep back ground of his life or his true personality. He was an iconic figure of the revolution and there were myths written about Paul Revere that just glorifies him when there are more about what he has done for the country. One example of that is the painting of Paul Revere done by John Singleton Copley that portrays Paul Revere in an iconic way by painting him as an iconic figure. Paul revere was a great man but like any other historical figure, he had many flaws. A lot of historians write about the ride but every historian has their own interpretation and views about the night of the ride and Paul

Greenburg and in this book Greenburg focus of negative aspects of Paul revere’s personality and how Paul revere caused problems in America especially in the battle of Penobscot. Greenburg points out that Paul Revere valued his reputation more than anything and in the prologue of the book, he states “Despite the undeniable esteem he had earned for his bold exploits in the support of the patriot cause, Revere appeared restless and generally unsuited for service in the local militia regiment and, overtime, developed a somewhat restive and truculent disposition” What was very interesting about Greensburg talking about the “military disaster” is that what happened at Penobscot is mostly unreported in history books. So, a lot of people did not know how Paul Revere was involved there. The Penobscot Expedition was a war to reclaim control of mid-coast Maine from the British because the British seized it a month earlier and renamed it New Ireland. It is considered the biggest naval expedition of the war and it is considered America’s worst naval defeat. One might wonder how Paul revere is involved in this expedition. Paul Revere was one of the commander in the war and his decision brought America down to defeat. In chapter 7, Greenburg stated that even though there was a clear order to the troop to embark on the expedition without a moment of delay, Paul revere was absent and he was nowhere to be found. The fleet could not depart without him. What occurred was that he did not arise early enough to join his men and that he “overslept”. This shows the irresponsible part of Paul Revere’s personality. This was not the only problem of Paul revere. Another problem that Paul Revere caused was not listening to the orders given to him. He was told to go on the mission to get ammunition supplies, because he didn't want to go, he ordered another officer that was from a different artillery train to obtain the