Between 9 and 10 pm on the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes that the king's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route, many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him, "The British are coming!" His mission depended on secrecy, Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and his own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out." Paul Revere (December 21, 1734 - May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith and patriot in the American Revolution who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military.