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{{Short description|American militiaman (1745–1799)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox person
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==Childhood==
Dawes was born in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], on April 6, 1745, to William and Lydia Dawes ([[née]] Boone), and baptized at Boston's [[Old South Meeting House|Old South Church]]. He became a [[Tanning (leather)|tanner]] and was active in Boston's militia. On May 3, 1768, Dawes married Mehitable May, the daughter of Samuel and Catherine May (née Mears). The ''[[Boston Gazette]]'' noted that for his wedding, he wore a suit entirely made in North America. At the time, [[Radical Whigs|Whigs]] were trying to organize a boycott of British-made products in order to pressure the [[Parliament of Great Britain]] into repealing the [[Townshend Acts]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=
==Role in Boston's militia==
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A squad of mounted British officers awaited on the road between Lexington and Concord. They had already arrested some riders heading west with news of the troops, and they called for Dawes, Revere, and Prescott to halt. The three men rode in different directions, hoping one would escape. Dawes, according to the story he told his children, rode into the yard of a house shouting that he had lured two officers there. Fearing an ambush, the officers stopped chasing him. Dawes's horse bucked him off, however, and he had to walk back to Lexington. He later said that in the morning, he returned to the same yard and found the watch that had fallen from his pocket. Otherwise, Dawes's activity during the Battle of Lexington and Concord remains unknown.
Dawes and his companions' warnings allowed the town militias to muster a sufficient force for the first open battle of the [[American Revolutionary War]] and the first colonial victory. The British column did not find most of the weapons they had marched to destroy and sustained serious losses during their retreat to Boston while under attack by the minutemen.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Dawes {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/patriotsday-william-dawes/|access-date=September 8, 2021
===Service in the American Revolution===
On September 9, 1776, Dawes was commissioned second major of the Boston militia regiment. During the war, Dawes worked as a quartermaster in central Massachusetts. British [[prisoners of war]] from the [[Battles of Saratoga]] complained to Parliament that he gave them short supplies; his family countered that Dawes believed that they were stealing from farmers while being marched to Boston – as most armies on the march were prone to do.
==Later life and death==
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|date=February 25, 2005}}</ref> but he remarried (to Lydia) two years later.
Dawes died in [[Marlborough, Massachusetts]], on February 25, 1799.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Klein|first=Christopher|title=The Midnight Ride of William Dawes|url=https://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes|access-date=September 8, 2021
==Legacy==
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