Historians dispute Palin's Revere retell

NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- American historians say they dispute Sarah Palin's Paul Revere ride interpretation, agreeing the patriot was not warning the British.

Speaking in Boston last week during her "One Nation Tour" last week, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee recounted her interpretation of the Revolutionary War patriot's midnight ride saying the Minuteman and Sons of Liberty member "warned, uh, the ... the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells."

On Fox News Channel Sunday, she attempted to expand and explain what she meant.

"He didn't warn the British," said James Giblin, author of "The Many Rides of Paul Revere," ABC News reported. "That's her most obvious blooper."

"Revere's assignment that night was to go to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were moving in that direction from Boston," said Kristin Peszka, director of interpretation and visitor's services at the Paul Revere House, which Palin visited Thursday before relating the Revere story.

Some historians say Palin's revisionist view of history has stirred the pot.

"It was an extremely complicated situation which she sort of regurgitated in a garbled way," Boston University's Brendan McConville said. "It has been, as an American history professor, disconcerting to realize that no one seems to know what happened in this iconic event."