Yes, Paul Revere played a part in the American Revolution, but why is he the one, and only one, remembered for the midnight ride when it was actually up to forty different messengers raising the alarm about the Redcoats coming?
On the night of April 18, 1775, he and another man, William Dawes, were told to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that British troops were heading out to arrest them and then capture weapons stored in Concord. Both Revere and Dawes made it to Lexington, warning patriots along the way, but there is no record of Revere yelling, "The British are coming!" He probably didn't, because that would have alerted British patrols.
On the way to Concord, Revere was captured by the British. Dawes and Samuel Prescott, who joined them on the ride, both escaped, but only Prescott made it to Concord in time to alert the militia.
Revere didn't become the hero of the midnight ride until nearly 40 years after his death, and his obituary didn't even mention it. But when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem, "Paul Revere's Ride," in 1861, everything changed.
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Longfellow's poem was treated as history for nearly a century. It appeared in textbooks, and historians referred to it. However, it seems likely that Longfellow made a lot of it up. Using poetic license, he got the lantern signals mixed up; sent Revere all the way to Concord, even though he never made it that far; and neglected to mention any of the other heroes from that night. Essentially, we all know the name of Paul Revere because it rhymed better than Dawes or Prescott.
In 1896, Helen F. Moore wrote a parody of the poem:
'Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear--
My name was Dawes and his Revere.