Early in the morning on this day 250 years ago, approximately 260 British regulars removed a large quantity of gunpowder owned by the King from the Powder House in Charlestown (now Somerville), Massachusetts. Once the ammunition was removed, most of the regulars returned to Boston by boat but a small detachment marched through the adjacent town of Cambridge, seized two field pieces, and took them back to Boston. Word spread quickly across Massachusetts that the British soldiers had removed the gunpowder, but the story was embellished with fictional details that they stole the powder, had shot and killed colonials, the British Navy was bombarding the city, and Boston was on fire. By nightfall the exaggerated story had reached Shrewsbury, 40 miles west of Boston. Thousands of Patriots began streaming into Charlestown and Cambridge from across Massachusetts. That night mobs surrounded the homes of two prominent Loyalists in Cambridge, General William Brattle, commander of the colony’s militia, and Attorney General Jonathan Sewell forcing both to flee to Boston the next day. By the next day Cambridge and Charlestown were filled with enraged Massachusetts Patriots before they learned that the facts of the Powder Alarm had been greatly exaggerated.

The National Park Service, History Cambridge, the Somerville Museum, and other Massachusetts organizations will be commemorated the Powder Alarm at the Powder House and other locations in Cambridge and Somerville starting today, September 1, 2024 with additional events tomorrow September 2, and Wednesday, September 4, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/news/events-in-cambridge-and-somerville-mark-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-powder-alarm.htm

Sources: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774, The Long Year of Revolution at 181-182; https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2024/08/30/war-war-war-was-the-cry-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-powder-alarm/; https://thehistoryjunkie.com/powder-alarm-facts/