On this day 250 years ago a Boston sailor named Samuel Dyer attacked two British officers with a sword and pistols on a crowded street in Boston in broad daylight and then fled to Cambridge to demand protection from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress meeting there. Dyer had been arrested in Boston by the British earlier in the year for trying to get soldiers to desert. He was impressed into the British Navy, transported to London but then released and took another ship back to Boston to demand justice. In both Boston and London Dyer had complained bitterly about his mistreatment by the British and some prominent Patriot leaders had championed his case. However Dyer’s testimony was filled with contradictions and obvious lies, and both the British and Patriot leadership concluded that he was insane. Instead of supporting Dyer, the Provincial Congress turned him over to General Gage back in Boston where he was imprisoned.
Samuel Dyer could have sparked the Revolutionary War on this day 250 years ago when he attacked and wounded a British officer in retaliation for British abuses, but instead he would end up as a collaborator with the British while in prison and became a mere footnote in history. However, his complicated story does make interesting reading.
Sources: https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/04/the-secrets-of-samuel-dyer/
On This Day In The Revolution 