On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety met and recorded that
Capt. Benedict Arnold, captain of a company from Connecticut, attended, and reported, that there are at Ticonderoga, 80 pieces of heavy cannon, 20 pieces of brass cannon, from 4 to 18 pounders, 10 to 12 mortars ; at Skeenhorough, on the South Bay, 3 or 4 pieces of brass cannon ; the fort, in a ruinous condition, is supposed to have about 40 or 45 men, a number of small arms and considerable stores ; and that there is a sloop of 70 or 80 tons on the lake.
The Committee of Safety also appointed Andrew Craigie “to take care of the medical stores,” a post that would later be called the “Commissary of Medicinal Stores.” The Committee also voted that Joseph Pearse Palmer “be appointed to the post of quarter master general of the army.” Both would continue to serve in the War; Craigie becoming Apothecary General of the Continental Army and Palmer serving as a brigade major as well as quartermaster general of the Massachusetts Militia.
And on that day in Watertown, Joseph Warren, President Pro Tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congresss issued this broadside
THE barbarous Murders on our innocent Brethren o? Wednesday the 19th Instant, has made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an Army to defend our Wives and our Children from the butchering Hands of an inhuman Soldiery, who, incensed at the Obstacles they met with in their bloody Progress and enraged at being repulsed from the Field of Slaughter; will without the least doubt take the first Opportunity in their Power to ravage this devoted Country with Fire and Sword: We conjure you, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, that you give all Assistance possible in forming an Army: Our all is at Stake, Death and Devastation are the certain Consequences of Delay, every Moment is infinitely precious, an Hour lost may deluge your Country in Blood, and entail perpetual Slavery upon the few of your Posterity, who may survive the Carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer it to your Country, to your own Consciences, and above all as you will answer to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage by all possible Means, the Inlistment of Men to form the Army, and send them forward to Head-Quarters, at Cambridge, with that Expedition, which the vast Importance and instant Urgency of the Affair demands.
And on that day in Boston, Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie recorded in his diary:
Arrived The Faulcon, and Otter, Sloops of war from England.
We hear by some persons who came in within a day or two, that there are a good many British deserters in arms with the Rebels. They have also a few of The Stockbridge Indians with them, who Shew themselves at the ferry at Charlestown.
On this day 250 years ago, a mass meeting of more than 6000 of “the Freeholders, Freemen, and inhabitants of the City and County of New York” adopted a “General Association” that declared
that the Salvation of the Rights and Liberties of America, depends under GOD, on the Union of its Inhabitants, in the vigorous Prosecution of the Measures necessary for its Safety . . . We . . . Do in the most solemn Manner, resolve never to become Slaves; and do associate, under all the Ties of Religion, Honour, and Love to our Country to adopt…whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the purpose of preserving our Constitution and opposing the Execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament, until a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America, on Constitutional Principles, (which we most ardently Desire) can be obtained
More than 1000 Inhabitants of New York signed the General Association after the meeting.
On that day in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 700 militiamen had assembled to march to Williamsburg to confront Governor Dunmore about his seizure of the gunpowder in the Powder Magazine. Instead of marching they sent letters to Speaker Peyton Randolph in Williamsburg and to Col. George Washington at Mount Vernon to ask for instructions. Randolph and Washington advised the men to go home and by a narrow vote, they agreed to do so.
And also on that day 250 years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia the Albemarle Independent Company also wrote to George Washington for instructions on how to proceed:
The County of Albemarle in General & the Gentlemen Volunteers in particular are truly alarmed, & highly incensed with the unjustifiable proceedings of Lord Dunmore, who we are informed has Clandestinly taken possession of our ammunition lodged in the Magazine, we should have attended at Fredericksburgh in order to have proceeded to Williamsburgh to demand a return of the powder, had the Alarm reached us before an account of Security being given for its delivery—however to assure you, & the world of our readiness, & willingness to resent every encroachment of Arbitary power, we now declare to you, should it be necessary, that the first Company of Independents for Albemarle will attend in Williamsburgh properly equiped (& if not to be obtained ⟨other⟩wise) to Enforce an immediate delivery of the powder, or die in the Attempt, with respect we remain ready to obey your commands.
Source: “To George Washington from Albemarle Independent Company, 29 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0273. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 349–350.]
And on this day 250 years ago, in Granville, Massachusetts, 39 men of the Granville Militia assembled and marched off to join the New England Army in the Siege of Boston.
On this day 250 years ago, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Christian Febiger, an immigrant from Denmark, enlists as a private in the Massachusetts militia. Febiger serves heroically throughout the Revolution including at Bunker Hill, Quebec (where he was captured and imprisoned for eight months), Brandywine, Stony Point and in Virginia ending his service as a Brevet Brigadier General in the Continental Army. “Old Denmark” Febiger is one of the heroes of the Revolution who deserves better recognition for his contributions to American liberty.
On this day 250 years ago, news of Lexington and Concord reaches Hanover Court House, Virginia, where Patrick Henry is ready to ride north to attend the Continental Congress. On that same day, a report of the battles reaches Williamsburg, Virginia, and is published in William Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette.
On this day 250 years ago in Montreal, Canada, four men write a response on behalf of the British “Inhabitants of Montreal” to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety’s invitation to send representatives to the Continental Congress:
We have received your letter of the 21st of February, by Mr Brown, and see clearly the great injustice that has been done you. We deeply feel the sorrows and afflictions of our suffering brethren ; and sincerely wish it was in our power to afford you effectual relief; but alas! we are more the objects of pity and compassion than yourselves, who are now suffering under the heavy hand of power; deprived, as we are, of the common right of the miserable, to complain. You have numbers, strength, and a common cause to support you in your opposition : we are still more divided here, by our interests, than by our religion, language, and manners. The apprehension of evils to come upon us, in a short time, from the unlimited power of the governor, strikes all opposition dead : indeed, few in this colony dare vent their griefs ; but groan in silence, and dream of lettres de cachet, confiscations, and imprisonments; offering up their fervent prayers to the throne of grace, to prosper your righteous cause, which alone will free us from those jealous fears and apprehensions tliat rob us of our peace.
In a word, were the British inhabitants of this widely extended province, united in their sentiments, we have neither numbers nor wealth sufficient to do you any essential service. We must, therefore, cast ourselves into the arms of our sister colonies, relying upon the wisdom, vigor, and firnmess of the general Continental Congress for our protection, hoping they will entertain no animosity or resentment against us because we cannot join them in the ensuing general Congress, which, were we to attempt, the Canadians would join with the government to frustrate.
On this day 250 years ago in Hartford, the Connecticut Assembly agreed to raise six regiments (6,000 troops) to join the New England Army besieging Boston.
On this day 250 years in Watertown, Massachusetts, Dr. Joseph Warren as Chairman of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety issued the following order to Captain Richard Derby of Salem:
make for Dublin, or any other good port in Ireland, and from thence to cross to Scotland or England, and hasten to London. This direction is given, that so he may escape all cruisers that may be in the chops of the channel, to stop the communication of the provincial intelligence to the agent. He will forthwith deliver his papers to the agent on reaching London. . . .
P. s. — You are to keep this order a profound secret fro:n every person on earth.
Derby’s secret mission was to carry the news of Lexington and Concord as reported by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to England on one of his family’s very fast schooners in the hopes that they would beat the official report that General Gage had dispatched three days earlier. Richard Derby’s brother John Derby would captain the Quero when it left Salem the next day, and he would beat Gage’s ship by two weeks.
On this day 250 years ago on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean within sight of the Massachusetts shore, Josiah Quincy, Jr. died of tuberculosis. He had traveled to Britain on a secret mission to gather information from supporters of America there, and was returning to report to Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, on the intelligence he had learned. Quincy was one of the leading orators, thinkers and writers of the Patriot movement beginning with his commencement address at Harvard in 1763 until his premature death at the young age of 31. Had he lived through the next year, we would undoubtedly know him better as one of our Founding Fathers.
On this day 250 years ago in Narragansett Bay, off Providence, Rhode Island, Captain James Wallace of the 20-gun HMS Rose captured two packet ships — the Abigail and Diana owned by Providence merchant and Patriot leader John Brown — and arrested Brown. Captain Wallace was supposed to be intercepting smugglers but Brown’s ships were carrying flour from Newport to Providence. Many speculated that Wallace arrested Brown as revenge for Brown’s involvement in the burning of the HMS Gaspee three years earlier.
On this day 250 years ago in Exeter, New Hampshire, the Third New Hampshire Provincial Congress authorized two regiments of New Hampshire Militia under Colonel John Stark to join the New England Army besieging Boston. Stark’s men had marched to Boston immediately after Lexington and Concord and on this day were encamped at Medford and on Charlestown Neck as part of the siege.
On this day 250 years ago in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Spotsylvania Independent Company wrote George Washington:
it appears that Capt. Collins of his Majestys Navy at the head of 15 Marines carried off the Powder from the Magazine in that City on the night of Thursday last and conveyed it on board his Vessell by Order of the Governor. The Gentlemen of the Independant Company of this Town think this first Publick insult is not to be tamely submitted to and determine with your approbation to join any other bodies of armed Men who are willing to appear in support of the honour of Virginia as well as to secure the Military Stores yet remaining in the Magazine. It is proposed to March from hence on Saturday next for Williamsburg properly accoutred as Light Horsemen.
Expresses are sent off to inform the Commanding Officers of Companies in the adjacent Counties of this our Resolution & we shall wait prepared for your Instructions & their assistance. . . .
As we are not sufficiently supplied with Powder, it may be proper to request of the Gentlemen who join us from Fairfax or Prince William, to come provided with an over portion of that Article.
And on this day 250 years ago in Virginia, George Washington met with the Fairfax Independent Company in Alexandria. While he was there a letter arrived at Mount Vernon from the Prince William Independent Company in Dumfries forwarding an April 24 letter from the Spotsylvania Independent Company in Fredericksburg. This earlier letter from the Spotsylvania Company proclaimed:
Submission to so arbitrary an Exertion of Government may not only prejudice the common Cause by introducing a suspicion of a defection of this Colony from the noble pursuit but will encourage the tools of despotism to commit further Acts of Violence in this Colony and more especially subject the Arms in the Magazine to the same fate of the powder.
The Spotsylvania Company promised to “hold themselves in readiness to march from this place as light horse on Saturday Morning and in the mean time to [sub]mit the Matter to the determn of yours & the neighbouring Countys whom Expresses are purposely forwarded.” In forwarding this letter Captain William Grayson of the Prince William Independent Company added that
I immediately call’d together this Company and had the vote put whether they would march to Williamsburgh for the purposes mentioned in that letter which was carried unanimously.
I have nothing more to add but that We are well assured you may depend on them either for that or any other service which respects the liberties of America.
William Grayson and Philip Richard Francis Lee signed their letter as officers of the Prince William Independent Company. Both of the Spotsylvania Independent Company’s letters were signed by the officers of that company –Hugh Mercer, George Weedon, Alexander Spotswood, and John Willis. All of these men would become officers in Virginia regiments of the Continental Army serving under Washington’s command. General Mercer would give his life at the Battle of Princeton in 1777 and Captain Lee would be mortally wounded at Brandywine later that year. General Weedon, Colonel Grayson, Colonel Spotswood and Washington’s cousin Major Willis all served honorably and would survive the War.
Sources: “To George Washington from Prince William Independent Company, 26 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0270. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 345–346.]; “To George Washington from Spotsylvania Independent Company, 26 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0271. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 346–347.]; “[Diary entry: 26 April 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0008-0026. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 3, 1 January 1771–5 November 1781, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, p. 323.]
On this day 250 years ago, in Providence, Rhode Island, the General Assembly wrote to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that it was meeting “to consult and act upon the present distresses into which your Colony and all of New-England are involved” and that Rhode Island was
firm and determined. . . . A greater unanimity scarce ever prevailed in the Lower House than was found in the great questions before them . . . . We pray God that he would be graciously pleased to bring to nothing the counsels and designs of wicked men against our lives and liberties, and grant his blessing upon our righteous contest.
The Rhode Island General Assembly further pledged to raise 1,500 men to
continue in this Colony, as an Army of Observation; to repel any insults or violence that may be offered to the inhabitants; and also, if it be necessary for the safety and preservation of any of the Colonies, that they be ordered to march out of this Colony, and join and cooperate with the Forces of our neighbouring Colonies.
Also on that day in New York City, Scottish immigrant Alexander McDougall mustered hundreds of New Yorkers into service and gave each “a Good firelock, Bayonet, Cartouch Box, and Belt.”
And on that day in Mount Vernon, Virginia, William Johnson, the Muster Master of the Fairfax Independent Company, dined with George Washington and presented him a letter signed by Captain James Hendricks, George Gilpin, and Robert H. Harrison requesting Washington’s direction on whether the Company should “take the Fashion of the Hunting Shirt Cap & Gaiters” as its uniform. Thomas Davis from Fredericksburg also met with Washington at Mount Vernon to pay him £4 16s. to buy gunpowder for the Spotsylvania Independent Company.
Sources: “To George Washington from Fairfax Independent Company, 25 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0268. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 344–345.]; “[Diary entry: 25 April 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0008-0025. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 3, 1 January 1771–5 November 1781, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, p. 323.]
On this day 250 years ago in New Bern, North Carolina, Patriots led by Alexander Gaston and Richard Cogdell, carried off artillery sitting on the grounds of the Governor’s mansion in New Bern. Soon thereafter, Royal Governor Josiah Martin would flee New Bern.
Also on this day, news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord had reached towns across New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Newcastle, Delaware.
On this day 250 years ago, news of the battles of Lexington and Concord arrived in New York City. Upon hearing the news, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett led a contingent of New York Militia in a raid on the public arsenal. Willett and his men seized and removed weapons.
On this day 250 years ago in Watertown, Massachusetts, in response to a request from General Artemas Ward the Massachusetts Provincial Congress passed a resolution for the “Establishment of Forces now immediately to be raised for the Recovery and Preservation of our undoubted Rights and Liberties.” The Provincial Congress authorized an army of 30,000 men with 13,000 from Massachusetts, and the remaining 17,000 to be requested from New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
On this day 250 years ago, thousands of militia under the nominal command of General Artemas Ward, but in practice acting as independent companies, surrounded Boston. More militiamen were on the march to join them. Most of the men were Massachusetts Militia, but militia from New Hampshire commanded by Col. John Stark had also joined the Siege of Boston.
In New Haven, Connecticut, Benedict Arnold, commander of the Second Company, Governor’s Foot Guard, had assembled his 60 men to go to Boston but needed gunpowder. General David Wooster of the Connecticut Militia initially refused Arnold’s demand for the keys to the Powder House because the Connecticut Governor and Legislature had not given their authorization. After Arnold threatened to break in, Wooster relented, and Arnold took the powder he needed and he and his men began their three-day march to Boston. Wooster was more cautious than Arnold but he was not a Loyalist; two years later Wooster and Arnold would fight together to defend against a British raid into Connecticut, and Wooster would be mortally wounded fighting for American Independence.
Every year the State of Connecticut celebrates Arnold’s seizure of the gunpowder as Powder House Day. This year the 250th commemoration of Powder House Day will be held on May 10.
And on this day 250 years ago in western Massachusetts, the Stockbridge Militia Company under the command of Captain William Goodrich with David Pixley as first lieutenant and Jehoiakim Mtohksin as second lieutenant, began their march to Boston. In addition to Jehoiakim Mtohksin, at least fifteen other members of the Stockbridge Mohicans would participate in the Siege of Boston including Abraham Naunauphtaunk, William Notonksion, Sr., Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut, Jacob Naunauphtaunk with his sons Abraham and Jehoiakim, Daniel Nimham, and both William Ntonksion, Sr., and Jr.
Late at night 250 years ago in Charlestown, South Carolina, Patriot leaders Charles Pinckney (President of the Provincial Congress), Henry Laurens (Chairman of the General Committee), Thomas Lynch (Delegate to the Continental Congress), Benjamin Huger, William Bull and William Henry Drayton, with the assistance of several “mechanics,” including Daniel Cannon, William Johnson, Anthony Toomer, Edward Weyman, and Daniel Stevens, raided the Armory in the State House. They seized at least 800 muskets with bayonets, 200 cutlasses, leather cartridge boxes, and match and gun flints. The Town Guard stood by and did not intervene.
That same night,1,025 pounds of gunpowder were seized from the Hobcaw magazine across the river from Charlestown, and about 500 pounds of gunpowder disappeared from the magazine on Shipyard Creek.
In the early hours on this date 250 years ago, twenty marines and seamen from the armed schooner HMS Magdalen broke into the Powder Magazine in Williamsburg and began loading a wagon with 18 half-barrels of gunpowder. They also removed the flintlocks from the guns stored in the Magazine They were discovered and the alarm was sounded and armed townsmen began to muster, but not in time to prevent the marines from escaping with the gunpowder to their ship on the James River. By 6:00 am, the marines and seamen unloaded the gunpowder on their ship at Burrell’s Ferry on the James River.
An angry crowd and the Williamsburg Militia Company assembled near the Governor’s Palace and it appeared they would storm the Palace. Governor Dunmore armed his servants, but Peyton Randolph and other town leaders convinced the crowd to stand down while they met with Dunmore. The Governor falsely claimed that he had secured the gunpowder because of a report of a planned slave insurrection and he promised to return the powder if it was needed to defeat a rebellion. This promise temporarily satisfied the Town and the crowd dispersed, but in the meantime word of the Governor’s raid on the Powder Magazine had been dispatched throughout the Commonwealth.
Tonight April 21, 2025, Colonial Williamsburg is reenacting the Gunpowder Incident at the Powder Magazine where it happened 250 years ago.
Early this morning 250 years ago, the Plymouth County Militia commanded by Colonel Theophilus Cotton marched into Marshfield, joining the Patriot militia from Marshfield at Anthony Thomas’s farm, about a mile from the British garrison in Marshfield. The Plymouth Militia outnumbered the British garrison and Loyalists 500 to 100, and reinforcements were on their way, but Cotton did not give the order to advance. By 3:00 pm the Kingston Company commanded by Capt. Peleg Wadsworth grew impatient and advanced to the British position. There they discovered that the British garrison was withdrawing to two ships that General Gage had sent from Boston to evacuate the British garrison and Loyalists from Marshfield. The Plymouth Militia then occupied the next-to-last British outpost in Massachusetts outside of Boston without firing a shot. British troops were still in Charlestown across the Back Bay from Boston but General Gage would withdraw those troops to Boston the next day.
On This Day In The Revolution 