On this day 250 years ago in Virginia, Lord Dunmore’s fleet of 100 vessels, primarily small boats carrying Loyalists and escaped slaves but also including the HMS Fowey, HMS Otter, HMS Dunmore and HMS Roebuck, and British soldiers and marines and the “Ethiopian Regiment” of escaped slaves and Loyalist soldiers enlisted by Dunmore, sailed from Hampton Roads to anchor off Gwynn’s Island in Gloucester County (now Mathews County), Virginia. The day before, Dunmore’s “floating town” had departed the Elizabeth River after destroying the remaining buildings of Portsmouth. The next day, May 27, 1776, Dunmore’s soldiers would occupy Gwynn’s Island without firing a shot, as the small militia guard on the island retreated to the mainland when the fleet anchored off shore.

Source: Wrike at 37-38.