April 21, 1775

Williamsburg's Gunpowder Incident

Lord Dunmore orders 15 half-barrels of gunpowder to be removed from the Williamsburg Magazine. The people of the town are enraged but Peyton Randolph and others calm them. Over the next few days, hundreds of men from the surrounding countryside organize under Patrick Henry and march on Williamsburg. Dunmore's family flees to a British warship while the governor claims he was securing the gunpowder from a rumored slave revolt. The crisis ends on May 4 when Carter Braxton arranges to pay Henry for the gunpowder on behalf of the colony.