Gunpowder Expedition May 2-4 1775
Governor Dunmore Seizes Virginia Gunpowder; Threatens to Free Slaves
Mar 20, 2008
John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore and the Virginia Colony’s Royal Governor, was sweating bullets. It had been almost four weeks since the firebrand Patrick Henry had stood up in St. Johns Church in Richmond and called for Virginia to mobilize the Militia. He had received notice from Lord North that he was expected to do something about the unrest. He had received word that leading radicals were to be arrested for treason. Three was just one problem. All Dunmore had to back up his bluster was about 40 Marines and the HMS Magdalen, a British schooner. Finally he settled on a desperate measure.
Midnight Raider
On April 21 1775, early in the morning, the marines marched to the public magazine in Williamsburg. The night before Dunmore had supplied the key to Lieutenant Henry Collins, the commander of the Magdalen and given him his mission. Without opposition, Collins loaded 14 barrels of powder onto the Governors own wagon. As number fifteen was hoisted up, they were caught. Drums tattooed and Williamsburg’s colonial militia responded but nit before the marines were able to get the powder loaded on board ship. The town was up in arms. This was simply the last straw.
Virginia’s Call to Arms
The word from Williamsburg had nothing to be ashamed of in its comparison to the alarms that had called through the night just 3 days earlier in New England. In no time the Militia companies that had been drilling began to respond. In Fredericksburg a great company of Horse along with the Culpepper Minute men (with their newly sewn flag that shouted “Liberty of Death” and “Don’t Tread on Me”) were calling on Colonel George Washington to lead and advise them. By April 28, Peyton Randolph had secured a threadbare promise from Dunmore that he would return the powder and these companies dispersed.
Colonel Patrick Henry
Just to the south in Hanover County, Patrick Henry, who was scheduled to leave for the 2nd Continental Congress, was not thrilled about taking the Governor’s word. He gathered 150 Hanoverians who were drilling when the news of Lexington and Concord galloped in on April 28. His course was set. On May 2, his troops left their New Castle camp on the Pamunky River just north of Hanover and began the march to Williamsburg.
On the way he dispatched a 16 man cavalry contingent led by Ensign Parke Goodall to find the Colonial Treasurer, Richard Corbin, at his Laneville Plantation and demand £330 to reimburse the colony or the Governors Palace would be placed under siege. Along the way, Henry’s troops swelled to almost 5000 volunteers as they stopped overnight on May 3rd at Doncastle's Ordinary in New Kent County, only 16 miles from the capitol.
Smiles of Liberty
Dunmore had reached the end of his bluster. He had threatened to declare all slaves to be free in order to defend the government but that just contradicted his earlier excuse for taking the powder in the first place: to quell a slave uprising. Goodall finally caught up with his treasurer in Williamsburg who showed more wisdom by sending the money to Henry on May 4th. This effectively ended the Gunpowder Expedition and sent Patrick Henry on his way to Philadelphia. Dunmore, however, would not relent and made a declaration that by order of the Governor, no one was to “aid, abet, or give countenance to said Patrick Henry”. It was clear to everyone except the King’s Governor that this particular ship had already sailed!
Sources
Patrick Henry in His Speeches and Writing by James M. Elson, 2007, Warwick House
The Day the American Revolution Began by William H. Hallahan, 2000, Perennial
George Washington, A Life by Willard Stern Randall, 1997, Henry Holt and Co.
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