{{Short description|1774 event leading up to the Revolutionary War}} {{Infobox civil conflict | title = Powder Alarm | partof = the American Revolution | image = SomervillePowderhouse1935.jpg | caption = The Old Powder House in Somerville, Massachusetts, as it stood in 1935, atop the hill at Nathan Tufts Park overlooking Powder House Square | date = {{Start date and age|1774|9|1|p=yes}} | place = Suffolk County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America | coordinates = | result = British soldiers remove military supplies | side1 = {{Flagicon image|Red ensign of Great Britain (1707–1800, square canton).svg}} Massachusetts Bay Committee of safety | side2 = Kingdom of Great Britain *British Army | leadfigures1 = {{Flagdeco|Province of Massachusetts Bay}} Paul Revere | leadfigures2 = {{Flagdeco|Kingdom of Great Britain}} Thomas Gage<br> {{Flagdeco|Kingdom of Great Britain}} William Brattle<br>{{Flagdeco|Kingdom of Great Britain}} George Maddison<br>{{Flagdeco|Kingdom of Great Britain}} David Phips | howmany1 = Disputed | howmany2 = 260 regulars, from the 4th regiment of foot | campaignbox = {{Campaignbox American Revolutionary War: Boston}} | casualties1 = | casualties2 = }}
The '''Powder Alarm''' was a major popular reaction to the removal of gunpowder from a gunpowder magazine near Boston by British troops under orders from General Thomas Gage, governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on September 1, 1774. In response to this action, amid false rumors that blood had been shed, alarm spread through the countryside to Connecticut and beyond, and local Patriots formed themselves into armed mobs, fearing that war was at hand. Thousands of militiamen began streaming toward Boston and Cambridge, and mob action forced Loyalists and some government officials to flee to the protection of the British Army.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-29 |title=How a revolt in Somerville helped spark the American Revolution |url=https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2024/08/29/powder-alarm-somerville-american-revolution-revolt |access-date=2024-09-02 |website=www.wbur.org |language=en}}</ref> A similar event, known as Gunpowder Incident, occurred in Virginia in April, 1775.
Although it proved to be a false alarm, the incident caused political and military leaders to proceed more carefully in the days ahead, and essentially provided a "dress rehearsal" for the Battles of Lexington and Concord seven and a half months later. Furthermore, actions on both sides to control weaponry, gunpowder, and other military supplies became more contentious, as the British sought to bring military stores more directly under their control, and the Patriot colonists sought to acquire them for their own use.
==Background== [[File:John Singleton Copley - William Brattle (1706-1776) - 1978.606 - Harvard Art Museums.jpg|thumb|upright|1756 portrait of William Brattle by John Singleton Copley]] [[File:Boston_1775.jpg|thumb|right|The Powder House ("Magazine") is near the northern edge of this detail from a 1775 map of the siege of Boston.]]
In 1772, many of the thirteen British colonies, in response to unpopular British actions and the negative British reaction to the ''Gaspee'' Affair (the destruction by colonists of a grounded ship involved in enforcing customs regulations), elected to form Committees of Correspondence. These allowed communities to formally communicate with each other, raise awareness of incidents occurring elsewhere, and to coordinate actions;<ref name="Tagney65">Tagney, pp. 65–67</ref> as such, they became instrumental in managing the colonial response to enforcement of the Tea Act, the Intolerable Acts, and other unpopular British colonial legislation. The colonists of Massachusetts had not yet taken concerted action to organize themselves militarily against actions of the British regulars, although statements were made about supporting Boston (whose port had been closed earlier in 1774 under the Boston Port Act) "at the risque of our lives and fortunes."<ref name="Tagney68">Tagney, pp. 68–75 (emphasis in original)</ref>
General Thomas Gage, who had become the military governor of Massachusetts in May 1774, was charged with enforcement of the highly unpopular Intolerable Acts, which British Parliament had passed in response to the Boston Tea Party. Seeking to prevent the outbreak of war and to keep the peace between the American Patriot (Whig) majority and the Loyalist (Tory) minority, he believed that the best way to accomplish this was by secretly removing military supplies from storehouses and arsenals in New England.<ref name="Frothingham13">Frothingham, p. 13</ref><ref name="Fischer43">Fischer, p. 43</ref>{{sfn|Maas|1989|pp=137–139}} The secrecy of these missions was paramount, as Gage feared that leakage of any plans would result in the seizure or concealment of the stores by Patriot sympathizers before his men got there.<ref name="Fischer44"/>
There were several places throughout the colonies where the British army had stockpiled supplies. Some of these places were fortifications that were manned by small garrisons; others were merely locked magazines. Most of the powder in these was under the control of the provincial government, though some was the property of individual towns. One locked storehouse near Boston, in what was then part of Charlestown, now Powder House Square in Somerville, was controlled by William Brattle, the leader of the provincial militia and an appointee of the governor. Brattle, who had not obviously sided with either Loyalists or Patriots, notified Governor Gage in a letter dated August 27 that the provincial ("King's") powder was the only supply remaining in that storehouse, as the towns had removed all of theirs.<ref name="Richmond5">Richmond, p. 5</ref> Gage decided that this powder had to be brought to Boston for safekeeping.<ref name="Frothingham13"/>
==Expedition== On August 31, Gage sent the sheriff of Middlesex County, David Phips, to Brattle with orders to remove the provincial powder; Brattle turned the key to the powder house over to Phips. Gage also gave orders to ready a force of troops for action the next day, something that did not go unnoticed by the local population.<ref name="Richmond6">Richmond, p. 6</ref> At some point that day, General Gage, whether by his intent, accident, or theft by a messenger, lost possession of the August 27 letter from William Brattle; the widely held story is that it was dropped. News of its content spread rapidly, and many considered it to be a warning to Gage to remove the provincial powder before Patriots could seize it.<ref name="Richmond52">Richmond, pp. 52–56</ref>
thumb|Re-enactors portraying the 4th Regiment of Foot marching to the Powder House for the 250th anniversary commemoration, September 2024
Early in the morning of September 1, a force of roughly 260 British regulars from the 4th Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Maddison, was rowed in secrecy up the Mystic River from Boston to a landing point near Winter Hill in modern-day Somerville. From there they marched about a mile (1.6 km) to the Powder House, a gunpowder magazine that held the largest supply of gunpowder in Massachusetts. Phips gave the King's Troops the keys to the building, and after sunrise, they removed all of the gunpowder. Most of the regulars then returned to Boston the way they had come, but a small contingent marched to Cambridge, removed two field pieces, and took them to Boston by foot over the Great Bridge and up Boston Neck.<ref name="Fischer44">Fischer, pp. 44–45</ref> The field pieces and powder were then taken from Boston to the British stronghold on Castle Island, then known as Castle William (renamed Fort Independence in 1779).<ref name="Richmond7">Richmond, p. 7</ref>
==Response to the raid== False rumors flew throughout the day across the countryside about the British troop movements. The regulars were marching; provincial powder had been seized; war was at hand; people had been killed; Boston was being bombarded by His Majesty's warships. The alarm spread as far as Connecticut. From all over the region, people took up arms and began streaming toward Boston. One traveler in Shrewsbury reported that in the space of 15 minutes, 50 men had gathered, equipped themselves, sent out messengers to surrounding towns, and left for Boston.<ref name="Fischer46">Fischer, p. 46</ref> On September 2, several thousand men bent on violence gathered in Cambridge, where they forced several notable Loyalists, including William Brattle, to flee to Boston and the protection of the military. Sheriff Phips was forced, in writing, to dissociate himself from any and all government actions.<ref name="Fischer47">Fischer pp. 47–48</ref> Eventually facts caught up with the rumors, and militia units (some of which were still heading toward Boston) returned home.<ref name="French122">French, pp. 122–125</ref>
Also on September 2, Boston newspapers published a letter from William Brattle in which he protested that he had not warned Gage to remove the powder; Gage had requested from him an accounting of the storehouse's contents, and he had complied. The content of his letter to Gage would be published on September 5. Brattle remained on Castle Island through the siege of Boston, leaving when the British evacuated the city in March 1776. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in October 1776 at the age of 70.<ref name="Richmond57">Richmond, pp. 57–58</ref>
{{Quotation|When the horrid news was brought here of the bombardment of Boston, which made us completely miserable for two days, we saw proofs of both the sympathy and the resolution of the continent. War! war! war! was the cry, and it was pronounced in a tone which would have done honor to the oratory of a Briton or a Roman. If it had proved true, you would have heard the thunder of an American Congress.|John Adams, reporting on the reaction of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia<ref name="French125">French, pp. 125–126</ref>}}
==British reaction== Gage, surprised by the size and scope of the colonial reaction, delayed and eventually cancelled a second planned expedition to the storehouse in Worcester.<ref name="French126">French, pp. 126–141</ref> He concentrated his troops in Boston, and called for reinforcements from London, writing "if you think ten thousand men sufficient, send twenty; if one million is thought enough, give two; you save both blood and treasure in the end."<ref name="Fischer51">Fischer, p. 51</ref> However, Gage's request was seen by some in London as absurd, as there were only 12,000 troops in Britain at the time, but he did eventually receive an additional 400 Marines in response to these requests.<ref name="Fischer51"/> He later began planning and executing seizures again,<ref name="Fischer52"/> and he further fortified the Boston peninsula.<ref name="French125"/>
==Colonial reaction== [[File:Powder House 2.jpg|thumb|A 2007 photograph of the Old Powder House in Nathan Tufts Park, Somerville, Massachusetts]]
After the Powder Alarm, militia forces throughout New England were more cautious with their supplies and more intent on gaining information about Gage's plans and troop movements. Paul Revere played a significant role in distributing this information because of his geographical position in Boston, his social position as a middle-class craftsman in contact with all social classes, and his political position as a well-known Patriot propagandist and organizer.<ref name="French170"/>
===The colonists organize=== On September 21, Patriot leaders met in Worcester and urged town meetings to organize a third of the militias into special companies of minutemen in constant readiness to march.<ref name="JCong642">Provincial Congress Journals, pp. 642–644</ref> They also instituted the system of express riders and alarms that would prove to be critical at Lexington and Concord.<ref name="French170">French, p. 170</ref> In October, the former legislature of Massachusetts met in defiance of the Massachusetts Government Act and declared itself to be the First Provincial Congress. It created a Committee of Safety modeled after a body with the same name during the English Civil War and it recommended that a quarter of the militia be designated as minutemen.<ref name="Fischer51"/> Military stores were to be stockpiled away from the coast (more than a convenient day's march), to make attempts to seize them more difficult. The largest stockpiles were located at Concord and Worcester.<ref name="French160">French, p. 160</ref>
===Portsmouth Alarm=== {{main|Capture of Fort William and Mary}} Early in December 1774, British military command voted to prohibit the export of arms and powder to North America and to secure all remaining stores. On December 12, intelligence received by Paul Revere indicated that a seizure of stores at Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was imminent. He rode from Boston to Portsmouth the next day to notify the local Patriots, who quickly raided the fort on December 14 and removed its supplies. Revere's intelligence had been incorrect; although a British operation had been contemplated, it had not been ordered. The British did send ships carrying troops to Portsmouth, and they arrived three days after the fort's supplies were removed. The first arrived on December 17 and was directed into shallows at high tide by a local Patriot pilot, much to the captain's anger.<ref name="Fischer52">Fischer, pp. 52–57</ref>
Stores of gunpowder—typically referred to by Loyalists as "the King's powder" but by Patriots as "the militia's powder"—were also carried off from forts in Newport, Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut, and distributed to the militias in towns away from the coast.<ref>Bancroft, pp. 183–184</ref> Cannon and other supplies were smuggled out of Boston and Charlestown.<ref name="Tagney130">Tagney, p. 130</ref>
===Salem confrontation=== {{main|Salem Gunpowder Raid}}
On February 27, 1775, HMS ''Lively'' brought a force of about 240 British regulars from the 64th Regiment under Colonel Alexander Leslie to confiscate weapons in Salem, Massachusetts. They were stopped by a small crowd that raised a drawbridge in their path and taunted them while others moved the cannon to safety and sent for help from nearby towns. Eventually, the drawbridge was lowered and the regulars were permitted to search the forge where the cannon had once been. They returned to their ship while being mocked by a growing force of irregulars marching along in lock-step next to them. There were minor scuffles, but no shots were fired.<ref name="Tagney140">Tagney, pp. 140–142</ref>
==See also== * Gunpowder Incident—a similar event in Virginia
==Notes== {{reflist|20em}}
==References== * {{cite book |first=George |last=Bancroft |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFUQAAAAYAAJ|title=History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Volume 7|publisher=Little, Brown, and Co|year=1860|location=Boston|ref=Bancroft}} * {{cite book |last=Fischer |first=David Hackett |title=Paul Revere's Ride|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1994|isbn=0-19-508847-6|ref=Fischer|oclc=263430392|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195088472}} * {{cite book |last = French | first = Allen | author-link =Allen French | title = The Siege of Boston | publisher = Macmillan | date = 1911 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PqZcY9z3Vn4C |ref=French|location=New York|oclc=3927532}} * {{cite book |last = Frothingham | first = Richard Jr. | title = History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ| publisher = Little and Brown | date = 1851 |ref=Frothingham |oclc=11529241 |location=Boston}} * {{cite book |last=Maas |first=David |title=Return of the Massachusetts Loyalists|publisher=Garland|year=1989|isbn=978-0824061890|location=New York|oclc=1628468}} * {{cite book |author=Massachusetts Provincial Congress |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iFVMkRsFQh4C|title=The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775 |publisher=Dutton and Wentworth, Printers to the state|year=1774|ref=JCong|oclc=1571226}} * {{cite book |last=Raphael|first=Ray|title=The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord|publisher=The New Press|year=2002|ref=Raphael|oclc=47623909|location=New York|isbn=978-1-56584-815-3|url=https://archive.org/details/firstamericanrev00raph}} * {{cite book |last=Richmond |first=Robert P. |title=Powder Alarm 1774 |publisher=Auerbach|year=1971|ref=Richmond|isbn=978-0-87769-073-3|location=Princeton, NJ|oclc=162197|url=https://archive.org/details/powderalarm177400rich}} * {{cite book |last=Tagney |first=Ronald N. |title=A County in Revolution: Essex County at the dawning of independence |publisher=The Cricket Press|year=1976|ref=Tagney|oclc=3423404|location=Manchester, MA}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |title=The Portsmouth Alarm: December 1774|first=Terri A.|last=DeMitchell|publisher=Mayhaven Publishing, Inc|year=2013|location=Mahomet, IL|ref=DeMitchell|ISBN=978-1932278927|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781932278927}} (A fictionalized account of the Portsmouth Alarm) * {{cite book |title=Prelude to Revolution: The Salem Gunpowder Raid of 1775|first=Peter Charles|last=Hoffer|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2013|ISBN=978-1421410067}} * {{cite book |last = Philbrick | first = Nathaniel | title = Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution | publisher = Viking | location = New York | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-0670025442 }} (includes a chapter discussing this incident) * {{cite book |title=Daily Life During the American Revolution|first=Dorothy Denneen|last=Volo|author2=Volo, James M.|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2003|isbn=978-0-313-31844-3|ref=Volo|location=Westport, CT|oclc=473265703}}
==External links== * [http://www.masshist.org/revolution/image-viewer.php?item_id=495&mode=small&nmask=8&img_step=1&tpc=#page1 John Rowe's Diary, September 1–4, 1774] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211142533/http://www.masshist.org/revolution/image-viewer.php?item_id=495&mode=small&nmask=8&img_step=1&tpc=#page1 |date=2012-02-11 }} at the Massachusetts Historical Society * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090212161100/http://concordma.com/magazine/spring05/cannons.html Article on theft of cannon from Boston in the wake of the Alarm]}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151753/http://www.salemhistoryonline.com/PowderAlarm.html Leslie's Retreat] (a recounting of the Salem confrontation) * [http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/exhibits/capture-of-fort-william-and-mary/ Portsmouth Alarm exhibit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207152044/http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/exhibits/capture-of-fort-william-and-mary/ |date=2009-02-07 }} at the University of New Hampshire * Commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Powder Alarm in Somerville: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVUqBcBDcDE Spark of the Revolution 9-1-24] {{American Revolutionary War}} {{good article}}
Category:1774 in the Thirteen Colonies Category:1775 in the Thirteen Colonies Category:American Revolutionary War Category:Battles and conflicts without fatalities Category:18th century in Boston Category:Boston campaign Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies Category:1774 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay Category:Massachusetts in the American Revolution