Powder Alarm of 1774: Gage's Dropped Letter and a March on Phantom Boston

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In the summer of 1774, with the Intolerable Acts in force, General Thomas Gage was trying to quietly empty Massachusetts storehouses of military supplies without starting a war. The largest powder house in the province, in what is now Somerville, held both the provincial supply and the private stores of nearby towns. On August 27, keeper William Brattle wrote Gage a routine note that the towns had withdrawn their powder and only the provincial supply remained. On August 31 that letter was lost and fell into Patriot hands, where it was read as a traitor's tip. Before dawn on September 1, about 260 regulars of the 4th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Maddison rowed up the Mystic River, took the keys from Sheriff David Phips and removed the powder, while a detachment seized two cannons in Cambridge.

Rumor did the rest. By the time word reached Connecticut, the story was that regulars had fired on citizens and warships were shelling Boston to rubble, and thousands of militiamen marched toward the city. In Cambridge, crowds forced Brattle to flee to British protection and made Phips sign a renunciation. The false alarm reshaped both sides. Gage fortified Boston and begged London for vast reinforcements, while Patriot leaders created companies ready to march at a minute's notice, formalized express riders including Paul Revere, and moved stockpiles inland to places like Worcester and Concord.

• A traveler in Shrewsbury reported that 50 local men armed themselves and set off within about 15 minutes of hearing the rumor.
• Gage wrote that if 10,000 men seemed enough, London should send 20, and London responded with about 400 Marines.
• In the December 1774 Portsmouth Alarm, Patriots raided Fort William and Mary before any British raid had actually been ordered.
• A local pilot later ran a British troop ship aground in the shallows at Portsmouth.
• At Salem in February 1775, townspeople raised a drawbridge in front of Colonel Alexander Leslie's 240 regulars while they hid the cannons.