Gunpowder Incident

[agent_dani]

Monday was the 250th anniversary of the Gunpowder Incident. Not to be confused with the Gunpowder Plot nearly 170 years prior.

Setting the stage: the Battles of Lexington and Concord were two days prior but news had not made it from the Province of Massacheusetts Bay to Colony of Virginia when Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the Magazine (photo above) in Williamsburg, then the capital, under the cover of darkness. This was discovered while in progress and alarm raised, causing colonists to muster. Though the affair did not bring Virginia into a state of revolt it caused the already delicate political situation to become ever more fragile, setting the stage for revolt to break out that June.




Rather than deal with the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel again I departed by way of the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry to make my way back to Norfolk via Surry, Smithfield, Suffolk and Portsmouth. Doing so afforded this view of Jamestown from the middle of the James River. The brick ruins are the only above-ground structure from the capital city era; it is what remains of a tower constructed sometime between 1640 and 1699 (the historic accounts are spotty and uncertain.) The church partially visible behind the tower dates to 1907 as does the obelisk.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Guy Fawkes- the one man ever to enter parliament with honest inentions...........