Give Me Liberty: The Struggle for Self-Government in Virginia

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

A few days later Dunmore wrote to Dartmouth denouncing the proceedings of the Convention. "The most dangerous, as well as the most daring attempt is the resolution which is adopted for raising a body of armed men, horse and foot as well. The plan for imbodying, arming, and disciplining of which is by these resolutions published as the final order for putting the same into execution."

Almost overnight Virginia was converted into an armed camp. Everywhere there was the sound of drums, the sharp commands of drillmasters, marching and countermarching. Even in Williamsburg the streets were full of men with arms in their hands. In the Valley of Virginia, Fithian jotted down in his Diary on June 6: "Here every presence is warlike, every sound is martial! Drums beating, fifes and bagpipes playing.... Every man had a hunting-shirt, which is the uniform of each company. Almost all have a cockade and bucktail in their hats to represent that they are hardy, resolute, and invincible natives of the woods of America."[30]

These warlike preparations drove Dunmore to take a step, which aroused the fury of the patriots. In Williamsburg there still stands a little octagonal building which was used as a magazine in colonial days. Here were stored twenty barrels of powder and several guns. To keep the independent companies from seizing the powder the Governor ordered a party of sailors to take it on board an armed schooner nearby in the James River. Before daybreak, on April 20, they made off with most of it, and it was later put on board the Fowey man-of-war.[31]

Despite the gloom of early dawn the removal of the powder was observed, and the beating of drums gave the alarm. The independent companies got under arms, the people assembled, and the Governor was threatened with violence unless he returned the powder. The mayor and other city officers, leaving the troops nearby, went to the Palace with an address which Dunmore thought amounted to a peremptory demand for the powder. Should he refuse they could not answer for the dreadful consequences.

The Governor not only refused, but prepared to resist any attack with the aid of several British officers and a few men from the warships. Had not Peyton Randolph and Robert Carter Nicholas persuaded the angry troops to disperse, the war in Virginia would have begun with an assault on the Palace. As it was, parties of armed men continued to pour into Williamsburg, and word came that several hundred cavalry were at Fredericksburg, ready to march, and that Patrick Henry was leading a force up from the south. In alarm the Governor sent Lady Dunmore and his children to one of the warships, and threatened to arm the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes.[32]

The more conservative leaders among the Virginians, who were still hoping for a compromise with Great Britain, were able, though with great difficulty, to restrain the troops. At Fredericksburg the men pledged themselves to be in readiness at a moment's notice to defend the laws, the liberties, and the rights of Virginia and any sister colony, and then dispersed.[33] Henry's force got within fifteen miles of Williamsburg, and halted only when Richard Corbin, the Receiver General, paid for the powder from the royal funds by handing him a bill of exchange for £330.

Fate decreed that hostilities should begin, not in Virginia, but in Massachusetts. The Virginia delegates were just preparing to leave for the second Continental Congress when the news of the skirmish at Lexington and Concord arrived. New England was already at war. The question in everyone's mind was, would the rest of the country follow? Washington's answer was to wear his military uniform. Along the road he and the other Virginia delegates were cheered on by crowds of enthusiastic people, amid the blaring of bands and the firing of guns.

It was with difficulty that some of the conservative members of Congress prevented a declaration of independence. And though a petition to the King was agreed on, the taking over of the New England army around Boston and appointing Washington commander in chief, was in effect a declaration of war. Yet, as Washington was leaving for the east to draw the sword, Pendleton returned to Virginia to resume his post as Speaker in a last attempt to re-establish the old government.

He was welcomed to Williamsburg like a conquering hero. A detachment of cavalry met him at the Pamunkey River and escorted him the rest of the way. Two miles from the city they were joined by a company of infantry. At sunset, as they entered Williamsburg, they were received by the ringing of bells and the cheers of the crowds in the streets. At dark every house was illuminated.

Dunmore thought "this pompous military exhibition" had been planned "to raise the importance of the members of this new created power, the Congress, before the people." And the "appearance of numbers of the Burgesses in the clothes of the American troops, wearing a shirt of coarse linen or canvas over their clothes and a tomahawk by their sides," added fuel to the fire.[34]