alarm supplies

The Powder Alarm was a massive popular reaction to a raid by British soldiers under the command of General Thomas Gage, royal governor of Massachusetts, soon before the American Revolutionary War. On September 1, 1774, British soldiers confiscated gunpowder and other military supplies in a surprise raid near Boston. This expedition alarmed the countryside, and American Patriots sprang into action, fearing that war was at hand. Although it proved to be a false alarm, the Powder Alarm caused all concerned to proceed more carefully in the days ahead, and essentially provided a "dress rehearsal" for the Battle of Lexington and Concord seven months later. 4 SOUTHAMPTON Fire Alarm Sales & Supplies in SOUTHAMPTON - Fire Alarm.

Expedition

General Gage, in charge of enforcing the highly unpopular Intolerable Acts, sought 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 one way of doing this was to seize military supplies stored in Massachusetts.

Early in the morning of September 1, 1774, a force of roughly 260 British regulars were rowed from Boston up the Mystic River to a landing point near Winter Hill in modern-day Somerville. At that time, this land was part of the town of Charlestown, which was a separate entity from Boston. 1.