On this day in Arlington history, October 24, 1775. A rumor reaches the area now known as Arlington County that British Lord Dunmore–John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore and governor of Virginia–is moving up the Potomac with a naval force.
Inhabitants near the river were sufficiently alarmed to move themselves and some of their belongings inland. The feared British raid did not materialize but the threat remained. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech was in March 1775 and Dunmore was trying to rule the colony without consulting the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg. In April, tensions were bubbling over and Dunmore decided to remove the gunpowder from Williamsburg and transport it to a British warship. Patrick Henry led a militia and stopped Dunmore who fled with his family to the British warship HMS Fowey in the York River. Over the next months, Dunmore sent many raiding parties to plunder plantations along the James, York and Potomac rivers. Meanwhile Alexandria starts to arm itself by buying cannons.
(excerpted, in part, from “Arlington, Virginia: A History” by C.B. Rose, Jr.)
