Before Lexington

The history books say the Revolution began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. But on December 14, 1774, four months earlier, four hundred New Hampshire men rowed out to Fort William and Mary on New Castle Island and took it. They overpowered six British soldiers without killing anyone. They took 100 barrels of powder. They came back the next day and took the cannon. The garrison commander filed a formal protest. He had been overpowered and he wanted it on the record. Nobody court-martialed anyone. Nobody in London seemed to understand what had just happened: the colonists had taken the fort.