At dawn on the ninth day of July, 1776, exactly 250 years ago, sharp-eyed patriots on the mainland sighted their guns on the Dunmore, flagship of John Murray, Lord Dunmore, the honorable colonial governor of Virginia. The ship’s stern was to their guns, they spotted the governor aboard, and fired an 18-pounder at him to start The Battle of Cricket Hill. It was time to go. By July 13, all of the fleet of British ships carrying Naval officers and sailors, the Ethiopian Regiment, British loyalists and Dunmore had weighed anchor and departed Gwynn’s Island and our state’s shores. They were driven away by the crickets … the crickets in the form of American regulars and militia, and a few well-aimed artillery pieces … lying across the Narrows and Milford Haven from the Island. Dunmore had derogatorily named the Virginians “crickets” during his six-week tenure on the island. Possibly he muttered “crickets, crickets, crickets” under his breath as his flagship got underway. The Dunmore had take...