At stage left, the northward-sailing fleet of Virginia’s Royal Governor James Murray, Lord Dunmore, appeared in Hills Bay off Gwynn’s Island and dropped anchor. The date was May 26, 1776. Two hundred fifty years ago, the by-then widely-despised royal governor looked for a comfortable refuge on a tiny piece of Virginia: Gwynn’s Island. Dunmore brought with him a large fleet; in fact, it was a floating town. Peter Wrike, author of “The Governor’s Island,” wrote: “A hundred vessels of all sizes, rigs, and conditions of seaworthiness, loaded to capacity and manned by seamen of widely differing skills” set sail the morning of May 26 from Lynnhaven Bay, abandoning its long-held position off Norfolk, and “safely reached Gwynn’s Island that same day.” One hundred ships! They anchored off the sleepy shorelines of the north-easternmost corner of Kingston Parish, then a division of Gloucester County, and there set up camp. The revolution had arrived in our own front yard. The neighborhood woke up...