At exactly this time 249 years ago, Lord Dunmore, last appointed royal governor of Virginia, set sail with his troops and family and a floating city of loyalists.
He was sailing away from Gwynn’s Island, where he had attempted to make a last stand, and he was leaving Virginia’s shores forever.
Dunmore had been in America since the early 1770s, first as an unpopular royal governor of New York, and later in Virginia, where his legacy was at first not bad. He had supported militias on the western borders, but not without a stain by increasing settlement in areas reserved for Native Americans. He removed gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg in 1775 and was stopped by townspeople who felt he left them defenseless. Negative reaction, especially from Patrick Henry and his supporters, led Dunmore to state: “I have once fought for the Virginians and by God, I will let them see that I can fight against them.”
And he did fight against them, later that year in the Battle of Great Bridge. By...