NH, USA
Before Lexington: The First Strike
About General John Sullivan
John Sullivan received Revere's warning on December 13, 1774, and had eighteen hours to decide what to do with it. The British were sending ships to reinforce the garrison at Fort William and Mary and lock down the powder stored there. Once that happened, the stores would be inaccessible. The fort's garrison was a captain and five soldiers. The powder inside was potentially invaluable to a militia that had very little of it. The practical opportunity might not come again.
Sullivan organized the raid in hours. On December 14, several hundred men moved toward New Castle Island. The garrison could not stop them. After the briefest exchange, the British captain lowered his colors and allowed the colonists to remove approximately one hundred barrels of gunpowder. A second group returned the next day for the cannon. Wentworth protested to London. The reinforcement came too late.
The powder from Fort William and Mary traveled to Bunker Hill. The men who planned those December raids understood exactly what they were doing. They were not yet calling it a revolution. But they were already fighting one.
Sources
Primary & Secondary Sources
John Langdon of New Hampshire
Rumford Press (Lawrence Shaw Mayo) · SECONDARY · TIER1
Biography of Portsmouth's most prominent Revolutionary leader, covering his shipbuilding activities, funding of the Bennington campaign, role as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and governorship.
John Langdon Papers, 1775-1819
New Hampshire Historical Society · PRIMARY · TIER1
NH Historical Society catalog — Langdon-Elwyn Family Papers (accession 1981.111), 1762-1972, 12 boxes. Includes personal, political, and financial records of John Langdon of Portsmouth.
Journals of the Continental Congress: Naval Committee Records, 1775-1776
Library of Congress · PRIMARY · TIER1
American Memory (lwjc.html) retired — updated to current LOC collection page
Ship's Log, USS Raleigh, 1776-1778
National Archives, Record Group 45 (Naval Records Collection) · PRIMARY · TIER1
Official log of the 32-gun frigate USS Raleigh, built at Portsmouth and launched in 1776. One of the thirteen original frigates authorized by the Continental Congress; the log documents her construction, commissioning, and early voyages.
Strawbery Banke Museum: Revolution in Portsmouth
Strawbery Banke Museum · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER1
Living history museum on the original Portsmouth waterfront site with interpretation of Revolutionary-era shipbuilding, merchant life, and the divided loyalties of Portsmouth's population during the war.
Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 1741-1794
Harvard University Press (Jere R. Daniell) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Scholarly political history of New Hampshire with significant coverage of Portsmouth's merchant class, the Wentworth governorship's collapse, and the transition to Revolutionary governance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Fort_William_and_Mary
en.wikipedia.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Portsmouth
https://exhibits.nhd.uscourts.gov/6.htm
exhibits.nhd.uscourts.gov · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Portsmouth
https://nhsar.org/the-raid-on-fort-william-and-mary-in-1774/
nhsar.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Portsmouth
John Paul Jones House Museum: Historical Collections
Portsmouth Historical Society · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER2
Museum at the house where John Paul Jones stayed while overseeing construction of the America in 1781-1782. Collections include period naval documents and artifacts connected to Continental Navy operations.
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources: Portsmouth Historic District
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER2
State historic preservation documentation for Portsmouth's historic district, including the John Paul Jones House, John Langdon mansion, and other Revolutionary-era structures.
Rambles About Portsmouth: Sketches of Persons, Localities, and Incidents
C.W. Brewster (Charles W. Brewster) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Nineteenth-century local history with extensive coverage of Portsmouth's Revolutionary War period, including the gunpowder raid on Fort William and Mary in December 1774, one of the first overt acts of the Revolution.
The Continental Navy: Building a Fleet, 1775-1783
University of South Carolina Press (James L. Nelson) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Scholarly history of Continental Navy ship construction with a chapter on the Portsmouth yards. Covers the Raleigh and America (74-gun ship-of-the-line built at Portsmouth) in detail.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire -- Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation · TERTIARY · TIER3
General overview including the city's Revolutionary War history, naval shipbuilding, and notable figures. Cross-reference specific claims with Mayo's Langdon biography and primary naval records.
Visit Portsmouth NH: History and Heritage
Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce · TERTIARY · TIER3
Tourism guide to Portsmouth's historic sites, including Strawbery Banke, the John Paul Jones House, and Portsmouth Harbor's fortifications, with practical visitor information.