The Gunpowder Incident was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of colonial Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 20, 1775, a day after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore attempted to remove the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia to a British ship. In early 1775, Dunmore saw rising unrest in the colony and sought to deprive Virginia militia of supplies needed for insurrection. The Second Virginia Convention had elected delegates to the Continental Congress. Dunmore issued a proclamation against electing delegates to the Congress, but did not take serious action. Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech at the Second Convention on March 23 and the accompanying resolution calling for forming an armed resistance made Dunmore "think it prudent to remove some Gunpowder which was in a Magazine in this place. Dunmore gave a key to Lieutenant Henry Colins, commander ofH.M.S. Magdalen, and ordered him to remove the powder.