Note: The newest installment of The Road to the American Revolution is now live on Substack. Follow the series on Facebook, Instagram, and X to keep up with new essays and join the conversation. An excerpt from the article appears below.

On March 3, 1776, colonial forces launched a naval assault on the British port of Nassau. The raid seized two forts and a substantial cache of military supplies that the Revolution, which would be cemented into parchment in just a few months, desperately needed.

Colonial forces suffered chronic shortages of munitions throughout 1775, so Commodore Esek Hopkins, a Continental naval officer who was actually tasked by the Second Continental Congress to patrol the Virginia and Carolina coastlines, set his sights on Nassau, where he and his some 200 men could capture supplies from British forts.

The fleet departed Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, reaching the Bahamas two weeks later. Continental Marines landed on March 1, taking Fort Montagu—but the slow advance gave Governor Montfort Browne enough time to load most of Nassau’s gunpowder onto ships bound for St. Augustine. The town fell on March 4, and after two weeks, they carried away 88 cannon and 15 mortars. 103 pieces of artillery in total, surpassing even Ethan Allen’s seizure of Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775.

The return voyage was almost uneventful. But on April 4, off the waters near Long Island, the fleet captured HMS Hawk, a six-gun British schooner. The following day, they seized the British merchant brig Bolton…

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