The Powder Alarm was a massive popular reaction to a raid by British soldiers under the command of General Thomas Gage, royal governor of Massachusetts, soon before the American Revolutionary War. On September 1 1774, British soldiers confiscated gunpowder and other military supplies in a surprise raid near Boston. This expedition alarmed the countryside, and American Patriots sprang into action, fearing that war was at hand. Although it proved to be a false alarm, the Powder Alarm caused all concerned to proceed more carefully in the days ahead, and essentially provided a "dress rehearsal" for the Battle of Lexington and Concord seven months later.