Gen. Thomas Gage prohibits residents from leaving Boston.

Town meeting subsequently persuades Gage to allow residents to leave with their possessions if they turn in their firearms for safekeeping. Residents turn them in at Faneuil Hall beginning on April 24, 1775. According to John Rowe’s diary, 2,674 weapons are handed over. According to another, 1,778 muskets, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets and 38 blunderbusses are turned in by April 27, 1775.