<P> After months of conflict, Bacon's forces, numbering 300 - 500 men, moved to Jamestown . They burned the colonial capital to the ground on September 19, 1676 . Outnumbered, Berkeley retreated across the river . </P> <P> Before an English naval squadron led by Thomas Larimore could arrive to aid Berkeley and his forces, Bacon died from dysentery on October 26, 1676 . John Ingram took over leadership of the rebellion, but many followers drifted away . The rebellion did not last long after that . Berkeley launched a series of successful amphibious attacks across the Chesapeake Bay and defeated the rebels . His forces defeated the small pockets of insurgents spread across the Tidewater . Thomas Grantham, a captain of a ship cruising the York River, used cunning and force to disarm the rebels . He tricked his way into the garrison of the rebellion, and promised to pardon everyone involved once they got back onto the ship . However, once they were safely ensconced in the hold, he trained the ship's guns on them, and disarmed the rebellion . Through various other tactics, the other rebel garrisons were likewise overcome . </P> <P> The 71 - year - old governor Berkeley returned to the burned capital and a looted home at the end of January 1677 . His wife described Green Spring in a letter to her cousin: </P> <P> "It looked like one of those the boys pull down at Shrovetide, and was almost as much to repair as if it had been new to build, and no sign that ever there had been a fence around it ..." </P>

Who initiated a war because he was mad at puritan expansion