The Battle of Great Bridge, December 9, 1775, was Virginia’s major opening salvo of the American Revolution. The buildup to and battle held the fate of who would govern Virginia in the balance. It proved to be a decided victory for the rebellious colonial Whigs, those calling themselves patriots. It pitted undisciplined rebel militia, farmers and merchants, against British professional troops who increased their ranks with trained companies of former slaves and loyalists. Two important factors led to the British defeat; the attacking English were outnumbered three to one, and prior intelligence obtained by the British proved wrong. And for the scarlet troops; fatal.
Historian Richard Podruchny explains another important factor of this battle: “The Battle of Great Bridge, often referred to as the Second Battle of Bunker’s Hill, should stand out as one the defining moments of the American Revolutionary War. Although this battle does not match the number of troops or casualties found in other engagements, nevertheless, its overall impact can no longer be ignored. What elevates this particular battle is that numerous slaves fought alongside the British in exchange for freedom, which openly contradicts those colonists’ preaching liberty, who owned slaves themselves. The outcome of this battle would hold a dissimilar importance for the men who fought at Great Bridge, where triumph for one side would prohibit liberty to the other.”
It was a paradox. And one that would shadow the American cause of freedom throughout the war and beyond. From the Declaration of Independence until Emancipation; one hundred and seven years of shame. When another war, one of inconceivable bloodshed, would not allow the can to kicked further down the road, forcing America to cleanse its repugnant and hypocritical stain of liberty in a final day of reckoning.
From Hero to Pariah, Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore
The reasons people and nations go to war, and this has been going on for centuries, are summed up in two words; money and religion. The lead up to the American Revolution was firmly within the former. England fought a war against the French on American colonial soil. It was a war started by the Americans, one Colonel George Washington to be precise. Once victorious, England thought it right that the Americans paid their fair share of the war’s cost. A tax if you may. The levy on colonists proved far less than that which England expected her subjects in the mother country to pay. The types of revenue Parliament demanded of the colonists had little or no effect on the common farmers and small business merchants. However; and importantly, it did dip into the purses of the wealthy planters, landowners, and those owning large financial institutions. Those who used all within their power and influence to stir up the masses against taxes…any taxes.
The burden of enforcement, to see that the revenue was collected, fell upon the Governors of the individual American colonies, those who oversaw British administrators and agents. Senior executives who had been praised for their leadership through war and hard times, found themselves scapegoats and under attack. These attacks by passionate patriots, both verbal and later physical, became heated, leading to violent backlashes against considered unjust acts by Parliament. Men like Scotsman John Murray, Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, soon bore the blunt of this wrath.
I have once fought for the Virginians and by God, I will let them see that I can fight against them.
Royal Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore
John Murray, Lord Dunmore (1732-1809) was first appointed Royal Governor of New York in 1770. The post only lasted a year as Governor Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt, died and Dunmore took up his new posting as Royal Governor of Virginia on September 25, 1771. Like his predecessor, he quickly gained favor with the aristocratic gentry and plantation owners. Among those who spoke highly of Dunmore were George Washington and firebrand patriot Patrick Henry; both having corresponded warmly with him on many occasions. As a cold chill fell upon England and the colony’s once temperate relationship, Dunmore weathered the increasing political turmoil as best he could.
The political situation Dunmore ruled over was complicated in the least. Norfolk County and the surrounding Tidewater region of Virginia, as throughout the colonies, were nearly evenly divided in their loyalties; split between Tories or Loyalists, those who remained faithful to the crown, and Whigs or rebels, those who defied British rule, calling themselves patriots. Many loyalists proved to be Scottish merchants living along the coast, whereas those claiming the patriot cause were mainly inland farmers and plantation owners. Yet there were no black and white reasons that separated the two factions. Many, particularly of wealth, though finding it repugnant that they had to open their purse strings to Parliament, had their plantations and businesses tied to letters of credit, which were held by those in England, often Scottish bankers. They felt the financial pressures to remain under England’s umbrella. Patriots, though clamoring for major changes in government, wanted to keep options and avenues of negotiation open, as they had been handicapped by decreased exports and the need to purchase necessary goods from England, as manufacturing in the Americas remained almost nonexistent. So too, there was another large group, often forgotten, of those who remained neutral. They hoped to stay out of the throng and go about their daily business undisturbed; by all estimates, nearly a third of the population.
In 1774, things began to look up for Dunmore. This after his quick reaction to quell the Shawnee and Mingo Native American Nations that brought an end to what has since been titled Dunmore’s War. Native Americans, in what is now West Virginia and parts of Kentucky, fought against the infringement by settlers onto their land. The 1768 Fort Stanwix Treaty signed between the British and colonials and the Iroquois Nation set the boundaries for settlement in Native American territory west of the Alleghenies. Unfortunately for the Shawnee and Mingo, they were not present during the settlement in which the Iroquois signed away their land also. When the Shawnee and Mingo pushed back, Virginian settlers struck viciously, killing many, mainly women and children. This led to horrendous bloodshed and torture in which both sides were active participants.
Dunmore waded into the conflict in May of 1774 and by the fall of that year, culminating with the militia victory at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, the Native Americans gave up all hunting rights to the disputed territory and were forced to recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between Native American lands and the British colonies. Dunmore was hailed a hero and Godsend; praise that would, within a year, turn to condemnation and violence.
March Towards War
Throughout the colonies, after a decade of increased tensions over taxation, customs, shipping, and restrictions on manufacturing, the symbiotic relationship between British governors and the wealthy had eroded. Though congenial and open to suggestions, Lord Dunmore was not a good negotiator. He made draconian decisions without following the usual protocol of allowing those involved to believe they were an important part of the outcome. Laws were implemented, proclamations and appointments made, and colonial legislatures were disbanded.
As in New England and New York, colonials began to stockpile arms and ammunition in preparation for hostilities between rebellious factions and the British government. Dunmore acted with a strong hand, similar to his fellow governors, by staging raiding parties of British troops to confiscate patriot armaments. After open hostilities erupted in Massachusetts with the Battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, the road to war was laid bare. Dunmore, like his colleagues, were in the ‘thick of things.’ Heated skirmishes erupted with casualties on both sides. Rebel militias with patriot leaders were formed into regiments. By late fall of 1775, Dunmore repeatedly sent dispatches to Boston. He first sought the help from General Gage, and later General Howe for additional reinforcements, this if he were to retain control of Virginia.
Brief History of Great Bridge and its Importance
Colonists in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina invested heavily in forestry products. Shingles, barrel staves, cypress and juniper headers, pitch, tar, and turpentine extracted from vast forests of pine, were all produced to be used in building materials and the construction and upkeep of the shipping industry. These goods were transported to England, New York, Boston, Charleston, and the West Indies. All these goods, critical to the region’s economy, had to be transported by boat and cart to one central shipping location. This proved to be Norfolk, Virginia, established in 1705, situated at the mouth of the Elizabeth River on the Chesapeake Bay.
Early on, both modes of transport of goods proved problematic; poor roads weaved through swamps and marshes, often unpassable or flooded. Of most particularly concern was the Great Dismal Swamp, At the time it was forty miles long and spanned over 2,000 acres, beginning ten miles below Norfolk and south into North Carolina. Difficulties also existed by boat; the shallows of North Carolina sounds limited the necessary draft of most vessels. In 1686, the answer laid in the establishment of what was called Great Bridge. Surveyor Thomas Butt constructed a causeway that linked several small bridges leading to the southern branch of the Elizabeth River. The largest bridge was the furthest south, spanning forty feet long. It was called Great Bridge.
Now, goods from North Carolina and the surrounding region could be conveyed on flats and barges, via the Albemarle and Currituck Sounds and the Northwest River, to landings at the southern end of the Great Road; also the King’s Highway, which linked Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and the Carolinas to Charleston, S. Carolina. At Great Bridge, they were offloaded onto ox-drawn carts and drawn up the King’s Highway, over the Great Bridge, to the Southern branch of the Elizabeth River. There goods were loaded onto boats bound for Norfolk or stored in warehouses. This juncture near the Great Bridge also became known as Great Bridge; a small community of homes and warehouses.
Both the Great Bridge and the community of Great Bridge, by the mid-1700’s, became a key lynch-pin in the economy of the two major colonies; Southern Virginia and North Carolina. It’s importance as a major artery of commerce was well established as the region’s vital economic link. Once open hostilities erupted in the summer of 1775, both patriot militia and British understood that whoso ever controlled Great Bridge, controlled the life blood of Virginia’s existence. And whoever lost that control, their presence and influence in Virginia was doomed.
Tensions Boil Over as War Breaks out in Massachusetts
As mentioned, the patriot Committees of Correspondence and its military arm, Committees of Safety, began to collect and store arms. In Massachusetts, Governor General Thomas Gage, in the early hours of April 19, 1775, dispatched troops to destroy a stockpile of munitions at Concord, leading to the ‘shot heard round the world’, and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The very next day, Lord Dunmore similarly ordered his troops to the Public Magazine at Williamsburg where twenty kegs of gunpowder (other reports indicate 15 half barrels) were stored. Unlike Massachusetts, this occurred without bloodshed; however, outrage by patriot citizens and the partisan legislature led to heightened protests. The clamor was so great, that firebrand Patrick Henry led a makeshift militia to Williamsburg to demand the powder’s return. Dunmore offered £330 pounds for the powder, defusing the crowd. Yet the protest proved so fearsome, that on June 8th, Dunmore moved his headquarters and family from Williamsburg to his plantation at Porto Bello.
Both Sides Organize for War
Dunmore began issuing orders to the many British vessels, including war ships, to assemble along the James River at Norfolk. British commander-in-chief for North America, General Thomas Gage, ordered a small detachment of the 14th Regiment of Foot, led by Captain Samuel Leslie, to respond to Dunmore’s pleas for ground troops. Loyalists were recruited and formed into companies. So too, shortly after the April 20th powder and arms raid, former slaves began to seek refuge with the British. At first Dunmore turned them away, but with the increase of tensions, he began to actively seek these runaway bondsmen.
On September 18, 1775, Virginia’s Committee of Safety, the military arm of the provincial legislature, convened in Hanover Town. Their main order of business was the organization of two colonial regiments. Patrick Henry, the outspoken patriot firebrand who famously claimed ‘give me liberty or give me death,’ was to lead the First Regiment. Planter and militia leader William Woodford, was to command the Second Regiment. Minutemen of Virginia’s upper counties concentrated at Williamsburg in preparation for a future advance on Norfolk. Rebels in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, led by Matthew Phripp and Colonel Lawson, gathered at Kemp’s Landing, present day Kempsville. Those favoring rebellion in Norfolk and the immediate vicinity, began to flee the region, packing all their belongings on carts and pouring across Great Bridge. Those who remained in the loyalist’s camp remained under British protection.
October 1775 Witnessed the March to Hostilities and the First Clash of Arms
On October 12th, British troops under Captain Leslie began raiding surrounding counties, looking for rebel military supplies and confiscating cannon. Five days later, Leslie sailed up the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River to Newton. He landed and from there, marched on Kemps Landing. The Colonial militia fled without a fight. Soon after, on October 19th, Leslie confiscated arms and an additional twenty patriot cannon. These actions only worsened the condition. Dunmore, incised by the colony assembling rebel militia and the Committee of Safety in Hanover overseeing preparations for war, proclaimed on October 24th that he would burn the town of Hanover to the ground. This only inflamed the rebellious faction which would soon clash with the British in what is considered the war’s first battle between British and rebel militia.
Burning of British Ship and October 27th Battle of Hampton
On September 2nd, a storm drove the British tender Liberty onto a bank on the James River. It was one of several under the command of the HMS Otter, commanded by Captain Matthew Squire. The next day, Hampton’s residents boarded the vessel, taking several crewmen prisoner and burning the vessel after removing all armaments. Lord Dunmore ordered the release of crewmen and the stolen armament returned. On October 25th, Captain Squire landed some of his men east of Hampton and looted several houses. The next morning, the captain and his squadron appeared off the mouth of Hampton Creek. Squires ordered the residents of Hampton to return all stolen arms from his tender or the town would be bombarded and torched. Squire intended to make good his threat. While his men cleared sunken debris from the creek, so to position his guns on Hampton, word reached Williamsburg.
In what became known as the Battle of Hampton, Colonel Woodford and Captain Abraham Buford and his Culpeper Riflemen rode all night to arrive at Hampton the morning of October 27th. By then, Squire’s small flotilla was broadside Hampton. The patriots stationed their men, particularly rifle, in homes and along the banks to fire upon Squire’s men. The largest cannon Squires had available were four pounders, unable to bring Otter’s larger cannon up to bear because of the shallow draft. The four pounders were ineffective against the brick homes and obstacles lining the bank. Due to accurate rifle fire that silenced many of Squire’s gunmen, killing and wounding several, Squire ordered a withdrawal. But not before another tender, Hawke, drifted towards shore. The ship was captured, along with it’s crewmen.
British Retreat to Norfolk. November 7th Proclamation
By early November, the British forces retreated all their forces to Norfolk and constructed batteries and entrenchments throughout the region. Dunmore moved his headquarters to the harbor, aboard the HMS Fowley. He also included his family aboard a packet bound for England. On November 7th, Dunmore issued a proclamation that earned him the wrath of colonists from Massachusetts to Georgia, particularly George Washington who had assumed commander of American forces outside Boston. Dunmore’s Proclamation declared martial law and summoned the people of Virginia to the flag of Great Britain. But more importantly, he offered freedom to all slaves belonging to patriots who would take up arms for the King against the illegal rebellion. This fed into an ever present terror among slaveholding colonists of armed slave revolts. It also served to highlight the absurdity of colonists preaching liberty, while denying the same for a fifth of its population.
Loyalist and Ethiopian Brigade of Former Slaves
Dunmore was active in supplementing the meager number of his regular British troops, barely over a hundred highly trained regulars. He raised a regiment of escaped slaves that he affectionately termed his ‘Ethiopian Brigade.’ Though never numbering more than three hundred men at any one time, these black soldiers were equipped with firearms and uniforms with the words ‘liberty to slaves’ etched on their coats. Dunmore also raised a company of Tories, mostly Scottish immigrants, which he called the Queen’s Own Loyal Virginia Regiment. Both units fought alongside Colonel Leslie’s regulars. Dunmore wrote in November that with these forces, he would soon be able to “reduce this colony to a proper sense of their duty.”
According to historian Richard Podruchny, “The response from the colonists was instant. Newspapers published the entire proclamation and patrols on land and water were intensified. Throughout the colonies, restrictions on slave meetings were tightened. The Virginia Gazette warned slaves to not be tempted by the proclamation and urged them to remain with their masters, citing the fact that Governor Dunmore was also a slaveholder. Some of those caught trying to join the British were beaten and murdered. Although no more than eight hundred slaves succeeded in reaching Governor Dunmore’s lines, word of the proclamation inspired as many as a hundred thousand African Americans by war’s end to risk all in an attempt to be free.
Battle of Kemp’s Landing
Virginia was in an uproar over Dunmore’s Proclamation. Colonel Woodford was in Williamsburg, forty-five miles northwest of Norfolk along the James River, when Dunmore issued his proclamation. He and the 2nd Regiment set off for Norfolk. Instead of marching directly to Hampton and crossing the James over to Norfolk, he took a more circuitous route. He planned to span the river prior to Norfolk and march south to Suffolk, then east. When Woodford arrived at where he intended to cross, his troops encamped and waited a full week due to British ships patrolling the river. Meanwhile, Dunmore received word that patriot militia had arrived from North Carolina and acted immediately to investigate the rumor.
On November 14th, Dunmore landed near Great Bridge, fourteen miles south of Norfolk, with one hundred and nine rank and file, a detachment of the Ethiopian Brigade of former slaves, and twenty-two loyalists from Norfolk. The siting of British troops prompted the Princess Anne County militia to be called out. One hundred and seventy men responded the summons issued by their militia commander, Colonel Joseph Hutchings, a local planter and member of the House of Burgesses. Also in command was fellow officer Anthony Lawson, a prominent landowner. They gathered at Kemp’s Landing, about eleven miles northeast of Great Bridge, and set up an ambush along the main road.
Dunmore’s troops searched the area surrounding Great Bridge and found no militia. This confirmed that the rumor of North Carolina militia was false; however, they discovered that the local militia was mustering at Kemp’s Landing, eight and a half miles east of Norfolk. On the 15th, Dunmore left a company of men to defend the causeway to the bridge. He marched one hundred regulars and former slaves and twenty Loyalists northeast toward Kemp’s Landing, about five to six hours distant.
As Dunmore’s troops approached, the militia’s ambush was spoiled when Hutchings’ inexperienced farmers and merchants opened fire too early to do damage. Some accounts claim that several in the militia, including its leader Colonel Hutchings, were intoxicated at the time. However, this writer could find no credible primary sources to confirm this. Dunmore’s outnumbered, but well-trained regulars fired a volley. They immediately charged the militia, scattering them through the woods and into the nearby swamps. The short battle, or skirmish, resulted in seven dead militiamen and eighteen captured. Among the prisoners was Colonel Lawson and Colonel Hutchings, who had been snared by one of his former slaves, now wearing the uniform of a British regular. The captives were afterward imprisoned on the schooner Thomas, anchored in Norfolk. Hutchings’ health deteriorated and his parole was arranged; however, he died before release.
British Preparations
After securing the town of Kemp’s Landing, Dunmore raised the British standard and read out the text of his proclamation. Before his troops marched to Norfolk, more than one hundred former patriot militiamen swore an oath to the Crown, stating that they had been forced to take up arms by the Whigs. At Norfolk, Dunmore improved upon his defenses in and around the town. So too, he knew of the importance of Great Bridge, guarding the only land route from North Carolina to Norfolk. He sent twenty-seven men of the 14th Foot to the Great Bridge area to erect a stockade and dig defenses.
From the southern approach to Great Bridge along the King’s Highway, a one-hundred-and-fifty-yard causeway ran through the marshes to an island of firm footing. The road crossed the small island to a forty-foot bridge, Great Bridge, that spanned a branch of the Elizabeth River. At the northern end of Great Bridge was another island of firm footing. Once crossing that island, another long causeway ran north, it too about one hundred and fifty yards long. It was on the northern island where the 14th detachment hastily built a redoubt they called Fort Murray, after Governor John Murray, Earl of Dunmore. Two four-pounder cannon and several small swivel guns were placed to cover the bridge and both causeways to the north and south. So too, the planks spanning Great Bridge were torn up.
Battle of Great Bridge, December 9, 1775. The Canal just before the Virginian militia position was constructed years later. The Culpeper riflemen shown to the left of the American earthworks took that position to rake the British on the causeway and bridge after the initial attack by Captain Fordyce’s Grenadier.
Patriot Militia March to Great Bridge
Meanwhile, Colonel Woodford crossed the James and continued his advance towards Great Bridge. He arrived on December 2nd at the southern island of the bridge, across the river from Ft. Murray. His regiment consisted of four hundred militiamen, that included two hundred men from Fauquier and Orange Counties, along with one hundred rifles from the Culpeper Minutemen. With an incredible eighteen to one advantage, had Woodford immediately assaulted the thinly defended British position, he would have swept the fort and claimed a critical land junction, resulting in Dunmore’s position at Norfolk precarious if not untenable. But having no cannon, and believing an over estimation of the British defenders at Ft Murray, Woodford delayed attacking and put his time into the construction of earthworks.
The fortification spanned the southern end of the causeway, about a quarter mile from the bridge. Thomas Bullitt, appointed Adjutant General and who had prior experience in military engineering, directed its construction. It took the shape of a sagging M for effective crossfire, was seven feet in height, one hundred and fifty feet in length, and mounted platforms and loopholes. A little further south and to the west, he constructed two earthworks for batteries for cannon when they were to be made available. Woodford lightly manned the fortification and encamped his troops in the village a little further south.
Over the next several days, there was a constant exchange of gunfire. Some small skirmishes occurred, which resulted in the British burning five of the seven buildings located on the southern causeway to get a better field of view. During these days of skirmishing, the Americans waited for reinforcements from North Carolina under Colonel Robert Howe. When cannon arrived from N. Carolina, they proved useless because they lacked mountings and carriages. By December 8th, the militia camp had grown to nearly one thousand men. Even with the larger number of militia, Woodford remained wary of attacking. He had heard rumors that a large force of Scottish Highlanders had joined Dunmore’s force. Only a portion of this rumor would prove true. Of the one hundred and twenty loyalist highland families in the Norfolk region few men had muskets or were skilled in the use of arms. It was during these pivotal days leading up to the battle that the British decided to take the initiative.
False Intelligence and Dunmore Decides to Attack
While the buildup of patriots steadily increased their numbers, men of the 14th were augmented by small companies of the Ethiopian Brigade of former slaves and Queen’s Own Regiment of loyalists, bringing the garrison size to approximately eighty defenders. This was still far below what the patriots had assembled just across the bridge. Two factors, both of intelligence, contributed to Dunmore deciding the time was right to take the initiative and assault the rebel defenses. Both pieces of intelligence would later prove false, one fatally.
Dunmore learned that the militia had acquired cannons. This concern for the safety of the Ft. Murray heightened the necessity to attack before the cannon could be brought to bear on the hastily constructed redoubt. He would not know that the cannon which had arrived were inoperable. The other and more important reason to hasten an assault was based on misinformation received from a well-coached servant who had supposedly runaway. The bondsman, named William, was enslaved to Major Thomas Marshall, second in command of the Culpeper minuteman riflemen. He was described to Dunmore as a deserter who informed the British that “not more than 300 shirt-men were here”. William then offered a ‘coup de grace’ that would demand immediate action. He told the British that several hundred more militia were soon expected from North Carolina, adding that they would bring additional artillery pieces. Dunmore decided he had no choice but to act immediately. On December 8th, the governor ordered Captain Samuel Leslie to assemble the rest of his men and prepare to march to Great Bridge. Historians have differed as to the validity of Marshall’s servant actually deserting, or if his betrayal was staged. The Virginia Gazette at the time reported that it was William’s skullduggery that prompted Dunmore to attack.
Battle of Great Bridge
This was a second Bunker’s Hill affair, in miniature, with this difference, that we kept our post, and had only one man wounded in the hand.
Colonel William Woodford of the Virginia 2nd Regiment after the Battle of Great Bridge
The decision to attack the earthworks across Great Bridge was questioned by Dunmore’s more experienced officers. But Dunmore remained obstinate in his decision to do so immediately. His plan called for a diversionary attack by the Ethiopian companies of the garrison at a spot downriver from the bridge. This would draw the militia’s attention while the garrison, reinforced by additional troops from Norfolk, would attack across the bridge in the early morning light. On the night of December 8th, Leslie marched from Norfolk with the rest of the 14th Foot that included Light Infantry and Grenadier, totaling 121 rank and file and 32 officers. He was joined by 60 Tory volunteers, including a detachment of naval Captain Matthew Squire’s gunners to man the two 4-pound field cannon at Fort Murray. Add to this the troops already at the fort, which included the previous detachment of the 14th, Loyalists, and the Ethiopian Brigade, and it is believed that Leslie had 672 men under his command.
After an eleven-mile march, Leslie’s men arrived at the fort at 3:30 AM. Leslie discovered that the Ethiopian Brigade that was to act as the diversionary force was not in the fort. Rather than waiting to organize this aspect of the battle plan, he decided to attack without it. After a two-hour rest, he ordered the assault at dawn. The bridge’s planks that had been removed were replaced by the light infantry. As this was being done, reveille was sounded in the rebel camp. Skirmishers were sent across to scatter any militia sentries. An exchange of shots at dawn had become a normal affair since the two sides had squared off. Colonel Woodford and Major Alexander Spotswood assumed the gunfire was part of the normal morning activities.
Once the skirmishers and advance guard crossed the bridge and causeway, they set fire to the remaining buildings. These men were followed by the Light Infantry and Grenadier under the command of Captain Charles Fordyce; the narrow bridge and causeway forcing them to march six abreast in parade fashion. Captain Squire’s naval gunners followed, wheeling the two field cannon across the bridge to where a natural bend in the road allowed them to rake the rebel defenses without endangering the attacking force. Captain Leslie then followed with over 300 Tories and the Ethiopian Brigade. They assembled behind the cannon where they would wait to exploit the Light Infantry’s and Grenadier’s breakthrough of rebel defenses, routing the Virginia militia.
As the British crossed the bridge and causeway and assembled their troops, word from the militia’s breastworks reached the camp, sending up cries and orders of ‘stand to arms.’ Lieutenant Edward Travis was in command of sixty-one men at the rebel earthworks spanning the road. He watched as the British advance guard came through the dense smoke from the burning buildings, closely followed by the company of Grenadier led by Captain Fordyce. As the British advanced, they alternated firing volleys by platoons, pausing only to reload. The Virginians behind the barricade returned a sporadic, but accurate fire causing some casualties.
As the British spanned the bridge and causeway and organized for the attack, Colonel Woodford had time to rally his camp, rushing reinforcements to the earthworks. Forty riflemen quickly arrived, soon to be followed by many more of the regiment. While the lead elements of the British attack neared the breastworks, Lieutenant Travis ordered his men to reload and hold their fire. Captain Fordyce’s company of 60 Grenadier now spearheaded the attack and closed in on the Virginians. Not realizing the breastworks had been reinforced, he assumed he faced an inferior number of untrained militia. So too, like at Kemps Landing, he most likely thought the defenders had scattered at the sight of British bayonets, leaving the earthworks vacant. At fifty yards out he shouted “the day is our own!” and charged the works.
At that moment the order was given and the militia rose as one. A devastating volley erupted, pouring shot into the British. Within the blink of an eye, half the attacking Grenadiers were down. Captain Fordyce crumbled just fifteen feet from the rebel defenses, riddled with no less than fourteen bullets. Twelve Grenadiers fell dead beside him and nineteen more were wounded. With their leader dead and bodies strewn all around, the formation was shattered and charge broken. What was left of the attacking force retreated while some frantically dragged a few of the dead and wounded back towards the bridge.
Virginians, seeing the British retreat, leapt over the earthwork and gathered the wounded. While this was occuring, a large detachment of Culpeper Riflemen, approximately one hundred, led by Lt. Colonel Edward Stevens, dashed to their left and trained their groove-bored flintlocks on the unused battery entrenchments on the eastern peninsula. There they began an accurate fire upon Captain Leslie’s men and cannon. Because of the distance, with the advantage to rifle that had a longer range than musket, only the British cannon could reach the rebels. The dual was no contest. The cannon had little or no effect, while the rifle began to pick off gunners and troops on both land and the bridge. Captain Leslie decided with the embankment so heavily defended and while under accurate rifle fire, he had no choice but to spike the cannon and withdraw his force to Ft. Murray.
The carnage lasted twenty-five minutes. Over 100 British were killed or wounded, some reports set the precise number at 102. Of the sixty attacking Grenadier, only eleven were left standing. The ratio to dead and wounded was never accurately recorded. The Virginia militia reported but one casualty; Lt. Thomas Nash of Norfolk County Militia who received a slight wound to his hand.
Aftermath
The victory won by the triumphant Virginians at the Battle of Great Bridge was a decisive one, wrote historian Podruchy. With the British regulars cut to pieces and the Tories and former slaves of the Ethiopian Brigade demoralized, it was no longer possible to hold Fort Murray. The British abandoned the fort on the evening of December 9, 1775. For the rebel militia, the route had been secured between the colonies of North Carolina and Virginia. The road to Norfolk was now open. This victory encouraged the Virginia Convention to issue a counter offer to Governor Dunmore’s proclamation; full pardons would be offered to the Royal Ethiopian Regiment if they threw down their arms and surrendered to Colonel Woodford. Very few former slaves accepted this ‘generous’ pardon, choosing to die fighting among the British, then to succumb to the cruel and horrendous yoke of slavery.
Shelling of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. On January 1, 1776. Lord Dunmore ordered the incinerating bombardment of Norfolk to prevent Virginia riflemen from firing upon his fleet in the harbor. Virginia militia torched the rest of the city to prevent Dunmore from entering the city, burning over 800 structures. Only the walls of St. Paul’s Episcopal church remained which to this day displays a cannon ball from one of Dunmore’s ships.
For Royal Governor Lord Dunmore, the battle proved the death knell of his governance over Virginia. Shortly after, Dunmore ordered that Norfolk be abandoned and that all his forces, including many prominent Tories, should retreat onto the growing fleet that numbered more than a hundred vessels by late December. Denied supplies by the occupying militia forces in Norfolk and the continued sniping of militia rifle, Dunmore shelled the city on January 1, 1776, setting fire to the waterfront. Fearing the recapture of the city, the militia under Colonel Robert Howe of North Carolina, his seniority assuming command of all militia, burned the remaining eight hundred buildings; only the walls of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church survived.
After the city’s ruin, Dunmore sent troops ashore to build barracks in an attempt to gather supplies from the countryside. Every time men ventured beyond their camps, they were fired upon by Colonel Howe’s strong militia who continued to arrive from North Carolina. These constant attacks drove his men back to the ships were their suffering from lack of food was exacerbated by an outbreak of smallpox. Over the next six months, Dunmore made several other attempts at making landfall along the Virginia rivers and Chesapeake Bay, all to no avail.
By the end of July, 1776, giving up all hope of reclaiming his governorship, Lord Dunmore split his fleet. Most sailed to Bermuda, while a smaller portion, including those escaped slaves who remained with him, sailed to New York City in time to join General William Howe’s invasion. When Manhattan was invaded, Dunmore personally joined the royal marines’ landing force and was present to plant the British flag atop of Fort George at half past three on September 15, 1776.
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