Battle of Great Bridge

The Battle of Great Bridge was fought December 9, 1775, in the area of Chesapeake, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War. The victory by the Continental Army was responsible for removing Lord Dunmore and any other vestige of English Government for the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the Revolution. Shortly thereafter, Norfolk, (at the time a Tory center) was captured and destroyed, cementing Continental hold on Virginia. [A cannonball fired from the English ship being used by Lord Dunmore to flee Virginia remains encased in the southeast wall of St. Paul's Church in Norfolk.]

Background

The complete defeat of the British in the Virginia Colony at the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9 1775, seven months before the Declaration of Independence, was at the time called the Second Battle of Bunker Hill. It resulted in the capture of Norfolk by the Patriots and the bombardment and complete destruction of Norfolk three weeks later on January 1 1776. It ended the rule of the British Crown in Virginia.

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, colonial governor of Virginia, had retreated from Williamsburg, but Norfolk was considered a "nest of Tories", and Dunmore thought he was making headway against the rebellion by pillaging the plantations of patriots, winning slaves over to his side and seizing printing presses. With just one more regiment and a few more battalions, he wrote on the November 30 1775, "I really believe we should reduce this colony to a proper sense of their duty."

On the other side General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, urged that Dunmore "should be instantly crushed" lest his forces grow. He wrote the president of the Continental Congress from New England: "I do not mean to dictate, I am sure they will pardon me from freely giving them my opinion, which is, that the fate of America a good deal depends on his being obligated to evacuate Norfolk this winter or not."

Battle

According to contemporary accounts in the "Virginia Gazette", Lord Dunmore, after defeating the opposition at Kemp's Landing (now Kempsville) moved ten miles (16 km) south to Great Bridge on the South Branch of the Elizabeth River. Great Bridge was the shipping point to nearby Norfolk for shingles, tar potash and turpentine from the Carolinas. Finding resistance increasing, he built a stockade on the north (Norfolk) side, removed the bridge planking, destroyed five or six houses on the opposite shore and fortified the narrow causeway bridge approaches with two twelve pound cannons.

Colonel William Woodford, in charge of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, was gathering forces at Great Bridge of minutemen from Fauquier, Augusta and Culpeper Counties, in the western part of the Colony as well as volunteers from Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties. Woodford reported two hundred fifty Carolina men arriving under Colonel Vail "composed of regulars, minute men, militia and volunteers..." The Virginia Gazette reported "150 gentlemen volunteers had marched to Virginia from North Carolina on hearing of Lord Dunmore's insolences and outrages."

Dunmore, misinformed of the strength of the opposition, sent sailors from the "Otter" at Norfolk, "plus some sixty townsmen" on a surprise attack on Great Bridge. Early in the morning of December 9, as the Virginians had beaten reveille, British Captain Fordyce led a force of sixty grenadiers and a corps of regulars and militia across the bridge. With two cannons that had been brought onto the island, Fordyce pushed toward the patriot redoubt. Patriot Lieutenant Travis ordered his men to hold fire until the British force of some 120 men was within fifty yards. Without response, the British believed that the redoubt was abandoned and Lt. Fordyce, with a wave of his hat, shouted "the day is our own." and rushed toward the redoubt. As Fordyce and his troops drew close to the patriot position, some eighty patriots rose up, took sure aim, and delivered a devastating volley at the approaching troops. Fordyce fell with fourteen bullets only fifteen steps from the breastwork. Numerous British fell and the remainder retreated in confusion. British field pieces at the bridge continued to fire but reinforcements of the patriot breastwork and crossfire from the flanking patriot positions discouraged any further advances by the British. In some twenty-five minutes, Dunmore's attempt to squash patriot buildup near Norfolk was emphatically turned back.

Following a "truce" to permit the British to remove wounded and killed from the island, the loyal forces sneaked out in the night to return to the ships at Norfolk. Several wounded British were treated by the patriots and Lt. Charles Fordyce was buried with full military honors by the patriots near the site of the battle. Casualty estimates ranged from Dunmore's "official" sixty-two killed or wounded to an escaped patriot's report that the British losses totaled 102. A single patriot casualty was a slight wound to the thumb.

Aftermath

Royal authority in the Virginia Colony was at an end. It was a complete rout. The loss of men to the British was reported as one hundred two killed or wounded, and only eleven of Fordyce's grenadiers survived. Only one American was injured.

The British retreated to Norfolk. By the time George Washington had written the Continental Congress from New England, Colonel Woodford was able to report to Edmund Pendleton, president of the Convention at Williamsburg, that he and Colonel Robert Howe were in complete command in Norfolk with 1,275 men, and that the Tories and their families had removed themselves to Dunmore's ship, "Otter", in the harbor.

Notes

"Text used by permission from E. B. Hanbury's pamphlet on the Battle of Great Bridge"