Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia
The Battle of Great Bridge, fought on December 9, 1775, in Virginia, was a significant early engagement in the American Revolution. This battle emerged from escalating tensions between Virginia colonists and British authorities, particularly Governor Lord Dunmore, who sought to maintain royal control amid growing colonial defiance. As Virginia's political landscape shifted, driven by influential figures like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, the local leadership began to organize militias and resist British orders.
At Great Bridge, American forces led by Colonel William Woodford confronted Dunmore's troops, who had fortified a strategic position on a causeway. The British attempted an offensive charge but were met with fierce resistance, resulting in significant casualties for Dunmore's forces while the Americans suffered minimal losses. The outcome of the battle not only solidified the resolve of Virginia's colonial leaders but also marked the beginning of the American Revolution in the southern colonies. Following the battle, Dunmore retreated, and his authority in Virginia effectively ended, leading to further conflicts that would shape the course of the war. The battle highlighted Virginia's essential role, given its population and resources, in the struggle for independence.
Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia
American Revolution: Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia
In the years leading up to the American Revolution, Virginia, the most important of the southern colonies, generally avoided the confrontations with British authorities that were so common in other colonies like Massachusetts. However, Virginia's politics gradually became radicalized, thanks to firebrands such as Patrick Henry, intellectuals like Thomas Jefferson, and political leaders like Edmund Randolph.
Parliament's enactment of the so-called Intolerable Acts in 1774 to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party accelerated Virginia's estrangement from Britain. The general assembly of Virginia protested the legislation and ordered that June 1, 1774, be a day of fasting and prayer. In response to this boldness, Governor John Murray, earl of Dunmore, dissolved the assembly, including the representative House of Burgesses. However, the burgesses continued to meet illegally at the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg and called for a colonial convention to assemble on August 7.
The first Virginia Convention extended the commercial nonintercourse policy to include the nonpayment of debts to Britain and chose delegates to the First Continental Congress. Among the representatives chosen were Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Edmund Pendleton, Peyton Randolph, and George Washington. The convention also published Thomas Jefferson's A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which renounced Parliament's authority to legislate on internal or external matters affecting the colonies and suggested that only through the king were the colonies bound to Britain.
Angered by the failure of words to persuade the authorities in Great Britain and outraged by the hardships that Massachusetts was forced to endure under the Intolerable Acts, Virginia held a second convention at St. John's Church in Richmond in March 1775. The delegates were more militant, and Patrick Henry set the tone with his famous quip “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.” The convention adopted Henry's resolution for “embodying, arming and disciplining” the Virginia militia.
Dunmore felt that he had to take action to quell the sedition, so on March 28, 1775, he ordered civil officials to prevent the appointment of delegates to the Second Continental Congress, scheduled for May. Unfortunately for the governor, the local leaders were so united behind the work of the colonial conventions that they would not comply with his directions. On May 12, Dunmore called for a session of Virginia's general assembly to consider the proposals of Britain's prime minister, Lord North, for reconciling Britain and the colonies. The delegates met on June 1 but received the suggestions with hostility. Upset by the rebelliousness of the Virginians and by news of armed clashes in the northern colonies, Dunmore promptly dispatched his wife and children to the safety of the warship Fowey. Soon afterwards, deciding to leave Williamsburg himself, he joined them and declared the ship to be the new seat of government. With Dunmore away from the city, the burgesses rejected North's plan on June 12 and on June 20 adjourned for the last time. In July the third extralegal Virginia Convention assembled and took over the direction of the colony's affairs.
Dunmore made his way to Norfolk, Virginia's commercial center, where he gathered a flotilla and a small army of Loyalists. Safely ensconced in the port, he was able to strike at Virginians who challenged the royal authority. On October 24 and 25 he sent a naval force to destroy the town of Hampton in retaliation for the burning and looting of a British ship by the residents. On November 7 he declared martial law, and eventually offered to free the slaves and the indentured servants of American rebels. The governor even raised a force composed of several hundred slaves enlisted by him and called Dunmore's Ethiopians.
Colonial leaders recognized that they had to oust Dunmore from Norfolk, lest all southeastern Virginia become a haven for Loyalists. The Virginia Committee of Safety ordered Colonel William Woodford to march on the town with his 3rd Regiment. This decision quickly led to the battle of Great Bridge on December 9, the first encounter of British and American soldiers since Bunker Hill and the first engagement of the Revolution fought in Virginia.
Governor Dunmore chose to meet the advancing Americans at Great Bridge, about nine miles from Norfolk. He established a virtually impregnable position by fortifying one end of a long causeway that covered a defile and was surrounded by tidal swamps. When Colonel Woodford arrived in the area he built a redoubt at the other end of the causeway and placed Lieutenant Travis with 90 men to defend it. The colonel and the rest of his force, which included John Marshall, the future chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, remained on a hill about 400 yards away.
For some unknown reason, perhaps a loss of patience, Dunmore decided to attack the Americans first. By choosing to assume the offense, Dunmore surrendered the advantages natural to the defense in such terrain. To lead the frontal attack down the long, narrow causeway, the governor dispatched Captain Fordyce with 60 grenadiers and approximately 140 regulars. Colonel Samuel (or, in some accounts, William) Leslie with a contingent of some 230 slaves and Virginia Loyalists formed the reserve.
Failing in his first advance, Fordyce regrouped his men and brought up two cannons for support. Again he moved down the causeway toward the American redoubt. Lieutenant Travis held his fire so long that Fordyce became convinced that the rebels had deserted their position. Led by Fordyce, the British charged the American fortifications, only to be met by a last-minute barrage that killed Fordyce and a large number of his men; the rest retreated and returned to Norfolk.
British losses at the battle of Great Bridge reached a total of 62. The only American casualty was a soldier wounded in the hand. Woodford continued his march to Norfolk, which he entered on December 13. Colonel Robert Howe, who had meanwhile arrived with his 2nd North Carolina Regiment, took command of the town on December 14.
Before the Americans reached Norfolk, Lord Dunmore took refuge with a large number of Loyalists on board a ship. The rebels refused his demands for provisions, and he threatened to retaliate by bombarding the town. On January 1, 1776, Dunmore made good his promise by turning his naval cannons on Norfolk and by sending marines ashore to burn the warehouses. In return, the rebels burned the homes of leading Loyalists. Soon fires roared out of control in much of the port. What remained of Norfolk was virtually destroyed the following month to prevent the British from using it again.
In May 1776 Major General Charles Lee arrived in Norfolk and drove Dunmore's flotilla away after a ship-to-shore skirmish. The governor took his collection of British troops, Loyalists, and slaves to Gwynn's Island off Virginia's Mathews County. He then went to Maryland, and finally out to sea, leaving America forever.
Lord Dunmore was the last royal governor of Virginia. The battle of Great Bridge marked not only the end of Dunmore's tenure in Virginia, but also the beginning of the American Revolution in the southern colonies. At the time, Virginia had the largest population of all the colonies, and its economic and military resources would be vital to the colonial cause.