The Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia
Several hundred American troops, led by Colonel William Woodford, were on their way toward Norfolk, Virginia, to attack the British, when they were stopped by a smaller British force at Great Bridge. This bridge was the only practical place for them to cross the river, but the British had removed the planks from the bridge and had built a fort at the northern end. The Americans made their own fortifications on the other side of the river, but they couldn’t cross.
They were stuck like this for a couple of weeks. Then, early on the morning of December 9, 1775, Captain Samuel Leslie and a couple hundred British soldiers joined the forces already in the fort, which included some American Loyalist volunteers, as well as some slaves who had been given their freedom in exchange for fighting for the British.
Led by Captain Charles Fordyce, the combined British forces put the planks back on the bridge and charged the American fortifications. The Americans, however, were awake and ready for them — it was just after reveille — and when the British got close, they fired. Captain Fordyce was killed, and a few dozen other officers and soldiers were either killed or wounded. Colonel Woodford described the battle:
[Captain] Leslie with all the regulars [British soldiers] (about 200)…arrived at the bridge about 3 o’clock in the morning, joined about 300 black and white slaves, laid planks upon the bridge, and crossed just after our reveille had beat; a lucky time for us, and you’ll say rather an improper season for them to make their push, when, of course, all our men must be under arms….capt. Fordyce of the grenadiers led the van with his company, who, for coolness and bravery, deserved a better fate, as well as the brave fellows who fell with him, who behaved like heroes. They marched up to our breastwork with fixed bayonets, and perhaps a hotter fire never happened, or a greater carnage, for the number of troops. None of the blacks, &c. in the rear, with capt. Leslie, advanced farther than the bridge.
I have the pleasure to inform you, that the victory was complete…. 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.
Letter from Colonel William Woodford to Edmund Pendleton, in Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 39-40.
Although small in terms of the number of troops involved, the battle was a significant victory for the Americans. The British soon left their fort, and the Americans marched on and soon drove the British out of Norfolk.