Before the British navy bombarded and burned Norfolk, Virginia, a rumor went around that the town had already been destroyed. A messenger riding from Norfolk to Williamsburg reported that while he was on his way, he heard cannon firing, and Virginia Colonel Thomas Elliott wrote from Hampton that the firing was heard until 9 p.m. (on December 28). But what was it really? Celebrating the Christmas season with cannons. A newspaper in Williamsburg got the real story from a man who had just come from Norfolk: “it was only a Christmas frolick between lord Dunmore and the captains of the navy, upon visiting each other on board their ships.”
I guess if you have some cannons at your disposal, plenty of gunpowder, and nothing else to do, you might as well put them to good use for livening up the party!
“The detested town of Norfolk is no more!” wrote a British midshipman on January 9, 1776. Almost a month earlier, British troops and Loyalist Americans had been forced to evacuate the town of Norfolk, Virginia, and had taken refuge on board the ships of the Royal Navy, where they were relatively safe from the rebel forces who had occupied the town.
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, was the royal governor of Virginia, and tried hard to stop the rebellion. He was in one of the ships that bombarded Norfolk.
But the rebels, led by Colonels Robert Howe and William Woodford, wouldn’t let the British come on shore to get water or food. Life was certainly not comfortable on board the ships, especially with all of those extra passengers. It’s easy to see why some of the British detested the town.
This standoff continued until January 1. The same British midshipman wrote:
About four o’clock in the afternoon the signal was given from the Liverpool, when a dreadful cannonading began from the three ships, which lasted till it was too hot for the rebels to stand on their wharves. Our boats now landed, and set fire to the town in several places. It burned fiercely all night, and the next day; nor are the flames yet extinguished; but no more of Norfolk remains than about twelve houses, which have escaped the flames.
Only a handful of men were wounded on either side, and only one of the British was killed. There were still people living in the town when the bombardment started, and the Americans thought that a couple of women and children might have been killed.
But even though few people were injured, a lot of people lost their homes, businesses, and belongings. “Does it not call for vengeance from God and man?” asked Colonel Woodford. It seems to me that destroying people’s homes is a very good way of getting them to hate you, and there were probably some people from Norfolk who hadn’t been very enthusiastic about the war before, but who became red-hot rebels after watching their town burn to the ground.
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.
This 1791 map shows Norfolk, which was the troops’ destination, and Great Bridge, where the battle took place. On this map, North is down and South is up, which makes it somewhat confusing.
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.
