During the opening stages of the Revolutionary War (1775-83) in Virginia, Lord Dunmore left Williamsburg and set up a base in Norfolk, Virginia, the largest city in the colony and believed to be packed with Loyalists. With open water on one side, which could be controlled by the British navy, and miles of swampland to the south, Norfolk should have been relatively easy to defend. There was only one practical approach from the south on a road that passed through a town called Great Bridge, which not only contained a bridge (of modest size) but also long, narrow causeways surrounded by tidal swamps. A small detachment defending the bridge could stop a force many times its size. Dunmore ordered a stockade called Fort Murray built on the northern side of the bridge and manned it with less than 100 troops to prevent an advance of revolutionary militia.

In early December 1775, approximately 1,000 revolutionaries gathered in the town of Great Bridge--to the south of the actual bridge. Something of a stalemate emerged as the cautious revolutionary commander, Colonel William Woodford, hesitated to advance on the British position for fear of the carnage that would ensue on the narrow causeway. Dunmore, however, decided to attack Woodford before he was reinforced further and obtained cannon that could destroy Fort Murray. On December 8, 1775, Captain Samuel Leslie marched the 12 miles from Norfolk to Fort Murray with about 200 regulars and Loyalist militia. The plan was to have a diversionary force of African-American Loyalists draw the main body of revolutionaries away from the road, but those troops--recruited after Dunmore's famous proclamation offering freedom to slaves who fought for the king--were too far away to be of much help. Leslie decided to press on with the attack anyway and detailed Captain Charles Fordyce to advance along the causeway with about 80 grenadiers. Amazingly, the British managed to reach the revolutionary pickets before being detected. However, once alerted, the revolutionary advance guard occupied their fortifications and unleashed a devastating fire on the British at close range, breaking up the attack. Fordyce was killed along with at least 14 of his men, and many more were wounded. The British retreated toward the bridge and sustained more casualties from riflemen, whose weapons had a longer and more accurate range than the British. All told, the British lost 17 killed and 44 wounded or captured.

The Battle of Great Bridge may have involved only a few hundred men, but it had important implications for the war. That evening, Leslie abandoned Fort Murray, and a few days later Dunmore evacuated Norfolk, surrendering what could have been a strategic base of operations and a stronghold for the Loyalist cause.

Bibliography:

1) John E. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 1775-1783 (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988);

2) David K. Wilson, The Southern Strategy: Britain's Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775-1780 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005).

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