Patriots Win Great Bridge: British Rule Ends in Virginia

British troops and Loyalists, badly misinformed about Patriot militia strength, marched into a devastating ambush at Great Bridge. The rout drove the last vestiges of British authority from Virginia and handed the Continental Congress control over the colony's crucial ports, manpower, and tobacco revenue. The battle took place on December 9, 1775, at a fortified bridge over the Elizabeth River near Norfolk. Lord Dunmore, Virginia's deposed royal governor, had established a base at Great Bridge using a small force of British regulars, Loyalist volunteers, and formerly enslaved men who had responded to his November 1775 proclamation offering freedom to slaves who joined the British side. Dunmore's intelligence, supplied by a double agent who exaggerated the weakness of the Patriot position, convinced Captain Charles Fordyce to lead a frontal assault across the narrow causeway. The attack was suicidal. Fordyce and his grenadiers charged directly into concentrated musket fire from fortified positions on the opposite bank. The British captain was killed within yards of the American lines, and the assault collapsed within minutes. Total British casualties exceeded sixty killed and wounded, while the Patriots suffered one man slightly injured. The lopsided result destroyed Dunmore's military capability in Virginia. He retreated to his ships in Norfolk harbor and eventually ordered the bombardment and burning of the town on New Year's Day 1776, an act of destruction that alienated the remaining Virginia Loyalists and pushed moderates toward independence. Great Bridge secured Virginia for the revolutionary cause at a critical moment, giving the Continental Congress access to the largest, wealthiest, and most populous colony's resources for the duration of the war.