In the early morning hours of December 9, 1775, the peaceful marshland near the village of Great Bridge, Virginia, was abruptly interrupted by the booming sound of British cannons and the crack of musket fire. This marked the beginning of a swift but significant Patriot victory that not only expelled British authority from Virginia but also fueled the growing movement for American independence. Although often overshadowed by the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord or the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Great Bridge was a crucial moment in the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War. “A second Bunker’s Hill affair, in miniature,” as Colonel William Woodford described it, “with this difference: that we kept our post and had only one man wounded in the hand.”¹

For more than a decade before the outbreak of war, Virginia’s colonial relationship with Great Britain had grown increasingly strained. The Stamp Act and Townshend Revenue Acts had triggered public outcry, boycotts, and the formation of protest groups like the Sons of Liberty. In 1766, fifty-seven Virginians gathered at the Norfolk County Courthouse and pledged that “if necessary, they would sacrifice their lives and fortunes” to oppose unjust taxation.²

Royal Governor John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore, responded to colonial unrest by seizing gunpowder from the Williamsburg Magazine in April 1775, the same week as the battles at Lexington and Concord. As Virginia’s political situation deteriorated, Dunmore took refuge aboard HMS Fowey in the harbor at Portsmouth, eventually establishing a base at the Gosport Shipyard with the help of fellow Scotsman and shipyard owner Andrew Sprowle.

By the fall of 1775, both sides were preparing for open conflict. The Third Virginia Convention authorized the creation of a regular army, appointing Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief and William Woodford as colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment. A Committee of Safety, formed to enforce the Convention’s directives, quickly mobilized forces after British troops began raiding local towns. One of the most vocal proponents of decisive action was none other than General George Washington, who wrote in September that Lord Dunmore was “an arch traitor to the rights of humanity” and that “the fate of America [depends] on his being obliged to evacuate Norfolk this winter.”³

Situated twelve miles south of Norfolk, the Village of Great Bridge stood at a vital chokepoint on the so-called Great Road—the main inland route connecting northeastern North Carolina to the port city of Norfolk. This road enabled the transport of naval stores like pitch, tar, and turpentine, as well as corn, wheat, and livestock, resources vital to both military and civilian operations. Controlling the bridge meant controlling access to Norfolk.

In mid-November, Dunmore ordered the construction of a small stockade on an island at the north end of the bridge, later dubbed Fort Murray. Garrisoned with British Regulars of the 14th Regiment of Foot and Loyalist militia, the fort was built primarily by formerly enslaved men who had accepted Dunmore’s offer of freedom in exchange for service in the newly formed Royal Ethiopian Regiment.

Meanwhile, Colonel Woodford moved his forces— soldiers from across Virginia’s Tidewater and Piedmont counties, along with the famed Culpeper Minutemen—into position on the south side of the causeway. The minutemen, many of whom wore hunting shirts emblazoned with “Liberty or Death,” were skilled marksmen known for their fierce commitment to the cause.⁴

Skirmishing continued throughout early December, with daily cannon fire and musket exchanges. On December 8, British Captain Charles Fordyce arrived at Fort Murray with reinforcements, including members of the Queen’s Own Loyal Virginia Regiment and sailors from the HMS Otter. Dunmore now had approximately six hundred and seventy men, compared to Woodford’s nine hundred.

Before dawn on December 9, British forces began to prepare for an assault. A cannon was rolled across the bridge and fired on the Patriot breastworks. Grenadiers from the 14th Regiment formed ranks and advanced along the narrow causeway, only wide enough for six men abreast. They believed the Patriot defenses were manned by no more than three hundred militiamen, thanks to false intelligence delivered by a “spy” who falsely claimed he had deserted from the American side.⁵

As the British troops emerged through the early morning fog, Patriot sentinels fell back across the causeway. One of the last to retreat was a freed Black man named Billy Flora, who courageously ran back under fire to tear up a plank from the bridge, delaying the British advance and possibly saving many lives.⁶

As the grenadiers came within fifty yards of the Patriot lines, Woodford’s men opened fire. Captain Fordyce, leading the charge, was struck down just fifteen feet from the breastworks, receiving fourteen wounds. Two of his lieutenants also fell nearby. Lieutenant Edward Travis and the Culpeper Minutemen quickly crossed the bridge, driving the stunned British back into Fort Murray.

The entire engagement lasted less than an hour. British losses were heavy—some accounts report as many as one hundred and two killed or wounded. In contrast, the Virginians suffered only one wounded man, Lieutenant Thomas Nash of Norfolk County.

Even in victory, the Patriots showed compassion. As the British lay wounded in the field, American soldiers crawled from their positions to carry them to safety and administer aid.

Captain Leslie of the British army came out under the flag of truce to thank the Americans for their humanity; among the dead was his own nephew.⁷

With their supply line through Great Bridge severed, Dunmore’s position in Norfolk became untenable. He withdrew his forces to the city, then evacuated by ship after a brief occupation. On January 1, 1776, British ships in the harbor opened fire, bombarding Norfolk with incendiary shells. The resulting fire, combined with Patriot attempts to deny the British shelter, destroyed nearly the entire town. The only building to survive was Old St. Paul’s Church—where a cannonball from that bombardment remains lodged in the wall to this day.

By February 6, the Patriots had abandoned the ruins of Norfolk, and Lord Dunmore had retreated to Gwynne’s Island at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. In July, he sailed away for good. British rule in Virginia, the largest and most populous of the thirteen colonies, had come to an end.

In the months that followed, Virginia would declare independence, draft a constitution, and contribute critical troops and resources to the Revolutionary cause. The victory at Great Bridge ensured a three-year lull in major military operations in the colony, allowing the new Commonwealth to establish itself as a logistical backbone for the Continental Army. It would play a pivotal role again six years later at Yorktown, just miles from the fields where William Woodford’s men had fired their victorious volley.

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1 William Woodford to Edmund Pendleton, December 10, 1775, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, William B. Clark, ed. (Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968), 3: 39-40. 2 Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, March 1, 1779, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0090. 3 Paul Ferris, “‘A Weaver by Trade’: Irish Indentured Servants in Eighteenth‑Century New Jersey,” New York Irish History Roundtable 28 (2014), accessed July 5, 2025, https://nyirishhistory.us/article/a-weaver-by-trade-irish-indentured-servants-in-eighteenth-century-new-jersey/. 4 David K. Wilson, The Southern Strategy: Britain’s Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775–1780 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2005), 9. 5 Ibid. 6 Charles W. Carey Jr., “Flora, William,” American National Biography Online, American Council of Learned Societies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 7 Christopher Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002), 103.