Battle of Great Bridge

Battle of Great Bridge is a Virginia historical marker in Chesapeake County, dedicated 2022.

South Battlefield Boulevard, northbound and just south of the Great Bridge

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Early in Dec. 1775, colonial troops under Col. William Woodford, including the 2d VA Regiment and Culpeper Minutemen, erected breastworks near here to guard the southern end of a narrow causeway between Norfolk and North Carolina. Royal Governor Lord Dunmore, based in Norfolk, sent British troops to dislodge them. On 9 Dec., elements of the 14th Regiment of Foot, Virginia Loyalists, and the Ethiopian Regiment (Black men promised freedom if they fought for Britain) attacked. Woodford’s forces, firing at close range, quickly halted the advance, and the British retreated to Dunmore’s fleet off Norfolk. This victory strengthened the resolve of the colony’s leaders to fight for independence.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1776 · Carte nouvelle de l'Amérique Angloise contenant tout ce que les Anglois possédent sur… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1795 · North-Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1807 · Map Of Virginia (lower right sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1818 · Map of Virginia, 1818 (lower right sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1823 · North Carolina (Lucas, 1823) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

North-Carolina, 1795, covering the location of Battle of Great Bridge, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — North-Carolina, 1795, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

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