Battle of Great Bridge

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.