Battle of Great Bridge 1775
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 9 December 1775 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1775 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Revolutionary War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Colony of Virginia, Kingdom of Great Britain, Province of North Carolina, United States, William Woodford | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.7214, -76.2392 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Great Bridge was fought December 9, 1775, in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia, early in the American Revolutionary War. The refusal by colonial Virginia militia forces led to the departure of Royal Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power over the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict.
Following increasing political and military tensions in early 1775, both Dunmore and colonial rebel leaders recruited troops and engaged in a struggle for available military supplies. The struggle eventually focused on Norfolk, where Dunmore had taken refuge aboard a Royal Navy vessel. Dunmore's forces had fortified one side of a critical river crossing south of Norfolk at Great Bridge, while rebel forces had occupied the other side. In an attempt to break up the rebel gathering, Dunmore ordered an attack across the bridge, which was decisively repulsed. Colonel William Woodford, the Virginia militia commander at the battle, described it as "a second Bunker's Hill affair".
Shortly thereafter, Norfolk, at the time a Loyalist center, was abandoned by Dunmore and the Tories retreated to Royal Navy ships in the harbor who then proceeded to cannonade the Town.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Great Bridge (revision 1371430024), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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All 190 battles of the American Revolutionary War →
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