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Dec.

CHAP. more distinctly the general expectation that America would soon form itself into a republic of united colo1775. nies. Such was become the prevailing desire of the army, although Lee still hoped to act a part in bring ing about a reconcilement through a change of the British ministry. This is the real purport of an elaborate letter addressed by him to Burgoyne, who was about to sail for England; for which he excused himself to an American friend by saying: "I am convinced that you have not virtue enough for independence, nor do I think it calculated for your happiness; besides, I have some remaining prejudices as an Englishman."

In December, Lee left the camp for ten days to inspect the harbor of Newport, and plan works for its defence. His visit, which had no permanent effect, was chiefly remarkable for his arbitrary conduct in "administering a very strong oath to some of the leading tories." After his departure the British vessels of war plundered the islands in Narragansett bay as before.

Meantime Dunmore, driven from the land of Virginia, maintained the command of the water by means of a flotilla, composed of the Mercury of twenty four guns, the Kingfisher of sixteen, the Otter of fourteen, with other ships, and light vessels, and tenders, which he had engaged in the king's service. At Norfolk, a town of about six thousand inhabitants, a newspaper was published by John Holt. About noon on the last day of September, Dunmore, finding fault with its favoring "sedition and rebellion," sent on shore a small party, who, meeting no resistance, seized and brought off two printers and all the

LV.

materials of a printing office, so that he could publish CHAP. from his ship a gazette on the side of the king. The outrage, as we shall see, produced retaliation.

In October, Dunmore repeatedly landed detachments to seize arms wherever he could find them. Thus far Virginia had not resisted the British by force; the war began in that colony with the defence of Hampton, a small village at the end of the isthmus between York and James Rivers. An armed sloop had been driven on its shore in a very violent gale; its people took out of her six swivels and other stores, made some of her men prisoners, and then set her on fire. Dunmore blockaded the port; they called to their assistance a company of "shirt men," as the British called the Virginia regulars from the hunting shirt which was their uniform, and another company of minute men, besides a body of militia.

On the twenty sixth Dunmore sent some of the tenders close into Hampton Roads to destroy the town. The guard marched out to repel them, and the moment they came within gunshot, George Nicholas, who commanded the Virginians, fired his musket at one of the tenders. It was the first gun fired in Virginia against the British: his example was followed by his party. Retarded by boats which had been sunk across the channel, the British on that day vainly attempted to land. In the following night the Culpepper riflemen were despatched to the aid of Hampton, and William Woodford, colonel of the second regiment of Virginia, second in rank to Patrick Henry, was sent by the committee of safety from Williamsburg to take the direction. The next day

1775.

Oct.

Oct.

CHAP. the British, having cut their way through the sunken LV. boats, renewed the attack; but the riflemen poured 1775. upon them a heavy fire, killing a few and wounding more. One of the tenders was taken with its armament and seven seamen; the rest were with difficulty towed out of the creek. The Virginians lost not a man. This is the first battle of the revolution in the Ancient Dominion; and its honors belonged to the Virginians.

Nov.

While yet a prey to passion after this repulse, Dunmore was informed that a hundred and twenty or thirty North Carolina rebels were marching into the colony to occupy the Great Bridge, which, at a distance of nine or ten miles from Norfolk, crossed the Elizabeth river. It rested on each side upon firm dry ground, which rose like islands above the wide spreading morasses, and could be approached only by causeways; so that it formed a very strong pass, protecting the approach to Norfolk by land from the county of Princess Anne and from a part of the county of Norfolk. He had twice received detachments from the fourteenth regiment, which had been stationed at St. Augustine: collecting all of them who were able to do duty, and attended by volunteers from Norfolk, Dunmore on the fourteenth of November hastened to the Great Bridge. Finding no Carolinians, he marched rapidly to disperse a body of militia who were assembled at Kemp's Landing, in Princess Anne. They lay in an ambuscade to receive him, and fired upon his party from a thicket; but being inferior in numbers, in discipline, and in arms, they soon fled, panic struck and in confusion, leaving their commander and six others as prisoners. On his return, he

ordered a fort to be built at the Great Bridge on the CHAP. side nearest Norfolk.

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Nov.

Encouraged by "this most trifling success," Dun- 1775. more raised the king's flag, and publishing a proclamation which he had signed on the seventh, he established martial law, required every person capable of bearing arms to resort to his standard, under penalty of forfeiture of life and property, and declared freedom to "all indented servants, negroes, or others, appertaining to rebels," if they would "join for the reducing the colony to a proper sense of its duty." The effect of this invitation to convicts and slaves to rise against their masters was not limited to their ability to serve in the army: "I hope," said Dunmore, "it will oblige the rebels to disperse to take care of their families and property." The men to whose passions he appealed were either criminals, bound to labor in expiation of their misdeeds, or barbarians, some of them freshly imported from Africa, with tropical passions seething in their veins, and frames rendered strong by abundant food and out of door toil; they formed the majority of the population on tide-water, and were distributed among the lonely plantations in clusters around the wives and children of their owners; so that danger lurked in every home. The measure was a very deliberate act which had been reported in advance to the ministry, and had appeared an "encouraging" one to the king; it formed a part of a system which Dunmore had concerted with General Gage and General Howe. He also sent for the small detachment of regulars stationed in Illinois and the northwest; he commissioned Mackee, a deputy superintendent, to raise a regiment

Nov.

CHAP. of Indians among the savages of Ohio and the westLV. ern border; he authorized John Connolly to raise a 1775. regiment in the backwoods of Virginia and Pennsylvania; and he directed these different bodies to march to Alexandria. At the same time he was himself to "raise two regiments, one of white people, to be called the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia regiment; the other of negroes, to be called Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian regiment." Connolly was arrested in Maryland in November; and thus the movements at the west were prevented.

At Dunmore's proclamation a thrill of indignation ran through Virginia, effacing all differences of party; and rousing one strong impassioned purpose to drive away the insolent power by which it had been put forth. Instead of a regiment on the king's side from the backwoods, William Campbell and Gibson were on the march from Fincastle and West Augusta, with patriotic rifle companies, composed of "as fine men as ever were seen." In the valley of the Blue Ridge the different congregations of Germans, quickened by the preaching of Muhlenburg, were animated with one heart, and stood ready at the first summons to take up arms for the defence of the men of the low country, regardless of their different lineage and tongue.

The general congress promptly invited Virginia, as it had invited New Hampshire and South Carolina, to institute a government of her own; and this was of the greater moment, because she was first in wealth, and numbers, and extent of territory.

"If that man is not crushed before spring," wrote Washington of Dunmore, "he will become the most formidable enemy of America. Motives of resent