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GW_001-050.indd 41 5/2/12 7:33 AM CHAPTER 4 War in the South; the Declaration of Independence (November 1775 to July 1776) Transactions in Virginia. -Action at the Great Bridge. -Norfolk burnt.- Transactions in North Carolina.-Action at Moore's creek Bridge.-Invasion oJSouth Carolina.British fleet repulsed atfort Moultrie.- Transactions in New York.- Measures tending to Independence. -Independence declared. WHILE THE WAR was carried on thus vigorously in the north, the southern Nov. 1775 colonies were not entirely unemployed. Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, who was joined by the most active of the disaffected, and by a number of slaves, had collected a small naval force with which he carried on a predatory war, and at length attempted to burn the town of Hampton. Intelligence ofthis design having been obtained, preparations were made for his reception, and the assailants were compelled to retreat to their vessels with some loss. In consequence ofthis repulse, his lordship proclaimed martial law, summoned all persons capable of bearing arms to repair to the royal standard, or be considered as traitors, and offered freedom to all indented servants and slaves who would join them. Intelligence of these transactions being received at Williamsburg, the committee of safety1 ordered a regiment of regulars, and a battalion of r. The societies which sprang up in 1765 in each of the colonies to protest and nullify the British Parliament's Stamp Act, and which led the colonies toward revolution, assumed various names and roles throughout the Revolution. In each colony, Sons of Liberty (from 1765) and Committees of Correspondence (from 1773) organized protests against and frustrated various British administrative measures deemed violations of liberty, and were led by such men as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. From 1775, the various Committees ofSafety had authority to mobilize the militia and seize military stores, and unril1776, 41 GW_001-050.indd 42 5/2/12 7:33 AM ~ COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE REVOLUTION :>eominute -men, to march into the lower country for the defence of the inhabitants .2 Hearing of their approach, Lord Dunmore selected a position on the north side of Elizabeth river, at the Great Bridge, where it was necessary for the provincials 3 to cross in order to reach Norfolk, at which place his lordship had established himself in some force. Here he erected a small fort on a piece offirm ground surrounded by a marsh, which was accessible on either side only by a long causeway.4 Colonel Woodford encamped at the south end of the causeway, across which, at its termination, he erected a breast-work.5 After remaining in this position for a few days, Lord Dunmore sent orders to Captain Fordyce, the commanding officer of the fort, to storm the breast-work. Between daybreak and sunrise on the morning of the 9th of December, Fordyce, at the head of about sixty grenadiers6 of the 15th regiment, who led the column, advanced along the causeway with fixed when new state constitutions were adopted after the Declaration of Independence, the committees acted as state governments (having received the sanction of the Second Continental Congress in 1775); these were also called "conventions," e.g., the Massachusetts Convention. 2. Both the British and American armies consisted mainly of companies, battalions, and regiments, with a battalion normally composed of ten companies and a regiment consisting of two battalions; but during the American Revolutionary War regiments often consisted of only one battalion and the two terms were used synonymously. Regiments or battalions were commanded by colonels or lieutenant colonels and their official size ranged, on the American side, from 780 to less than 6oo men during the war;companies were commanded by captains. Other terms of tactical organization include a brigade (two or more regiments), a division (two or more brigades), and a corps (two or more divisions). 3· Marshall means soldiers from Virginia fighting for the revolutionary orAmerican cause, i.e., militia. This meaning must be distinguished from his later use of the British term "Provincials ," the Loyalist units formed in America during both the French and Indian War and theWar ofthe Revolution, officially so termed by the British to distinguish them from British regulars. 4· A raised road traversing low or wet ground. 5· A temporary defensive structure, usually a few feet high. From September 1775 Major Thomas Marshall and his son, Lieutenant John Marshall, were officers in the Culpeper Minutemen, the battalion of Virginia militia which wok part in the...

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