READING LEVEL
Summary
In 1775, Norfolk was the largest city in Virginia and the sixth-largest in all of British North America. It was a thriving port city with deep ties to ocean trade and enormous military importance. After losing the Battle of Great Bridge in December 1775, British forces retreated onto ships in Norfolk Harbor. Patriot troops moved in and occupied the city.
On January 1, 1776, the British fleet opened fire on Norfolk’s waterfront. Using the bombardment as cover, Patriot soldiers— many of them drunk on alcohol they’d found abandoned in the city—began setting buildings on fire themselves. The burning went on for three days. Later, the Patriots torched whatever was left to keep the British from using it. About two-thirds of the city was destroyed. Here’s the twist: the Patriots blamed the whole thing on the British. And for decades, most people believed them. The Burning of Norfolk is a story about war, propaganda, and how history gets written.
Background
Norfolk wasn’t just important—it was unique. It was the largest port city between New York and Charleston, South Carolina. Whoever controlled Norfolk controlled Virginia’s waterways, trade routes, and access to the Chesapeake Bay, which connected to rivers reaching deep into the colony.
The city was also politically different from the rest of Virginia. Most of Virginia was dominated by wealthy planter families who enslaved large numbers of people and supported the Patriot cause. Norfolk, by contrast, was home to many Scottish merchants who depended on trade with Britain to make their living. They were Loyalists—people who wanted to stay under British rule—and they were rivals of Virginia’s powerful planter class.
Norfolk also had a large community of free and enslaved Black workers, and it attracted enslaved people who ran away from Virginia’s plantations. This made it even more of a sore spot for Patriot planters.
After being forced out of Williamsburg in June 1775, Governor Dunmore based his government on ships in Norfolk Harbor, turning the city into a flashpoint. In October 1775, Thomas Jefferson—at the time serving in the Continental Congress—wrote bluntly to a friend in Latin: “Delenda est Norfolk”—Norfolk must be destroyed.
After the Battle of Great Bridge
Following their defeat at Great Bridge on December 9, 1775, British forces retreated to Norfolk. With too few troops to defend the city on land, they boarded their warships and other vessels in the harbor. More than 100 ships of all sizes crowded the water, packed with thousands of people.
Patriot forces arrived shortly after. Colonel William Woodford’s troops occupied Norfolk on December 14. The next day, command was transferred to Colonel Robert Howe of North Carolina, who outranked Woodford because he held a commission from the Continental Congress rather than just Virginia.
Howe was tough. He refused to let the British ships receive fresh water, food, or any other supplies—a serious problem for thousands of people living on crowded boats. Patriots also taunted the British fleet openly, changing the guard in full view of the ships and making rude gestures. Patriot snipers started shooting at the British warships.
The British warned that if the shooting didn’t stop, they would open fire on the city. Nobody backed down.
On December 21, a large British warship called the HMS Liverpool arrived with 400 Royal Marines. The British commander issued an ultimatum on Christmas Eve: sell us supplies, or we’ll take them by force. On December 30, he advised women and children to leave town. That was the last warning.
New Year’s Day, 1776
At around 3:00 in the afternoon on January 1, 1776, the British fleet opened fire on Norfolk’s waterfront. While the cannons boomed, small groups of British troops came ashore and set fire to buildings along the harbor front.
By this point, most residents had already fled—leaving behind furniture, goods, and large quantities of alcohol. Patriot troops helped themselves to the free-flowing rum and wine. As the British bombardment continued into the next morning, drunk Patriot soldiers ran through the city setting fire to buildings the British hadn’t touched, reportedly shouting “Keep up the Jigg!”
The Patriot commanders not only allowed this—they encouraged it. When a woman named Sarah Smith pleaded with Colonels Howe and Woodford to spare her house, Howe replied that he expected to burn both Norfolk and Princess Anne counties entirely. The colonels had calculated that holding Norfolk would require about 5,000 troops—three times what they had. Burning the city was easier than defending it. And since the British had fired first, the destruction could conveniently be blamed on them.
The burning went on for three days. Woodford estimated that 90 percent of the city had been destroyed, though later investigations put the figure closer to two-thirds.
Finishing the Job
The Patriots weren’t done. On January 15, the Virginia Committee of Safety officially approved destroying whatever remained of Norfolk. On February 6, North Carolina and Virginia troops burned the rest. Two days after that, Patriots also torched the nearby village of Gosport—which had valuable docks, warehouses, and a shipyard—to prevent Dunmore from using them.
By the time it was over, the eighth-largest city in British North America had been reduced to rubble and ash. According to tradition, only the brick walls of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church were left standing, though later sketches showed the burned-out shells of a few other brick buildings as well.
The Patriot Spin
Almost immediately, the Patriots began spreading the story that the British bombardment had caused all the destruction. A Virginia newspaper reported that a strong onshore wind had fanned the British-set fires and made them impossible to stop. Local sailors, however, said the wind had actually been blowing offshore—away from the city—and had died out by nightfall.
The real story was well known to many people at the time. In 1777, Virginia appointed a commission to investigate the losses from the fire. After extensive research, the commission found that Patriots were responsible for the destruction of 1,279 out of 1,333 buildings—the overwhelming majority.
But that report was never published until 1836—nearly 60 years later. By then, the Patriot version of events had already become accepted history.
Why It Mattered
News of the “British destruction” of Norfolk reached Philadelphia at almost exactly the same time that Thomas Paine published Common Sense, his famous pamphlet calling for American independence. The two stories together—a powerful argument for independence and a vivid example of British brutality—helped shift public opinion toward the Patriot cause at a critical moment.
Dunmore lingered in Virginia waters through the summer of 1776 before finally departing in August, never to return. With the British threat to Virginia removed, the Patriot government was able to send troops to support General George Washington’s army, helping keep the Revolution alive.
What Is This Story About?
This is the story of how Norfolk, one of America’s most important cities, was burned to the ground during the Revolutionary War. The British opened fire on Norfolk with naval cannon and set fire to some waterfront buildings on January 1, 1776. But the Patriots burned most of Norfolk themselves and told everyone the British did it. This caused many people to decide to support the Revolution. And because the real investigation wasn’t published for 60 years, that false story became part of history. The Burning of Norfolk teaches us something important: in wartime, the story people tell about what happened can matter just as much as what actually happened.
What Was Norfolk Like?
In 1775, Norfolk was a busy, bustling city. It was the biggest city in Virginia and one of the largest in all of North America. Ships came and went constantly, carrying goods in and out. Norfolk sat right on the water, with connections to rivers and bays that reached deep into Virginia. Whoever controlled Norfolk controlled a lot of the colony.
Norfolk was also a little different from the rest of Virginia. Most of Virginia was run by wealthy white farmers—called planters—who enslaved large numbers of people and wanted independence from Britain. But Norfolk was full of merchants, many of them from Scotland, who made their living by trading with Britain. They wanted to stay under British rule. People who supported the king were called Loyalists.
Norfolk was also home to many free Black workers and enslaved people, and enslaved people from other parts of Virginia sometimes ran away to Norfolk hoping for a better situation. This made the city even less popular with Virginia’s planter class.
How Did Things Get So Tense?
The American Revolution was getting started. Patriots—the colonists who wanted independence—were taking control of Virginia. The British governor, Lord Dunmore, had been forced to flee his home in Williamsburg. He moved his government onto ships in Norfolk’s harbor, anchoring right off the city’s waterfront.
Things got more tense by the day. Then, in December 1775, the Patriots won a big battle called the Battle of Great Bridge, just south of Norfolk. The British soldiers who survived retreated to their ships. The Patriots marched into Norfolk and took over the city.
The British Open Fire
The Patriot commander in Norfolk was a colonel named Robert Howe. He refused to let the British ships get food, fresh water, or supplies—even though thousands of people were crowded onto more than 100 ships in the harbor. Patriot soldiers also teased and taunted the British fleet, making rude gestures and shooting at their ships.
The British warned that if the shooting didn’t stop, they would fire back. Nobody stopped.
On January 1, 1776—New Year’s Day—the British ships opened fire on Norfolk’s waterfront with their big naval cannons. Some British soldiers also came ashore and set fire to buildings near the harbor.
Who Really Burned Norfolk?
Here’s where the story gets complicated. By the time the British opened fire, most of the people who lived in Norfolk had already packed up and left. Their houses, shops, and belongings—including huge amounts of wine and rum—were just sitting there, empty and unguarded.
Patriot soldiers helped themselves to all that alcohol. Then, while the British cannons were still firing, drunk Patriot soldiers ran through the city, setting fire to buildings the British hadn’t touched at all.
The Patriot commanders didn’t stop them. In fact, they encouraged it. They had done the math: protecting Norfolk would require about 5,000 soldiers, and they only had around 1,700. It was easier to burn the city than defend it. And since the British had fired first, they figured they could blame the whole thing on them.
The burning went on for three days. About two-thirds of the city was destroyed.
The Patriots Finish the Job
A few weeks later, the Patriot government decided to burn whatever was left of Norfolk just to make sure the British couldn’t use it as a base. On February 6, 1776, soldiers burned the rest of the city. They also burned a nearby village called Gosport, which had valuable docks, warehouses, and a shipyard.
By the end, one of the most important cities in North America was almost completely gone. Only the stone walls of one church—Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church—were said to still be standing.
Blaming the British
Almost right away, the Patriots started telling people that the British had caused all the destruction. A Virginia newspaper reported that a strong wind had spread the fires the British started, making them impossible to stop.
But sailors who were there said the wind was actually blowing in the other direction—away from the city—and had died down by nightfall.
The Virginia government investigated and found the truth: Patriots had burned 1,279 out of 1,333 buildings—nearly all of them. The British had only started a small number of fires.
But that report was not made public until 60 years later. By then, most people had already accepted the story that the British burned Norfolk.
Why Did It Matter?
News of the British destruction of Norfolk spread quickly. It reached the city of Philadelphia right around the same time that a writer named Thomas Paine published a famous pamphlet called Common Sense, which argued that America should be independent. Together, the two stories—a powerful argument for freedom and a shocking example of what the British supposedly did to Norfolk—convinced many more Americans to support the Revolution.
Lord Dunmore hung around Virginia’s waters for several more months before finally sailing away in August 1776 and never coming back. With the British gone from Virginia, Patriot troops could go help General George Washington’s army fight in other parts of the country.
Background
In 1775, the city of Norfolk was the largest coastal city between New York and Charleston, South Carolina, and a key port in the colonial mercantile system that powered the British economy. As conflict escalated between Britain and Virginia’s Patriot leaders, it was clear that whoever held Norfolk and its adjacent waterways would enjoy significant advantage in controlling Virginia and the shipping lanes and commercial ports that lined the Chesapeake Bay. In addition, the bay’s numerous rivers provided maritime access as far inland as Alexandria on the Potomac River, Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River, and Richmond on the James River.
Norfolk was a Loyalist-leaning city, home to a large population of Scottish merchants who relied on the British mercantile system for their livelihood and who challenged the economic power of Virginia’s planter-enslaver elite. In addition, the surrounding counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne had substantial numbers of Royalist supporters. Norfolk was also home to a large community of skilled free and enslaved Black workers and was a magnet for runaways from Virginia’s plantations—another thorn in the side of Patriot planters.
Following his expulsion from Williamsburg in June 1775, Dunmore relocated his government to a flotilla in Norfolk Harbor, ratcheting up tensions with the Patriot leadership over the fate of the city. On October 31, Thomas Jefferson, who was serving in the Second Continental Congress, wrote to fellow Patriot John Page, “Delenda est Norfolk” (Norfolk must be destroyed).
Destruction of Norfolk
Following the December 9, 1775, Battle of Great Bridge, a bloody fight in which the British suffered more than sixty casualties at the hands of the 2nd Virginia Regiment and the Culpeper Minute Battalion, the remaining British forces retreated to Norfolk. With insufficient forces to defend the city, British troops boarded warships and commercial vessels in Norfolk Harbor, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Dunmore’s hold on Virginia was slowly slipping away, but he was determined to retain royal governance of the colony. Fearing the Patriot forces, many local Loyalists joined Dunmore’s flotilla.
The Patriot force that defeated the British at Great Bridge received reinforcements from North Carolina and Virginia on December 12, 1775. Colonel William Woodford, commander of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, occupied Norfolk on December 14. The following day, he turned over command of the combined North Carolina–Virginia Patriot force to Colonel Robert Howe, commander of the 2nd North Carolina Regiment, who had been commissioned by the Continental Congress and consequently outranked Woodford. Howe took a hard line with Dunmore’s forces, denying requests for fresh water and provisions for the thousands of people crowded onto 100-plus vessels of all sizes.
The Patriots established a guard and posted sentries along the waterfront. As an insult to the British fleet, they conducted the changing of guards in full view of the ships in the harbor. Patriot soldiers also waved and hollered at the flotilla, with the gestures quickly turning obscene. Snipers then began firing on the British warships, prompting Captain Mathew Squire of the HMS Otter to send a midshipman ashore to warn Howe that “if another shot was fired at the Otter, they must expect the town to be knocked about their ears.”
On December 21, the twenty-eight-gun frigate HMS Liverpool arrived under Captain Henry Bellew, carrying 400 Royal Marines and escorting the storeship Maria. Dunmore had requested these weapons and reinforcements during the spring of 1775, but the British government had struggled to provide them given the distance and the ongoing colonial rebellion. Bellew issued an ultimatum on Christmas Eve, saying that he preferred to purchase desperately needed supplies for the flotilla but warning he would take them by force. On December 30, Bellew advised that “it would not be imprudent” for women and children to leave town. This was the last warning the British issued.
At about three o’clock on the afternoon on New Year’s Day 1776, the British fleet’s guns and cannon opened fire on the Norfolk waterfront. Under cover of the bombardment, small parties of British troops came ashore and set fire to harbor-front buildings. By this time, most residents had fled the city, leaving behind their personal and commercial possessions, including a large supply of alcohol. As the British fleet continued the bombardment into the morning of January 2, Patriot troops, fueled by the free flow of rum and wine, ran through the city setting fire to buildings untouched by British gunfire and shouting “Keep up the Jigg!”
The destruction was encouraged by the Patriot leadership. As firebrand-wielding Patriots were about to torch Sarah Smith’s house, she asked Howe and Woodford if it had to be destroyed. Howe replied, “Yes, I believe we shall burn up the two Counties” of Princess Anne and Norfolk. The two colonels had estimated that securing Norfolk would require 5,000 troops, three times the number available. The military leaders thus concluded that destroying the city would be preferable to allowing the British to occupy it. After all, the British navy had fired on the city first, and the subsequent destruction could easily be blamed on them.
The destruction continued for three days, by which time Woodford estimated that 90 percent of the city lay in ashes. Later investigations concluded that about two-thirds of the city had been destroyed. On January 6, Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette repeated the Patriots’ assertion that an onshore wind had helped fan the flames, making it impossible to extinguish the fires started by the British bombardment. The Patriots hoped that narrative would prevail, although local sailors reported a light offshore wind that stopped after dusk.
Howe and Woodford subsequently told the Virginia Convention that with insufficient forces to hold the city, prudence required destroying what remained of Norfolk to prevent the British from turning it into a naval base. The Virginia Committee of Safety approved the evacuation and destruction of the city’s remaining structures on January 15, and on February 6, North Carolina and Virginia troops burned what was left. According to tradition, only the brick walls of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church remained standing, although sketches by Benjamin Henry Latrobe show the burned-out husks of other brick buildings. Two days later, Patriot troops torched Gosport, across the harbor from Norfolk, to prevent Dunmore from using the village’s valuable infrastructure, which included wharves, warehouses, mills, and a shipyard.
After being reinforced by a detachment of Royal Marines transported by the forty-four-gun frigate HMS Roebuck, Dunmore established a small base on Tucker’s Point (now known as Hospital Point) in Portsmouth, across the harbor from Norfolk. However, in late May 1776, Dunmore repositioned his flotilla of seventy ships near Gwynn’s Island in the Chesapeake Bay, near the mouth of the Piankatank River. He hoped to refresh and resupply his force there, but his ships came under Patriot cannon fire on July 9, 1776, inflicting significant damage and forcing his remaining vessels out of their anchorage and back into the Chesapeake Bay. Dunmore departed the bay in August 1776, never to return. Virginia’s Patriot government subsequently released regiments to serve where the Continental Congress needed them, bolstering General George Washington’s combat capabilities in critical battles and keeping alive the dream of independence.
Aftermath
News of the alleged British destruction of Norfolk reached Philadelphia at almost the same time that Thomas Paine published Common Sense, his pamphlet advocating independence, and became an important factor in in turning the tide to the Patriot cause in early 1776.
In May 1777, the Virginia government appointed a commission to “ascertain the losses occasioned to individuals by the burning of Norfolk and Portsmouth in the year 1776.” The commission conducted numerous interviews and determined that the overwhelming majority of the destruction (1,279 of 1,333 structures) resulted from the actions of Patriot forces. Yet to this day, many sources attribute the destruction of Norfolk to the fires set by the British naval bombardment. The Patriot narrative prevailed in part because the report of the investigative commission was not published by the Virginia House of Delegates until 1836, by which time the alternative version of events had become part of the historical record.
