Kemp's Landing

On November 15, 1775, a small clash unfolded near Kemp's Landing that would later be remembered under two names, the Battle of Kemp's Landing and the Skirmish of Kempsville. Militiamen drawn from Princess Anne County in the Province of Virginia gathered at this spot with the aim of blocking British forces that had come ashore close by at Great Bridge under Virginia's final royal governor, John Murray, Lord Dunmore.

Dunmore had actually landed his troops to check reports, which proved groundless, that Patriot soldiers were arriving from North Carolina. Finding no such threat, he turned his attention instead toward the gathered Princess Anne militia. When these men attempted to spring an ambush on his force, Dunmore's troops overcame the trap and sent the militia fleeing in disorder.

Building on this success, Dunmore proceeded to announce his proclamation imposing martial law across the colony. Within it, he offered freedom to any enslaved people held by Patriot masters who would take up arms on behalf of the British. Rather than securing his position, however, this move only deepened resistance to his rule, and before long circumstances compelled him to abandon Virginia altogether.

Background

Trouble had already begun brewing in the British Colony of Virginia by April 1775, arriving at nearly the same moment that fighting erupted between colonists and British forces at Lexington and Concord up in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. As early as March of that year, Whigs who held sway over the provincial assembly started assembling their own armed forces, setting off a contest over who would control the colony's stockpiles of military supplies. John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, serving as royal governor, directed British soldiers to seize gunpowder from the storehouse in Williamsburg, an action that unsettled the Whig faction dominating the legislature. No blood was shed in this particular episode, yet Dunmore grew concerned about his own safety and departed Williamsburg in June 1775, sending his family to safety aboard a Royal Navy vessel. From there he gathered a modest fleet at Norfolk, a harbor town known for merchants with strong Loyalist leanings. It is possible that the mere presence of this fleet helped keep Whig activity in Norfolk subdued.

Clashes between Whigs and Tories persisted into October, by which point Dunmore had gathered sufficient military strength to launch operations, while the Whigs had massed a considerable force at Williamsburg. General Thomas Gage, who held overall British command in North America, dispatched small units of the 14th Regiment of Foot to Virginia after Dunmore repeatedly asked for reinforcements. Starting on October 12, these soldiers began conducting raids into nearby counties in search of rebel weapons and supplies. Such raids persisted until late October, at which point a small British vessel grounded itself and fell into Whig hands during a clash near Hampton. When Navy boats attempted to punish the local townspeople in retaliation, Continental Army soldiers and militia drove them back in a fight that left several sailors dead or captured. In response, Dunmore drafted a proclamation on November 7 declaring martial law across the colony and promising freedom to slaves owned by Whigs, provided they agreed to serve in the British Army. He held off from making this declaration widely known right away, but still managed to enlist enough former slaves to organize the Ethiopian Regiment, and separately raised a unit of Tories that he named the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia Regiment. Together these locally raised forces bolstered the two companies of the 14th Foot, which up to that point had been the only regular British military presence within the colony.

Skirmish

The planned ambush fell apart when the untested men under Hutchings fired their weapons well before the right moment. Dunmore's well-drilled regulars answered with their own volley and pushed forward through the trees to drive the rebels into the open. Once the militia broke ranks and fled, a chase followed in which Hutchings himself fell into enemy hands, seized by someone who had once been enslaved by him. Lawson managed to slip away from the fighting at the time, though his freedom lasted only a few days before he too was taken. When the smoke cleared, seven Patriots lay dead and eighteen more had been captured, while the British side counted just one man with a slight wound.

Aftermath

Once the town was under his control, Dunmore hoisted the British flag and delivered the words of his proclamation aloud. Within a day, more than a hundred local militiamen who had once stood against him came forward to pledge loyalty to the Crown, insisting the Patriots had pressed them into service against their will. From there Dunmore pressed on to Norfolk, raising his standard once more and setting about fortifying the area.

Meanwhile, Woodford's men made their way to Great Bridge, their ranks swelled by reinforcements from North Carolina. Alarmed by this buildup, Dunmore ordered his forces to strike, but the resulting clash on December 9, the Battle of Great Bridge, ended in a clear triumph for Woodford. Dunmore pulled back from Norfolk soon after, and on January 1, 1776, the town went up in flames through the combined actions of both Patriot and Loyalist hands. For months afterward, through August 1776, he kept up raids along Virginia's coast before finally sailing off to New York City.

As for Kemp's Landing, it was incorporated in 1778 under the name Kempsville and served afterward as the seat of Princess Anne County. That county would later be absorbed into Virginia Beach in 1963, leaving Kempsville today as simply one of the city's urban neighborhoods.