Skirmish at Waters Creek

On March 8, 1781, a small clash unfolded near Waters Creek in Newport News, Virginia, pitting local militia against soldiers of the British Army. This brief encounter, remembered as the Skirmish at Waters Creek, formed one of the countless minor engagements that punctuated the American Revolutionary War.

Background

For most of the war, Virginia had seen little large-scale fighting. That quiet ended in October 1780, when Brigadier General Alexander Leslie landed with 2,500 British Army soldiers. His force built a stronghold at Portsmouth and set about seizing provisions from the surrounding countryside. Lieutenant General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, however, ordered the post given up that November.

Virginia's respite proved short lived. In January 1781, an additional 1,600 troops arrived under the command of Benedict Arnold, now fighting for the enemy after his betrayal. Arnold struck swiftly at Richmond, the seat of the state government, before pulling his force back to spend the winter at Portsmouth.

Local militia kept a close watch on Arnold's movements at Portsmouth, mustering whenever he dispatched men to forage or raid nearby areas. On the morning of March 8, Arnold sent roughly 300 soldiers toward Newport News on such a mission. Command of this detachment fell to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas, who headed the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, joined by a company drawn from John Graves Simcoe's Queen's Rangers.

Word of Dundas' movement soon reached the militia, and Colonel Francis Mallory, a Hampton resident, took charge of organizing resistance. Mallory had only recently gained his freedom after a short spell held aboard a Royal Navy vessel as part of a prisoner exchange, and he had been cautioned not to return to combat. Nonetheless, information he had gathered while in captivity gave him a strong sense of where the British would march, prompting him to plan an ambush near Tompkins' Bridge, the crossing over the creek separating Hampton from York County.

Skirmish

The local fighters split into two groups for their assault, with mounted men driving forward in a frontal charge while foot soldiers poured fire into the enemy's side. Colonel Mallory lost his life in the fighting, felled by a combination of gunfire, a saber strike, and a bayonet wound. Despite this loss, the militia succeeded in pushing the British back toward Newport News point and ultimately to their waiting boats. During the withdrawal, Captain Brown suffered an injury and was abandoned by his retreating comrades.