Within the bar of the Rip Raps is the spacious harbor called the Hampton Roads, wherein vast navies might ride with safety. Twice, hostile fleets have cleft those waters. The first was in October, 1775, when Lord Dunmore, driven by his fears, as we have seen, from Williamsburg, gratified his desire for revenge by destroying the property of the patriots. The people of Hampton anticipated an attack by the British fleet, **** and applied to the Committee of Safety for assistance. Colonel Woodford, with one hundred Culpepper men, was sent to protect them; but before their arrival, Captain Squires, of the British navy, sent by Dunmore with six tenders, appeared in Hampton Creek.Oct 24, 1775 He commenced a furious cannonade, and under that cover sent armed men in boats to burn the town. Virginia riflemen, concealed in the houses, soon sent so many death-shots that the boats were obliged to return. The tenders were compelled to recede beyond the reach of their rifles,
* Hampton, in Elizabeth City county, is one of the oldest towns in Virginia. Its site was visited by Captain John Smith in 1607, while exploring the mouth of the James River. The natives called the place Ke-cough-lan. The English commenced a settlement there in 1610, and in 1705 it was erected into a town bylaw.
** This point was Smith's first landing-place, and because he found good anchorage, a hospitable reception, and various other comforts, he gave it the name it now bears.
*** In 1630 a small fort was erected on Point Comfort; and it was there that Count De Grasse caused some fortifications to be thrown up to cover the landing of the troops under St. Simon previous to the siege of Yorktown in 1781.
**** Dunmore's force consisted of the Fowey, Mercury, Kingfisher, and Otter; two companies from a West India regiment, and a motley rabble of negroes and Tories.
Repulse of Dunmore.—St. John's Church.—Attack on Hampton in 1813.—Voyage to Norfolk.
and wait for re-enforcements. Woodford arrived at daybreak on the twenty-fifth, and, momentarily expecting an attack from the enemy, he immediately disposed his men for action. At sunrise the hostile fleet bore in for the shore, and, laying with springs on her cables, commenced a heavy cannonade upon the town, and greatly damaged many of the houses. Woodford commanded his men to fire with caution and sure aim, the vessels being within rifle shot. Men were picked off in every part of the ships, and great terror soon prevailed in the fleet.
