The Day is Our Own!

The Day is Our Own!. . I then saw the horrors of war in perfection, worse than can be imagined; 10 and 12 bullets thro’ many; limbs broke in 2 or 3 places…Good God, what a sight! Captain Richard Kidder Meade, Southampton District, 2nd Virginia Regiment, British Captain Charles Fordyce emerged from the smoke of burning structures and cannon fire on the south island, leading his officers and grenadiers of the 14th Regiment of Foot. The troops advanced onto the narrow causeway, bordered by quick mire and two small streams., Realizing that the smoke camouflaged the British movements, patriot Colonel Thomas Bullett alerted Lieutenant Edward Travis, who was stationed behind the breastwork with a company of men from Southampton District and a number of militia. The breastwork was positioned to permit a devastating crossfire directly onto troops crossing the causeway. Volleys of fire were exchanged as the grenadiers advanced., Under orders of Lieutenant Travis, the patriots held further fire until the British were trapped on the causeway 50 yards from the breastwork, then “bullets whistled on every side.” Fordyce was struck in the knee, but rallied his troops, exclaiming “The day is our own!” Fordyce fell within fifteen feet of the breastwork, mortally wounded by 14 bullets. As more grenadiers fell, a retreat was sounded., After nightfall, the British force retreated to ships in Norfolk harbor. Fifteen enemy bodies were recovered by the patriots from the causeway and marsh. Seventeen other grenadiers were wounded or captured, and an unknown number of dead and wounded were carried off by the retreating grenadiers. Losses were so devastating that the 14th Regiment of Foot returned to England to recruit replacements., The site of the final phase of the battle is across what is now the A and C Canal, near the abutment of the canal bridge.