16. Overconfidence Doomed the British Cause in Virginia
In the context of poor camp conditions, epidemics swept the runaways and killed them off almost as fast as they were assembled. That prevented Lord Dunmore from raising the vast slave armies that he had envisaged. Nonetheless, the survivors were assembled in what came to be known as Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, led by white officers and sergeants. On November 15th, 1775, the new soldiers got their baptism of fire in the small-scale Battle of Kemp’s Landing. It was a British victory over colonial militia, in which one of the militia colonels was captured by a former slave fighting for the British.
Unfortunately for Lord Dunmore and the British cause in Virginia, he grew overconfident as a result of the easy victory at Kemp’s Landing, and became convinced that the Patriots were cowards. A few weeks later, on December 9th, 1775, the Ethiopian Regiment fought in the Battle of Great Bridge, in which the British were tricked by a double agent into making a frontal assault across a bridge. They were decisively repulsed. The Patriot victory compelled the British to evacuate Norfolk.
