Qualla: Battle of Craney Island https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Craney Island https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island Battle of Craney Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. The British commander was the illegitimate son of King George III, and on the morning of June 22, 1813, Sir John Hanchett led a 24-oar barge called the Centipede toward a low spit of marsh and sand at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Behind him came fifteen more barges and an escort fleet. The British had spent weeks blockading Chesapeake Bay, and now they wanted the prize: the Gosport Navy Yard at Portsmouth and the frigate USS Constellation penned inside it. Standing between them and that prize were 596 Americans dug in on Craney Island, a place most maps barely bothered to name, and a captain of light artillery named Arthur Emmerson who had told his gunners to hold their fire.

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Craney Island: The Trap https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. Admiral Sir George Cockburn had been making the Chesapeake miserable for American shipping since the spring. With Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, he planned to walk straight into Norfolk and Portsmouth, the twin commercial hubs at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, take the navy ...

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-the-trap.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Craney Island: Hold Your Fire https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. Seven hundred Royal Marines and soldiers of the 102nd Regiment came ashore at Hoffler's Creek on the mainland, planning to wade across the Thoroughfare channel and storm the island from behind. The water was deeper than they thought and the American fire was hotter. They fell bac...

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-hold-your-fire.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Craney Island: What Followed https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. Norfolk was saved. The Gosport yard kept its frigate. But the war was not gentle in its aftermath. Two days later, British forces crossed Hampton Roads and attacked Hampton, Virginia, where the Independent Foreigners, enraged by stories that Americans had massacred their stranded...

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-what-followed.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Craney Island: The Larger Lesson https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. Craney Island held. The British, denied Norfolk, sailed north up the Chesapeake the next summer. With no fort guarding the bay's mouth, they had a clear road to Washington, which they burned in August 1814. The lesson was not lost on Congress. Construction on Fort Monroe began in...

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-the-larger-lesson.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Craney Island: What Remains https://qualla.com/battle-of-craney-island/ Photo credit Benson Lossing, Public domain. Today there is no island anymore, not really. Decades of dredge spoil from Norfolk's harbor have welded Craney Island onto the mainland as an industrial peninsula north of Portsmouth. The marshes where the militia held the line are mostly fill. But Virginia Historical Marker K-25...

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Image: Benson Lossing | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/9/d/battle-of-craney-island-wp/dq9d-battle-of-craney-island-what-remains.mp3 0:06 6 full