Qualla: Battle of Kemp's Landing

Battle of Kemp's Landing: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joshua Reynolds, Public domain. Kemp's Landing is gone as a name. The place where it stood is now an urban neighborhood of Virginia Beach called Kempsville, and most of the people who drive through it have no idea that a skirmish was fought here on November 15, 1775, in the early autumn of the Revolutionary War. Britain's last royal governor of Virginia, John Murray, Lord Dunmore, came up the road from Great Bridge with about 131 men. About 170 Princess Anne County militia had set an ambush. Dunmore won. He routed the Patriots, lost one soldier to a single minor wound, and then read aloud a proclamation he had been carrying in his pocket for over a week - the document that would offer freedom to enslaved Virginians who took up arms for the King. The skirmish itself was minor. What Dunmore did after he won mattered.

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Image: Joshua Reynolds | Public domain

Battle of Kemp's Landing: The Governor Without a Capital

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Humberto Moreno, CC BY 2.0. Tensions in Virginia rose in April 1775 - the same week the war broke out at Lexington and Concord. The Whigs in the colonial assembly were already recruiting troops. Dunmore, fearing for his safety, ordered British marines to remove the gunpowder from the colonial storehouse in ...

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Image: Humberto Moreno | CC BY 2.0

Battle of Kemp's Landing: The Ambush That Failed

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter F. Rothermel (1812–1895), Public domain. Dunmore landed near Great Bridge on November 14 with 109 regulars and 22 Norfolk volunteers - he was investigating rumors that Patriot militia were arriving from North Carolina. The rumors turned out to be wrong. But his landing called out the Princess Anne militia under Joseph H...

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Image: Peter F. Rothermel (1812–1895) | Public domain

Battle of Kemp's Landing: The Proclamation

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joshua Reynolds, Public domain. Dunmore had written his proclamation on November 7, eight days before Kemp's Landing, in response to earlier Whig actions at Hampton. He had not yet made it public. After his victory at Kemp's Landing he read it aloud, and within days it was printed and distributed. The proclamat...

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Image: Joshua Reynolds | Public domain

Battle of Kemp's Landing: Norfolk Burns

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joshua Reynolds, Public domain. Dunmore returned to Norfolk after Kemp's Landing, raised the British standard, and began organizing defenses. He did not hold the position long. On December 9, 1775 - just over three weeks after the skirmish at Kemp's Landing - Continental forces under Colonel William Woodford de...

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Image: Joshua Reynolds | Public domain

Battle of Kemp's Landing: From Landing to Neighborhood

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joshua Reynolds, Public domain. Kemp's Landing incorporated in 1778 as Kempsville and became the county seat of Princess Anne County. The seat moved away later, and Princess Anne County itself was merged into the new city of Virginia Beach in 1963. The landing on the river is gone; the village is gone; the coun...

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Image: Joshua Reynolds | Public domain