In the early morning of December 9, 1775, British and patriot forces faced each other across Great Bridge, the British on the north end and the patriots to the south. The bridge over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, together with causeways and small bridges across the marshes, provided the only landward approach to Norfolk and formed a strategic supply line that British forces sought to control. Patriot forces totaling more than 900 men under Colonel William Woodford, including the 2nd Virginia Regiment, the Culpeper Minutemen, and militias from Norfolk, Princess Anne, Currituck, and Pasquotank counties, had entrenched themselves behind a breastwork within cannon shot of Fort Murray, the British wooden stockade at the northern end of the bridge, but having no cannon they did not attack. As reveille sounded in the patriot camp, about 670 British troops, including the 14th Regiment of Foot, gunners from HMS Otter, 60 Tory volunteers of the Queen’s Own Loyal Virginia Regiment, and runaway slaves organized as Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, launched a direct assault led by Captain Samuel Leslie. Sixty British grenadiers under Captain Charles Fordyce were forced by the narrow causeway to advance in files, fully exposed to patriot fire, and the fighting produced heavy British casualties within ten minutes. The pitched battle lasted only about half an hour and created a scene of slaughter, though British accounts said the patriots ceased fire as the British retreated with their wounded. That night the British abandoned Fort Murray and withdrew to Norfolk. One Virginian was slightly wounded, while British casualties were said to be upwards of 70. The patriot victory convinced many southern loyalists, wavering southern patriots, and others uncertain of their allegiance to join the patriot cause, and it led to the British evacuation of Norfolk and later the whole colony.