Battle of Craney Island facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Battle of Craney Island
Part of the War of 1812
Battle of Craney Island
Date June 22, 1813 Location Craney Island, near Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia Result American victory
Belligerents
British Empire	United States
Commanders and leaders
George Cockburn John Borlase Warren	Robert Barraud Taylor
Strength
2,500 Infantry and Marines	596 Infantry, Marines and Sailors 91 artillery pieces
Casualties and losses
3 killed 16 wounded 62 missing	None

Craney Island Blockhouse during the War of 1812

The Battle of Craney Island was a victory for the United States during the War of 1812. The battle saved the city of Norfolk, and the adjacent city of Portsmouth, from British invasion. Especially important to Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, the region was a major hub for American commerce.

Background

Admiral Sir George Cockburn commanded a British fleet blockading Chesapeake Bay. In early 1813, Cockburn and Admiral Sir John B. Warren planned to attack the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth and capture the frigate U.S.S. Constellation. Brigadier General Robert B. Taylor commanded the Virginia Militia in the Norfolk area. Taylor hastily built defenses around Norfolk and Portsmouth, but he had no intentions of letting the British penetrate as far as those two cities. Instead Taylor commandeered several ships and created a chain barrier across the Elizabeth River between Fort Norfolk and Fort Nelson. He next built the Craney Island Fort on the island of the same name at the mouth of the Elizabeth River near Hampton Roads. Since the Constellation was already penned up in the Chesapeake because of the British blockade, the ship's crew was used to man some of the redoubts on the island. In all, 596 Americans were defending the fortifications on Craney Island.

Battle

On the morning of June 22, 1813, a British landing party of 700 Royal Marines and soldiers of the 102nd Regiment of Foot along with a company of Independent Foreigners came ashore at Hoffler's Creek near the mouth of the Nansemond River to the west of Craney Island. When the British landed, the defenders realized they were not flying a flag and quickly raised an American flag over the breastworks. The defenders fired, and the attackers began to fall back, realizing that they could not ford the water between the mainland and the island (the Thoroughfare) under such fire. British barges manned by sailors, Royal Marines, and the other company of Independent Foreigners then attempted to attack the eastern side of the island. Defending this portion was a company of light artillery under the command of Captain Arthur Emmerson. Emmerson ordered his gunners to hold their fire until the British were in range. Once they opened fire, the British attackers were driven off, with some barges destroyed, and they retreated back to the ships.

Results

The Americans had scored a defensive victory in the face of a much larger force. Norfolk and the Gosport Navy Yard were spared from attack. Having failed in their attempt to attack Norfolk, Admirals Warren and Cockburn moved north for actions in the Chesapeake Bay, including an attempt to attack St. Michaels, Maryland, in August.

Two days later, the British crossed the Hampton Roads from Craney Island to take revenge on Hampton, Va. – the town was burned and left in ruins. Most of the atrocities were committed by men of the Independent Companies of Foreigners, former French prisoners of war recruited from British prison hulks. American letters of outrage were sent to the British of all the brutal acts that the French auxiliaries and their British comrades had committed upon the town. A British officer Sydney Beckwith answered the American letters that outrages had been committed, but claimed that a barge of the British had been sunk by the fire of American guns. While the British survivors were clinging to the wreck of the boat. A party of Americans waded out and shot them while they were helpless. General Taylor at once appointed a court of inquiry, which by a careful investigation found that none of the men belonging to the wrecked barge had been fired upon, except one who was trying to escape to that division of the British troops which had landed, and he was not killed. Some of the Americans had waded out to assist the stragglers who were stranded at their wrecked boat. The report embodying these facts was forwarded to Sir Sydney, who never made any reply. A British officer recorded the result in his diary: "Every horror was perpetrated with impunity ... and not a single man was punished."

The repulse at Craney Island did not deter the British from further operations in Hampton Roads the next year. That year in 1814, they proceeded up the Chesapeake Bay to burn Washington, D.C., as there were no forts guarding the mouth of the bay at the time (this led to the building of Fort Monroe beginning in the 1820s, to close the bay to enemy vessels). American troops defeated a British landing attempt at Caulk's Field one week later and an assault on Baltimore roughly two weeks after that, ending British incursions in the mid-Atlantic.

Legacy

Three active battalions of the US Regular Army's 4th Infantry Regiment (1–4 Inf, 2–4 Inf and 3–4 Inf) perpetuate the lineages of the old 20th Infantry Regiment, which had elements that participated in the Battle of Craney Island.

Virginia Historical Marker K-258 (The Battle of Craney Island) (at the entrance to Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve on Twin Pines Road) commemorates the battle.