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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 249: BRITISH INCURSIONS INTO VIRGINIA.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

BRITISH INCURSIONS INTO VIRGINIA.

During the operations in Georgia, the British fleet under Sir George Collier, who had succeeded Admiral Gambier, had been attacking Virginia, in which attack he was aided by a detachment of soldiers under General Matthews. Their first attempt was an expedition to the Chesapeak, where they demolished Fort Nelson, the grand defence of the American dock-yard at Gos-port; and a similar scene of destruction was exhibited at the town of Suffolk, Kempe’s Landing, Tanner’s Creek, and other places in the lower part of the district. At the same time, the “Otter” sloop, and the privateers sailing far up the bay, took a great number of prizes, and burned, or caused the Americans themselves to burn, a great number of vessels. In the end, indeed, scarcely any American craft were left floating on these waters. The last exploit of this expedition was to demolish the fort and destroy the navy-yard of Portsmouth; when Collier and Matthews returned to New York, after an absence of only twenty-four days.