This evening 250 years ago, four British tenders from the HMS Otter raided homes on Mill Creek at the mouth of the Hampton River in Virginia. This was the beginning of the first combat of the Revolution in Virginia and would continue for the the next two days.

This weekend, October 25-26, 2025, there is a reenactment and commemoration of the Battle of Hampton on its 250th anniversary at different locations in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

Sources: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/the-battle-of-hampton-october-26-27-1775/; https://www.visitchesapeake.com/event/250th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-hampton-reenactment/13766/; https://www.visitchesapeake.com/event/250th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-hampton-reenactment/13766/; https://www.hampton.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=5798

On this date 250 years ago, Col.Benedict Arnold and his advance divisions under Captain Daniel Morgan and Major Return Jonathan Meigs were struggling through snow and ice to drag their battered bateaux up the flooded Dead River in Maine to reach the height of land that separated Maine from Canada and the head waters of Chaudiere River that flowed into Canada. All the men of Arnold’s force were soaked and cold, many were sick and much of their supplies had been lost or destroyed when the bateaux capsized or leaked in the flood. The day before Arnold had dispatched orders to the rear divisions commanded by Lt. Cols. Christopher Greene and Roger Enos to send the sick soldiers with three days provisions back downstream to Fort Western but to send forward all able men with 15 days of provisions.

On that same day Lt. Col. Greene and Lt. Col. Enos and their officers met at the Ledge Falls on the Dead River in Maine, to discuss whether to proceed with the march to Quebec. In contravention of Arnold’s orders, Lt. Col. Enos and his officers decided to turn back with the bulk of the expedition’s remaining supplies and only left two and half barrels of flour for Arnold’s men. However, Lt. Col. Greene, Major Timothy Bigelow, and Captains John Topham, Simon Thayer, Samuel Ward and Henry Dearborn made “a determined resolution to go through or die” with the expedition as Dr. Isaac Senter, one of their number, recorded in his journal. The 300 men in the companies commanded by Enos, plus 150 sick soldiers, would begin their descent back down the Kennebec River the next day. The loss of these men, and perhaps more importantly, their supplies, would end up spelling doom for Arnold’s expedition. But for reasons hard to understand now, Lt. Col. Enos would be acquitted at his court martial when he returned to the Army’s headquarters in Cambridge.

Sources: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/arnolds-march-quebec; https://ia801306.us.archive.org/2/items/journalisaacsenter00sentrich/journalisaacsenter00sentrich.pdf; https://wheninyourstate.com/maine/in-1775-a-fort-in-maine-held-the-key-to-quebec-benedict-arnold-fumbled-it-in-just-six-days/; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-flood-famine-desertion/

Note: I try to post this blog each day. Although it appears this post is a day late, I am in California now so it is still October 25 here.