The Battle of Great Bridge was fought December 9, 1775, in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia, early in the American Revolutionary War.

The victory by colonial Virginia militia forces leads to the departure of Royal Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power over the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict.

Following increasing political and military tensions in early 1775, both Dunmore and colonial rebel leaders recruit troops and engage  in a struggle for available military supplies.

The struggle eventually focuses on Norfolk, where Dunmore has taken refuge aboard a Royal Navy vessel.

Dunmore's forces have fortified one side of a critical river crossing south of Norfolk at Great Bridge, while rebel forces have occupied the other side.

In an attempt to break up the rebel gathering, Dunmore orders an attack across the bridge, which is decisively repulsed.

Colonel William Woodford, the Virginia militia commander at the battle, describes it as "a second Bunker's Hill affair".

Shortly thereafter, Norfolk, at theistime a Tory center, is abandoned by Dunmore and the Tories, who flee to navy ships in the harbor.

Rebel-occupied Norfolk is destroyed on January 1, 1776 in an action begun by Dunmore and completed by rebel forces.