Combat· War of 1812
Defense of Craney Island
The small island guarding the approach to Norfolk and the navy yard turned back a much larger British force.
Fifty Marines under Lieutenant Henry B. Breckenridge were landed on Craney Island alongside sailors from the frigate Constellation and Virginia militia, manning the batteries that covered the channel. When the British attempted to land a heavy force in barges, the defenders opened a destructive fire that sank or disabled several of the boats and drove the rest off, taking about forty prisoners. The repulse saved Norfolk and, with it, the frigate Constellation, which the British had hoped to seize or burn. The officers, seamen, and Marines of the Constellation won particular credit for the day. It was a sharp, clean defensive victory in a war that gave the Americans few of them on land, and the Marines played a central part in it.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 93