[From Purdie’s
Virginia Gazette, July 19th, 1776]
PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK
AND ROUT OF LORD DUNMORE, WITH HIS
PIRATICAL CREW, FROM GWIN’S ISLAND.
We got to the Island on Monday, the 8th of July, and next morning began a furious attack upon the enemy’s shipping, camp, and fortifications, from two batteries — one of five six- and nine-pounders, the other mounting two 18-pounders. . . .
On our arrival upon the island, we found the enemy had evacuated the place with the greatest precipitation, and were struck with horrour at the number of dead bodies, in a state of putrefaction, strewed all the way from their battery to Cherry-Point, about two miles in length, without a shovelful of earth upon them; others gasping for life; and some had crawled to the water’s edge, who could only make known their distress by beckoning to us. By the small-pox, and other malignant disorders which have raged on board the fleet for many months past, it is clear they have lost, since their arrival at Gwin’s Island, near five hundred souls. I myself counted one hundred and thirty graves, or rather holes, loosely covered over with earth, close together, many of them large enough to hold a corporal’s guard. One, in the middle, was neatly done up with turf, and is supposed to contain the remains of the late Lord of Gosport. Many were burnt alive in brush huts, which, in their confusion, had got on fire. In short, such a scene of misery, distress, and cruelty, my eyes never beheld; for which the authors, one may reasonably conclude, never can make atonement in this world.
The enemy left behind them, in their battery, a double fortified nine-pounder, a great part of their baggage, with several tents and markees, besides the three tenders, with their cannon, small arms, &c.; also, the anchors and cables of the Dunmore, Otter, and many others, to the amount, it is supposed, of twelve or fifteen hundred pounds. On their leaving the Island, they burnt some valuable vessels which had got aground. Mr. John Grymes’s effects on the Island have fallen into our hands, consisting of thirty-five negroes, horses, cattle, and furniture. Major Byrd, on the approach of our canoes to the Island, was huddled into a cart, in a very sick and low condition, it is said, and carried down to Cherry-Point, where he embarked. The second shot the Dunmore received cut her boatswain in two, and wounded two or three others; and she had scarcely recovered from the shock, when a nine-pounder from the lower battery entered her quarter, and beat in a large timber, from the splinters of which Lord Dunmore got wounded in the legs, and had all his valuable china smashed about his ears. It is said his Lordship was exceedingly alarmed, and roared out, “Good God, that ever I should come to this!” We had our information from one of his people that came ashore after the engagement, who was taken by our scouts; he likewise said that many were killed in the fleet, which had sustained some thousand pounds worth of damage. The Fowey and Roebuck were the lowermost ships; besides which, there were one hundred and large odd sail of vessels, which took their departure on Thursday afternoon, and are supposed to have gone into [the] Potomack. In this affair we lost not a man but poor Captain Arundel, who was killed by the bursting of a mortar of his own invention, although the General and all the officers were against his firing it. His zeal for the service lost him his life.