The Tobacco Raid of 1779

In 1779, the war between Britain and its thirteen rebel colonies in America was in its fifth year without any prospect of resolution. Although the British had had several opportunities to defeat Gen. George Washingtons’ Continental Army, they were unable to deliver the decisive blow. Even worse, the American victory over Gen. John Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga in 1777 led France to recognize American independence and enter the war the following year against Britain. This transformed the conflict from a colonial revolt into a world war.

As a result of these events, Lord George Germain, the Secretary of State for the American Colonies, decided to shift operations towards the Southern colonies of Georgia and the Carolinas, beginning in December 1778 with the British expedition to capture Savannah. But there was another region that seemed ripe for offensive operations: Virginia. After the burning of Norfolk on January 1, 1776, the Old Dominion was largely spared from the ravages of war.[1] The commander of the British Army in America, Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, was aware of the region’s importance, but unable to send a strong enough force to attack it. But a change in command of the Royal Navy in American waters in 1779 led to change in the calculus.

After Rear Adm. James Gambier was deemed unfit for any major command, leadership of the Royal Navy’s forces on the North American station fell to Cmdre. Sir George Collier. Born in 1738, he entered the navy in 1751 and rapidly rose to the rank of commander in 1761, and then to post-captain in July 1762. Knighted in 1775, he served as captain of the forty-four-gun HMS Rainbow at the start of the American Revolution and participated in the British landing at Long Island in August 1776. After capturing several ships on the American station, he participated in a raid against Machias, where he captured or destroyed thirty vessels and a large quantity of supplies. After Gambier’s departure, Collier was promoted to commodore and appointed acting-Commander-in-Chief of the North American station until a permanent replacement arrived.[2]

Collier left Halifax, Nova Scotia for New York on March 7, 1779, with the Rainbow, the sloop HMS Hunter, and several troop transports. It proved a most arduous journey, marked by constant foul weather. One of the transports got separated from the convoy and wound up wrecked on the Barnegat Shoals near Egg Harbor, New Jersey, resulting in the loss of 170 troops, along with some women and children, leaving twenty-seven survivors to become prisoners of war. Collier finally arrived in New York on April 3 and hoisted his broad pennant on board HMS Raisonable.[3]