From Norfolk.
[our own Correspondent.]With the number of emigrants increased the amount of tobacco raised in the Virginia Colony, and it soon became necessary to form towns for the purpose of concentrating trade for facilitating the exportation of tobacco, and for the promotion of commerce. In selecting locations for these towns none seemed to offer better advantages than a district called by Capt. Smith, Nansamund, situated on the Elizabeth river, and on the 8th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty, seventy-three years after the settlement of Jamestown, the Assembly of Virginia passed an act directing the purchase of fifty acres of land for the town of Norfolk. Extraordinary inducements were offered to lawyers, bricklayers, artizans, and mechanics, to take up their residence within the fifty acres; and they were exempted from arrest, and their property was not liable to seizure for debt. Owing to the healthfulness of the location, the fine harbor, its facilities for trade, the place increased gradually towards the dimensions of a town. September 15th, 1736, by a royal charter from George II, (about whom Mr. Thackeray tells so many pleasant stories,) it was formed into a borough; and that is how the city of Norfolk came about.
From 1736, the date of its chapter, to 1770, the town of Norfolk grew rapidly. Its fine location and its excellent harbor gave an importance few other towns possessed.--Trade from all parts of the State flowed into its streets, and avenues were opened to commerce with the world. At one time there was but a single rival in the colony, and that, Dumfries, a Scotch settlement on the Potomac, now a ruined and desolate burg. The year 1770, saw Norfolk the richest and most flourishing city in Virginia. It had increased in size until its inhabitants numbered six thousand; and had increased in wealth of which its fine streets, its stores and warehouses, its wharves, its churches, and its elegant private residences, were evidence.
When the American Revolution begun, Norfolk was in a very prosperous condition. At that time many of her sons joined the popular Massachusetts clamor against ‘"the King,"’ and assisted in the overthrow of British Government in the Colonies. When hostilities actually begun, the city was the scene of stirring events and suffered severely before the close of the war. Early in the difficulties, the British fleet, under Lord Dunmore, made Norfolk harbor its principal rendezvous. The Virginians commenced making preparations to defend themselves, and threw up fortifications around the town. The first battle fought was at ‘"Great Bridge,"’ on the north bank of the Elizabeth river, a few miles from the city, which took place on the morning of December 9th, 1775. Lord Dunmore dispatched 200 regulars and 300 blacks and tories to capture the bridge which was defended by 300 ‘"shipmen"’ as they called the Virginians, but they met with a severe defeat and returned with a loss of 102 killed and wounded. This victory determined the Virginians to take the city of Norfolk; but, like the Yankees at Portsmouth, the British commanders became alarmed at the noise around them, and the fortifications were hastily abandoned. Twenty pieces of cannon were dismantled and spiked before Lord Dunmore took to his ships. Owing to the increasing hostility of the people the fleet could not get provisions, and Lord Dunmore sent word to the Virginia authorities that unless they furnished him, he would bombard the town. No attention was paid to this, and on the 1st of January, 1776, after a notice to non-combatants to leave the city, he opened fire. The wooden buildings by the water were soon in flames, and owing to high winds the conflagration spread until nineteenths of the city was destroyed.
Several times after the British fleet came into Hampton Roads, and two or three times Portsmouth, immediately across the river, was occupied. That town also suffered severely during the war and was frequently used as places of rendezvous, as Annapolis and Old Point are used by the Yankees. On the 18th of April, 1781, a large body of British troops, under Maj. Gen. Phillips and Brig Gen. Arnold, embarked at Portsmouth on an expedition for the purpose of destroying some American stores. A body of light infantry was sent up the Chickahominy ten or twelve miles, where several armed ships, sundry warehouses, and some ship-yards were burned.
Five miles below the city of Norfolk is Crany Island, lying at the entrance of the harbor, three miles from Hampton Roads.--During the last war with England this was the scene of a battle. On the 22d of June, 1813, a large fleet made an attack upon it, with a force of about 4,000 men, but met with a serious defeat. The loss to the enemy was two hundred, while the Virginians did not lose a man. The fortifications on this island were erected by Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, then in command of this district.
One more event of interest, and I have done. In the year 1856, the city of Norfolk was the scene of a serious and fatal epidemic that has been appropriately denominated ‘"the great pestilence in Virginia."’ The yellow fever swept through the town until it was more than decimated. The tale of horrors that terrible disease unfolded, beggars the power of words to describe. It has, however, been made the subject of an interesting book from the pen of Mr. William S. Forrest, entitled, ‘"The Great Pestilence in Virginia."’
Norfolk is now a city of much importance,
it is situated upon the Elizabeth river, as it widens out to the sea, eight miles from Hampton Roads, and thirty-five from the ocean. It has somewhere in the vicinity of fifteen thousand inhabitants, exclusive of the soldiers stationed near. The harbor is large, safe, easy of access, and defended by Craney Island, Sewell's Point, Fort Calhoun, and Fort Monroe.
I turn from the last words of this slight historical sketch to light a cigar, and listen to the rain beat against the window. All day long it has been wet and stormy, but with an occasional hour of fair weather.--One cannot always tramp for news, and stand at the street corners to catch the items of gossip which float on the current of public talk, and on such days, how better could ‘"your own"’ employ himself than in reading up in the old time records of the town in which he is a sojourner, and of learning what interest attaches to its olden associations. In a time when every day makes history of greater interest, people are apt to care little for the history of the past; but it some one looks over my task with pleasure I shall not feel these evening hours have been spent in vain. Bohemian.