With all the signage and monuments that are embraced by Great Bridge Battlefield Park, visitors might think that the park speaks for itself. Master docent Jeff Kendle would respectfully disagree. His walks provide insights that often go unnoticed by the casual visitor.
Under the auspices of the Great Bridge Battlefield Museum and the Chesapeake Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Kendle conducts frequent battlefield walks at the Great Bridge park.
Kendle’s enthusiasm for the park and its related history is unmistakable, and contagious. His docent duties involve accompanying visitors through the museum and leading them on short battlefield treks. As a master docent, Kendle also contributes to educating and training docent candidates for the museum.
Although his Great Bridge Battlefield Park walk lasts for an hour and covers less than a mile (0.7 miles), Kendle’s knowledge of the site gives his guests the impression that he could continue indefinitely on the subject of the Battle of Great Bridge.
The walk begins in the parking lot adjacent to the Great Bridge Museum. Kendle introduces himself to his guests and briefs them on the geography and demographics of Great Bridge. He summarizes the circumstances that led up to political tension in 1775: French and Indian War, British war debt, and the British imposition of taxes on the colonists of Virginia.
Kendle’s first stop is at the overlook near the Elizabeth River. Visitors view the Elizabeth River and adjoining swamp as it was at the time of the Battle of Great Bridge on Dec. 9, 1775, and begin to appreciate the terrain that impeded the British attack on Patriot forces.
Midway through his battlefield walk, Kendle leads his entourage across the recreated causeway built on a grid of massive timbers and paved with crushed oyster shells.
For Kendall, the causeway stop embraces the very heart of his tour. He stands upon the exact spot where British soldiers were first fired upon by Patriot riflemen before the British troops were decimated by a deadly barrage of muskets from the Patriot breastworks. Kendle employs current anachronisms to orient his followers.
“We believe that the patriot breastworks were across the causeway near where the current bridge tower is today. The western breastworks were where the old fire station, Marines Corps Reserve building is today, 200 yards off the causeway,” Kendle said. “As you walk down this causeway that comes perpendicular to the British right flank. This is the exact spot where the British fired on from that breastwork. They were standing right here, we believe, when they were fired upon. This is the left side of the causeway from the bridge perspective.”
Kendle concludes his tour in the shadow of the 24-foot granite monument erected by the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution that commemorates the Battle of Great Bridge.
He notes the significance of the details carved in stone on the monument and on the two concentric circles of the granite blocks that surround the obelisk itself.
“Around the outer ring, these are the names of the Virginia counties that supported the Battle of Great Bridge with militia,” Kendle said. “The counties named in the inner circle are the counties of the Culpeper Minutemen. Of course, Norfolk County (now the city of Chesapeake) is inscribed on the monument itself.”
When Kendle isn’t leading battlefield walks or responding to questions from museum visitors, he’s doing related research and contributing to the training of new museum docents.
“Jeff’s knowledge and enthusiasm for this history contributes so much to the visitor experience,” said Elizabeth Goodwin, executive director the Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways History Foundation. “We’re truly honored to have him as part of our docent group that helps give tours to the visitors here in Chesapeake.”
More information about Kendle’s walks can be found on the foundation’s website at gbbattlefield.org.
