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This article, for the "Skirmish at Water's Creek", is incorrect. The skirmish at Waters Creek was on 6 Jan 1781, during which a British landing party led by Naval (Marine) Lt Brown (credited as a "Captain" in the accounts) was caught leaving the Thomas farm in Warwick County, near the site of the present-day James River Country Club, by an American militia company led by Capt Edward Mallory. The initial engagement occurred at the crossing of Water's Creek. Water's Creek is now dammed to form "Lake Maury" near the Mariner' Museum in Newport News. After the initial engagement, of which there are several accounts, it became a running fight with the British retreating south towards their ship at Newport News and the Americans giving chase. During this retreat Lt Brown was critically wounded. His men left him and their plunder behind. Capt. Mallory arranged to have Lt Brown carried to Dr McClurg on King Street in Hampton. The wound was beyond McClurg's medical skill. Mallory then arranged for a flag of truce with the British for negotiation, with the agreement that the Americans would allow a British ship's surgeon to attend to Lt Brown in exchange for the release of a prisoner held aboard ship. That prisoner was Colonel Francis Mallory, the "County Lieutenant" and commander of the Elizabeth City County militia and brother of Capt. Edward Mallory. Sadly, Lt Brown succumbed to his wound almost two months later, almost the same day as the subsequent skirmish at Tompkins' Bridge (described below). During that time Capt. Mallory was particularly attentive to Lt Brown and the two developed a friendship that spanned their differences as battlefield enemies. Upon his death Lt Brown gave Capt. Edward Mallory his sword, which remains in the family through generations of descendants.

Frances Mallory was killed on 8 March 1781 during the skirmish at Tompkins Bridge (or Tompkins Ordinary, depending upon the account), where he attempted to thwart a 400-man raid led by British Colonel Dundas against the American militia muster point at the "Halfway House" between Hampton and Yorktown. The Halfway House was located near present-day Tabb High School, and Dundas was returning from the Halfway House along the route known today as "Big Bethel Road" headed to board ships at Newport News. The only bridge in 1775 over the stream that became current-day Big Bethel Reservoir was Tompkins Bridge, which formed a natural choke point for transiting the area, and the Revolutionary War skirmish was fought on the identical site of the Civil War battle of Big Bethel. Mallory's goal was to remove the planks from Tompkins bridge to force the British troops to delay long enough for reinforcements to arrive from what was then known as "Cockletown", near Howard's mill or present day Grafton. Unfortunately Mallory's militia arrived moments after the mounted detachment of Simcoe's Queens Rangers had already crossed the bridge. A battle ensued, Malloy with between 40-60 militia men against an experienced 400-man strong British Army force. The Americans initially held their ground, killing several British and wounding at least two Queen's Rangers officers. During a lull in the action, the messenger sent to alert American reinforcements arrived (Jacob Wray, of Hampton) to update Mallory. Wray urged Mallory to get on Wray's horse and flee, but Mallory refused the offer. The consultation revealed Mallory to the British, and he was deliberately targeted to the point that his vest (retained by the family) had at least 11 bullet and bayonet holes. He was so severely trampled by British cavalry that his pregnant wife, one of the first people on the scene after the battle, could not recognize him. Mallory was killed almost on his own farm, about 200 yards south of the bridge. He was buried a mile away in a cemetery on George Wythe's plantation, "Chesterville" (today known as the "Wilder Cemetery" located near the Chesterville site on the NASA facility adjacent to Langley AFB). Oddly enough, Mallory's grandson would command troops and engineer the Confederate earthworks protecting the other (north) side of the bridge at the Civil War Battle of Big Bethel in 1861. The child that Mary King Mallory was pregnant with, Charles Francis Mallory, grew up to become Lt Governor of Virginia during the War of 1812.

The citations listed for this article include correct works, but the interpretation has been jumbled. Its easy to do with similar names, brothers, and locations in relatively close proximity. A careful reading of the Virginia Historical Quarterly cited for this article will reveal the error. An excellent citation for this page would be the journal of Bartholomew James, the naval LT who was supposed to lead the Water's Creek raid but opted to carry a flag of truce to Hampton that day (in order to spend time with the Jones daughters, ahem). James later became, like his father before him, a prominent Admiral in the Royal Navy.

I have citations for all and would be happy to provide them to enable correction of this entry. GallagherJJDL (talk) 20:56, 28 October 2015 (UTC)