12/15/2025
Extreme Temps in Virginia, Historical Facts of Interest
Known as "The Hard Winter of 1779-1780", this winter was so cold that ice was said to have been piled 20 feet high along the Virginia Coast and stayed there until spring.
The upper portion of the Chesapeake Bay was frozen allowing people to walk from Annapolis to Kent Island, Maryland. The Virginia portion of the Bay was frozen nearly to the mouth.
All waterways (rivers) in Virginia were reported firm enough to support crossing of soldiers and in some cases, loaded wagons.
A soldier, Joseph Plumb Martin remembered “We were absolutely literally starved; – I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except for a little black birch bark which I gnawed off a stick of wood, if that can be called victuals. I saw several of the men roast their old shoes and eat them, and I was afterward informed by one of the officer’s waiters, that some of the officers killed and ate a favorite little dog that belonged to one of them.”
In March, a regiment of the Virginia Infantry marched from Falmouth to Fredericksburg. They were able to cross the Rappahannock River which had been frozen since the previous November.
