Battle Of Petersburg, 25 April 1781--First Line Of Defense

QA-23

On 25 Apr. 1781, American Brig. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg formed his first line of 500 Virginia militia here to meet the British. The line extended along East Street from the Appomattox River to present-day Washington Street and consisted of two infantry regiments. Maj. Gen. William Phillips' 2,500-man army, including one Light Infantry battalion and the 76th and 80th Regiments of Foot, struck the Americans here. After several assaults and the deployment of four British cannon, the militia withdrew westward, through Blandford (then a separate town), across Lieutenant Run, and on to Madison Street in eastern Petersburg.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

John Banister, Lieutenant Colonel John Bannister to Theodorick Bland, 16 May 1781, Bland Papers, Collection of the Director of Tourism and Museums, The City of Petersburg, VA; Robert P. Davis, Where a Man Can Go: Major General William Phillips, British Royal Artillery, 1731-1781 (Westbrook, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1999); John Frederick Dorman, Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, Abstracted. 49 vols. (Washington and Falmouth, VA. 1958); Benson Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the American Revolution; or Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics and Traditions of the War for Independence (2 vols. New York: Harper and Bros, 1859); John E. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia: 1775–1783 (Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988); John Graves Simcoe, Simcoe’s Military Journal: A History of the Operations of a Partisan Corps, called The Queen’s Rangers (New York: Bartlett & Wellford, 1844); Edward A. Wyatt, IV, Along Petersburg Streets: Historic Sites and Buildings of Petersburg, Virginia (Richmond, Va.: Dietz Press, 1943).