Battle Of Petersburg, 25 April 1781--Flanking Movement

QA-24

About midday on 25 April 1781, Maj. Gen. William Phillips discovered that the right flank of the American militia, on the edge of Blandford was vulnerable to attack from the south and rear. He ordered Lt. Col. John Simcoe's Queen's Rangers and a Light Infantry battalion to the south and west on a wide sweep around the flank to attack the Virginians from the rear. Simcoe took this nearby route (now Graham Road) between present-day Crater Road and Sycamore Street, thus moving his large force behind the American line undetected. When Simcoe reached the high ground overlooking Petersburg, the Americans were already retreating.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

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).