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

QA-25

On 25 Apr. 1781, American Brig. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg's Virginia militia fell back west from Blandford, under heavy British fire, to a prepared line of defense here along the crest of this hill. This second line of Virginia militia, consisting of four regiments of infantry, extended from the Appomattox River on the north and present-day Washington Street to the south of here. The Virginians repelled several British assaults, but soon their ammunition ran low and, after Maj. Gen. William Phillips unleashed his artillery, Maj. Gen. Friedrich von Steuben, the overall American commander, ordered a retreat west toward the Pocahontas Bridge.

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).