Battle of Petersburg

As the Southern campaign waged on in 1780-1, George Washington sent the Major-General Baron von Steuben and General Peter Muhlenberg to command forces in Virginia. Their troops, about 1000 militiamen, were exhausted, ill-clothed, unpaid and undertrained. Simultaneously, Brigadier-General Benedict Arnolds, who recently defected to the British side, brought over a force of 2000 men to occupy Portsmouth. Despite several skirmish attempts, Muhlenberg was unable to draw Arnolds out of his fortifications. With the arrival of General William Phillips in March, the British were ready for action. 

On April 16, Phillips and Arnolds began moving troops along the James River towards Petersburg, a crucial military supply hub. Landing in City Point, the 2500 British regulars marched towards the critical city. Muhlenberg’s forces of 1000 militiamen intercepted them a mile out from Petersburg in adjacent Blandford (also spelled Blanford) on April 25. The battle focused on access to the Pocahontas Bridge, the main bridge over the Appomattox River, leading from Petersburg to Richmond. Phillips deployed the 80^th and 76^th Regiments to flank the Americans on the left and the 2^nd Battalion of Light Infantry to its right. John Graves Simcoe and his Loyalist Queen’s Rangers were tasked with getting behind Muhlenberg, encircling his troops. Muhlenberg ordered his first line to retreat, temporarily trapping the British in the valley between Blandford and Petersburg. Combined pressure from Simcoe and the artillery, along with quickly diminishing supply, forced the Americans to retreat over the Pocahontas bridge, destroying it in the process and stemming any British advance. Regrouping in Richmond, Steuben and Muhlenberg were joined the next day by Continental forces under the Marquis de Lafayette. 

In total, about 100 Americans and 60 British soldiers died during the three-hour battle. Despite losing the battle, they slowed the British down for the first time in months, raising moral.  

The British reached Petersburg, burned all the tobacco and remaining military supplies and, after crossing the Appomattox two days later, Steuben’s headquarters. Advancing towards Richmond, Phillips turned back around after orders on May 7 to meet Cornwallis’ troops, coming up from North Carolina, back in Petersburg. Sick with typhoid, Phillips died on May 13, a week before Cornwallis arrived. Lafayette fled Richmond, commencing a brief chase by Cornwallis who, after a brief capture of the city, retired with his forces back to Portsmouth, and eventually on August 1, to Yorktown.