The Revolutionary War in Petersburg

On April 25, 1781, a British force of 2,500 soldiers under General William Phillips attacked Petersburg in hopes of capturing American military supplies there and eventually linking up with General Cornwallis’s army coming from the south. As Phillips approached the city, he was met by about 1,000 black and white American militia troops from Petersburg and the surrounding area under Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg. After delaying the British, Muhlenberg’s militia fell back in good order to a second defensive line a few hundred yards east and fought another delaying action. Anticipating the attack, Major General Frederick von Steuben had removed military supplies from Petersburg and adjacent counties and prepared defenses at a bridge north of the city linking it with Pocahontas. By the time the British pressed forward, the American militia had reached the bridge, supported by an artillery battery on Baker’s Hill in what is now Colonial Heights. The Americans fought fiercely at the south end of the bridge, and as the outnumbered force withdrew, they removed the plank flooring to hinder a British crossing of the river. By dark, the British controlled Petersburg and the Americans had withdrawn into Chesterfield County. The British burned some tobacco and a warehouse belonging to local merchants, then used Petersburg as a base for raids across much of Central Virginia while waiting for Cornwallis’s army. On May 10, American artillery under Major General Lafayette shelled the British in Petersburg from across the river while an American supply train and reinforcements crossed the Appomattox upriver toward American forces to the south. On May 13, 1781, Phillips died of fever at Bollingbrook, an estate of the Bolling family, and was buried at Blandford Cemetery. A few days later Cornwallis arrived and combined the British forces, then soon left Petersburg on his way to Yorktown and the eventual British surrender. During the War of 1812, in 1812–15, Petersburg’s militia company of about 75 men was armed, equipped, and trained for service after the United States government requisitioned 1,500 armed Virginia militia on September 1, 1812. The company marched to northern Ohio at the falls of the Maumee River, joined in building Fort Meigs, and in early May, during a British and Indian siege, distinguished itself on May 5, 1813, in the heaviest fighting of the siege. Along with other companies, the Petersburg militia left the fort, attacked a British artillery position, captured and spiked the guns, and drove the enemy into the forest. Seventeen Petersburg volunteers were wounded and three later died of their wounds. General William Henry Harrison commended their bravery. The company was discharged with ceremony and commendations at Detroit on October 17, 1813. President Madison later called Petersburg “The Cockade City of the Union” after seeing the Petersburg Volunteers return wearing hats with leather cockades or emblems. Petersburg residents also figured prominently in the war: General Winfield Scott commanded regular troops in campaigns in Canada and defeated the British in several engagements before later becoming chief of the United States Army, and Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Eustis distinguished himself in campaigns along the Canadian border.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States