Battle of Blandford - Battle

Battle

Shortly before sunset on 24 April, Phillips landed a force of 2,500 British and Hessian soldiers at City Point (now Hopewell), 12 miles (19 km) east of Petersburg. As morning dawned the next day, four regiments of Muhlenberg's Virginia militia infantry formed two lines of defense and awaited the British force. The first line was composed of the regiments of Thomas Merriweather and John Dick, with Merriweather's anchoring the left of the line at the river, and Dick's the right, extending into the hills south of Blandford. The second line, which was to form the main line of defense after the first one fell back, consisted of Ralph Faulkner's regiment on the left, and John Slaughter's on the right. The line extended along what is today Madison Street in Petersburg, from a causeway and bridge across the Lieutenant Run, a creek separating Petersburg and Blandford. The line was positioned to maximize the exposure of British troops to gunfire as they approached. Von Steuben also placed one regiment on the north shore of the Appomattox River to guarding against the possibility that the British landed on that side of the river. He also positioned a small reserve force at the southern end of the Pocahontas Bridge, and Muhlenberg sent a company of Slaughter's men down the north bank to provide advance warning as the British approached.

The British set out around 10 that morning, marching along the River Road toward Petersburg. Phillips' command consisted of the 78th and 80th Regiments of Foot, John Graves Simcoe's corps of Loyalist Queen's Rangers, Arnold's American Legion, a force of Hessian jägers, and two battalions of light infantry. Phillips had originally planned a circuitous route in order to go after military stores at the Prince George County courthouse, but reconnaissance reported these had already been removed by the Americans, so Phillips marched directly for Petersburg. Eleven lightly armed gunboats accompanied the force up the Appomattox, carrying men and supplies.

The battle was preceded by an exchange of fire between the British gunboats and the American advance reconnaissance. Around 2:00 pm Phillips halted his column, then about one mile (1.6 km) from the American lines, and organized his forces for battle. On his right, Colonel Robert Abercrombie was to lead a battalion of light infantry and the company of 50 jägers along the river to drive the American left back to the Pocahontas Bridge. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas was to lead the 78th and 80th Foot to attempt a flanking maneuver against the American right, and Phillips held the second light infantry battalion and the Loyalist units of Simcoe and Arnold in reserve. He also held in reserve the four small guns the expedition had brought.

As the British forces advanced on the American line, Phillips and Abercrombie noticed that one enterprising company of Virginia militia had established a position on a hill that provided them with an excellent opportunity to enfilade the British line. Abercrombie sent the jägers to flush them out. The lines then closed, and the action became general. The first line of militia put up stiffer resistance than the British anticipated. The British artillery, and the strength of numbers that threatened to flank their position convinced the first militia line to retreat to the second after half an hour of resistance. Phillips also detached Simcoe and his rangers on a lengthy and roundabout flanking maneuver intended to prevent the Americans from retreating across the Pocahontas Bridge. While Simcoe moved, Phillips made two assaults on the second militia line, both of which were repulsed. It was not until the British artillery was in position to rake the American line more than an hour later that von Steuben finally ordered the retreat. The Americans were eventually able to make an orderly retreat across the bridge, covered by the men placed on the high ground above the far side of the bridge. The last companies across took up the bridge planking as they went, in order to delay pursuit (an act which later earned them the praise of contemporaries such as Thomas Jefferson, General Nathanael Greene, and others).

Pausing on the heights near Violet Bank (in present-day Colonial Heights), the Americans engaged in an artillery duel with the British forces on the opposite bank, with further losses on both sides. After being replenished with a supply of rum, the weary militia then continued its northward retreat, reaching Chesterfield Courthouse the following day—just as the British force was crossing the Appomattox, destroying three more bridges behind them.