Phillips Grave

Petersburg, Virginia

    William Phillips became a Major General in Burgoyne's ill fated army which surrendered in October 1777.  An artilleryman by training, during the taking of Ticonderoga he had famously said of the high ground dominating the place, "Where a goat can go, a man can go, and where a man can go, he can carry a gun."  Phillips was exchanged for Benjamin Lincoln in 1780 and was sent to Virginia.  After a fight at Petersburg, he died of typhoid fever, and the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold then assumed command of the British forces there.  Cornwallis's army soon arrived from North Carolina, however, and Arnold was sent back to New York.

    In order to prevent his body being dug up and mutilated, he was buried in an unmarked grave at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.  Although the exact site of his grave is still unknown, a monument has been erected next to the church in the general vicinity of his burial.

Back to Revolutionary War Virtual Battlefield Tours