Sketch of the Action at Osburns, April 27th 1781

This military map appeared in British commander John Graves Simcoe’s Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers (1787). It shows one of the British naval raids in spring 1781, which resulted in the destruction of most of the Virginia Navy. On April 27, 1781, according to Simcoe’s journal, British and Hessian forces fired on the American frigate Tempest in the James River, eventually forcing its crew to surrender. When the British boarded the ship and turned it toward other American vessels, they found that the Virginians were already burning and scuttling the rest of their small fleet to avoid it being commandeered. This map shows British troop and cannon locations as well as the exploding and sinking Virginia fleet.