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Chapter 12: operations against Richmond.


While Meade and Lee were struggling in the vicinity of the Rapid Anna, General Butler, then in command of the Army of the James, was co-operating with the Army of the Potomac in accordance with a plan which he had proposed to the General-in-Chief, and which that officer had approved. That plan contemplated a vigorous movement against Richmond on the south side of the James River, the first objective being City Point, at the mouth of the Appomattox River. Grant issued
April 2, 1864.
orders accordingly, and directed General Butler to move simultaneously with Meade.

Butler was well prepared for the execution of his part of the plan, when, at the beginning of May, he received orders to advance. His effective force was about forty thousand men, and was composed chiefly of the Eighteenth Army Corps, commanded by General W. F. Smith, and the Tenth Army Corps, which had lately been ordered from South Carolina, led by General Gillmore, who arrived at Fortress Monroe on the 3d of May.

Butler's first care was to mislead the Confederates concerning his intentions. For that purpose he first sent

May 1.
Henry's brigade of New York troops to West Point, at the head of York River, to begin the construction of wharves,

Confederate defenses between Hampton and Williamsburg.

while cavalry made a demonstration in the direction of Richmond. He also sent the bulk of his army in that direction as far as the old lines of McClellan1 at Yorktown and Gloucester Point; and so successful was the

1 For an account of the operations of McClellan between Fortress Monroe and Williamsburg, see Chapters. XIV. and XV., volume II. The route from Hampton; the fortifications at Big Bethel, and in the vicinity of Yorktown and Williamsburg, are indicated in the little map on this page.

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