Aug. 15, 1864. |
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| Battery near Dutch Gap.1 |
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south side for the purpose, would favor the contemplated movement of Meade's army against the right flank of the Confederates at Petersburg.
And so the enterprise promised success for the Nationals, at one end of the line at least.
Birney was to cross the river at Deep Bottom, and Ord at Aiken's Landing, eight miles above.
Both were to be on the north side of the river, and ready to advance rapidly at daybreak on the morning of the 29th of September.
Birney was to capture the Confederate works in front of Deep Bottom, and gain the New Market road; and Ord was to capture the works near Chapin's Bluff, and destroy Lee's pontoon bridge across the river there.
Then the two corps were to press on rapidly toward Richmond.
Already a strong party of colored soldiers had been set to work
by General Butler, on the north side of the James, under cover of a battery on that side mounting 100-pounder Parrott guns, in digging a canal across the narrow isthmus of a peninsula, formed by a sharp bend in the river, called Farrar's Island.
By this canal it was intended to secure a nearer base of operations against Richmond, and afford a passage for the National war vessels, by which they might flank several important works of the Confederates, and avoid formidable obstructions in the river around that bend of six or seven miles.
One of the most important of these works was on a hill on the right bank of the James, near the dwelling of Dr. Howlett, and known as the Howlett House Battery.
During the period of about one hundred and forty days, while troops were engaged in the excavation of the canal, this battery annoyed the workmen by throwing a shell in that direction once in every hour or two, by which quite a number were killed or wounded.
To avoid this danger as much as possible, they excavated the high alluvial bank of the James, and there built their huts to dwell in, and to use as a shelter from the missiles of the foe.2 The work on the canal was considerably advanced when the enterprise we are now considering was undertaken.
1 this shows the interior of the Battery, as it appeared when the writer visited it, at the close of December, 1864. it was a powerful work, called Fort Brady. The picture shows one of the embrasures, with a 100-pounder Parrott gun.
2 This canal was finished at the close of December, 1864, with the exception of blowing out the bulkhead of earth, which had been left on the upper side, to keep out the water. It was five hundred yards in length, 60 feet in width at the top, and 60 feet below the surface of the. bluff. It was excavated 15 feet below high water mark. On New Years day (1865) a mine of 12,000 pounds of gunpowder was exploded under the bulkhead, and the water rushed through, but not in sufficient depth for practical purposes, for the mass of the bulkhead, a part of it blue clay, fell back into the opening after the explosion. That opening being now swept by Confederate cannon, the channel could not be dredged. As an engineering operation for the improvement of the river navigation, it was a success; as a military operation it was a failure. The work was done under the direction of Major Peter S. Michie, Acting Chief-Engineer of the Army of the James.
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