On 11/17/2010 we headed back to ODW Williamsburg Resort near Williamsburg, VA for 2 weeks. We visited Richmond National Battlefield Park Units of Cold Harbor, Gaines mill, Chickahominy Bluff, and Beaver Dam Creek on 11/20/2010. Cold Harbor is where Confederates blocked Grant’s path to Richmond VA by building six miles of strong entrenchments between Bethesda Church and the Chickahominy River. On June 1 and June 3, 1864, Union forces tested these defenses with massive, ill-conceived assaults. The June 3 fighting alone saw nearly 6,000 Federals being killed or wounded, most of them in one hour’s time. The picture is of Confederate Earthwork Fortification.
The picture is of Abigail on a Confederate’s Cannon at Cold Harbor.
Gaines’ Mill occurred on June 27, 1862, when Confederate infantry repeatedly assaulted the fortified Union line along boatswain Creek, about a mile from the mill. By nightfall both armies had suffered a combined total of over 15,000 casualties in the heaviest fighting of the Seven Days’ Battles. The Watt House was built about 1820 for the owner of a mid-sized plantation. The picture is of the Watt House.
Chickahominy Bluff is part of the outer Confederate line defending Richmond. Chickahominy Bluff offered a view of Mechanicsville and the Chickahominy River Valley. On the morning of June 26, 1862, more than 20,000 Confederate infantrymen gathered here prior to their advance across the Chickahominy River. Nearby on horseback sat General Robert E. Lee, watching and listening for the movement beyond the river signaling the opening of his offensive east of Richmond known as the Seven Days battles. The picture is taken from the top of the bluff looking towards the Chickahominy River and on to the Beaver Dam Creek area.
The Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, also known as the Battle of Mechanicsville or Ellerson’s Mill, took place on June 26, 1862, in Hanover County, Virginia, as the first major engagement of the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the start of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s counter-offensive against the Union Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, which threatened the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee attempted to turn the Union right flank, north of the Chickahominy River, with troops under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, but Jackson failed to arrive on time. Instead, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill threw his division, reinforced by one of Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill’s brigades, into a series of futile assaults against Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter’s V Corps, which occupied defensive works behind Beaver Dam Creek. Confederate attacks were driven back with heavy casualties. Porter withdrew his corps safely to Gaines Mill. The picture is of Beaver Dam Creek from a walk way bridge.
Then on 11/27/2010 we visited Richmond National Battlefield Park Units of Fort Harrison and Vicinity, Parker’s Battery, and Drewry Bluff (Fort Darling) and also Fort Stevens and Battery Dantzler. Named for Confederate engineer Lieutenant William Harrison. On September 29, 1864, roughly 2,500 Union infantry stormed and captured the fort. Fort Harrison was the only major Confederate fortification captured during the attack. The following fortification along the line that was not captured are Battery Alexander (the farthest north), Fort Gilmer, Fort Gregg, and Fort Johnson. Fort Hoke marks the deepest penetration of the Union attack south of Fort Harrison. Late on September 29, Federal troops captured the fort, only to abandon it shortly afterward while consolidating their position around Fort Harrison. This site became a crucial stronghold in the new Confederate line developed after the battle that connected Fort Hoke to Fort Johnson. Battery IV and Fort Brady was built by Union forces and Fort Brady kept Confederate gunboats bottled up to the north and anchored the Union line that extended to Fort Harrison and beyond. The Picture is of inside Fort Harrison.
The picture is of Abigail on a Cannon inside of Fort Harrison.
Parker’s men improved this earthen redoubt, referred to as a battery, so as to better protect their guns stationed behind its walls. Supporting infantry, from the 15th and 17th Virginia regiments, filled the adjacent trenches and manned the forward picket line. While their comrades engaged Grant’s legions around Petersburg, the men of Parker’s Battery spent the last months of the war in the relative calm that prevailed along this area of the Confederate defenses. With the collapse of the Confederate lines around Petersburg in early April 1865, the position here was vacated and the artillerists joined in the long march to Appomattox Court House. Having spent nearly 10 months in these entrenchments, almost one-fourth of their wartime service, the surviving members of Parker’s Battery came to view their experience here with some feelings of affection. The picture is of the Earthwork of Parker’s Battery from inside the Battery.
As capital of the newly formed Confederate States of America, Richmond, Virginia, became the constant target of northern armies. During the four years of the Civil War, Union generals made repeated attempts to capture the city by land. Richmond, however, was vulnerable by water as well as by land. Gunboats could navigate the James River all the way to Richmond. The key to the city’s river defenses lay in a small fort only seven miles south of the capital. Known throughout the south as Drewry’s Bluff, northern troops referred to it as Fort Darling. Drewry’s Bluff, named for local landowner Captain Augustus H. Drewry, rose 90 feet above the water and commanded a sharp bend in the James River, making it a logical site for defensive fortifications. On March 17,1862, the men of Captain Drewry’s Southside Artillery arrived at the bluff and began fortifying the area. They constructed earthworks, erected barracks, dug artillery emplacements, and mounted three large seacoast guns (one 10-inch Columbia and two 8-inch Columbias) in the fort. The picture is of a seacoast gun.
Built in 1862, Fort Stevens was part of the Confederate inter-defense line of Richmond. This fort was named for Col. W.H. Stevens, who was in charge of the construction of Richmond’s defenses. Most fortifications were built quickly and made of earth supported by logs. Because Fort Stevens did not immediately come under fire, it was built with a sandbag interior, making it more permanent. Not until May 14, 1864, was this strong position attacked. Two days later, it became the pivot point for the Confederate counterattack on Gen. Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James. During this time, Fort Stevens was occupied by the 27th South Carolina Infantry of Hagood’s Brigade and the four guns of the Surry Light Artillery of Surry County, Va. On the morning of May 16, the Surry Light Artillery was removed and put in support of the counterattack on Gen. Butler’s army. The picture is of the earthwork fort of Fort Stevens.
Battery Dantzler was constructed when the landing of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s Army of the James at Bermuda Hundred in May 1864 prompted the construction of this fortification. It was named Battery Dantzler in honor of Col. Olin Miller Dantzler, 22nd South Carolina Infantry, killed in action nearby. Battery Dantzler anchored the northern end of the Howlett Line of earthworks across the Bermuda Hundred peninsula from the James River south to the Appomattox River. The fort mounted two 20-pounder Parrott guns, two 7-inch Brooke rifles, two 8-inch smoothbore Columbias, and two 10-inch coastal mortars. Battery Dantzler dueled daily with Union gunboats and land batteries until April 2, 1865, when its garrison abandoned it to march westward with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The march ended a week later at Appomattox Court House. The picture is of a gun emplacement at Battery Dantzler.
We visited Richmond National Battlefield Park unit Glendale Malvern Hill on 11/28/2010. Glendale (Frayser’s Farm) is often identified as one of the Confederate army’s great lost opportunities. This battle was the next to last of the Seven Days battles. With the Union army in full retreat toward the James River in the face of Lee’s offensive, the Southern army set its sights on the critical intersection at Riddle’s Shop, often called Glendale and sometimes referred to as Charles City Crossroads. Most of the Union army would have to funnel through that bottleneck on its way to the river. In the bitter fighting—some of it with bayonets and clubbed rifles—the Confederates captured more than a dozen cannon and were able to push to the edge of the old Frayser Farm, within sight of the road leading south from the intersection to the James River. But they could go no farther. The intersection remained open, and the Union army retreated safely on the night of the 30th. The Seven Days battles ended with a tremendous roar at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. The contending armies collided for the final time that week on ground that gave an immense advantage to the defenders—in this case McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. With the security of the James River and the powerful United States Navy at his back, McClellan elected to stop and invite battle. The Confederates, elated by their victories but frustrated by their inability to achieve truly decisive battlefield results, obliged McClellan by attacking Malvern Hill. General Lee recognized the power of Malvern Hill. In tandem with James Longstreet, one of his top subordinates, Lee devised a plan where Confederate artillery would attempt to seize control of Malvern Hill by suppressing the Union cannon there. Lee believed his infantry could assault and carry the position if they did not have to contend with the fearsome Union batteries. The Confederate bombardment failed, but Lee’s infantry attacked anyway, thrown into the charge after a series of misunderstandings and bungled orders. Lee himself was absent when the heaviest fighting erupted. He was away looking for any alternate route that would allow him to bypass Malvern Hill. But once the attack started, Lee threw his men into the fray. Some twenty separate brigades of Southern infantry advanced across the open ground at different times. As the Confederate leaders had feared, the Federal batteries proved dominant. Most attacks sputtered and stalled well short of the hill’s crest. The picture is of a Union Fieldpiece.
