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| Bermuda Hundred |
Yet another attack
in Virginia made in coordination with Grant's advance on Lee was an
expedition led by Major General Benjamin Butler which set out to move
by sea and threaten Richmond and cut Confederate supply lines. Butler
landed with his Army of the James at Bermuda Hundred on May 5th.
His first priority
was to establish a line of entrenchments across the Bermuda Neck, the
space between the Appomattox and James Rivers, so that the rebels
could not crush his army against the rivers. When he finished these
me made several excursions, but none in enough force to drive off the
Confederates guarding Richmond, Petersburg, or the railroad between
them. The Confederate commander in the area, P. G. T. Beauregard, had
scrambled to gather an army to meet him. The southern commanders
handled their men well. D. H. Hill, a good fighter who had lost his
command by quarreling with his commanders, volunteered to serve as a
volunteer aid in the emergency.
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| Butler |
Butler made
several movements to attack Drewry's Bluff, a key position on the
James River and on the Union path to Richmond, but he fumbled the
plans and it was the Confederates who attacked first instead.
Beauregard planned to hold Butler's forces at Drewry's bluff while
another column was sent to hit him from the flank. When this attack
was made 150 years ago today, when the flanking column hit light
resistance its commander, Chase Whiting, became flustered and
withdrew, and later turned over his command. Although Beauregard's
plan to bag Butler did not go off, Butler was so frightened by the
day's events that he withdrew to Bermuda Neck. There he remained for
some time, working on strengthening his entrenchments. Butler, by his
mistakes and incompetence, had been unable to make any use of the
opportunities before him, and had allowed himself to be corked at the
Bermuda Hundred by a force far smaller than his own.
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| Drewry's Bluff |
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