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Chaffin's Bluff is located in Henrico County, Virginia, United States, on the north side of the James River, opposite Drewry's Bluff, long-considered a major defense point of the river below Richmond. Located at a major bend in the river about eight miles south of Richmond, both bluffs were fortified by the Confederates early in the American Civil War.
A Union attempt to take Richmond by water by the ironclad USS Monitor and other Union warships during the Peninsula Campaign failed to get past the defenses at this location during the Battle of Drewry's Bluff on May 15, 1862.
Chaffin's Bluff and Chaffin's Farm (later renamed Fort Harrison) were adjacent to each other.
On August 15, 1864, the Federal expedition to Chaffin's Bluff and the capital's defenses was delayed and frustrated by Confederate forces. [1] On September 30, 1864, there was another battle at Fort Harrison or Chaffin's Farm, Virginia. General Robert E. Lee had lost Fort Harrison the previous day, and led a strong counterattack, but was beaten off by the Federal forces. The battle ended major Federal attempts against Richmond from north of the James River, and the Confederates constructed new outer works between the Fort Harrison line and Richmond, while the Federals built and manned siege lines east of the Confederate capital. [1]
On a map included in Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, published in 1881 by Jefferson Davis, president of the late Confederate States, Chaffin's Bluff was marked as "Chapin Bluff", 8.5 miles down the James River from Richmond.
Drewry's Bluff is part of the Fort Darling unit of the Richmond National Battlefield Park.
In modern times, singer and businessman Jimmy Dean and his wife Donna Meade Dean made their home at Chaffin's Bluff, located on private property on the Henrico County side of the river. Dean died at his home there on June 13, 2010.
The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC) was a branch of the Confederate States armed forces during the American Civil War. It was established by an act of the Confederate Congress on March 16, 1861. The CSMC's manpower was initially authorized at 45 officers and 944 enlisted men, and was increased on September 24, 1862 to 1,026 enlisted men. The organization of the corps began at Montgomery, Alabama, and was completed at Richmond, Virginia, when the capital of the Confederate States was moved to that location. The CSMC headquarters and main training facilities remained in Richmond, Virginia throughout the war, located at Camp Beall on Drewry's Bluff and at the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The last CSMC unit surrendered to the United States on April 9, 1865, with the Confederacy itself capitulating to the U.S. a month later.
CSSRichmond, an ironclad ram, was built for use in the American Civil War at Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard to the design of John L. Porter with money and scrap iron collected by the citizens of Virginia, whose imagination had been captured by the ironclad CSS Virginia. Consequently, she was sometimes referred to as Virginia II, Virginia No. 2 or Young Virginia in the South and as Merrimack No. 2, New Merrimack or Young Merrimack by Union writers, months before the actual CSS Virginia II was ever laid down.
The Battle of Drewry's Bluff, also known as the Battle of Fort Darling, or Fort Drewry, took place on May 15, 1862, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Four Union Navy warships, including the ironclads USS Monitor and Galena, and the United States Revenue Cutter Service's ironclad USRC Naugatuck steamed up the James River to test the defenses of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. They encountered submerged obstacles, and deadly accurate fire from the batteries of Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff, which inflicted severe damage on Galena, forcing them to turn back.
Drewry's Bluff is located in northeastern Chesterfield County, Virginia in the United States. It was the site of Confederate Fort Darling during the American Civil War. It was named for a local landowner, Confederate Captain Augustus H. Drewry.
Fort Darling was a Confederate military installation during the American Civil War located at Drewry's Bluff, a high point of 80–100 feet overlooking a bend in the James River south of Richmond in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It protected the Confederate capital of Richmond from Union naval attacks throughout most of the war.
The Army of the James was a Union Army that was composed of units from the Department of Virginia and North Carolina and served along the James River during the final operations of the American Civil War in Virginia.
The Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, also known as Laurel Hill and combats at Forts Harrison, Johnson, and Gilmer, was fought in Virginia on September 29–30, 1864, as part of the siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War.
The Bermuda Hundred campaign was a series of battles fought at the town of Bermuda Hundred, outside Richmond, Virginia, during May 1864 in the American Civil War. Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, commanding the Army of the James, threatened Richmond from the east but was stopped by forces under Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard.
The Richmond National Battlefield Park commemorates 13 American Civil War sites around Richmond, Virginia, which served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for most of the war. The park connects certain features within the city with defensive fortifications and battle sites around it.
The Battle of Proctor's Creek -- also referred to as Drewry's Bluff or Fort Darling -- was fought from May 12 to May 16, 1864, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign of the American Civil War. Proctor's Creek was named for Charles Proctor, who lived and farmed on the land surrounding most of the creek.
Fort Harrison National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located seven miles (11 km) south of the city of Richmond, in Henrico County, Virginia. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, It encompasses 1.5 acres (0.61 ha), and as of the end of 2005, had 1,570 interments.
The James River Squadron was formed shortly after the secession of Virginia during the American Civil War. The squadron was part of the Virginia Navy before being transferred to the Confederate States Navy. The squadron is most notable for its role in patrolling the James River, which was the main water approach to the Confederate capital, Richmond. It had two phases: early war, when it consisted mostly of wooden ships which ended with the Battle of Drewry's Bluff on May 15, 1862; and its later ironclad composition with the flagship CSS Virginia II.
The First Battle of Deep Bottom, also known as Darbytown, Strawberry Plains, New Market Road, or Gravel Hill, was fought July 27–29, 1864, at Deep Bottom in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Siege of Petersburg of the American Civil War. A Union force under Maj. Gens. Winfield S. Hancock and Philip H. Sheridan was sent on an expedition threatening Richmond, Virginia, and its railroads, intending to attract Confederate troops away from the Petersburg defensive line, in anticipation of the upcoming Battle of the Crater. The Union infantry and cavalry force was unable to break through the Confederate fortifications at Bailey's Creek and Fussell's Mill and was withdrawn, but it achieved its desired effect of momentarily reducing Confederate strength at Petersburg.
The Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads was an engagement between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War, which took place on October 7, 1864, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
The 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment was an African American regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War. A part of the United States Colored Troops, the regiment saw action in Virginia as part of the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign and in North Carolina, where it participated in the attacks on Fort Fisher and Wilmington and the Carolinas Campaign.
Fort Harrison, later renamed Fort Burnham, was an important component of the Confederate defenses of Richmond during the American Civil War. Named after Lieutenant William Harrison, a Confederate engineer, it was the largest in the series of fortifications that extended from New Market Road to the James River that also included Forts Brady, Hoke, Johnson, Gregg, and Gilmer. These earthworks were designed to protect the strategically important Chaffin's Bluff on the James.
The 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Trent's Reach was one of the final major naval battles of the American Civil War. Beginning on January 23, 1865, a powerful flotilla of Confederate warships bombarded Fort Brady along the James River and engaged four Union Navy ships with the intention of breaking through the blockade to attack City Point, the base of General Ulysses S. Grant who was besieging Petersburg, Virginia. After two days of fighting, the rebels withdrew back up the river without completing their objectives.
Bellwood, also known at various times over the past two centuries as Sheffield, New Oxford, Auburn Chase, and currently as Defense Supply Center Richmond Officers' Club-Building 42, is a historic plantation house located south of Richmond in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
The 21st Connecticut Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.