too late to save Fort Harrison. The next
few hours would show whether or not he
was too late to save Richmond itself.
The Union’s tightening siege of Rich-
mond and Petersburg was the focal point
of the war in Virginia in late 1864. With
Ulysses S. Grant in command of the Army
of the Potomac, a series of Union offen-
sives kept unrelenting pressure on the Con-
federate lines. Four separate offensives
launched by Grant had failed to break
through to the enemy capital, but each had
forced General Robert E. Lee to lengthen
his defenses and dilute troop strength to
man the new sections. If the protective
bubble burst anywhere around Richmond
or Petersburg, the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia could not hold the capital of the Con-
federacy.
Grant planned a fifth major push for late
September 1864. The new plan envisioned
two simultaneous attacks: Maj. Gen. Ben-
jamin F. Butler’s Army of the James would
move directly against Richmond, while
Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Army
of the Potomac would attack the Petersburg
defenses. With Petersburg under direct
threat, Confederate troops could not be
spared to counter Butler’s operations. This
left Butler with a chance of piercing the
enemy defenses and sending several thou-
sand troops into Richmond before the rest
of the Union Army could pour in. If Butler
failed, there was still a chance that he would
create enough of a distraction that the Army
of the Potomac could break through the
protective shield around Petersburg and
seize the vital Southside Railroad. Closing
that line would make supplying Petersburg
by rail almost impossible. Without Peters-
burg, the defense of Richmond would
crumble anyway, and Lee would be forced
to abandon the capital.
The Union commander tasked with seiz-
ing Richmond was one of the Civil War’s
most controversial and contradictory gen-
erals. Butler, a politician and lawyer by
training, burst on the military scene at the
start of the war, ramming through seces-
sionist obstruction in Baltimore to bring
the 8th Massachusetts to Washington to
protect the nearly defenseless capital. Likemany political generals, he had led his
share of disasters, starting with the embar-
rassing Union loss at the Battle of Big
Bethel, Virginia, on June 10, 1861. As mil-
itary governor of New Orleans, he had
outraged Confederates with his harsh
treatment of secessionist dissenters, par-
ticularly women, and he was also accused
of corruption and theft.
Butler’s most positive contributions to
the Union were his respect for and consid-
erate treatment of freed slaves. Early in the
war, slaves who escaped from Confederate
owners into the Union lines were handed
back. Butler declared that such escapees
from disloyal masters were “contraband of
war” and would not be returned to captiv-
ity. His policy was soon adopted by all
Union authorities. Butler also promoted the
enlistment of black troops during his time
in Louisiana. In 1863, he was transferred to
Virginia and given command of the two
corps comprising the Army of the James.
His troops by 1864 included an African
American division commanded by Brig.
Gen. Charles J. Paine in XVIII Corps and
a black brigade of X Corps under Brig.
Gen. William Birney.
Union attacks against Richmond had
come from the east since the Peninsular
Campaign of 1862. Confederates aug-
mented the natural defenses of swamps
and creeks in Henrico County east of the
city by building an increasingly complex
network of earthworks studded with bat-
teries and forts. Eventually the works
extended south to envelop the city of
Petersburg and the rail connections that
linked that point with Richmond and the
rest of the Confederacy. Many miles of
defenses protected Richmond, but there
were not enough troops to man them effec-
tively. In September 1864, with anticipa-
tion of an attack at Petersburg, the Rich-
mond sector was drained of manpower.
In preparing his portion of Grant’s fifth
offensive, Butler carried out his work in
unusually effective secrecy. No one outside
of the highest levels suspected anything
was planned until his troops were sur-
prised with orders to move out on the
night of September 28. For his part, Maj.TOP: Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler outside
his tent near Richmond. MIDDLE: Confederate
Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell. ABOVE: Union Brig.
Gen. William Birney, left, and Confederate Maj.
Richard C. Taylor.All: Library of CongressCWQ-EW16 Chaffins Bluff *missing map_Layout 1 10/22/15 2:01 PM Page 20