were the neighboring smaller works of Forts
Johnson, Gregg, and Gilmer. One mile to
the southeast was another, larger work
called Fort Hoke. Work had just started on
more entrenchments that would stretch
down to Signal Hill.
Stannard, receiving a message from
Burnham that he was in front of the Rebel
works, ordered an immediate attack. Fort
Harrison presented a formidable appear-
ance, but with hundreds of its men out of
the way at Signal Hill, the fort and the sur-
rounding works were defended by only
800 troops. Major Richard C. Taylor of
Maury’s artillery battalion found himself
in command of the beleaguered strong-
hold. He had nine guns inside the fort; the
others were in adjoining works. A mere
four guns in the fort were operable, as the
others had been spiked or were out of
repair. Only three dozen gunners in Lieu-
tenant John Guerrand’s Goochland
Artillery were on hand to service them.
Burnham’s men left the Varina Road and
stepped onto a plowed field. They covered
1,400 yards across the field while exposed
to a plunging artillery fire that was, one
soldier reported, “galling in the extreme.”
Burnham’s men halted at the base of the
slope in front of the Rebel works. Spotting
Confederate reinforcements moving in
from his right (possibly some of the men
driven out of the New Market Heights
line), Stannard ordered an immediate
charge. His troops poured over the para-
pet and placed their flag on Fort Harrison.
Captain Cecil Clay of the 58th Pennsylva-
nia was one of the Federals charging into
Fort Harrison. A Confederate knocked
down Clay’s first sergeant with a fuse ham-
mer, a wooden mallet used by gunners to
drive fuses into shells. The sergeant angrily
jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “Damn
a man who would use anything like that
for a weapon!”
Inside the fort the Confederate defense
disintegrated. Among the 50 men taken
prisoner were Major Taylor and Lt. Col.
John Minor Maury, who had arrived at the
scene too late to affect the outcome of the
surprise attack. Many others fled,
although some held on until the last sec-ond. Private Rock of the Goochland
Artillery remembered Taylor ordering
them to cram a double load into one of the
fort’s Columbiads for a final devastating
shot at the enemy. Colonel John M. Hughs
of the 25th Tennessee had commanded
some of the pickets who were driven in by
Stannard’s Spencer repeaters. As the Fed-
erals swept toward the walls, he rode his
horse out over the drawbridge that crossed
the exterior ditch at the north end of the
fort. Hughs emptied his revolver at the
approaching Yankees, rode back into the
fort, and escaped.
By 7 AM, Fort Harrison was in Union
hands. Brief and inefficient though the
Confederate resistance was, Stannard’s
division still suffered 500 casualties before
the fort fell. The few guns captured in
working order were dragged around to fire
on the retreating Rebels. Burnham pitched
in to help aim one of the captured pieces.
While at the gun he was struck down by a
musket ball and died within moments.
About this time Ewell rode onto the
scene ahead of the first reinforcements.
Corporal Charles Johnston of the Salem
Artillery remembered the general’s desper-
ate efforts to halt the Confederate rout.
Ewell, said Johnston, “was with the skir-
mish line, constantly encouraging them byhis presence and coolness. I remember very
distinctly how he looked, mounted on an
old gray horse, as mad as he could be,
shouting to the men, and seeming to be
everywhere at once.” The ground just west
of Fort Harrison was covered with woods,
and Ewell scraped together a handful of
men. Soldiers, stragglers, and teamsters
made a noisy show of firing at the Union
soldiers in the fort.
Union attention shifted south to the
trenches running down to the James. Ord
could only assemble a small attacking
party of skirmishers and officers. Leading
the assault himself, Ord drove the scat-
tered Confederate defenders out of the
breastworks to Fort Hoke. The main force
there was Captain Cornelius Allen’s
Lunenburg Heavy Artillery. Joined by
stray infantrymen and reservists, they
repelled the Union advance. Ord fell, badly
wounded in the leg. With a tourniquet
applied to stop the bleeding, he stayed in
command until a surgeon demanded that
he leave the front. Ord turned over com-
mand to Brig. Gen. Charles A. Heckman.
Ewell’s first substantial help came from
the Confederate Navy’s James River
Squadron. By 8 AM, a naval battery com-
mander notified Commander Thomas R.
Rootes about the Union attacks. RootesA well turned out Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Troops, musters in for a group photograph following
its combat at Chaffin’s Farm.Both: Library of CongressCWQ-EW16 Chaffins Bluff *missing map_Layout 1 10/22/15 2:01 PM Page 24