The Virginia in the Civil War Message Board

Deep Bottom and Signal Hill

AUGUST 16 1864

Although the day's major actions were over, a sideshow was about to take place, well to the south and west of the important fighting. Now that Federal action could no longer help hold the captured trenches, Beast Butler was about to mount two attacks at Deep Bottom and Dutch Gap.

During the Union attack at Fussell's Mills, the Confederate right flank was dangerously weakened. The ground west of Four Mile Creek was defended by three of General Bratton's regiments and about 1000 other soldiers - detachments of Scales' and Thomas' Brigades, (Wilcox's Division, III Corps), plus Hughes tiny Tennessee Brigade and the Richmond City Battalion.

Early on the 16th, Grant ordered Butler to send a force of about 1000 men from Dutch Gap to threaten Chaffin's Farm and thus compel the Confederates to retreat abandon their line at New Market Heights. 279

Butler devised a workable plan: He would assemble all the troops he could spare at Dutch Gap, ferry them to the B. Aiken Farm and cover their landing with the guns of the Union navy. The Federals would turn the Confederate left and seize Signal Hill. Major Ludlow of Butler's staff would command the contingent which would silence the Confederate battery at Cox's House with a 100 pound artillery piece brought along for the job.280

At the same time, Col. Wooster of the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry, commanding the garrison at Deep Bottom, would divert attention from the landing by advancing a strong skirmish line three miles to the east when he heard the sound of Ludlow's artillery. Wooster was to move up the Kingsland Road to its junction with Three Mile Creek near the Buffin House, thus threatening the Confederate left west of Four Mile Creek. Butler cautioned Wooster not to advance beyond the left flank of Hancock's Corps east of Four Mile Creek.281

Anticipating that the ironclads of the Confederate James River Squadron would fire on the Dutch Gap contingent, Butler ordered Brig. Gen. Turner, commanding the troops on Bermuda Hundred, to prepare the Dutch Gap batteries to open fire on the ironclads and the Howlett House if the need arose. The Union batteries consisted of the Curtis House, Crow's Nest and Water Batteries.282

At about 5 p.m. Major Ludlow's contingent of 950 men (soldiers from the 4th and 6th USCT) boarded the steamer Mount Washington. Escorted by the monitor Onondaga and the ships Delaware, Mackinaw and Canonicus, the Washington disembarked them at the Aiken House, 3/4 of a mile downstream from Dutch Gap.283 When the Federals began advancing, all five Union vessels opened a heavy covering fire on the Confederate earthworks at Cox's Farm and the Signal Hill Battery. 284

Driving back Johnson's Tennessee Brigade, Ludlow captured Signal Hill and occupied the Confederate trenches, his left resting on Cox's House and his right on a point ½ mile northeast in the direction of Three Mile Creek. A large part of the Confederate trenches to the right were unoccupied, but Ludlow lacked the number of men required to picket them. Federal losses were light.285

At the sound of Ludlow's guns, Col. Wooster advanced from Deep Bottom, anchoring his right on a ravine that extended from Four Mile Creek. His goal was the junction of the Kingsland Road and Three Mile Creek near the Ruffin House. His cavalry moved forward on his left.

Wooster met no opposition until, on the right of the Buffin House, he encountered Confederates in rifle pits, which he charged and captured. His cavalry advanced 200 yards to a copse of woods and reported seeing several companies of Confederate infantry in the woods firing at an unseen target. When Wooster's cavalry fired on them, the Confederates retreated.

The Federals lost "some" wounded, but no killed, and captured one prisoner from the 25th Virginia Battalion.286

Belatedly, the Confederate command recognized the threat to their right and at ---, they placed Bratton in command of the trenches extending from his brigade's left to Chaffin's Bluff.

Shortly after repulsing the attack on his brigade, Bratton rode out to examine the defenses south of his brigade and found that the Federals had attacked here too - and had succeeded! He encountered retreating troops, detachments from Johnson's Brigade and the City Battalion, and learned that the Federals were advancing from Double Gates.

Acting quickly, Bratton moved the rest of Johnson's Brigade from Four Mile Creek to B. Aiken's House to guard Chaffin's Farm. Riding to Cox's Farm later in the afternoon, he saw that the Federals had seized Signal Hill on Cox's Farm and were entrenching the position.287

At 9 p.m., unable to locate Hancock's left flank and worried that his strung out lines could not withstand a Confederate attack, Wooster abandoned his position near the Ruffin House and retired to Deep Bottom.288

August 18th

R.E. Lee took possession of the bridgehead made by Maj. Benjamin C. Ludlow's contingent near Chaffin's Farm on August 17th, thus protecting that flank from further attack. A little after dawn, Hughes' Tennessee Brigade reoccupied its advanced line in front of Signal Hill, briefly exchanged shots with the Federal picket lines, and then charged the works on the Hill. All but a handful of Ludlow's men had fled. Twenty one dead White and Black troops lay scattered on the ground amid shell craters and smashed earthworks. Many of the dead were badly mangled by the accurate shelling by the Confederate ironclads and others had been shot through the head, testimony to the accurate fire by Hughes' sharpshooters. Thousands of picks and spades littered the ground.809

Henry Harder of the 23rd Tennessee found a young New Yorker among the dead, lying on his back, with a letter from his wife on his chest. He had received the letter the previous day and with it a remittance of three hundred dollars bounty. Someone had taken the money, but left the letter. Harder sent the letter to the man's widow and later received her profound thanks.810

bryce