I recently visited Deep Bottom Landing in Virginia.
Deep Bottom is a relatively deep water landing on the James River (thus the name Deep Bottom) about 30 miles up river from the Chesapeake Bay and 11 miles from Richmond. After months of bloody stalemate and maneuver north of Richmond during the Overland Campaign (the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Yellow Tavern, Cold Harbor, etc) Deep Bottom was seen as a vital jumping off point from which Union forces could make a concerted push directly through the ring of defenses around the Confederate capital, help take pressure of Grant outside Petersburg, and possibly even capture the city outright.
Deep Bottom is marked on this screen shot just southeast of Richmond.
Deep Bottom played an important role in a series of operations involving the Union Army of the Potomac II Corps and Army of the James X Corps in July, August, and September 1864. From the beachhead at Deep Bottom the following battles were directly fought. July 27-29, 1864, the Battle of Darbytown, Strawberry Plains, New Market Road, Gravel Hill, and August 13-20, 1864, the Battle of New Market Road, Fussell's Mill, Bailey's Creek, Charles City Road, and White's Tavern. These engagements are collective known as Deep Bottom I and Deep Bottom II. September 29-30 the Army of the James launched the battles of New Market Heights, Fort Harrison, Fort Johnson, Fort Gilmer and Laurel Hill from Deep Bottom.
Sometime around June 18th 1864 while at Petersburg General Grant ordered General Butler to organize and send forward by pontoon a brigade of no less than 2000 men with supporting guns across the James River in the vicinity of Deep Bottom. There they were to establish a bridgehead, throw up entrenchments to protect the landing, and use the pontoons to establish a permanent bridge from Jones' Neck across to Deep Bottom. If needed support for defense of this bridgehead could be provided by Union monitors and gunboats waiting farther down the James.
The exact order to Foster was as follows:
You will hold your command in readiness to move at a moment's notice with two days rations and 100 rounds of ammunition to occupy a point on the north side of the James River near Deep Bottom You will intrench yourself immediately on a line which will be indicated to you by the chief engineer or his assistant. Your men will be ferried across the river in pontoon boats under the direction of the engineers at the time indicated and the bridge at once commenced by the engineers as soon as you are across. You are to understand that you are to hold your position as long as possible and at all hazards till the bridge is completed. The object of this move is to gain a permanent foothold on the north bank of the James River and to cover the bridge which will be laid across the river in the rear of your position…"
The landing operation was ordered to take place on June 20 1864. Upon receipt Butler dispatched Brigadier General Robert Foster's 3rd Brigade of the First Division of the X Corps to cross the James and establish the landing.
Foster's 3rd Brigade consisted of the 100th New York, 10th Connecticut, 24th Massachusetts, and 11th Maine with a sections each from the 1st Conn and 5th New Jersey Batteries. Attached from the 1st Brigade of the First Division were the 85th Pennsylvania and 39th Illinois. Col Howe, commander of the 1st Brigade, requested and received permission to join his two attached regiments alongside Foster for this action. The 1st New York Engineer Regiment was also attached for this operation.
At 5pm the units moved out proceeded by a pontoon train, and detachments were selected and organized to man the first wave across the river after dark. As there were Confederate pickets up and down the James the landing would require utmost care in order to not give up the element of surprise. Amazingly the first pontoons were landed unnoticed by the Confederates not more than 300 yards away. In short order 1200 men were across and the 1st New York Engineer Regiment took charge of constructing the bridge from the pontoons just landed. By early daybreak the next morning the bridge was complete. During the night a single regiment was on picket duty while the remainder worked hard to dig rudimentary defensive positions.
Shortly after daybreak recently arrived 100 day regiments of Ohio volunteers were sent across to complete the defensive works while the regiments already in place took up their weapons to ward off increasing Confederate skirmish activity directed at the newly established Union position. For the next many months the position would never be lost and would repeatedly be a threat to Lee's lines around Richmond.
This map from the Official Records shows a closer view of the site. The crossing is shown stretching from Jones' Neck to the south and consisted of a well constructed pontoon bridge.
This famous view is looking south across the actual pontoon bridge towards Jones' Neck in 1864.
This is the same view 150 years later looking in the same direction.
This is the view looking towards the southeast at the time of the Civil War.
And again the same view 150 years later.
This view was taken looking in the opposite direction towards the bend of the river and the tip of Jones' Neck.
And another view from higher up in the same direction. You can see the location of the landing directly ahead.
A month prior to the landing at Deep Bottom a naval tragedy occurred at almost the exact same location Union troops would later control.
In order to combat the substantial Union naval superiority in the inland waterways around Richmond a significant effort was placed in researching and deploying electronically detonated torpedoes (mines as we know them today). These torpedoes were deployed at strategic locations in the James River and consisted of several submerged watertight tanks filled with hundreds of pounds of gunpowder. The tanks were connected to a battery on shore and marked by alignment posts that small detachments of soldiers would use to align and then detonate when a Union vessel passed overhead. A great deal of effort was placed in hiding these torpedo stations while the Union put a considerable effort into clearing them.
On May 6th 1864 during operations in support of units fighting at Port Walthall Junction a naval expedition consisting of the USS Commodore Morris, USS Mackinaw, USS Commodore Jones and various smaller vessels was moving up the James River from Bermuda Hundred. It was thought that Jones' Neck was the location of one of these Confederate torpedo fields. Upon reaching Jones' Neck near Deep Bottom the commander of the expedition, J Beaumont, ordered dragging operations to clear the suspected torpedo field.
During this effort the USS Commodore Jones proceeded upriver and directly over a Confederate mine. The Commodore Jones was a 542-ton shallow-draft side-wheel gunboat built at New York City in 1863 as a civilian ferryboat. She was purchased by the Navy, converted for armed Civil War service, and placed in commission in May 1863. The detonation of the torpedo under her hull as she passed above caused the vessel to rise completely out of the water before being blown to pieces, killing between 40 and 70 Union sailors and crew onboard. Immediately after the explosion marines were landed to sweep the shores for the torpedo control stations which was promptly found and destroyed.
This drawing appeared on May 28th 1864 in Harpers Weekly depicting the tragic destruction of the Commodore Perry.
This is the modern view 150 years later of the location of the explosion and resulting destruction of the ship.
This map shows the relative locations of the vessels of the expedition at the time of the explosion, Jones' Neck at the bottom and Deep Bottom at the top.
tries a stucco repair product to contour his bases.
