Talk:Second Battle of Deep Bottom

Battle of Deep Bottom II August 14-20 1846 Henrico County VA

The James River flows outside of Virginia's capital city Richmond. The deepest portion of the river marked by bluffs south of Richmond is the notorious Deep Bottom, the site of a pair of battles of the Civil War in the summer of 1864.

Faced with heavy casualties at the hands of Northern Virginian armies since his appointment as commander of the Union Army, General Ulysses S. Grant sought to cut the Confederate supply line to General Lee and Richmond, that ran through the rail head at Petersburg VA, 27 miles to the south of the capital. In an attempt to get General Robert E. Lee to pull troops from Petersburg, Grant feigned a move on the state capital. The second battle at Deep Bottom which began at the pre-dawn hours of August 14, 1846, was the begining of the Union march on Richmond. Under the leadership of Major General Scott Hancock, along with Major General David B Bain and Major General David Mcm. Gregg, the Union forces undertook the river crossing. Hampered by the oppressive summer heat, the Union soldiers gathered on the south shore of the James River awaiting steamboats for the crossing. Falling victim to miscommunication, sixteen boats crossed the river at night ferrying 15000 men towards what were to be discovered as dilapidated and damaged moorings at Deep Bottom. What was to be a dawn raid on Confederate positions was well delayed into the mid-morning of the 14th as the men had to be off loaded by gangplank sometimes one soldier at a time.

The Union armies of X Corps, II Corps, and Greggs Cavalry, having crossed the James and amassed on the North Shore faced an entrenched Confederate army of less than 8000 men. With early victories and advancement, the Union men pushed forward to New Market Heights and west towards Baileys Creek. By the 16th of August and facing a tenaciuos Confederate army well dug into the area north of the disembarkation point, the Union soldiers sensed a turn in the tide. 100 degree heat and mounting casualties took its toll on Union morale. The leadership on the part of the Confederate army is credited with the victory at Deep Bottom. Major General Charles Field led his vastly outnumbered army to turn the Union soldiers back towards the river and ultimately to the southern shore on the 20th of August. However, the Union troops managed to maintain a bridgehead on the northern shore. The subsequent Battle of Globe Tavern to the south, came about as a result of the simultaneous seige and advance on Petersburg, and had a different outcome with Union victory. The casualty list from the second battle at deep bottom was characteristically heavy, with approximately 4000 dead.

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