The day after crewmen of the C.S.S. Virginia destroyed their vessel, they assembled under their commander, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, at Drewry’s Bluff. Once owned by a man named Augustus H. Drewry, this was a 100-foot-high eminence on the south bank of a sharp bend in the James River, about seven miles from Richmond. It was officially known as Fort Darling, and it was the last and most powerful stronghold preventing Federal naval forces from reaching the Confederate capital of Richmond via the James.
The crewmen were assigned to help man the eight heavy cannon on the bluff. The overall fort commander, Colonel George W.C. Lee (oldest son of Robert E. Lee), had directed the guns’ placements, as well as the placement of obstructions (including the C.S.S. Jamestown) in a narrow point of the river. The C.S.S. Patrick Henry, a civilian steamer with heavy guns, was stationed in front of Drewry’s Bluff.
The fortification of Fort Darling was a joint effort by the Confederate army, navy, and marines, led by both Commander Ebenezer Ferrand of the navy and Brigadier General William Mahone of the army. After working tirelessly in the rain for two days, the Confederates commanded all potential river approaches.
The Federal James River Flotilla, led by Commander John Rodgers, began moving up the James toward the Confederate capital on May 14. The flotilla consisted of the ironclads U.S.S. Monitor and Galena (a new corvette), and the wooden ships U.S.S. Aroostook, Naugatuck, and Port Royal. The crews had orders to “get up to Richmond, all with the least possible delay, and shell the city to a surrender.” The navy hoped to capture Richmond as it had captured New Orleans the previous month.
Panic swept Richmond as residents realized that they were now under threat from both Federal army forces on the Peninsula and naval forces on the James. Alarm bells rang in the capital as the ships continued upriver on the 15th, with Confederate sharpshooters firing on them from rifle pits on shore. Virginia Governor John Letcher held a mass meeting outside Richmond’s City Hall, where he declared, “Some one said to me the other day, that the duty of surrendering the city would devolve either upon the president, the mayor, or myself. I said to him if the demand is made upon me, with the alternative to surrender or be shelled, I shall reply, bombard and be damned!”
Richmond Mayor Joseph Mayo told the crowd:
“I say now, and will abide by it, when the citizens of Richmond demand on me to surrender the capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy to the enemy they must find some other man to fill my place. I will resign the mayoralty. And when that other man elected in my stead shall deliver up the city, I hope I have physical courage and strength enough left to shoulder a musket and go into the ranks.”
A committee met with President Jefferson Davis to get his assurance that the Confederate government would help local officials defend the city to the end. The meeting was interrupted by a message stating that Federal warships were coming up the James River. The sound of cannon fire in the distance followed. Davis told the committee members, “This manifestly concludes the matter.”
The vessels steamed up the river, firing on the shore batteries as they went, until they came within sight of Fort Darling around 6:30 a.m. The Galena and Monitor emerged from the fog in the lead. As the Confederate gunners opened fire, the Galena dropped anchor about 600 yards from Fort Darling and began firing back. The gun noise rattled windows in Richmond.
With the three wooden ships staying out of range, the Monitor steamed past the Galena to draw fire but could not elevate the guns in her revolving turret high enough to hit the Confederates on the bluff. The Monitor moved back downriver, near the wooden ships, to find her range. But from that distance, her smoothbore Dahlgren guns were less effective. The Monitor also drew too much water to become fully engaged. This allowed the Confederates to focus mainly on the Galena.
Commander Rodgers reported that “balls came through, and many men were killed with fragments of her own iron.” The Galena’s iron plating soon became a liability as the flying fragments sprayed the crew. The ship sustained large holes in her deck from the plunging fire of shot and shell. The Patrick Henry connected with an 8-inch solid shot through the Galena’s bow port, and the ship was also running low on ammunition. At 11:05, Rodgers ordered her to withdraw, after a shot sparked a fire.
Meanwhile, the Port Royal took a hit on the forward wheel and another below the waterline, forcing her to fall back. The Naugatuck took heavy punishment and was rendered useless when her 100-pound Parrott gun exploded upon firing. The Aroostook stayed out of range. The rest of the flotilla followed the Galena when she withdrew downriver, and the Confederates hollered three cheers for their victory. Richmond residents also celebrated, but only briefly because Major General George B. McClellan’s army still threatened them from the Peninsula.
The Federals lost 13 killed and 11 wounded aboard the Galena, along with three others wounded on the wooden ships. Some Federals had been killed or wounded by sharpshooters on the riverbanks. Paymaster William Keeler of the Monitor, which was hit three times but sustained no casualties, went aboard the Galena and later wrote his wife, “Here was a body with the head, one arm & part of the breast torn off by a bursting shell, another with the top of his head taken off the brains still steaming on the deck, partly across him lay one with both legs taken off at the hips & at a little distance another completely disemboweled.”
The Galena sustained 43 hits, with 18 piercing the four-inch plating and reaching the wooden hull. The Monitor captain reported that “the action was most gallantly fought against great odds, and with the usual effect against earthworks. It was impossible to reduce such works, except with the aid of a land force.”
Corporal John B. Mackie of the Galena’s Marine Guard later became the first U.S. marine awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, for bravery under fire in this battle. Navy Department General Order Number 17, dated July 10, 1863, allowed U.S. marines to be eligible for the award.
The Confederates lost seven killed and eight wounded. Following the victory, President Davis wrote his wife Varina, whom he had sent away from Richmond:
“The panic here has subsided and with increasing confidence there has arisen a desire to see the city destroyed rather than surrendered. The great temporal object is to secure our independence and they who engage in strife for personal or party aggrandisement, deserve contemptuous forgetfulness… these talkers have little idea of what scenes would follow the battering of rows of brick houses. I have told them that the enemy might be beaten before Richmond or on either flank, and we would try to do it, but that I could not allow the Army to be penned up in a city. The boats, we ought to be, and I hope are, able to stop. Their army, when reduced to small arms and field pieces I think we can defeat and then a vigorous pursuit will bring the results long wished for.”
The Federal repulse was sudden and surprising to many who expected the ships to easily bypass the obstructions and batteries, just like they had at New Orleans. But the Federals did benefit somewhat from the incursion: they had forced the Confederates to obstruct the river, which prevented them from going down just as much as it kept the Federals from coming up. It also revealed an ideal spot for a Federal army landing, just 10 miles from Richmond, if McClellan opted to move his supply base from the York to the James. Few knew at the time how important Harrison’s Landing would become.
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