Major-General Benjamin F. Butler returned to his Federal army command in Virginia after his failed effort to capture Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in December. In so doing, he resumed supervision of the digging of a canal across Trent’s Reach on the James River. The purpose of this canal was to bypass a bend in the river at Dutch Gap, thereby enabling Federal warships to avoid Confederate batteries protecting their capital of Richmond.
Black Federal troops had been assigned to this backbreaking project, which had been going on since last summer. General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant had little faith that the canal would make much difference, but he allowed it to be dug so he could keep the troublesome Butler busy.
On New Year’s Day, Federal engineers brought up 12,000 pounds of gunpowder to destroy the final obstacle in the Federals’ path and open the canal. The explosion hurled dirt about 50 feet in the air, but most of it came straight back down into the hole it was supposed to create, and the canal was a bust. It became a viable water trade route after the war, but for now the canal was useless as a military waterway.
This failure, combined with that at Fort Fisher just a few days before, seemed to symbolize Butler’s military career. Not long after, Grant looked to remove him as commander of the Army of the James.
Bibliography
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Stanchak, John E. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
One comment