Battle of Deep Bottom II
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Battle of Deep Bottom II August 14-20 1846 Henrico County VA
The James River runs past Virginia's capital city Richmond and meanders south across the state. In its meanderings a series of hills have created bluffs into which the speedy waters of the James have etched the deepest part of the river. This is the source of Deep Bottom, and the site of a pair of battles in the summer of 1864. Spawned by a deepening frustration at the heavy casualties General Ulysses S. Grants Union soldiers had suffered at the hands of Northern Virginia armies, Grant sought to cut the Confederate supply line 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 ill fated Union march on Richmond. Under the leadership of Major General Scott Hancock, along with Major General David B Bain and Maor General David Mcm. Gregg, the Union forces began a river crossing. Ill fated from the beginning, hampered by the oppressive summer heat, the Union soldiers gathered on the south shore of the James River awaiting steamboats for the crossing. Ill prepared and miscommunication aplenty, 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, crossed the James and amassed on the North Shore facing 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 the 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 returning to the southern shore onthe 20th of August. The subsequent Battle of Globe Tavern came about as a result of the simultaneous advance on Petersburg had a different result with Union victory.
The casualty list from this battle was characteristically heavy, with approximately 4600 dead.
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