ECW - Drewry's Bluff - Victory Without Satisfaction

[NH Civil War Gal]

Drewry’s Bluff: Victory Without Satisfaction

Few campaigns in the American Civil War seemed to hold as much potential as Benjamin Butler’s Bermuda Hundred landings. Butler was expected to threaten and if possible capture Richmond, the long so…

emergingcivilwar.com

Benjamin Butler

That is at least how it appeared on the surface. Butler had over 30,000 troops in the Army of the James and the support of a large array of warships.

Yet, the Army of the James suffered from severe deficiencies. His corps commanders were Quincy Gillmore and William Smith, superb engineers but mediocre tacticians with a penchant for dissension.

The division commanders were veterans, but many brigades were led by amateurs and the regiments were more experienced at garrison work and raiding instead of combat. Then there was Butler himself, timid and relatively inexperienced. His only great strength as a military commander was in administration.

 

[Louisiana Jayhawker]

Thanks for this post! I mark that website as a favorite to visit later. The article host presents a very nice work but it has issues misrepresented. It fails where most fail as follows: the Army of James was working in conjunction with the Army of Potomac to advance upon Richmond and trap Robert E. Lee inside. The Army of Potomac failed in that role due to intensive combat at Spotsylvania that prevented Army of Potomac to make the dateline at Richmond. Army of James accidentally learned of that failure upon the arrival of Sheridan from his Raid. Sheridan told Butler the Army of Potomac was not coming. In other words, the Army of James was now isolated and open for a massive counterattack unsupported by the Army of Potomac. At this exact time frame, the Army of James had just arrived at the southern most defensive outer entrenchments of Richmond which was the Drewry's Bluff complex. The Union engineers stated the entrenchments were too powerful. The Army of James had no choice but to withdraw and in the planning stage when Beauregard launched his assault.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Thank you for your remarks! Much appreciated!