“After having made a reconnaissance with Captain Smith, then in command of the naval forces of the James River, I went down to City Point and asked General Grant and Chief Engineer Barnard to come up with us to examine the premises. This they did and made a careful examination of the point. This was known as Dutch Gap for the reason that some enterprising German had cut quite a gap in undertaking to build a waterway through, many years before. We came to the conclusion that it was a desirable thing to do, and General Grant directed me to undertake it.
“Exploration proved it to be of very hard limestone and gravel; in it was imbedded petrified wood, whole trees being turned into a very friable stone, easily broken.[1]
“The enemy, appreciating the importance of this strategic undertaking, and finding that we could not be reached by direct fire of their artillery, erected some mortar batteries on the other side of the James River. At a mile and a half distance it is not easy to drop a shell with any certainty into a space three hundred feet long by ninety feet wide.
“The first thing to do was to station a couple of well instructed men at points from which every shell could be watched during its wild flight. These observers after a little practice could tell almost precisely where the missile would land—whether it would come into our excavation. While the men were at work, these men were on the watch, and if a shell was likely to fall in our way, the watchmen would call out “Holes,” whereupon the men would rush into the bomb-proofs, and come out again and resume work as soon as the shell had struck or exploded without harm.”
Dutch Gap has since been dredged out and is a main channel for commerce between Richmond and the outer world. The waters of the James River being directed by the canal, no longer flow around through any depth at Trench Reach, and that which was the former channel of the river will soon become marsh land. Dutch Gap is the only military construction of all that was done by our army, which remains of use to the country in time of peace;—a monument to its projector and constructor,—one of “Butler’s failures.”
My army friend of 1864, Mr. J. Yates Peek and his wife, within a few years, have sailed through Butler’s Gap, remembering the days of its intended strategy and the great disappointment when the navy caused its failure.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] I still have a piece of this black stone picked up at this point, at the time of my visit there in the year 1864. I have also an excellent cut of the gap at this time, better in some details, I think, than the pictures in the Butler Autobiography.