DUTCH GAP CANAL ENTERING JAMES RIVER IN VIRGINIA—BUILT UNDER SEVERE FIRE
OBSTRUCTIONS IN JAMES RIVER NEAR DREWRY'S BLUFF
CONFEDERATE FORT DARLING AT DREWRY'S BLUFF
AIKEN'S LANDING, WHERE PRISONERS WERE EXCHANGED
WHILE Grant was moving toward Richmond from the north, Butler was forcing his way from Yorktown on the south, threatening Richmond from the peninsula as McClellan had done two years before. It was at this time that the photographs here shown were taken in May, 1864. Butler succeeded in destroying part of the road from Petersburg to Richmond. He received word that Lee was in full retreat for Richmond, with Grant close upon his heels. One of the extreme southern positions in the defense of Richmond was Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff. On the thirteenth of May, Butler succeeded in carrying a portion of the outer lines, capturing a considerable amount of artillery, but on the sixteenth he was repulsed and fell back upon Bermuda Hundred. A powerful Confederate battery on the James River barred the bridge toward Richmond. Butler conceived the idea of cutting a canal through the narrow neck of land known as Dutch Gap for the passage of the monitors. A photograph was taken of this canal, which was constructed under a severe and continuous fire. The dredge and steam pump used were bomb-proof. The greater part of the excavation was done by colored troops, who sought cover, from the bombardment of the enemy, in earthen dugouts that covered the site of the work. The canal was only 174 yards long, 43 yards wide at the top, 27 yards at the water level, and 13 5/10 yards at a depth of 15 feet below water level. It cut off 4-3/4 miles of river navigation and the excavation was nearly 67,000 cubic yards. The war photographers secured many negatives of these operations and several of the most important ones are shown on these pages. One of them was taken at Aiken's Landing, where the flag-of-truce boat from Richmond came to discharge her cargo of poor, starved, and often dying Union prisoners, and received in exchange the same number of healthy, well-fed rebels from our guards. Two or three rough old canal boats, and the grim old monitor there at anchor, but above all the glorious old Stars and Stripes, and on the shore the loving hearts and kindly hands of friends. The soldiers called it "the gate into God's country."