Richmond Ironclads at Trent's Reach
Detail taken from
Library of Congress photo:
LC-DIG-cwpb-01752
The Weak Link: City Point, James River (now Hopewell)
After Grant shifted to City Point, he struck at Richmond’s supply lines by attacking the rail hub of Petersburg, forcing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to defend that city as well. While Lee stretched his dwindling resources, a seemingly endless chain of U.S. cargo ships sailed up the James River to the wharves around City Point, unloading supplies for the Union forces besieging the Confederate capital. Grant held Lee in an unbreakable death grip.
Except . . . to reach Grant, every U.S. soldier and bullet had to be shipped up the river from Union-controlled Hampton Roads, a voyage of about 70 miles through contested territory. All of Grant’s overwhelming force thus dangled from the thread of the James. Cutting that thread—cutting off the City Point docks—could force Grant to leave the gates of Richmond.
Upriver, inside the withering Confederacy, three Richmond ironclads awaited their chance to strike.
The Weak Link: City Point, James River (now Hopewell)
After Grant shifted to City Point, he struck at Richmond’s supply lines by attacking the rail hub of Petersburg, forcing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to defend that city as well. While Lee stretched his dwindling resources, a seemingly endless chain of U.S. cargo ships sailed up the James River to the wharves around City Point, unloading supplies for the Union forces besieging the Confederate capital. Grant held Lee in an unbreakable death grip.
Except . . . to reach Grant, every U.S. soldier and bullet had to be shipped up the river from Union-controlled Hampton Roads, a voyage of about 70 miles through contested territory. All of Grant’s overwhelming force thus dangled from the thread of the James. Cutting that thread—cutting off the City Point docks—could force Grant to leave the gates of Richmond.
Upriver, inside the withering Confederacy, three Richmond ironclads awaited their chance to strike.