BATTLE OF CHAPIN’S BLUFF.
September 28, 1864.
If not very successful, the movement which led to this battle was very bold, and was executed with remarkable courage and endurance by the soldiers of the Union. It began from two points, and was designed to capture Richmond by a bold push. General Ord, with the Eighteenth corps, crossed the James river at Aiken’s Landing, which is eight miles above Deep Bottom, and advanced against the works on Chapin’s Farm. At the same time, General Birney, with the Tenth corps, moved against the enemy’s works in front of Deep Bottom, which he captured, thence moving along the Newmarket road toward Richmond, and, at an early hour, establishing communication with General Ord. The latter had already captured the first line of the rebel intrenchments at Chapin’s Bluff, and with it fifteen pieces of artillery. When General Birney came up, an assaulting column was organized, of both corps, to carry the heavy interior line of rebel works. By this time, however, the rebels had received reinforcements, and hence were enabled—the works being of great strength—to repel the charge of the Unionists. The attack began early in the afternoon, the men rushing forward impetuously, and cheering loudly. A storm of grape and canister was hurled into their faces, which wrought terrible destruction in their ranks. But they neither flinched nor halted, but steadily held on their way. Soon a fearful enfilading fire of artillery swept in upon them, mowing down their ranks like grass; but still they pressed forward till they found themselves in front of the enemy’s redoubts, which proved to be of a much more formidable character than had been supposed. A perfect abattis held them completely at bay, while the enemy’s infantry leveled their ranks with the ground to the right and to the left. The few who succeeded in gaining the rebel lines found them to be utterly unassailable. They were completely surrounded by a ditch eight feet in depth, and twelve feet in width; and could only be reached by means of a drawbridge, which, of course, was now drawn up. The Union men still determined to make an assault if an attack was within the bounds of possibility, and leaped into the ditch, in hope of finding a passage to the forts beyond, but found themselves penned in, and unable to either advance or retreat.
The conduct of the colored troops, under General Birney, deserves the highest praise. Many of them, by climbing on each other’s shoulders, succeeded in reaching the parapet, but in numbers far too small to make an attack on the fort. They therefore, as many as could, effected a retreat; those who could not, as well as those in the ditch, being compelled to surrender.
This assault, though a failure, is worthy of commendation for its exceeding boldness; but it cost the Union troops a heavy price. Over five hundred men in killed and wounded were lost. The negro troops suffered very severely; and in General Foster’s division the loss in field-officers was so great that scarcely a regiment escaped losing its leader.