Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Moves to Protect Union Control Over the Crucial James River, Ordering Establishment of a Garrison at Berkeley Plantation

”To protect the navigation on the James River I have determined to establish a garrison about the Berkeley House on the north bank."

The James River flows through Richmond, and then twists and turns its way east to the Atlantic Ocean. In the Civil War it was the potential highway for Union troops to reach the Confederate capital, and was the subject of Gen. George B. McClellan's abortive 1862 Peninsula campaign. In 1864 Grant managed to take and hold the river from the ocean west past Charles City, the Berkeley plantation and Harrison's Landing, on to Wilson's Wharf and then City Point, which Grant made his headquarters. Then the river bent north to Bermuda Hundred, where Gen. Benjamin Butler's Army of the James was entrenched and from which he had tried and failed to move inland. Two curves west of that, there is a sharp twist downward and then another upward, creating a narrow neck of land traversing what is called Farrar's Island (though it was not an island). On the river's south bank, across from the island's southernmost point, the Confederates had built strong fortifications with artillery, such as Battery Dantzler, and placed mines and obstructions, making it difficult for Union ships and the troops they would carry to advance further up toward Richmond. If a canal could be cut through that narrow neck of land, it would save six miles and avoid those Confederate installations completely. Butler commenced work on such a canal in August 1864.

But although the Union forces controlled the river and its banks east of that point, they did not have uniform control of the land farther inland, and attempts to secure it had failed. This was still Confederate territory, and Confederate troops roamed there freely. Union supply trains near the river had to be guarded by sizable military escorts to make sure they would get through, and rebel raids on Union-controlled facilities were possible. For example, on May 24, 1864, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry division attacked the Union supply depot at Wilson's Wharf, only to be repulsed by two black regiments. On June 24, a Union division with cavalry escorting wagons to Harrison's Landing ended up in a battle with Wade Hampton's cavalry; the Confederates won and the Yankees retreated back to Charles City.

With the massive commitment of men and resources needed to cut a channel for the Dutch Gap canal, James River ship traffic would be far greater than ever. In the great chess game of strategy, Grant thought this represented an opportunity for Robert E. Lee to attempt to disrupt that traffic using just a small force, and thereby buy time and perhaps even draw off Union troops from Petersburg. Grant decided to act to forestall that possibility by creating a garrison at Berkeley plantation, former home of signer of the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Harrison and of his son William Henry Harrison, with its riverfront Harrison's Landing. The garrison would be part of Butler's army, but Grant wanted the task handled by someone whose competency he trusted (therefore not Butler), so he chose Gen. Edward O.C. Ord, commander of the 18th Corps. The garrison's responsibility would be to protect the river and fend off Confederate attackers.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, Head Quarters, City Point, Va., August. 30, 1864, to General Ord. ”To protect the navigation on the James River I have determined to establish a garrison about the Berkeley House on the north bank.  Gen. Barnard selected the location today and has sent for your Engineer officer to direct him as to the works to throw up.  You will please furnish the garrison two companies of Infantry, a section of artillery and one squadron of the 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles will be sufficient.  I think the artillery & infantry can be taken from the garrison of Fort Powhattan & Wilson’s Wharf should be assigned to the command of all troops on the river east of City Point & west of Fortress Monroe with Hd. Qrs at Wilson’s Wharf.”

Ord responded, "I will make the details for garrison at the Berkeley House." He ordered a colored regiment from his corps to constitute that garrison; in a nice irony, the colored soldiers now controlled a plantation where their fellows had once been enslaved. Grant's plan was executed. There is a surviving map of the fortifications constructed pursuant to this order, entitled "Plan of Defensive Works at Harrison’s Landing, Sept. 21st, 1864." The plan was apparently successful, as there were no further Confederate actions to threaten Union control of the river in that sector.

We obtained this letter from the descendent of a member of General Grant’s staff. It was sent as a telegram, with the officer acting as a courier from Grant himself to the telegraph office. After seeing the telegram sent, he retained the original letter, and it has remained in his family for the ensuing 148 years. Knowledge of its text was known from copies, but the continued existence of the original has been unknown until now. It has never before been offered for sale.