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Bermuda Hundred

Grant's campaign in the east had three prongs, just like his national plans.  The main event was going to be the Army of the Potomac advancing on Richmond, but Sigel was supposed to operate in the Shenandoah and Ben Butler use the James River to threaten Richmond.

Grant had formed a favorable impression of Butler when they first met during the winter.  It was a wrong impression, as Butler was to show.  Grant wanted him to take two corps up from Fort Monroe and land between Richmond and Petersburg.  From there he was to make sure of a solid base (the first task, but surely not foremost in Grant's mind) and then pick his target, although Richmond was top.  He had a menu: Richmond was available, or Petersburg since the railroads that fed Richmond came through there.  The third course would be to wreck the railroad running through Chesterfield County - he might not need either Richmond or Petersburg.  Brigadier General August Kautz would take off from Suffolk on a cavalry raid south of Petersburg, which should not only damage the tracks, but draw off Confederate troops.

Butler landed on May 5, one division at City Point (where a railroad led to Petersburg) and five at Bermuda Hundred.  True to his orders 'Fortify, or rather intrench, at once, and concentrate all your troops for the field there as rapidly as you can' Butler advanced only as far as the neck of land between the James and Appomattox Rivers.  The trenches were dug by the evening of May 6, and a brigade-sized probe ran into resistance, but not so much there wasn't optimism for the morrow. 

On May 7 Butler headed back for PORT WALTHALL JUNCTION with four brigades and damaged the tracks but not badly.  Butler hadn't fought hard or employed many of his troops, two mistakes that he would repeat in coming days.  Meanwhile the Navy was looking for trouble, and finding more than they wanted.  A mammoth torpedo blew one ship literally out of the water, and a shore battery ambushed a second that was also blown up.  The next day Butler rested except to perfect his trenches, but on May 9 moved again.
He took half his total force toward Petersburg - he was determined to clear his southern flank before moving on Richmond - and did a little wrecking of the railroad but fought down to SWIFT CREEK.  Yet the Confederates held at the steep-banked creek, and Butler had done little more than shoo them a few miles further south.  Butler asked his (professional) subordinates what to do, and then insulted their advice to the point they almost mutinied.

Now Petersburg was off the agenda, and Butler pulled back to his trenches.  The Confederates had troops moving south to Richmond, and they sparred with Butler's men at CHESTER STATION.  No advantage was gained, but the Yankees couldn't fight and tear up rails simultaneously, so they gave up the wrecking and pulled back.
The reinforcements were part of a shoestring Confederate effort; Beauregard (the department commander) had less than 1,000 when Butler first landed, and Lee had none to spare.  Odds and ends turned up, always at the right time for the Confederacy.

By the time Butler moved again, this time determinedly north towards Richmond.  He moved up to PROCTOR'S CREEK, en route to Drewry's Bluff.  Beauregard had nearly as men as Butler, and hoped to catch Butler in the open and demolish the man so widely detested in the North.  Butler pushed in greyclad skirmishers, then paused before his main blow.  Eventually everything was ready - not for Butler's attack, but for Beauregard - and on the 16th he pounced.  He won, but if Charles Whiting had been more aggressive he might have crippled Butler's force.  A few days later Beauregard made a further attack, knowing he wasn't likely to crush the entrenched bluecoats, but hoping.  The result at WARE BOTTOM CHURCH was as anticipated: no great gains, but Beauregard had a good line to entrench and 'cork' Butler in the Bermuda Hundred 'bottle'.

Meanwhile Kautz's cavalry had burned a pair of bridges south of Petersburg and damaged some of the Richmond & Danville.  He'd suffered few casualties but done no lasting damage. 

With Butler inside, Beauregard dug fast and deep.  His entrenchments, and Butler incompetence, made sure that the War Department in Richmond could shift some men up to Lee's thinned army.  There was skirmishing along the defenses (Union probes late in May, the Confederates heading the other way a week later), but without changing the basic positions.  Grant's initial confidence in Butler was gone, and he would strip most of the men out.  In an election year he couldn't sack the well-connected Butler, but after the election Butler would be ejected with little ceremony.

After Grant moved the Army of the Potomac across Butler and the Army of the James were incorporated into the dual siege of Richmond and Petersburg.  Grant had to stay on the scene since Butler was senior to Meade, and if Grant left then the incompetent Butler would have command of the combined force.  But Grant certainly didn't give Butler much scope for independent operations.

Partly to keep his men busy and (probably) partly to keep his name in the newspapers Butler began digging a canal.  The Confederate defenses rested on a major loop in the James River, and if Butler could cut through the narrow neck of the loop then the Confederate line would be outflanked; the next good defensive positions were six miles closer to Richmond.  From August to December men toiled with picks and shovels, excavating 67,000 cubic yards of material.  Most of the laborers were freed African-Americans, working for not much more than food and clothing but at least free on paper.  Once the middle of the canal was complete it only remained to remove the bulkheads at either end that had been left in place so the river wouldn't flood the diggings.  Six tons of powder was placed and the fuse lit.  The earth duly flew into the sky, then came straight back down for no net effect.  Confederate snipers on the south bank actually had a clearer view of workmen, and Butler had to give up the effort.  (His faith in massive powder charges remained, and he tried a powder ship to level FORT FISHER.  The canal was finished by the Federal Government in the early 1870s, considerably improving river access to the port of Richmond.)

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(Bermuda Hundred)