University of Virginia Library

THE JAMES RIVER SQUADRON AGAIN.

The Richmond, "the first fully armored ship that the South put afloat
on the James river," was completed in July, 1862. An appeal for funds
to be used to build such a ship, the construction to be under supervision
of naval officers, and the ship to be tendered the government when
completed, appeared in the Richmond Dispatch, March 17, 1862. A
number of wealthy Virginia gentlemen having volunteered a part of
the necessary sum, the remainder was raised by the patriotic ladies of
Williamsburg and Richmond, through committees and by a fair the

Richmond ladies held. The Richmond was described as "a fine vessel,
built on the plan of the Virginia, not so large; her ends not submerged.
She carried a bow and stern pivot and two guns in broadside." Exaggerated
reports of her size and strength reached the North, where she
was called the "Merrimac No. 2." On July 30th she steamed down to
Drewry's Bluff, ready for service. Another boat added to the James
River fleet in 1862 was the Drewry, mounting one large gun. When
McClellan fell back beaten from the peninsula, comparative quiet
returned to James river. At the close of the year the James River
squadron, Captain French Forrest commanding, consisted of the Richmond,
Patrick Henry, Nansemond, Hampton, Beaufort, Raleigh and
Drewry. The Teaser had been captured, July 4th, when she got aground
in Turkey Bend while reconnoitering.

Only one affair of note occurred on James river in 1863. All summer
Federal ironclads remained in the vicinity of Drewry's Bluff, without
again attempting its capture. The Confederate fleet was in daily expectation
of an engagement which the enemy never offered. The river
itself had been well prepared to receive them. In addition to the obstructions
opposite Fort Drewry, Lieutenant Hunter Davidson had
prepared torpedo defenses, which were sunk in the river below that
point, and could be fired by an electric arrangement on shore having
wire connections with the torpedoes. On August 1st a number of Federal
generals left Fortress Monroe for a reconnoissance of Fort Drewry.
Their squadron consisted of the monitor Sangamon, and two gunboats,
the Commodore Barney and the Cohasset. Some five miles below
Drewry's Bluff they reached a line of torpedoes. These did not do all
that was expected of them, only one exploding. That was under the
keel of the Commodore Barney, and lifted her bow high in air, tearing
away the timbers on her sides. So much heavy material went overboard
as she careened that she righted herself; twenty of her crew
were washed off her deck, all but two of whom were picked up by
boats from the other ships. The squadron retreated down the river,
and the next day came in range of a masked force of Confederate
artillery and infantry at Deep Bottom. The Commodore Barney, then
hardly afloat, got a shell in her boiler, and the Cohasset had her
engines damaged by a solid shot. In September, 1863, the Federal
transport John Farron was seriously injured by a torpedo in the
James.