Swift Creek Battlefield: A Landscape of Change

The Bermuda Hundred Campaign began on May 5, 1864, when Union General Benjamin Butler and the 33,000-man Army of the James landed at Bermuda Hundred nine miles northeast of here. Butler's westward advance threatened Drewry's Bluff and Richmond to the north and Petersburg to the south. By May 9, 1864, Swift Creek, just south of here, became the center of operations as part of Butler's army arrived near Arrowfield Church, north of Swift Creek, and deployed on this ridge astride the railroad and turnpike by afternoon. Confederate infantry under General Johnson Hagood blocked Butler's route. Angered by contradictory orders and the danger to two regiments under his command, Hagood sent in the 21st South Carolina to support heavily engaged troops north of Swift Creek near Arrowfield Church. In the Confederate advance known as Hagood's Charge, the South Carolinians collided with Union soldiers of Charles Heckman's Brigade, whose men stood firm and repulsed them, inflicting approximately 140 casualties while suffering only about 60. After small skirmishes during the night, Confederate scouts found the next day that the Union army had withdrawn. The battle, known as Swift Creek or Arrowfield Church, ended in a clear tactical victory for Butler's men, but strategically it was a defeat because the Union army failed to cross Swift Creek and temporarily ensured the safety of Petersburg. The action of May 9 was the first and last time that a battle was fought within and around the boundaries of Swift Creek.

Virginia · United States