Drewry’s Bluff Trail

Along this trail, the first shots were fired in the campaign to capture Richmond that lasted from 1862 to 1865. The one-half mile route leads to the Confederate fort called Fort Drewry by Southerners and Fort Darling by Federals. On May 15, 1862, Confederate guns mounted inside the fort and along the river bluff stopped the Union fleet led by the ironclads Monitor and Galena as it tried to force its way up the James River to Richmond. The action was a significant Confederate victory after major setbacks in all theaters of the war since First Manassas in July 1861. Later in the war, Drewry’s Bluff became the site of the Confederate Naval Academy and the Marine Corps Camp of Instruction.

Virginia · United States