Opening Actions of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign

In the opening actions of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, fighting occurred at Port Walthall Junction, Swift Creek, and Chester Station between May 6 and May 10, 1864. At about 4:00 PM on May 6, Brig. Gen. Charles Heckman's brigade moved down Ruffin Mill Road toward Port Walthall Junction, where 600 soldiers from Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood's South Carolina brigade awaited in a sunken road, but Heckman's attack with the 9th New Jersey regiment failed to dislodge them and he returned to Cobb's Hill that evening. As Heckman withdrew, additional South Carolina troops arrived and joined Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnson's Tennessee brigade with 1,200 men, and this combined force fell back behind the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad. On May 7, Federal forces attacked toward the railroad with four brigades totaling 8,000 men, again failed to dislodge the Confederates, destroyed a small stretch of the rail line, and returned to their earthworks. That evening, Hagood's and Johnson's brigades marched down the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike to a better defensive position south of Swift Creek. On May 9, Federal troops again moved toward Port Walthall Junction, destroyed buildings and track at Chester Station, then marched south and made contact with Confederate forces where present day Rt. 1 crosses Swift Creek; because of conflicting orders, South Carolina troops mistakenly attacked the much larger Federal force and suffered devastating losses. That evening, Maj. Gen. Butler decided to disengage and return his army to the Federal lines in Bermuda Hundred to prepare for an advance on Richmond. On the morning of May 10, while the Army of the James was moving back to its Bermuda Hundred lines, Brig. Gen. Seth Barton's Virginia brigade and Brig. Gen. Archibald Gracie's Alabama brigade attacked rear guard elements of the Federal 10th Corps at Chester Station, broke one Federal regiment, and captured a section of artillery, but three Federal brigades marching from Swift Creek arrived in time to restore the line and recapture the lost artillery, after which the Confederates broke contact and returned to Drewry's Bluff.

Virginia · United States