During the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign from October 1864 to April 1865, after partially successful Union attacks on Fort Harrison and Chaffin's Farm in September 1864, Union and Confederate forces settled into long-term operations marked by extensive entrenching, the construction of new forts and parapets, and a naval dimension added by the James River. Fort Brady became a valuable Union asset that helped counter Confederate forts across the river and served as the keystone in a series of riverside earthen fortifications that made the Confederate States Navy cautious. In October 1864, days after Union troops captured Fort Harrison, Federal engineers designed a 2½-mile-long line of fortifications linking Fort Harrison to Fort Brady on the James River, with strategically placed artillery redoubts connected by infantry trenches. For nearly a month, the First New York Engineers, assisted by the 127th United States Colored Troops, completed the work by building earthworks, clearing trees for several hundred yards in front of the defenses, and reinforcing the position with sharpened tree limbs known as abatis. By November 1864, field and siege artillery had moved into place, helping ensure a Federal presence on that side of the James River for the rest of the war.