Well looks like skidmark solved that one. The triple whammy that made us think about the other location a few miles down stream at Trent's Reach was the fact that,as we walked the ground at Fort Darling on Drewry's Bluff on two different occasions, we were directed down to the south-eastern most end of the earthen fort to the number one battery where an 8" Columbiad is mounted today on a wood, seacoast, center-pintle, barbette carriage built by the Paulson Brothers. If you look right down the tube as if sighting the gun, you will be looking straight down the reach, without seeing the bend to the left from which the diorama gunner was firing. He was probably firing from battery 2 or perhaps 3 from the right. So our views of this location in 2004 and 2008 did not look like the diorama at all. You see the NPS is reluctant to remove all those oak and maple trees which have grown very large after the lumber harvest in the 20s and 30s, so the other batteries along the bluff are closed off by dense brush and forest, thereby rendering the James invisible from those positions.
Although the colorization of the gun crews uniforms was confusing, the secret map of the obstructions at Trent's Reach was most misleading. As it turns out it was drawn from the view point of the torpedo hut on Farrar's Island opposite the Federal gun batteries, NOT below the batteries as we had supposed. The misled (us) were informed after we found a battle history in photos, the link to which is below. All in all a very educational experience! A few pics below of these areas might be of interest to those who like historical geography.
Tracy and Mike
Mike Bonapart stands next to the 8" Columbiad in Fort Darling's Battery No.1 on the James River.
Looking straight down the reach, Rebel artillerymen could place plunging fire on any ship Union naval forces sent to challenge them, which they did to great effect when a Federal flotilla hove into view in '62. The Federal ironclads Galena, the Monitor and the Naugatuck, With three other gunboats helping out, attacked the battery on the bluff and brave men on both sides dueled with 9" Dahlgrens pulled from the scuttled ship CSS Virginia and 100 pdr. Parrotts on the Galena and Naugatuck, with 32 pdr. on the gunboats and Brooke rifles on the bluff and a four gun battery of 8 and 10 inch Columbiads from the earthworks as well. The Galena was sieved and 14 sailors lost and many wounded.
This pic from some trip advisor site we can't remember the name of shows you an almost identical view down the reach from the Drewry's Bluff columbiad in winter after the trees have lost their foliage. A nice clear view, it is.
This was the main problem with the Trent's Reach geographical orientation. What you can't see here is the note which we found with the secret sketch of the Federal obstructions at Trent's Reach. It read: Upriver is to the right. The is logical, because where else would you put your large torpedos (mines), than upriver on the side of expected attack. The assumption we made was that the Federal gun batteries were on the same side of the river as the torpedo hut. NOT TRUE!! This hut is across the river on low, marshy ground, overgrown with thickets and small trees opposite the batteries which were high above the steep river bank. Re-posted for clarity.
This sketch is what we found later and it clearly shows where Farrar's Island is, within Trent's Reach and the impossibility of positioning the Federal battery to fire over the obstructions as shown in the diorama. Wish we had this before making any pronouncement!
Here is the link to the real story in photos of the Confederate Navy's Ironclad Attack on Grant's supply base at City Point, Virginia.
Some of these photos have never been published elsewhere before. Credit is due for this excellent series to the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources and to:
The Confederate Navy's Bold Gamble to Cut Off the Union Army's Supply Base at City Point, January 23-24, 1865 New views of old images cropped and annotated by Taft Kiser, Archaeologist, Cultural Resources Inc., Richmond.
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/SlideShows/TrentsReach/TrentsReachTitleslide.html Some day we will walk this ground among the oxbows and the ground of the Confederate batteries new Howlett's farm including the well known Battery Dantzler, from which a large Brooke rifle occasionally blasted a special greeting to the monitor Onondaga's crew, far below on the muddy James.
Mike and Tracy
