Reinforcing The Union Fleet On The James
About this time, however, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was preparing to launch a two-pronged campaign against Richmond, Virginia: driving south from the Rapidan River with the Army of the Potomac toward the Confederate capital and simultaneously ascending the James River, with a force under Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, for an amphibious landing at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, to begin a push through Petersburg, Virginia.
The destructive foray of the Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle from the Roanoke River into Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, on 17 April and her reappearance on 5 May—the day Grant's offensives began—increased Union anxiety over the possibility that the Confederate squadron at Richmond might descend the James, wrest control of that vital stream from the Union flotilla, and wreck Butler's transports and supply ships, stranding his troops in hostile territory where they would be at the mercy of Southern soldiers. To prevent such an eventuality, Welles sent several warships, formerly ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to reinforce the James River Flotilla.
Read more about this topic: USS Althea (1863)
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