Qualla: Battle of Trent's Reach

Battle of Trent's Reach: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. By January 1865, the Confederacy was running out of time. Grant had Lee pinned at Petersburg. Sherman was loose in the Carolinas. The Shenandoah Valley had been burned. So when Commodore John K. Mitchell, commanding the James River Squadron, was ordered to take his three ironclads down the river and bombard Grant's massive supply base at City Point, the mission was almost mythic in its ambition - a last cavalry charge on the water, against the most powerful navy in the world. On the night of January 23, the Confederate ships moved down the James toward Trent's Reach. They had two days. They needed luck. And by the time it was over, only one Union ship would be even slightly damaged, and Mitchell would be relieved of his command.

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Trent's Reach: The Last Squadron

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mitchell's flagship was CSS Fredericksburg, a 700-ton ironclad with a single 11-inch smoothbore and three smaller rifled guns. With him steamed the ironclad rams CSS Richmond, an 800-ton vessel carrying six guns, and CSS Virginia II, 650 tons and six guns. Each ironclad carried a...

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Trent's Reach: The Run Down the River

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The James River at Trent's Reach narrows and bends, the kind of geography that favors defenders and embarrasses fleets. The Confederate ironclads bombarded Fort Brady through the night of January 23 and into the next day, engaging four Union Navy vessels. The Union monitor USS On...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Trent's Reach: Withdrawal Without a Prize

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. After two days of fighting, the squadron turned around and made its way back upriver to Chaffin's Bluff. The objective of striking City Point had not been achieved. The ships had nothing to show for the advance but battle damage. Commodore Mitchell was relieved of command and rep...

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Trent's Reach: The Last Naval Engagement of the Eastern Theater

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. Exactly two months after Trent's Reach, the Petersburg Campaign ended. Lee, his lines broken and his army starving, abandoned the city. When Richmond fell on April 3, 1865, the James River Squadron - the squadron that had been built at such cost to defend the Confederate capital ...

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0