Drury's Bluff

“Drury’s Bluff, a Confederate position on the James River, near Richmond, Va. The principal Confederate defense of Richmond was Fort Darling, a heavy work on a high bank called Drury’s Bluff, eight miles below Richmond. Here the river was closed with heavy piling and vessels loaded with stone sunk in the channel. The work was casemated and mounted with heavy guns. It will be remembered that the Federal ironclads, the Galena and the Monitor, were repulsed here during the progress of the Peninsular campaign. The Monitor was unable to elevate her guns sufficiently to reach the works, and the sides of the Galena were not thick enough to resist the plunging shot from the fort, which struck its sides at right angles. The Naugatuck, the only other vessel engaged in the assault, burst her single gun on the second discharge."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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