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| Battery
Dantzler History |
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Battery
Dantzler, named for Col. Olin Miller Dantzler, 22d South Carolina Infantry (killed in action nearby on 2 June 1864)
was built in May 1864 to prevent the Federal army from using the
James river to approach Richmond. Battery Dantzler was abandoned 2
April 1865 and it's naval garrison marched west with Lee towards
Appomattox.
Battery Dantzler held 6 guns; two seven inch
Brooke rifles, two ten-inch Columbiads, and two siege
mortars. I have been unable to find a plan or blueprint of
Battery Dantzler, but I have visited the site and mapped out what
is visible among the earthworks that remain.
This is a seven inch rifled Brooke gun. The
gun is located at a sharp turn in the meandering river overlooking
Trent's Reach, and can
fire to the right, down the river, and can swing to the left, to
fire up the river. In the distance, you can see the white
line of the river turning back to the right again just above the
hurdle revetment and going to the far right of the picture, where
it turns left again and goes off out of view toward the left side
of the picture, upstream towards Richmond. The part of the
river you see on the right in the near distance today is no longer
open water - click here
The Dutch Gap (a narrow neck of land) is in the
distance on the right, just out of the picture, a point where the
river loops almost touch each other, and where General Butler
attempted to dig a canal across so that Federal gunboats could
bypass these batteries, but the canal was not completed until
after the war had ended.
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| Another view of the seven inch Brooke gun showing
it's view of the James river. |
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| The same location, from roughly the same angle as
the picture of the Brooke gun above. The embrasure is severely
eroded, and the structure to the right has collapsed and eroded as
well. This photograph is taken from the top of the high ammunition
magazine seen in later pictures. The river is hidden by all the
undergrowth. Larger
Version |
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| A view of the second Brooke rifle, emplaced to
the right of the one above, with Howlett
house, after which the Howlett line was named, in the immediate
distance. This is the extreme right of Battery Dantzler. |
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| The same location today, from a different angle.
This is the gun emplacement on the far right of Battery Dantzler.
The James River and Trent's Reach are straight ahead, hidden by
the trees. |
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| A view south of the far right of Battery Dantzler
above, showing Howlett's House in the distance, and the left of the Confederate Line, extending from the James
here to the Appomattox River bottling up Butler's army in the Bermuda Hundred
peninsula |
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| This is the area today of the house and ruins in
the picture above. |
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| Eight inch Columbiad and magazine entrance.
It
appears to be on the left of the
Brooke rifle in the first pictures. |
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| The same location today |
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Another view of the same Columbiad. I have a pictures of a number of guns above Dutch gap,
but I don't have identification for all of them, as there were other
batteries such as Brooke, Wood, Darling and Semmes in the
area. My understanding is that Battery Dantzler
anchored the left end of the Howlett line, and Batteries Brooks,
Semmes and Wood extended down from Drewry's Bluff along the south
side of James river to meet Battery Dantzler, in an unbroken
string of batteries, except for perhaps a large gully to the left
of Battery Dantzler.
NEW - Just found out what
exactly was in Battery Dantzler - two 7-inch Brooke rifles, two 8-inch smooth-bore Columbiads, and two coastal mortars.
I don't have any pictures of the coastal mortars. I'll
look through my stuff again and see if I can identify the pics
that I do have of the Dutch Gap area batteries. I may have both
Brooke rifles, and both Columbiads. I know I have at least
one of each, anyway.
Battery Dantzler had a
naval garrison. That's something else I've been trying
to find out, just who exactly served at Battery Dantzler? I
don't know, but I'm trying to find out. |
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| Eight inch Columbiad and magazine entrance, sand
bag revetment, Battery Dantzler, (Howlett's) on James River.
If I understand correctly, the large mound in the distance is a
powder magazine, and the Brooke gun shown at the top of the page is located on the
other side of it. |
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| View in rear of Battery Dantzler, (Howlett's Line) showing
the entrance to location of the 10 inch Columbiad pictured
just above. You can see the tall mound of the what was
apparently called "The High Magazine" in the distance in both pictures. |
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| Location of the second Columbiad in the battery. |
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| Location of a coastal mortar, to the left of the
above Columbiad. Note the lack of any embrasure, yet when
you stand here you can see it was obviously a dug out gun emplacement |
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| Another gun emplacement for the final coastal
mortar in Battery Dantzler. These are both circular gun
emplacements, with an opening to the rear trenches, and no
embrasures for the guns. |
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