Battle of Trent's Reach

Battle of Trent's Reach. . In a daring attempt to attack the Federal supply base at City Point, 11 warships of the James River Squadron ventured downriver on the night of January 23, 1865. Confederate land batteries fired against Fort Brady as the darkened warships steamed past. One incoming shell disabled a gun in the fort. The foray ended in failure when the Confederate vessels ran into the Federal fleet downriver. Fort Brady s gunners stood ready and shelled the Confederate squadron on their return trip upriver on January 25. Although bloodied, Fort Brady’s defenders had survived their first and only major combat test of the war., “About 3 A.M., January 25, [I] was apprised by [the] pickets of the return of the [Confederate] boats...waited until they came directly opposite, fired, and knocked over the smoke-stack of the leading one…Worked [the guns] as rapidly and surely as possible, and succeeded in sending some 125 solid shot at them before steaming out of range....All this was under a terrific fire, the enemy putting from ten to fifteen hundred heavy shell in and around my battery....But three men, two engineers and one colored support, were killed inside the work; upward of forty of my company were knocked down by splinters....” , Capt. Henry H. Pierce, Co. C, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery