Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

“ [638] looking for danger on that side;” and because it was impossible for the fleet to go above Osborn, which is just below Trent's Reach, I drew and sent to Admiral Lee, in obedience to the lieutenant-general's letter, after full verbal conference with the admiral and at his request, a plan of the operations to be made, a copy of which was sent to, General Grant, and submitted to the President, and never dissented from in any quarter.¹

It appears, both from the instructions and the plan, that while Richmond was my “objective point,” yet it was never contemplated by them or by me, that any attack or assault should be made upon Richmond, except in co-operation with the Army of the Potomac, or any movement made further up the river than the navy could aid me. General Grant had told me, in conversation, if I could hold the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad cut for ten days, and secure our proposed base at Bermuda and City Point, that by that time he would join me there, or on the James above Richmond, having either whipped Lee's army or forced it into the intrenchments around Richmond, when the combined armies of the Potomac and my command would invest Richmond, the navy holding the James as we approached.

It further appeared from the reply of Admiral Lee² that it was considered by him impossible for the navy to go above Trent's Reach or Osborn, on the right of the proposed intrenched lines of Bermuda Hundred, which was the highest point ever reached by the navy until after the surrender of Richmond. The admiral also doubted whether it was possible to make the movement a surprise, and argued strenuously against an attempt by the joint expedition to go above City Point,--Osborn, the point proposed by me, being almost twenty miles beyond by the river.

To divert the enemy's attention, all the white troops were concentrated at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, and all the colored infantry and artillery at Hampton, the colored cavalry at Williamsburg, and all the white cavalry at the line beyond Norfolk in the direction of Suffolk.

About the 1st of May West Point, at the head of York River, was seized, preparations were made for building wharves and landings, and fortifications were begun, as if with the intention of making this the base of operations for a junction with Grant's army.