Bermuda Hundred Campaign The Bermuda Hundred Campaign was a series of battles fought at the town of Bermuda Hundred , outside Richmond , Virginia , during May 1864 in the American Civil War . Union Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler , commanding the Army of the James , threatened Richmond from the east but was stopped by forces under Confederate Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard . Background . In March 1864 , Ulysses S . Grant was summoned from the Western Theater , promoted to lieutenant general , and given command of all Union armies . He left Maj . Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies . Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions : Grant , George G . Meade , and Butler against Robert E . Lee near Richmond ; Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley ; Sherman to invade Georgia , defeat Joseph E . Johnston , and capture Atlanta ; George Crook and William W . Averell to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia ; Nathaniel Banks to capture Mobile , Alabama . This was the first time the Union armies would have a coordinated offensive strategy across multiple theaters . Grant and Meade attacked Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia directly in the Overland Campaign . Butler ' s mission was to deploy his 33 , 000 - man army via the James River to the Virginia Peninsula and strike northwest to Richmond . The objective was not to capture the Confederate capital directly , but to cut the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad — a critical Southern supply line — and force Lee to send reinforcements to that front , weakening him against Grant and Meade . Butler was one of several " political general s " in the war — a man selected more for his support of Abraham Lincoln ' s upcoming re - election than his skill on the battlefield . His military career contained more controversies than victories . Grant hoped to compensate for Butler ' s weaknesses by assigning him two strong subordinate generals : Quincy A . Gillmore , commanding the X Corps , and William F . " Baldy " Smith , commanding the XVIII Corps . ( Neither proved assertive enough to counteract Butler ' s inexperience . ) The campaign took its name from the fishing village of Bermuda Hundred on the peninsula at the confluence of the Appomattox and James rivers . The village is southeast of Richmond and northeast of Petersburg . It was downriver on the James from the practical limit of advance for Union warships , the fortifications at Drewry ' s Bluff . Butler ' s Army of the James disembarked from navy transports at Bermuda Hundred on May 5 , the same day Grant and Lee began fighting in the Battle of the Wilderness . He also dropped units at City Point , which could be used to threaten Petersburg . For a brief time , Butler attempted to move out smartly . Opposing him was a Confederate " army " ( the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia ) of 18 , 000 under Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard ; some of these soldiers were pieced together from the ranks of teenagers and elderly men in the Richmond - Petersburg area , theoretically no match for Butler ' s soldiers . Beauregard ' s subordinate commanding troops around Petersburg was George Pickett of Pickett ' s Charge fame . Battles . The battles fought during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign were : Port Walthall Junction ( May 6 – 7 , 1864 ) . On May 6 , Brig . Gen . Johnson Hagood ' s brigade stopped initial Federal probes at Port Walthall Junction , a junction critical to controlling the railroad . On May 7 , a Union division drove Hagood ' s and Bushrod Johnson ' s brigades from the depot and cut the railroad . Confederate defenders retired behind Swift Run Creek and awaited reinforcements . Swift Creek ( May 9 ) . Butler made a thrust toward Petersburg and was met by Johnson ' s division at Swift Creek . A premature Confederate attack at Arrowfield Church was driven back with heavy losses , but Union forces did not follow up . After skirmishing , Butler seemed content to tear up the railroad tracks and did not press the defenders . In conjunction with the advance to Swift Creek , five Union gunboats steamed up the Appomattox River to bombard Fort Clifton , while Brig . Gen . Edward W . Hincks ' s U . S . Colored Troops division struggled through marshy ground from the land side . The gunboats were quickly driven off , and the infantry attack was abandoned . Chester Station ( May 10 ) . Elements of Maj . Gen . Robert Ransom ' s division conducted a reconnaissance - in - force against a portion of Butler ' s army that was destroying the railroad at Chester Station . The Confederates attacked near the Winfree House , and the Federals retired to their Bermuda Hundred entrenchments . Proctor ' s Creek ( May 12 – 16 ) . Butler moved north against the Confederate line at Drewry ' s Bluff but again adopted a defensive posture when his attack was not supported by gunboats . On May 13 , a Union column struck the right flank of the Confederate line at the Wooldridge House , carrying a line of works . Butler remained cautious , however , giving Beauregard time to concentrate his forces . At dawn on May 16 , Ransom ' s division opened an attack on Butler ' s right flank , routing many units . Subsequent attacks lost direction in the fog , but the Federals were disorganized and demoralized . After severe fighting , Butler extricated himself from battle , withdrawing again to his Bermuda Hundred line . Butler ' s offensive against Richmond was effectively ended . Ware Bottom Church ( May 20 ) . Confederate forces under Beauregard attacked Butler ' s line near Ware Bottom Church . About 10 , 000 troops were involved in this action . After driving back Butler ' s advanced pickets , the Confederates constructed the Howlett Line , effectively bottling up the Federals at Bermuda Hundred . Aftermath . Butler ' s expedition was an overall failure , and he was " bottled up " at Bermuda Hundred , unable to move . Although he was able to distract Confederate forces for a brief time , their victories at Proctor ' s Creek and Ware Bottom Church enabled Beauregard to detach strong reinforcements for Lee ' s army in time for the fighting at Cold Harbor . In Grant ' s " Personal Memoirs " he described a conversation with his Chief Engineer regarding Butler ' s predicament : Butler ' s forces were eventually used in the Siege of Petersburg . Bermuda Hundred was garrisoned by Federal troops throughout the siege .