Chaffin ' s Bluff Chaffin ' s Bluff is located in Henrico County , Virginia , United States , along the James River . Chaffin ' s Bluff on the north side of the river opposite Drewry ' s Bluff , long - considered a major defense point of the river below Richmond . Located at a major bend in the river about eight miles south of Richmond , both bluffs were fortified by the Confederate s early in the American Civil War . A Union attempt to take Richmond by water by the ironclad USS " Monitor " and other Union warships during the Peninsula Campaign failed to get past the defenses at this location during the Battle of Drewry ' s Bluff on May 15 , 1862 . Chaffin ' s Bluff and Chaffin ' s Farm ( later renamed Fort Harrison ) were adjacent to each other . Oscar F . Baxter , a surgeon in the Confederate Army , told of his posting to Chaffin ' s Farm in a letter from Richmond dated June 6 , 1864 to his twelve - year - old daughter . ( Dr . Baxter , a native of Camden County , North Carolina , was a widower ; his daughter was being cared for by relatives . ) " I am about to get off for Chaffin ' s Farm , about 10 miles from Richmond . I received orders the 1st of June , but have been too unwell to obey them till this morning . . . I have been worked down and there is no end of it — I have never seen so many badly wounded men together as I have seen in the Yankee Hospital — 800 or more all desperately wounded . My hands have been in dreadful condition from wounds received in operating on them . The fighting is still going on near Rich - - " Two months later , in an August 18 letter to his daughter from " Post hospital , Chaffin ' s Bluff , " Dr . Baxter describes the locale . " I have just learnt the probable cause of the miscarriage of your letters . I am at Chaffin ' s Bluff and not Chaffin ' s Farm , where I was first ordered . The Headquarters of both Bluff and farm are all in sight - half or threequarters of a mile apart . . . " In a letter to her dated the previous day ( August 17 ) , he hopes to " get a few days furlough after this demonstration of the Yanks is over . " Later in that letter , he describes the fighting going on around him . " The Yanks are very near here , have been fighting for two days — shot and shell flying all in sight of my hospital . It is possible I shall have to move out of the building tomorrow . " In " The Civil War : Day by Day — An Almanac 1861 - 1865 " , by E . B . Long with Barbara Long , published in 1971 , it is noted that , on August 15 , 1864 , " North of the James , east of Richmond , the Federal expedition to Chaffin ' s Bluff and the capital ' s defenses encountered delays and frustration at the hands of Confederate defenders . " The book also refers to the " Battle of Fort Harrison or Chaffin ' s Farm , Virginia , " which took place on September 30 , 1864 . " After losing Fort Harrison on the previous day , ( General Robert E . ) Lee directed vigorous counterattacks . but the Federals , having virtually turned the earthwork around , beat off the Southern assaults . This ended major Federal attempts against Richmond from north of the James . The Confederates constructed new outer works between the Fort Harrison line and Richmond , while the Federals built up and manned siege lines east of the Confederate capital . " On a map included in " Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government " , published in 1881 by Jefferson Davis , the president of the late Confederate States , Chaffin ' s Bluff is noted as " Chapin Bluff " ; using the scale of the map , it is 8 . 5 miles down the James River from Richmond . Drewry ' s Bluff is part of the Fort Darling unit of the Richmond National Battlefield Park . Visitors can view the gun emplacements , the earthworks , and appreciate the commanding views and control over the river the bluff affords . However , in modern times , singer and businessman Jimmy Dean and his wife Donna Meade Dean made their home at Chaffin ' s Bluff , which is located on private property on the Henrico County side of the river . The singer - businessman died peacefully at his home there on Sunday , June 13 , 2010 , according to his widow .