Civil War CDV Union Army Dutch Gap Canal Construction with 2 Soldiers 1864

Here is a wonderful outdoor CDV from the American Civil War. In November 1964, Union general Benjamin Butler headed construction on the Dutch Gap canal. The Union army intended to cut off a 5 mile section of the James River. Among their workers were paid African-American laborers from the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, who were pressed into service away from their base in North Carolina.

By that time, some freedmen were serving in the United States Colored Troops, and they took part in the military action at Dutch Gap. The Union Army intended to cut off the large curl of the James threatened by Confederate forts, such as Battery Dantzler. They could not complete the expansion of the canal during the war, but it was completed later.

It has become the main channel of the James River in that area. Pencil text on the back. The image is clear and sharp.

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