3-011-462 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in America: Howlett's battery on the James River, engaging the Federal monitors - by our special artist, 1864. 'We have received, from our Special Artist and Correspondent with the army of the Confederate States in Virginia...sketches illustrative of...a conflict between Howlett's battery and the Federal iron-clad gun-boats, or "monitors," in the James River, some miles below the city of Richmond...The site of Howlett's Battery...is on the south bank of the James River. It forms the extreme left of the Confederate lines of defence before Richmond, while the Federal works, discerned amid the foliage of the background in our view, mark the extreme right of the besiegers' position. The gun-boats or monitors are lying beneath the opposite, or north, bank of the river. Midway between these vessels and the battery are the obstructions placed in the channel by the Federals to prevent the Confederate flotilla descending upon them. The navigation of the river is so effectually closed that neither party can get at the other by water, but they frequently exchange long shots'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.