Battery Dantzler

A half-mile northeast stands Battery Dantzler, named for Col. Olin Miller Dantzler, 22d South Carolina Infantry (killed in action nearby on 2 June 1864), and constructed in May-June 1864 to block the Union navy's approach to Richmond. The battery anchored the northern end of the Howlett Line, a series of Confederate earthworks cut across the Bermuda Hundred peninsula from Swift Creek on the south to the James River on the north. Battery Dantzler's artillery included two 7-inch Brooke rifles, two 8-inch smooth-bore Columbiads, and two coastal mortars. The battery operated until 2 April 1865, when it was abandoned and its naval garrison marched with Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia westward to Appomattox Court House.