Dutch Gap is located on the James River

James River (Virginia)

The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...

 in Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. In 2010, its population was estimated to be 316,236. Chesterfield County is now the fourth-largest municipality in Virginia . Its county seat is Chesterfield...

 near the site of the lost 17th-century city of Henricus

Henricus

The "Citie of Henricus" — also known as Henricopolis or Henrico Town or Henrico — was a settlement founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia...

.

In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale

Thomas Dale

Sir Thomas Dale was an English naval commander and deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and from 1614 to 1616. Governor Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour of his administration in Virginia, which established order and in various ways seems to have benefited the...

, according to a method he had learned while campaigning in Holland, cut a ditch across a portion of land behind town. It became known as "Dale's Dutch Gap." It was a way to protect the rear of the town from possible attack and shorten the distance upriver, which resulted from the broad, meandering stretches of the James River between Drewry's Bluff, where the river turns east into the coastal plain

Coastal plain

A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...

, and the confluence of the Appomattox River

Appomattox River

The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long, in central and eastern Virginia in the United States, named for the Appomattocs Indian tribe who lived along its lower banks in the 17th century...

 with the James below Bermuda Hundred.

During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Union troops tried to build a canal at Dutch Gap late in 1864. 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

United States Colored Troops

The United States Colored Troops were regiments of the United States Army during the American Civil War that were composed of African American soldiers. First recruited in 1863, by the end of the Civil War, the men of the 175 regiments of the USCT constituted approximately one-tenth of the Union...

, and they took part in the military action at Dutch Gap (see photo.) 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.

The Dutch Gap Conservation Area includes the archaeological site of Henricus. In addition, an electricity-generating facility of Dominion Virginia Power Company is located nearby on the south shore of the James River. The Henricus Historical Park is located north of Dutch Gap in Chesterfield County (it was subdivided from Henrico County

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of 2010, Henrico was home to 306,935 people. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...

in 1749).