When the Confederate authorities determined upon the evacuation of Norfolk, the James river squadron was employed to remove what public property could be saved from the Navy Yard to Richmond. The hulls of several uncompleted vessels were towed past the Federal batteries at Newport News. The running past the batteries was always done at night, moonless nights being chosen whenever it was practicable to select the time of making the trip. So far as known, the vessels employed on this service were never detected by the enemy; at least they were never fired upon. Soon after the evacuation of Norfolk, whilst the Confederate forces were retiring from the Peninsula to the lines around Richmond, a Federal squadron, consisting of the _Monitor_, _Galena_, _Naugatuck_, _Aroostook_ and _Port Royal_, entered James river. The _Monitor_ alone could with ease and without serious injury to herself have destroyed in fight all the Confederate vessels in James river, and no course was open to Tucker but to take his squadron up the river and make a stand at the place below Richmond best adapted for defense. The place most wisely selected was Drewry's Bluff, where the river had been obstructed by rows of piles, and the piles defended by four army guns mounted in a breastwork on the crest of the bluff, about two hundred feet above the river. When the Confederate squadron arrived at Drewry's Bluff, the defenses which had been constructed at the place were not in a condition to have prevented the Federal squadron from passing on to Richmond; but in the day which the Federal vessels wasted in silencing the fire of the half-deserted Confederate batteries on the lower river, the works at Drewry's Bluff were materially strengthened. The _Jamestown_ and several smaller vessels were sunk in the river channel, the two rifled guns of the _Jamestown_ having been previously landed and mounted in pits dug in the brow of the bluff. The eight-inch solid-shot gun of the _Patrick Henry_ and her two six-inch rifles were also landed, thus forming a formidable naval battery countersunk on the brow of the hill, consisting of one eight-inch solid-shot gun and four six-inch rifles. Besides the naval battery, there were several army guns mounted in a breastwork and served by a battalion of Artillery, under the command of Major A. Drewry, who was the owner of the bluff, and from whom the place took its name.