[Dutch Gap Canal and group of soldiers including an African American solider at the left holding a rope]

1865. Unmounted albumen half stereoview. 3-1/16 inches square. Unmounted albumen half stereoview. 3-1/16 inches square. Located on the James River in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the canal's 1864-65 construction was initiated by Union forces during the American Civil War to bypass a meander loop of the river around a peninsula known as Farrar's Island which was controlled by Confederate artillery. Miller reproduces this image his Photographic History of the Civil War (vol. 5, page 243), noting: "The excavation was forty-three yards wide at the top, twenty-seven at the water level ... The total excavation was nearly 67,000 cubic yards. The greater portion of the digging was done by colored troops who showed the utmost bravery under the constant fire of the Confederate batteries on the river.