fortifications were under the command of Colonel Henry H. Pierce of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment, mounting over thirty guns altogether. The naval forces were under Captain William A. Parker of the James River Flotilla, who led his force from the 2,592 ton ironclad monitor which carried two 15-inch smoothbore Dahlgren guns and two 150-pounder Parrott rifles. At the time Onondaga was the only Union monitor on the river though she was accompanied by the side-wheel gunboats and . USS Massasoit was a large ship, weighing 974 tons, so she was fitted out for ten guns of different sizes, including two 100-pounders. Hunchback weighed 512 tons and had an armament of four guns, one a 100-pounder. The small torpedo boat was involved in the battle as well, though because she was an experimental craft, equipped with a spar, the vessel did not participate in any actual fighting. Opposing forces United States Navy USS Onondaga, monitor, 2,592 tons, 4 guns, flagship USS Massasoit, gunboat, 974 tons, 10 guns USS Hunchback, gunboat, 512 tons, 4 guns USS Spuyten Duyvil, torpedo boat, 207 tons, 1 spar torpedo Torpedo Launch No. 4, torpedo launch, 1 spar torpedo Confederate States Navy CSS Fredericksburg, ironclad, 700 tons, 4 guns, flagship CSS Richmond, ironclad, 850 tons, 6 guns CSS Virginia II, ironclad, 600 tons, 4 guns CSS Hampton, gunboat, 166 tons, 2 guns CSS Drewry, gunboat, 166 tons, 2 guns CSS Nansemond, gunboat, 166 tons, 2 guns CSS Beaufort, gunboat, 85 tons, 1 gun CSS Torpedo, gunboat CSS Scorpion, torpedo boat, 1 spar torpedo CSS Wasp, torpedo boat, 1 spar torpedo CSS Hornet, torpedo boat, 1 spar torpedo Battle The Confederate Navy's attack began on the night of January 23 of 1865. Commodore Mitchell lifted anchor at Chaffin's Bluff just after sunset, his first task would be to sneak by the Union battery on Signal Hill and Fort Brady in the darkness. Colonel Pierce reported that at 8:00 pm one of his lookouts on the fort's parapet spotted the three rebel ironclads and a few of the other vessels moving down the river so immediately Pierce ordered his gunners to begin firing. The first shot of the battle was from a "heavy gun" mounted in the fort, it was followed by additional rounds from the battery. Due to the "mal-construction" of Fort Brady, as Pierce said, the artillery could not be fired down river so not