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In 1864 the Army of the James, consisting of the X and XVIII Corps of the Union Army, was created combining Union forces that had previously been deployed against the Virginia and Carolina coasts. Under the command of Major General Benjamin Butler the Army would famously be trapped in Bermuda Hundred like the campaign by a cork after failing to take Petersburg at the start of the 1864 Spring Campaign. Of the three main diversionary efforts of Grant's Spring Offensive the Army of the James managed to have the least impact, and was contained by minimal Confederate efforts. So the question I ask is, what happens if Grant doesn't even bother with it? Would the two additional corps have a decisive effect if added into the Army of the Potomac or into for that matter Sigel's Department of Western Virginia? Or for that matter would the Army of the James been put to better use going as a combined force on a return engagement for Charleston or some other point on the Atlantic Coast?
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