Over two hundred ships. Two hundred and eighty hastily constructed buildings. Thousands of people, civilians and soldiers alike. A ten-thousand bed hospital. Nine million soldier meals stored in warehouses. A bakery producing one hundred thousand loaves of bread daily. As you visit the City Point National Historic District, now a part of Hopewell, Virginia, it is difficult to believe all that activity ever occurred in what is now a peaceful, residential neighborhood. Thanks to one person, however, there is still one remaining physical reminder of the Federal Army’s occupation of City Point.
On June 15, 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac arrived at City Point. Grant had been fighting General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia since early May, but rather than stopping or even retreating in the face of Lee’s strong defense as earlier Union commanders had done, Grant kept flanking Lee and moving south. After the battle of Cold Harbor, May 31-June 12, Grant’s next goal became Petersburg, Richmond’s only remaining supply link.
When Grant’s Army failed to capture Petersburg, the Federals settled in for a siege. For the next nine and a half months, the village of City Point became the hub of the Union war effort, as both the supply center for the Union armies and as Grant’s headquarters.
Rather than commandeer Appomattox Manor, the oldest (built in 1763) and most prominent home in City Point, Grant instead set up camp just outside the house.
By October 1864, with temperatures beginning to fall, Grant’s staff began pressuring him for more substantial quarters, and in November, 22 cabins were erected, with Grant’s own cabin located in the center. The T-shaped cabin had two rooms, an office that faced the James River and a sleeping area. Sliding wooden doors between the two rooms permitted some privacy, an important consideration given that Julia Dent Grant and Jesse Grant, the couple’s youngest son, stayed with General Grant for four months.
Grant left his cabin on March 29, 1865, to pursue Lee, a chase that concluded at the village of Appomattox Court House, one hundred miles southwest of City Point, on April 9, 1865. Three days later, Grant stopped briefly at this cabin, where he picked up his wife and son before heading to Washington, D.C.
One person who immediately realized the value of Grant’s now-vacant cabin was George Stuart, president of the United States Christian Commission, an organization devoted to Union soldiers’ spiritual well-being. Grant readily accommodated Stuart’s request for the cabin, which was then dismantled and taken to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Presented to the people of Philadelphia as a gesture of thanks for all the city had done for Federal soldiers, the cabin was reassembled in Fairmount Park. All other army buildings at City Point were auctioned by the government and torn down for their lumber.
Over one hundred years later, in 1979, the Eppes family sold Appomattox Manor and its surrounding grounds to the National Park Service, which then established the City Point Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield. Once contacted by the National Park Service, Philadelphia consented to give Grant’s cabin back to its original location, where it was rebuilt in 1983. Now furnished with reproductions of items known to have been in the cabin in 1864-65, from painted window shades to andirons made from rifle barrels, the cabin serves as the only visible reminder of the Union Army’s occupation of City Point. As you hunt for the perfect souvenir to remind you of your trip to Tidewater, Virginia, think about what one man took home with him from his Civil War adventures–a piece of American history that would not have survived without his intervention.
Grant’s Cabin is located at the City Point Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield in Hopewell, Virginia. Visits to the park should begin at Appomattox Plantation where a fifteen-minute video program outlines the site’s Civil War significance. The park is open daily from 9am to 5pm, except selected holidays. Groups wishing to tour the site should contact the park before their visit by calling 804-458-9504. For more information, see the Hopewell Tourism website - www.ci.hopewell.va.us. |
