City Point

City Point had been a port for more than 250 years before the Union army arrived. On June 15, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters at City Point just eight miles behind the front lines at Petersburg. Located at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers, City Point had been connected by a railroad to Petersburg prior to the war. The town's strategic position adjacent to a railroad bed and the rivers offered Grant easy access to points along the front as well as convenient transportation and communications with Fort Monroe and Washington D.C. City Point became the largest logistical operation in the field during the Civil War. A large supply base was established here for the Union army fighting at Petersburg. From the waterfront Grant supplied more than 100,000 troops and 65,000 animals. Horses, mules and cattle consumed more than 600 tons of fodder daily. As many as 150-225 vessels were seen in the rivers on the average day. Ships and barges transported food, clothing, ammunition, and other supplies from northern ports to City Point, where the immense quantities of materials were unloaded at eight wharves along the shoreline, stored temporarily in warehouses, and then loaded into trains or wagons for the front. The Quartermaster Department operations at City Point were instrumental in defeating General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Hopewell, Virginia · United States