Grant's Cabin, City Point Unit, Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia: Historic Furnishings Report

Pfanz, Donald

The cabin's interiors are documented by five major sources- the 1863 Revised U.S. Army Regulations, contemporary photographs showing headquarters as it appeared in 1864-1865, modem pictures of objects believed to have been in the cabin, an 1865 description of the cabin following its reconstruction in Fairmount Park, and various eyewitness accounts of people who visited army headquarters during the last year of the war. On June 15, 1864, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant crossed the James River with the Army of the Potomac and laid siege to the City of Petersburg, Virginia. Grant established his headquarters seven miles behind the lines at City Point Throughout the summer and fall of 1864 he and members of his staff lived in tents situated on the east grounds of Appomattox ManoT, the plantation home of Dr. Richard Eppes. As the campaign dragged on into winter, the headquarters tents were taken down and replaced with 2210g cabins, which quartermasters arrayed in a line facing the James River. General Grant occupied a two-room cabin near the center of this line. The front room he used as his office; the back room, as his private quarters. In January 1865, his wife. Julia, and son Jesse joined him at City Point and apparently shared the cabin with him. For several months Grant directed army affairs across the country from his rude headquarters cabin. Top military and political leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, William T. Sherman, and Philip Sheridan met with him there. On March 29, 1865, with a new spring campaign at hand, Grant left City Point and moved his headquarters closer to Petersburg; Union attacks on April 2 drove the Confederates from the city; and one week later Grant accepted Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Lee's surrender heralded the end of the war, and Grant immediately proceeded to Washington, D.C., to begin disbanding the army. On the way he stopped at City Point to pick up Julia and Jesse, who had remained there awaiting his return. Several weeks later Grant received a letter from George Stuart, president of the United States Christian Commission, asking permission to take the cabin and present it as a gift to the Citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in recognition of their loyal support during the war. Grant agreed, and by August the cabin was standing at its new home in Fairmount Park, complete with Grant's furniture. For many years the structure remained a major tourist attraction in the city, but through the decades, as interest in the war waned, it became neglected. Large portions rotted and had to be replaced; the rest was defaced by vandals.

Grant's Cabin, City Point Unit, Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia: Historic Furnishings Report

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