Petersburg, Appomattox Manor - City Point: Historical Base Maps

Williss, G.

The two historical base maps that follow have been prepared to satisfy in part the request in Package 118, Revision No. 2. The first map is an illustration of City Point (Hopewell), Virginia as it appeared when it was the headquarters and supply depot of the Army of the Potomac in 1864-65. The second is of Appomattox Manor and a portion of City Point as it appeared in 1980 with annotations of developments at Appomattox Manor since 1865. Only those buildings standing today are shown, although structures that existed in 1864-65. When Francis Eppes patented his land on August 26, 1635, he certainly chose wisely. Located on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers, Appomattox Manor, as his land became known, commands a magnificent vista. Appomattox Manor would remain in the hands of Eppes’ descendants for over 340 years--quite possibly longer than any other in American history.’ A small village, City Point (present-day Hopewell, Virginia), grew up around Appomattox Manor. Despite the advantageous location, this village never prospered. In 1838, when the railroad link to nearby Petersburg was completed, City Point was only a small village of between 90 and 100 residents.2 The village itself consisted of twenty-five dwellings, three taverns, three shops, a post office, church, small flour mill, and five wharves. 3 In 1865 Joseph Scroggs, a soldier in the Army of the Potomac, described City Point as a village of a few scattering houses (perhaps half a dozen) situated on a high bluff bank. . . . Before the war it was only important as the terminus of a short railroad from Petersburg to the river and a favorite resort for picnic parties from the cot kade city. Since the war it noted as neutral ground where Federals and Rebels meet to exchange prisoners. In the summer of 1864 City Point assumed a new importance when General Ulysses S. Grant, General-In-Chief of the Army of the United States, arrived to establish his headquarters at Appomattox Manor. In the late spring and early summer of that year Grant had tried to crush Lt. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in a series of battles beginning at the Wilderness and continuing through Cold Harbor.5 Failing in his objective in those battles, Grant had decided to isolate the Confederate capital of Richmond by capturing the vital railroad center of Petersburg.’ When the Union Army did not capture Petersburg in mid-June, it settled in for what would become a ten-month siege. During that time City Point became a vital link in the line that supplied the more than 100,000 northern soldiers on the lines in front of Petersburg.

Petersburg, Appomattox Manor - City Point: Historical Base Maps

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