PullTabSlayer
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- Jan 31, 2017
- 193
- 315
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- That one I grab for the day.
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Thought I would help Jeff out with these stories, I copied this off of our family website.
City Point was a quiet Virginia hamlet until the last 10 months of the Civil War, when it became headquarters for
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Starting in June 1864, City Point, located at the junction of the James and Appomattox Rivers, was transformed into one of the world's busiest seaports. Huge wharves and warehouses were built to service the more than 200 vessels that daily arrived from the North, and a railroad was repaired and extended to carry materiel to the Union army at Petersburg.
Shortly after noon on August 9, 1864, City Point erupted in a tremendous explosion that destroyed over $2 million worth of property, killing or wounding more than 300 people. It barely missed injuring Grant, who at the time was sitting outside his headquarters tent on a high bluff above the depot. "Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell", Grant reported to Washington. A member of his staff related the effects of the explosion: "Such a rain of shot, shell, bullets, pieces of wood, iron bars and bolts, chains and missiles of every kind was never before witnessed." An ordnance officer surveyed the damage to his depot: "From the top of the bluff there lay before me a staggering scene, a mass of overthrown buildings, their timbers tangled into almost impenetrable heaps. In the water were wrecked and sunken barges."
It soon became apparent that an ammunition barge loaded with 20,000 to 30,000 artillery rounds and more than 75,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition- had exploded. It was only after the war, however, that Confederate archives revealed the cause of the explosion. Captain John Maxwell, a Rebel saboteur, had penetrated the Union lines at City Point and had placed a "horological torpedo"- a time bomb made of a candle box packed with 12 pounds of gunpowder, a percussion cap, and a clockwork mechanism- upon the barge. Maxwell was terribly shocked by the explosion himself but made it back to Confederate lines.
The report of Captain John Maxwell of the Confederate States Secret Service regarding the Explosion at City Point, Virginia, On 9th August 1864. Written at Richmond, 16th December,1864.
Sir:
I have the honor to report that in obedience to your order, and with the means and equipment furnished me by you, I left this city on the 26th of July last, for the line of the James River, to operate with the Horological Torpedo against the enemy's vessels navigating that river. I had with me Mr. R.K. Dillard, who was well acquainted with the localities, and whose service I engaged for the expedition. On arriving in Isle of Wright County, on the 2nd of August, we learned of immense supplies of stores being landed at City Point, and for the purpose, by stratagem, of introducing our machine upon the vessels there discharging stores, started for that point. We reached there before daybreak on the 9th of August last, with a small amount of provisions, having traveled mostly by night and crawled upon our knees to pass the East picket line. Requesting my companion to remain behind about half mile I approached cautiously the wharf with my machine and powder covered by a small box. Finding the captain had come ashore from a barge then at the wharf, I sized the occasion to hurry forward with my box. Being halted by one of the wharf sentinels I succeeded passing him by representing that captain had ordered me to convey the box on board. Hailing a man from the barge I put the machine in motion and gave it in his charge. He carried it aboard. The magazine contained about twelve pounds of powder. Rejoining my companion, we retired to a safe distance to witness the effect of our effort. In about an hour the explosion occurred. Its effect was communicated to another barge beyond the one operated upon and also to a large wharf building containing their stores (enemy's), which was totally destroyed. The scene was terrific, and the effect deafened my companion to an extent from which he has not recovered. My own person was severely shocked, but I am thankful to Providence that we have both escaped without lasting injury. We obtained and refer you to the enclosed slips from the enemy's newspapers, which afford their testimony of the terrible effects of this blow. The enemy estimates the loss of life at 58 killed and 126 wounded but have reason to believe it greatly exceeded that. The pecuniary damage we heard estimated at $4,000,000 but, of course, we can give you no account of the extent of it exactly. I may be permitted, Captain, here to remark that in the enemy's statement a party of ladies, it seems, were killed by this explosion. It is saddening to me to realize the fact that the terrible effects of war induce such consequences; but when I remember the ordeal to which our own women have been subjected, and the barbarities of the enemy's crusade against us and them, my feelings are relieved by the reflection that while this catastrophe was not intended by us, it amounts only, in the Providence of God, to just retaliation. This being accomplished, we returned to the objects of our original expedition. We learned that the vessel (The Jane Duffield), was in the Warwick River, and with the assistance of Acting Master W.H. Hines of the C.S. Navy, joined a volunteer party to capture her. She was boarded on the 17th of September last, and taken without resistance. We did not destroy her, because of the effect it might have had on the neighboring citizens and our own further operation. At the instance of the captain she was bonded, he offering as a hostage, in the nature of security to the bond, one of his crew, who is now held as a prisoner of war on this condition in this city. In the meanwhile, we operated on the James as the water and moon cooperated, but without other successes than the fear with which the enemy advanced and the consequence ******ing of his movements on the river. We neared success on several occasions Finding our plan of operations discovered buy the enemy, and our persons made known and pursued by troops landed from their boats at Smithfield, we deemed best to suspend operations in that quarter and report to you officially our labors. Your orders were to remain in the enemy's lines as long as we could do so; but I trust this conduct will meet your approval. I have thus, captain, presented you in detail the operation conducted under your orders and the auspices of your company, and await further orders.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, John Maxwell
City Point was a quiet Virginia hamlet until the last 10 months of the Civil War, when it became headquarters for
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Starting in June 1864, City Point, located at the junction of the James and Appomattox Rivers, was transformed into one of the world's busiest seaports. Huge wharves and warehouses were built to service the more than 200 vessels that daily arrived from the North, and a railroad was repaired and extended to carry materiel to the Union army at Petersburg.
Shortly after noon on August 9, 1864, City Point erupted in a tremendous explosion that destroyed over $2 million worth of property, killing or wounding more than 300 people. It barely missed injuring Grant, who at the time was sitting outside his headquarters tent on a high bluff above the depot. "Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell", Grant reported to Washington. A member of his staff related the effects of the explosion: "Such a rain of shot, shell, bullets, pieces of wood, iron bars and bolts, chains and missiles of every kind was never before witnessed." An ordnance officer surveyed the damage to his depot: "From the top of the bluff there lay before me a staggering scene, a mass of overthrown buildings, their timbers tangled into almost impenetrable heaps. In the water were wrecked and sunken barges."
It soon became apparent that an ammunition barge loaded with 20,000 to 30,000 artillery rounds and more than 75,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition- had exploded. It was only after the war, however, that Confederate archives revealed the cause of the explosion. Captain John Maxwell, a Rebel saboteur, had penetrated the Union lines at City Point and had placed a "horological torpedo"- a time bomb made of a candle box packed with 12 pounds of gunpowder, a percussion cap, and a clockwork mechanism- upon the barge. Maxwell was terribly shocked by the explosion himself but made it back to Confederate lines.
The report of Captain John Maxwell of the Confederate States Secret Service regarding the Explosion at City Point, Virginia, On 9th August 1864. Written at Richmond, 16th December,1864.
Sir:
I have the honor to report that in obedience to your order, and with the means and equipment furnished me by you, I left this city on the 26th of July last, for the line of the James River, to operate with the Horological Torpedo against the enemy's vessels navigating that river. I had with me Mr. R.K. Dillard, who was well acquainted with the localities, and whose service I engaged for the expedition. On arriving in Isle of Wright County, on the 2nd of August, we learned of immense supplies of stores being landed at City Point, and for the purpose, by stratagem, of introducing our machine upon the vessels there discharging stores, started for that point. We reached there before daybreak on the 9th of August last, with a small amount of provisions, having traveled mostly by night and crawled upon our knees to pass the East picket line. Requesting my companion to remain behind about half mile I approached cautiously the wharf with my machine and powder covered by a small box. Finding the captain had come ashore from a barge then at the wharf, I sized the occasion to hurry forward with my box. Being halted by one of the wharf sentinels I succeeded passing him by representing that captain had ordered me to convey the box on board. Hailing a man from the barge I put the machine in motion and gave it in his charge. He carried it aboard. The magazine contained about twelve pounds of powder. Rejoining my companion, we retired to a safe distance to witness the effect of our effort. In about an hour the explosion occurred. Its effect was communicated to another barge beyond the one operated upon and also to a large wharf building containing their stores (enemy's), which was totally destroyed. The scene was terrific, and the effect deafened my companion to an extent from which he has not recovered. My own person was severely shocked, but I am thankful to Providence that we have both escaped without lasting injury. We obtained and refer you to the enclosed slips from the enemy's newspapers, which afford their testimony of the terrible effects of this blow. The enemy estimates the loss of life at 58 killed and 126 wounded but have reason to believe it greatly exceeded that. The pecuniary damage we heard estimated at $4,000,000 but, of course, we can give you no account of the extent of it exactly. I may be permitted, Captain, here to remark that in the enemy's statement a party of ladies, it seems, were killed by this explosion. It is saddening to me to realize the fact that the terrible effects of war induce such consequences; but when I remember the ordeal to which our own women have been subjected, and the barbarities of the enemy's crusade against us and them, my feelings are relieved by the reflection that while this catastrophe was not intended by us, it amounts only, in the Providence of God, to just retaliation. This being accomplished, we returned to the objects of our original expedition. We learned that the vessel (The Jane Duffield), was in the Warwick River, and with the assistance of Acting Master W.H. Hines of the C.S. Navy, joined a volunteer party to capture her. She was boarded on the 17th of September last, and taken without resistance. We did not destroy her, because of the effect it might have had on the neighboring citizens and our own further operation. At the instance of the captain she was bonded, he offering as a hostage, in the nature of security to the bond, one of his crew, who is now held as a prisoner of war on this condition in this city. In the meanwhile, we operated on the James as the water and moon cooperated, but without other successes than the fear with which the enemy advanced and the consequence ******ing of his movements on the river. We neared success on several occasions Finding our plan of operations discovered buy the enemy, and our persons made known and pursued by troops landed from their boats at Smithfield, we deemed best to suspend operations in that quarter and report to you officially our labors. Your orders were to remain in the enemy's lines as long as we could do so; but I trust this conduct will meet your approval. I have thus, captain, presented you in detail the operation conducted under your orders and the auspices of your company, and await further orders.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, John Maxwell
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