City Point Fortification – Hopewell, VA - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

City Point Defenses - Securing the Union Position

The fort behind you is all that remains of the inner defense line built by the Union army in 1864 to protect its base headquarters at City Point. With a powerful fleet of ironclads and gunboats controlling the James River and a numerically superior army, the Federals believed their position at City Point secure.

Then, in September 1864, just one month after the unexplained explosion of the ordnance wharf at City Point, Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton led his cavalry around Union forces to Coggin’s Point, only six miles east of here. His raiders captured 2,486 head of cattle and returned safely to Confederate territory. Hampton’s daring foray into Union lines became known as the “Beefsteak Raid.”

Abruptly aware of his headquarters’ vulnerability, Gen. U.S. Grant directed that a new line of earthworks “be speedily thrown up,” belatedly recognizing that “until they are done this place is in danger of a cavalry raid.” By the end of October 1864, the outer line of defenses, composed of eight forts, stretched nearly four miles and enclosed the entire headquarters and supply area.

U.S. Government Bakery

Feeding the Union army was not an easy task. Much labor was required to ensure that thousands of U.S. Soldiers received their daily rations. On August 30, 1864 the U.S. Military Rail Road Construction Corps received an order to construct “an immense building for a bakery... & to have a side track” built to accommodate the transportation of bread to Union troops at Petersburg. Construction of the bakery started a month later and was completed by the end of October.

The bakery complex consisted of five frame structures which included an office, a yeast house, two large bakeries and a storehouse. Numerous civilian bakers kept the ovens going day and night producing more than 100,000 rations of bread daily. The bread was loaded onto trains and transported to the front with such efficiency that Union soldiers often received warm bread. The bakery stood at the end of East Broadway, the present site of Heritage Gardens.