City Point Virginia: The transformation of a southern town to a critical urban command center and supply depot during the American Civil War

• In Event: Environmental Extractivism, Speculation, and Impacts in Battle and Beyond

Abstract

Prior to the American Civil War, City Point, Virginia, was a small port town with a railroad line into the large city of Petersburg, Virginia. It was home to the Eppes family plantation with over three hundred slaves. By 1864, City Point became the epicenter for the Union army. The landscape was drastically transformed to accommodate the command post of General Ulysses S. Grant as a headquarters and the supply center for the entire Union Army. This paper aims to understand the transformation of City Point from a quiet town outside Petersburg to an urban-like setting that accommodates thousands. In what ways did the civilians and soldiers actively transform this landscape and view their role in the destruction, design, and construction of fortifications and the movement of vast amounts of resources. Previous scholarship at the intersection of Civil War military history and environmental history focuses on the battlefields and destruction. This paper focuses on City Point rather than the front lines of the Petersburg campaign.

Author

• Elizabeth Bucklen, Virginia Tech