The Bull Ring At City Point

A Dreaded Provost Prison

“It was a pen of filth and vermin.” – William Howell Reed, a Sanitary Commission agent

The Bull Ring was the Union provost Marshal’s prison at City Point used for the confinement of Union soldiers convicted or charged ...

City Point and Hopewell

City Point is five miles northeast. There Governor Sir Thomas Dale made a settlement in 1613. In April, 1781, the British General Phillips landed there. Grant had his base of operations there in the siege of Petersburg, 1864-1865. Lincoln was ...

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 ...

City Point’s Wiseman Family

The Yankee Soldier met Miss Wiseman at the town well – and married her after the war.

The Wiseman family had settled in City Point many years before Mary Catherine Wiseman married Frederick Belch in 1865. He was a Yankee soldier ...