At that time the British fleet, commanded by Benedict Arnold, sailed up the James in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Governor Thomas Jefferson.

The British later landed in the spring, April 24, 1781, at City Point and moved toward the forces under French General Lafayette stationed at Petersburg, Virginia.

The farm where it once stood overlooking the Appomattox was later developed as a residential neighborhood known as Mansion Hills, but a photo of Mitchell's taken during the Civil War survives.

During dinner, the British officers spoke freely of their plan to cross the James and attacking Lafayette from the rear of the bivouacked troops.

Canoeing across the Appomattox River, she then made her way on horseback to the Half-Way House,[2] which still stands on Route 1 in Chesterfield County, where Lafayette was quartered.

On March 27 or 28, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln met at City Point with Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman along with Admiral David Porter aboard the River Queen, as depicted by G.P.A Healy's 1868 painting The Peacemakers.

As an illustration, Mrs. Elmira Spencer, New York State Agent attached to the 147th NY Reg, was out conducting her rounds on horseback when she was hit by the shrapnel and wounded her causing temporary paralysis in her legs and permanent sciatic nerve damage.

Confederate Secret Service agent John Maxwell had smuggled a time bomb aboard the ammunition barge.

(Horological referring to time keeping; torpedo was a term used in the Civil War a wide variety of bombs and booby traps.)

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 a mile, I approached cautiously the wharf with my machine and powder covered by a small box.

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 pecuniary damage we heard estimated at $4,000,000 but, of course, we can give you no account of the extent of it exactly.The explosion didn't much hinder the Union war effort.