10th Michigan Infantry
Corporal
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2022
- Location
- Michigan
Since it seems like this is a pretty overlooked subject as far as the Petersburg Campaign goes (I could find no references to it anywhere in Noah Andre Trudeau, or Edwin Bearr's Books on the Siege of Petersburg), I think I'll make a dedicated post on this topic.
On August 9th, 1864 just a little over a week after the Battle of the Crater, two men of the Confederate Secret Service board a Union ammo barge they plant a bomb on board. Captain John Maxwell of the Confederate Secret Service has built a "Horological Torpedo", as he calls it. Him, and R.K. Dillard enter the barge together, plant the bomb, and quickly get off the barge, running to a place where they can view the effects of their work. An hour later, the bomb detonates and the barge explodes, capturing another Federal ammunition barge in the explosion, the ammunition depots on the docks begin detonating, creating a massive fireball, and sending debris everywhere. The shockwave could be felt from Grant's headquarters. Grant quickly runs into action, rushing through the falling debris towards City Point. R.K. Dillard is left blinded and deaf from the explosion, both Dillard and Maxwell barely escape with their lives. 56 men are killed in the fireball, another 126 are wounded. No matter, City Point is back to normal operations within two weeks. Eerily, exactly 79 years later, the atomic bomb Fat Man would be dropped over Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Many of the details I found here came from Maxwell's report. I couldn't find much information on either Maxwell or Dillard. If anyone has some more details on them, I'd love to see it.
Above is one of the photos in the Library of Congress collection which shows the aftermath of the City Point Explosion.
Here are a couple of the sources I used:
On August 9th, 1864 just a little over a week after the Battle of the Crater, two men of the Confederate Secret Service board a Union ammo barge they plant a bomb on board. Captain John Maxwell of the Confederate Secret Service has built a "Horological Torpedo", as he calls it. Him, and R.K. Dillard enter the barge together, plant the bomb, and quickly get off the barge, running to a place where they can view the effects of their work. An hour later, the bomb detonates and the barge explodes, capturing another Federal ammunition barge in the explosion, the ammunition depots on the docks begin detonating, creating a massive fireball, and sending debris everywhere. The shockwave could be felt from Grant's headquarters. Grant quickly runs into action, rushing through the falling debris towards City Point. R.K. Dillard is left blinded and deaf from the explosion, both Dillard and Maxwell barely escape with their lives. 56 men are killed in the fireball, another 126 are wounded. No matter, City Point is back to normal operations within two weeks. Eerily, exactly 79 years later, the atomic bomb Fat Man would be dropped over Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Many of the details I found here came from Maxwell's report. I couldn't find much information on either Maxwell or Dillard. If anyone has some more details on them, I'd love to see it.
Above is one of the photos in the Library of Congress collection which shows the aftermath of the City Point Explosion.
Here are a couple of the sources I used:
General Grant's Campaign – Explosion at City Point. August 9, 1864 - Encyclopedia Virginia
Debris rains down on dock workers and Union soldiers who run for safety after a Confederate bomb exploded aboard a barge and ignited nearby ammunition stores on the wharf at City Point, on August 9, 1864. This engraving on the cover of the August 27, 1864, edition of Harper’s Weekly was based on...
encyclopediavirginia.org
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