A 1751 Eppes-family plantation house overlooking the James and Appomattox Rivers in Hopewell, Virginia, that became General Grant's Union headquarters during the 1864-65 Siege of Petersburg and is now an NPS museum said to harbor a Civil War soldier's ghost.
Cedar Lane, City Point, Hopewell, VA 23860
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; managed by the National Park Service as part of Petersburg National Battlefield.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Maintained NPS grounds with paths; historic house with some steps.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1751 · General Grant's headquarters during the 1864-65 Siege of Petersburg · Site of one of the largest Union supply depots of the Civil War · Visited by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and 1865 · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; managed by the National Park Service
The land at City Point was acquired by Captain Francis Eppes in 1635, and the surviving manor house was built in 1751. For generations it was the seat of the Eppes family's plantation; by the Civil War, Dr. Richard Eppes owned the property along with other plantations and roughly 130 enslaved people. The Eppes family fled when Union gunboats reached the James River in 1862 and again in 1864 as the siege approached.
In June 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters on the grounds of Appomattox Manor. City Point was transformed almost overnight into one of the busiest ports in the world, a vast Union supply depot of wharves, warehouses, hospitals, and rail lines that sustained the ten-month Siege of Petersburg. Grant directed the campaign from a simple cabin on the grounds, and President Abraham Lincoln visited City Point in 1864 and 1865 to confer with him.
After Union forces departed, the Eppes family returned in 1866. The manor remained in the family until the 20th century, when it was donated to the National Park Service. Today it is part of Petersburg National Battlefield and houses the Grant's Headquarters at City Point Museum. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is documented by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Note on the Shadowlands seed: contrary to the submission's description of the house as a Confederate holdout, City Point was firmly a Union command center for most of the siege. The Eppes family's plantation history, including the labor of enslaved people, is part of the site's interpreted record and is treated here factually rather than romantically.
Sources
According to ghost-lore collected by Virginia Haunted Houses and HauntedPlaces.org, the manor's signature legend involves a wounded Union soldier whom a nurse hid inside a basement wall when Confederate troops came to inspect the house. The story holds that the Confederates discovered Union equipment in a storage room and arrested the woman, leaving the trapped soldier to die; his remains were supposedly discovered by workers rebuilding the basement in 1953, and his ghost is said to scratch at the walls seeking release.
This tale is repeated by ghost-tour sources and is presented here as folklore rather than documented fact, and it sits uneasily against the historical record that City Point was under firm Union control for most of the siege. Beyond the basement legend, visitors report footsteps, voices, and sudden cold spots in the historic house, phenomena commonly attributed to the thousands of soldiers and the wounded who passed through City Point during the war. HauntBound treats the soldier-in-the-wall story as the venue's traditional legend, corroborated as a tradition by multiple regional ghost sources, while distinguishing it clearly from the verified Civil War history.
Notable Entities
Tour the Appomattox Manor grounds and the Grant's Headquarters at City Point Museum, where President Lincoln met with General Grant in 1865. Interpretive signage covers the Eppes family, the enslaved community, and the Union siege headquarters.
Seasonal ranger-led programs interpret City Point's role as the Union supply hub during the Siege of Petersburg.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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