British grew tired of the chase and soon turned eastward and his forces became besieged in Yorktown by the Continental Army. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781. 1864 and after During the American Civil War, City Point was the headquarters of General Ulysses S. Grant during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864 and 1865. To serve the Union army, two huge military installations were built—a supply depot and the Depot Field Hospital. During that siege, City Point was one of the busiest ports in the world. 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. The City Point Railroad, built in 1838 between City Point and Petersburg, became part of the South Side Railroad in 1854, and played an important role in the Civil War. It later became the oldest portion of the Norfolk and Western Railway, itself now a part of Norfolk Southern. Grant's Headquarters at Appomattox Manor form part of the National Park Service's Petersburg National Battlefield Park. The adjacent City Point Historical District is a registered National Historical Landmark. See main article Hopewell, Virginia for more information. Confederate sabotage On August 9, 1864, a tremendous explosion shook the city. General Grant reported, "Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell," and a staff officer wrote, "Such a rain of shot, shell, bullets, pieces of wood, iron bars and bolts, chains and missiles of every kind was never before witnessed." Examination of the wreckage revealed that a barge loaded with ammunition had exploded, detonating 30,000 artillery shells and 75,000 rounds of small arms ammunition. 43 people were killed instantly and 126 were wounded (some accounts put the death toll at 300). 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. Unknown numbers of contraband men who were not working at the time but near the dock were never accounted for and the Post Office and Adams Express Office were blown to bits leaving mail scattered in with the debris. The wharf was almost entirely