The cause of the accident was a mystery until after the war when on the trial of Werz at Washington a rebel witness confessed that he had done it, making excuse that he had a package for the captain of an ammunition boat at the wharf. He knew the captain was away from the boat so he left the package containing an infernal machine for him with the fuse adjusted so that an explosion would soon follow.
Among the other curiosities at the Point was a stockade where the rebel prisoners were corralled until they could be sent north. Another stockade was called a “Bull Pen,” where all the deserters, bounty jumpers, bummers and other freaks were kept until their cases could be disposed of.
One morning before daylight in March, 1864, when President Lincoln was at City Point, Lee made a desperate attempt to break the lines in front of Petersburg.
It is said his plan was to capture Fort Stedman and adjacent works, turn their guns on our demoralized troops, capture the railroad running to City Point and destroy Grant’s communication with his army.
Fort Stedman was held by the 14th New York heavy artillery, a regiment with many members from northern New York, and the lines at this point were very close together.
The confederate troops assigned for the desperate work were commanded by Gen. Gordon. Under the cover of darkness they stealthily advanced on the pickets, captured them and made a rush and captured the fort without hardly firing a shot and took prisoners part of a 9th corps division. The guns of the fort were turned on neighboring forts and the confederate troops pushed forward as far as the railroad cutting the wires that led to Grant’s headquarters. But their success was of short duration for our troops soon rallied and drove them out of Fort Stedman, and the movement proved a failure and a costly one to the confederates.
The next day President Lincoln and Gen. Grant visited the front lines.
Campaigning with the 2d corps in 1864 was strenuous enough to satisfy the most adventuresome. The frequent detours of the command from the rest of the army and the rapidity with which they had been shifted from left to right and right to left caused the confederates to style them as “Hancock’s Foot Cavalry.”