In the months that followed, Grant would transform City Point, a sleepy, out-of-the-way river settlement, into a huge Union port and supply base. Its wharf would stretch more than a mile, welcoming seventy-five sailing ships and one hundred barges on a typical day. Through the efforts of Quartermaster Rufus Ingalls, enormous warehouses were built for the commissary, ordnance, and quartermaster departments, along with smithies and wagon repair shops. The bakery turned out one hundred thousand loaves of bread a day. The sprawling Depot Field Hospital spread over two hundred acres and could serve
...more
