AUGUST 9TH, 1864: Two resourceful members of the Confederate Torpedo Corps, John Maxwell and R.K. Dillard, planted a clockwork torpedo containing twelve pounds of powder on a Union transport at City Point, Virginia, causing a huge explosion which rocked the entire area.
Maxwell and Dillard succeeded in getting through Union lines to the wharf area, where Maxwell convinced the trusting wharf sentry that he had been ordered by the captain of the ammunition barge to deliver a box to the ship.
The box was accepted and the two Confederates hastily started back for Richmond. When the torpedo exploded an hour later, it set in motion a devastating chain reaction which spread the holocaust from the barges to storage buildings on shore and even to General Grant's headquarters.
Grant hurried off a message to General Halleck in Washington: "Five minutes ago an ordnance boat exploded, carrying lumber, grape, canister and all kinds of shot over this point. Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell."
Sneaky Confederates. --Old B-Runner
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