Chesapeake And Ohio Railway Company Map showing Alexandria and City Point Virginia Image of newspaper article, <i>Evening Star</i>, February 1, 1865Image of newspaper article, <i>Evening Star</i>, February 20, 1865
Source:

Chesapeake And Ohio Railway Company, Map showing the location of battle fields of Virginia: compiled from official war records and maps for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co, with labels added, Chicago: Poole Bros, 1902, Library of Congress.

River News,” Evening Star, February 1, 1865, 2, Library of Congress.

River News,” Evening Star, February 20, 1865, 2, Library of Congress.

Read the Transcription
Read the Transcription

A fleet of transports, some of which are going to Savannah with Quartermaster’s stores, will be dispatched from here and Alexandria under convoy of the ice-boat Atlantic. This morning the propeller Black Diamond was engaged in taking on board a large quantity of Adams’ Express freight which has accumulated here since the Ice blockade, and will sail this evening for City Point.

Read the Transcription

The Potomac River is open again, and the propeller black Diamond arrived yesterday from City Point….The Diamond will go down to-day with salted pork and beef for army use.

  • Chesapeake And Ohio Railway Company Map showing Alexandria and City Point Virginia
  • Image of newspaper article, <i>Evening Star</i>, February 1, 1865
  • Image of newspaper article, <i>Evening Star</i>, February 20, 1865

Black Diamond

The Quartermaster Department transported all of the military’s food and supplies. During the Civil War, the Quartermaster Department used chartered transport vessels, such as the Black Diamond, to move supplies up and down one of the mid-Atlantic’s largest waterways, the Potomac River. Alexandria served as an important transportation center for the Quartermaster Department with its wharf, warehouses, hospitals and railroad depot. In 1865, supplies often left from Alexandria and traveled downriver to City Point, VA (today called Hopewell), another crucial Union supply hub with a railroad depot, seven hospitals, and a busy river port.

Instructions

Note the locations of Alexandria (on the upper Potomac River) and City Point (near the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers) on the map. Then read the accompanying articles taken from Washington, D.C. area newspapers from February 1865 to answer the question:

What type of work was the Black Diamond engaged in? Who was employing it?