This week in the Civil War: March 22, 1865

Lincoln visits Grant at his Virginia headquarters

President Abraham Lincoln, his Union forces nearing victory after years of bloody conflict, visited the military headquarters of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at City Point, Virginia, this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. City Point — where the James and Appomattox Rivers meet — proved to be a strategic spot where Grant had his headquarters for months while leading the siege of Petersburg, Virginia. Lincoln, arriving aboard the River Queen at City Point, was briefed by Grant and other Union military leaders about efforts to bring about an end to the war. The site, several miles from the Petersburg siege lines, afforded the Union forces easy supply lines to the front. Fighting continued nearby in Virginia during the week. Grant reported in a statement to the Secretary of War that his forces had taken hundreds of Confederates prisoner after they attacked his forces in the state, adding the Union repulsed the attack "with great loss to the enemy."