A Place Called Home / ~150 Years Ago—Petersburg

A Place Called Home, also, ~150 Years Ago—Petersburg. . , (left panel) , A Place Called Home, The Dent and Grant families spent many enjoyable years on this plantation while their children were growing up. While a few of the enslaved people lived in the house, most were housed in log cabins behind the house., Timeline , 1816-1888 , 1816 . William L. Long begins construction of two story log structure , 1818 . Theodore and Anne Lucas Hunt purchase property , 1820 . Fredrick T. and Ellen Wrenshall Dent purchase property , 1843 . Ulysses S. Grant makes first visit , 1854 . Ulysses and Julia Grant live on property with 4 children , 1860 . Grant family moves to Galena, Illinois , 1865 . Ulysses and Julia begin purchasing sections of the property , 1885 . Grant transfers property to William Vanderbilt , 1888 . Luther Conn purchases property , 1816-1864 . Enslaved African Americans on the property, (right panel) , 150 Years Ago - Petersburg, From the summer of 1864 through the spring of 1865 General Ulysses S. Grant lived in Virginia near the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers, first in a tent and then a two room cabin. The front room was used as office and meeting room, the back room as living space. Julia and their son Jesse moved in with him in January 1865., Lt. Col. Adam Badeau Remembrance of General Ulysses S. Grant at Petersburg. , ”…Sometimes the door remained open, and the candle flickered in its iron frame. I can see him {Grant} now in his light blue soldier's overcoat and his broad-brimmed hat, cigar in mouth, leaning over the table and writing an order to one of his great generals… One or two maps always lay on his table, and as he got news from Sherman on his great marches, or a report from Sheridan after a victory in the Valley, he often entered to look for the exact spot where the manoeuvres [sic] or the battle had occurred.” , Lt. Col. Adam Badeau to Russell Thayer, chief engineer and superintendent. Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. February, 12, 1889