Tag: Bull Pen (City Point VA)

Williss, Historical Base Maps. Appomattox Manor – City Point says: The Bullpen was the Provost Marshal’s prison at City Point, used for the confinement of Union soldiers convicted or charged with desertion, murder, disobedience, theft, and other crimes. The Bullpen was composed of three one-story frame barracks, one measuring 40 by 150 feet and two connecting 30- by 60-foot “wings”. The barracks opened into three separate enclosures, each surrounded by high wooden fences. These were, in turn, surrounded by a single wood fence.

When William Howell Reed visited the Bullpen in December 1864 he reported that some four hundred men were confined there. A recently exchanged Union officer summed up conditions in the Bullpen when he observed that “he would rather be confined in the Libby Prison (Confederate) for six months than in the Bull-Ring for one.”