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As a civilian, Maxwell was granted entry into City Point, but when he reached the bluff overlooking the Union's ordinance wharf, a guard stopped him. Maxwell told the man that "the captain" had ordered the clock delivered - and the guard carried it right down to an office on the wharf.
At the appointed hour, it blew up, with an explosion lasting an unprecedented 30 seconds or more, and setting off a chain reaction among the artillery shells stored around the place, as well as detonating 80,000 pounds of gunpowder on a Union barge nearby.
A mounted courier, untold numbers of escaped slaves working for the Union at the wharf, at least 43 other people and two horses were killed instantly. A lemonade salesman nearby was struck by a saddle flung with such force as to also kill him, Blankenship said.
Debris was scattered all over City Point, into the James River, and possibly as far as Epps Island (across from City Point in Charles City County), Blankenship said.
"It was the second largest explosion in the Civil War (the largest being that at the Crater in Petersburg)," Blankenship said.
City Pointe Recovery has filed a request with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for a permit to recover as many artifacts as it can from the James River, City Council member Steven R. Taylor told Council. The VMRC has authority over activities affecting the river bottom, Taylor said.
"I spoke with the National Park Service, the Hopewell Historic Foundation, and the archaeology department at the College of William and Mary," Taylor said. All, he said, oppose the VMRC granting such a permit.
"I asked Sam White (of CPR) if he would be willing to partner with the city and the city be the recipient of what he found. He was not interested," Taylor said.
That leaves Hopewell facing an unacceptable conclusion, he said.
"Everything recovered would become the property of a private entity. That's the key to the whole issue," Taylor said.
"We feel that the articles in that area are important from a Civil War and a Colonial era standpoint. If anyone is entitled to recover them, it should be a public organization," he said.
Taylor also asked the rest of City Council to go on record asking the VMRC to extend the current "exclusionary zone," a no-diving-for-artifacts zone that currently extends for a half-mile around the NPS holdings at City Point, to cover virtually the entire James and Appomattox River where it borders Hopewell.
Council voted unanimously to support Taylor on both issues.
The matter will be discussed and decided at a VMRC public hearing, for which a date has not yet been set.
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If a proposal that was introduced last night by City Councilman D. Paul Karnes wins the vote at the next City Council Meeting on Sept. 22 (note the change), the city may have found a way to escape its economic straitjacket.
Council voted unanimously last night to put the matter on the agenda, with no opposition recorded.
Scattered through Hopewell are pieces of land, many small, some of larger size, that have been "vacated" by the city. They were once deemed necessary for the city to own for right-of-way or other needs, but when the need ceased, they have generally been turned over to the adjacent property owners.
That sleeper issue caused financial agony recently when Council approved a fee on local property owners - to pay for an EPA clean water mandate - a fee based on the number of parcels each landowner possessed. Suddenly, many city residents found themselves expected to pay an additional fee for those bits of vacated land - so-called double billings.
Council rescinded the fee when the scope of the problem became known. Now Karnes has suggested that a way be found to completely merge such vacated pieces of land into the adjacent parcels, so that they would count as one in the city's records.
That might change the size of some properties in the city, allowing for new development where it wasn't legally possible or feasible before, he said.
It would also eliminate what he called "trash properties" - land fragments "abandoned" by the putative owners during the sale of their primary properties, left to accumulate delinquent taxes, Karnes said.
Also on Tuesday, Council discussed creating a credit card program for use by city employees on official business. Fifth Third Bank of Cincinnati won bids for the contract, which disappointed at least one local bank representative in attendance at Tuesday's meeting, who said his company had not been informed about the bidding.
The contract could be reviewed in 18 to 24 months, said Elesteen Hager, Hopewell director of finance, giving such entities who felt they were left out a chance to compete for it.
Vice-mayor Vanessa Justice urged Hopewell residents to commemorate the 9/11 tragedy with random acts of kindness, especially for those who "do for you," such as police and firefighters.
* Cliff Davis may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 254.
