In different times in its past, some have called Hopewell "the wonder city" or "the city that would not die." Others have called it "the wizard city," or "the city that DuPont built." "Hopewell," as someone once put it, "was either in the stew of most early American history or very near the fire." Images of America: Hopewell and City Point depicts the people, places, and products of a city that is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in America. Its natural deepwater harbor and its junction at the Appomattox and James Rivers attracted Native American settlements, colonial farmers, the plantation system of the South, the depot and command post for the Union siege of Petersburg, and a major manufacturing site prior to and during World War II.

The scope of work included the compilation and presentation of "a cultural overview of the City Point area that includes the placement of prehistoric and historic resources in the context of James River and Chesapeake archaeology." The following report presents this cultural overview of City Point, beginning with evidence for Paleo- Indian activity in the James River region and concluding with a consideration of the twentieth-century history and landscape of the City Point Unit of the Petersburg National Battlefield. Particular attention is paid to the role of the site as a protohistoric Appomattuck village; to the possibility that City Point is the location of the 1613-1622 English village of Charles City; and to the centrality of the African American experience at City Point from at least as early as 1635 through to the present. Specific recommendations incorporated in the cultural overview include the necessity for a comprehensive archaeological survey of the City Point property to ascertain the location and preservation of significant buried resources, which can be drawn upon for future research and interpretation into the whole of human history at the site. Another critical recommendation of the report is the need to address the maritime resources associated with City Point, and the ongoing threats to their integrity, which include extensive looting of shipwrecks and material culture in the James and Appomattox Rivers in territory administered by the National Park Service, as well as the ongoing impact of erosion of the bluffs at City Point.

After more than three years of grim fighting, General Ulysses Grant had a plan to end the Civil War--laying siege to Petersburg, Virginia, thus cutting off supplies to the Confederate capital at Richmond. He established his headquarters at City Point on the James River, requiring thousands of troops, tons of supplies, as well as extensive medical facilities and staff. Nurses flooded the area, yet many did not work in medical capacities--they served as organizers, advocates and intelligence gatherers. Nursing emerged as a noble profession with multiple specialties. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, this history covers the resilient women who opened the way for others into postwar medical, professional and political arenas.