It was a dead short to ground and the CB worked as intended.
I doubt there was any damage to the CB or wiring, or even to the receptacle.

The "halfway" position is how GE (and many other breakers) trip. You need to move it full off and then back on to reset it.

As Randy said, things appeared to have functioned normally. Now you also see why we require connections to be made inside boxes.

Thanks. I think next time (after I replace my melted probe) I will need to remove an outlet from the box before testing.

My hands are kind of shakey and getting at the screws from the side still mounted was kind of like playing "Operation" with a 120 volts.

If you're just testing to see if there's power, you can just stick the probe into the hot slot of the receptacle.

If you want to do it from the side, try some decaf! ;-) There are probes that are insulated so that just the tip is exposed or you could wrap a bit of electrical tape around the probe to increase your margin of error.

"If you're just testing to see if there's power, you can just stick the probe into the hot slot of the receptacle. "

Thats when my hand gets shakey!! My anxiety level goes up when I go to insert the probe. I did that once with the negative probe plugged into the amp setting and I got sparks.

Better yet, I think I need a non-contact voltmeter.... Im looking at the FLUKE T6.