This Site:
Civil War
Civil War Overview
Civil War 1861
Civil War 1862
Civil War 1863
Civil War 1864
Civil War 1865
Civil War Battles
Confederate Generals
Union Generals
Confederate History
Robert E. Lee
Civil War Medicine
Lincoln Assassination
Slavery
Site Search
Civil War Links
Civil War Art
Revolutionary War
Mexican War
Republic of Texas
Indians
Winslow Homer
Thomas Nast
Mathew Brady
Western Art
Civil War Gifts
Robert E. Lee Portrait
|
Richmond, CAMPAIGN AGAINST.
The first collisions between the two great armies on the borders of the
Chickahominy River occurred on May 23 and 24, 1862—one near New Bridge, not
far from Cold Harbor, between Michigan
cavalry and a Louisiana regiment, when thirty-seven of the latter were
captured. |
RICHMOND DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
|
The other was at and near Mechanicsville, 7 or 8 miles
from Richmond, where a part of
McClellan's right wing was advancing towards
the Chickahominy. There was a sharp skirmish at Ellison's Mill (May 23), a
mile from Mechanicsville. To this place the Confederates fell back, and the
next morning were driven across the Chickahominy. On the same morning
General McClellan issued a stirring order for an immediate advance on
Richmond; but the overcautious commander hesitated to move until the golden
opportunity had passed.
President Lincoln telegraphed to the general, "I
think the time is near when you must either attack Richmond or give up the
job and come to the defense of Washington."
The National and Confederate armies had three times run a
race for Washing-ton. After the battle
of Spotsylvania Courthouse, they entered upon a race for Richmond, then
the Confederate capital.
Grant determined to transfer his army to the south
side of the James River, cutoff the chief sources of supply for the
Confederate army from the south, and attempt the capture of Richmond from
that direction. He disencumbered his army of about 20,000 sick and wounded,
who were sent to the hospitals at Washington and elsewhere, and with 25,000
veteran recruits, amply supplied, and 30,000 volunteers for 100 days joining
his army, he began another flank movement on the night of May 20-21, 1864,
Hancock's corps leading. General Robert
E. Lee had kept a vigilant watch of the movements of the Nationals, and
sent General James Longstreet's corps to
march southward parallel with Hancock.
Warren followed Hancock, and
General Richard Ewell
followed Longstreet's troops. On May 21
the race was fairly begun, the Confederates having the more direct or
shorter route. General Lee
outstripped his antagonist, and when the Nationals approached the South Anna
River the Confederates were already strongly posted there on the south side
of the river, where Lee had
evidently determined to make a stand.
Grant proceeded to attempt to dislodge him. In attempts
to force passages across the stream, very sharp engagements ensued. Having
partly crossed the North Anna, the
Army of the Potomac was in great peril.
Its two strong wings were on one side of the stream, and its weak centre on
the other. Perceiving this peril, Grant secretly recrossed the river with
his troops, and resumed his march on Richmond by a flank movement far to the
eastward of the Confederate army. The flanking column was led by Sheridan,
with two divisions of cavalry. On the 28th the whole army was south of the
Pamunkey, and in communication with its new base at the White House. |
This movement compelled
General Lee to abandon his strong
position at the North Anna, but, having a shorter route, he was in another
good position before the Nationals crossed the Pamunkey. He was at a point
where he could cover the railways and highways leading to Richmond.
The Nationals were now within 15 miles of Richmond. Their
only direct pathway to that capital was across the Chickahominy. There was
much skirmishing, and Grant was satisfied that he would be compelled to
force the passage of the Chickahominy on
Robert E. Lee's flank, and he prepared for that movement by sending
Sheridan to seize a point near Cold Harbor,
where roads leading into Richmond diverged. After a fight with Fitzhugh
Lee's cavalry, it was secured, and on the same night (May 30, 1864) Wright's
corps pressed forward to the same point. A large body of troops, under
Gen.
W. F. Smith, called from the Army of the James, were approaching
Cold Harbor at the same time. These
took position on Wright's right wing. |
MAP OF THE
FORTIFICATIONS AROUND RICHMOND.
|
There a terrible battle occurred (June 1-3, 1864), in
which both armies suffered immense loss. It was now perceived that the
fortifications around Richmond were too formidable to warrant a direct
attack upon them with a hope of success, so Grant proceeded to throw his
army across to the south side of the James River, and to operate against the
Confederate capital on the right of that stream. It was near the middle of
June, 1864 before the whole National force had crossed the Chickahominy and
moved to the James by way of Charles City Courthouse. |
There they crossed the river in boats and over pontoon
bridges; and on June 16, 1864, when the entire army was on the south side,
General Grant made his headquarters at
City Point, at the junction of the
Appomattox and James rivers. A portion of the Army of the James, under
General Butler, had made an unsuccessful attempt to capture
Petersburg, where the Confederates
had constructed strong works. Before them the Army of the Potomac appeared
on the evening of June 16, and in that vicinity the two armies struggled for
the mastery until April the next year, or about ten months. |
Governor Smith
Leaving Richmond, VA
|
Sunday morning, April 2, 1865, while attending service at
St. Paul's Church, President
Jefferson Davis received this message from
General Lee: " It is absolutely
necessary that we should abandon our position tonight, or run the risk of
being cut off in the morning.
Hastily reading it he left the church, quickly followed
by others, and the service was abruptly concluded. Rumors that Richmond was
to be evacuated were soon succeeded by the definite announcement of the
fact. One special train carried
President Davis and the
confederate cabinet, together with
several million dollars in gold. Late in the afternoon Governor Smith and
the members of the legislature embarked on canal-boats for Lynchburg. The
roads from the city leading to the north and west were crowded with wagons,
carriages, and carts, horsemen, and men and women on foot seeking for a
place of refuge.
The night when the
Confederate government fled from Richmond was a fearful one for the
inhabitants of that city. All day after the receipt of
Robert E. Lee's dispatch—" My lines
are broken in three places; Richmond must be evacuated tonight "—the people
were kept in the most painful suspense by the reticence of the government,
then making preparations to fly for safety. That body employed every vehicle
for this use, and the people who prepared to leave the city found it
difficult to get any conveyance. For these as much as $100 in gold was given
for service from a dwelling to the railway station. It was revealed to the
people early in the evening that the Confederate Congress had ordered all
the cotton, tobacco, and other property which the owners could not carry
away, and which was stored in four great warehouses, to be burned to prevent
it falling into the hands of the Nationals. There was a fresh breeze from
the south, and the burning of these warehouses would imperil the whole city.
General Richard Ewell,
in command there, vainly remonstrated against the execution of the order. A
committee of the common council went to
Jefferson Davis before he
had left to remonstrate against it, to which he replied that their statement
that the burning of the warehouses would endanger the city was "a cowardly
pretext on the part of the citizens, trumped up to endeavor to save their
property for the Yankees." A similar answer was given at the War Department.
The humane Ewell was compelled to obey, for the order from the War
Department was imperative. |
The city council took the precaution, for the public
safety, to order the destruction of all liquors that might be accessible to
lawless men. This was done, and by midnight hundreds of barrels of
spirituous liquors were flowing in the gutters, where stragglers from the
retreating army and rough citizens gathered it in vessels, and so produced
the calamity the authorities endeavored to avert. |
LIBBY PRISON,
RICHMOND, VA.
|
The torch was applied, and at daybreak the warehouses
were in flames. The city was already on fire in several places. The
intoxicated soldiers, joined with many of the dangerous class of both sexes,
formed a marauding mob of fearful proportions, who broke open and pillaged
stores and committed excesses of every kind. From midnight until dawn the
city was a pandemonium. The roaring mob released the prisoners from the jail
and burned it. They set fire to the arsenal, and tried to destroy the
Tredegar Iron Works. Conflagrations spread rapidly, for the fire department
was powerless, and by the middle of the forenoon (April 3, 1865) a greater
portion of the principal business part of Richmond was a blazing furnace.
Between midnight and dawn the Confederate troops made
their way across the bridges to the south side of the James. At 3 A.M. the
magazine near the almshouse was fired and blown up with a concussion that
shook the city to its foundations. It was followed by the explosion of the
Confederate ram Virginia, below the city. When at 7 A.M., the troops were
all across the river, the bridges were burned behind them. A number of other
vessels in the river were destroyed. The bursting of shells in the arsenal
when the fire reached them added to the horrors of the scene. At noon about
700 buildings in the business part of the city, including a Presbyterian
church, were in ruins. While Richmond was in flames, National troops entered
the city, and, by great exertions, subdued the fire and saved the city from
utter destruction. Many million dollars' worth of property had been
annihilated. |
Gen. Godfrey Weitzel had been left, with a portion of the
Army of the James, on the north side of that river, to menace Richmond, and
he kept up a continual show of great numbers, which had deceived
Longstreet, standing in defense of the
Confederate capital. After midnight on April 3, a great light in Richmond,
the sound of explosions, and other events, revealed to Weitzel the fact that
the Confederates were evacuating the city. |
THE DEVASTATION
IN RICHMOND.
|
At daylight he put Draper's negro brigade in motion
towards Richmond. The place of every terra-torpedo in front of the
Confederate works was marked by a small flag, for the safety of their own
men, and in their hasty departure they forgot to remove them. Cannon on the
deserted works were left unharmed. Early in the morning the whole of Weitzel's force were in the suburbs of the town. A demand was made for its
surrender, and at seven o'clock Joseph Mayo, the mayor, handed the keys of
the public buildings to the messenger of the summons. Weitzel and his staff
rode in at eight o'clock, at the head of Ripley's brigade of negro troops,
when Lieut. J. Livingston Depeyster, of Weitzel's staff, ascended to the
roof of the State-house with a national flag, and, with the assistance of
Captain Langdon, Weitzel's chief of artillery, unfurled it over that
building, and in its Senate chamber the office of headquarters was
established. Weitzel occupied the dwelling of
Jefferson Davis, and
General Shepley was appointed military governor. The troops were then set at work to
extinguish the flames.
|
|