USA > Texas > The Confederate capital and Hood's Texas brigade > Part 27
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The cannonading on that side of the river was distinctly beard during the night, and recognizing that as the opening of the
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campaign, decided we should determine our course. We held a council of war and concluded I had better not defer my leaving, but next day go into Richmond, and on Saturday seek my des- tination for the summer.
It had been agreed that when I left, Mrs. Colonel Powell would occupy my quarters, so leaving for her use such articles of fui- Diture as she might need, with my trunks and servant girl I bade farewell to the pleasant quarters I had occupied so quietly for five months iu the immediate vicinity of the enemy. No thought intruded that in spite of my reluctance to leave, a merciful Provi- dence was leading me away from dire disaster.
The sun had just risen next morning in Richmond, when the ambulance arrived, attended by Major Littlefield on horseback, and as we made our way out beyond the fortifications to the main road, there was nothing on that peaceful spring morning of April ist to indicate the fate soon to befall the devoted city so long defended by the flower of Southern chivalry.
I looked my last, that morning, upon my lovely childhood's home-the abode so long of comfort and plenty, where so many happy, blissful years had been passed. My parents had both closed their eyes upon earthly scenes during the early part of the war, and this change seemed now all the harder to endure.
We reached our destination late in the evening. Next morn- ing our kind friend, his Confederate orderly and vehicle started back to the camp of the brigade, to find them on the march, thus unexpectedly changing their position.
On the morning of April ist, Colonel Powell dispatched a mes- senger to bring his wife to headquarters, which he sincerely re- gretted before the day was ended.
That night it became known some movement was on foot, that the Federal troops had, many of them, been removed from the north side of the James, but no surmise had yet been entertained by the Texans of a change. They were occupying their same position to the extreme left of General Lee's infantry line, stretch- ing for twenty miles on both sides of the river.
That day they had received the news of the successful repulse, by Pickett's division, of the cavalry line contesting for the prize of the South Side railroad, near Petersburg, and supposed all was going well in that direction.
As soon, however, as this repulse was reported to General Grant, another army corps was rapidly marched to their relief. On April ist, the combined forees of cavalry and infantry ad- vanced against the Confederates, who were driven from their position at Five Forks in great confusion.
Matters now looked critical for General Lee, who was com-
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pelled to retire to his inner line of defenses at Petersburg, and the siege of the city seemed inevitable.
The fighting on April and began at daylight. General Lee's line was assaulted and pierced in three different places, the Fed- erals capturing Fort Mahone, one of the largest forts in the Pe- tersburg defenses.
Here the Confederates made a desperate struggle, but were unable to cope with overwhelming numbers. Here fell the gal- lant Lieutenant.General A. P. Hill, "whose name had been so illustriously connected with the Army of Northern Virginia all during the war."
This severe loss of one whose life, at the beginning of the struggle, had been consecrated to the Southern cause, was a severe blow, but his comrades, afterwards, were consoled by the reflection that he died before our flag was furled in defeat.
The events of the day decided General Lee's course of action, which he disclosed in the following letter to President Davis:
"PETERSBURG, 3 A. M., April 2nd, 1865.
"His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, Richmond, V'a .:
"MR. PRESIDENT :- I have a great desire to confer with you upon our condition, and would have been to Richmond before this, but anticipating movements of the enemy, which have oc- curred, I feel unwilling to be absent. I have considered our position very critical; but have hoped the enemy might expose himself in some way that we might take advantage of and cripple him.
"Knowing. when Sheridan moved to our right, that our cavalry would be unable to resist successfully his advance upon our com- munications, I detached Pickett's division to support it. At first, Pickett succeeded in driving the enemy, who fought stubbornly; and, after being re enforced by the 5th corps, United States army, obliged Pickett to recede to the Five Forks on the Dinwid- die Court House and Five Forks road, where, unfortunately, he was defeated. To relieve him, I had to again draw out three brigades under General Anderson, which so weakened our front line, that the enemy last night and this morning, succeeded in penetrating it near the Cox road, separating our troops around the town from those on Hatcher's Run.
"I have directed the troops from the lines on Hatcher's Run to fall back towards Amelia Court House, and I do not see how I can possibly help withdrawing from the city, to the north side of the Appomattox to-night. There is no bridge over the Ap- pomattox above this point, nearer than Goodies' and Bevils' over which the troops above mentioned could cross to the north side,
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and be made available to us; otherwise, I might hold the posi- tion for a day or two longer, but would have to evacuate it eventually; and I think it better for us to abandon the whole line on the James river to-night, if practicable. I have sent pre- paratory orders to all the officers, and will be able to tell by night whether or not we can remain here another day: but I think every hour now adds to our difficulties. I regret to be obliged to write such a hurried letter to your Excellency, but I am in the presence of the enemy, endeavoring to resist his ad- vance.
"I am most respectfully and truly yours, "R. E. LEE, General."
Only a little while after this letter was sent off, the events as before narrated decided General Lee's course, and he sent a tele- gram to President Davis, and advocated that Richmond be evacu - ated simultaneously with the withdrawal of his troops.
Longstreet's forces, on the north side of the James, had been ordered to move, without any knowledge of their destination, and all day Sunday they were passing through the city to join Gen- eral Lee at Petersburg.
Being on the extreme left of the line, the Texas brigade was among the last troops to cross the James at Richmond, on Sun- day night.
By that time it was generally known that Richmond was to be abandoned. What must have been their feelings, as looking back upon the city they witnessed the splendid structures of the Petersburg and Danville railroad bridges wrapped in flames. the city they had so long defended at the mercy of a lawless element. and the people who had extended to them so much kindness. now helpless and unprotected. Still they went forth with true sol- dier spirit, prepared for the endurance which they knew must still be their fate, with no thought yet of giving up the struggle, which now assumed the aspect, not only of desperate resistance, but the throes of a fierce despair.
By the time Petersburg was reached, retreat seemed a duty. but to retreat with poor transportation and no supplies, seemed at least a forlorn hope, but the troops did not know the straits to which General Lee was reduced. They did not stop to consider the situation. To follow and obey their leader was their only de- sire and obligation.
"General Lee's losses were irreparable, though in killed and wounded only about two thousand, but he had lost his entire outer line of defense around Petersburg, and the South S.de rail- ยท road, his important avenue of supply to Richmond."
The best he could do, therefore, was to evacuate as quietly as
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possible during the night, and order supplies of food to meet him at Amelia Court House-bis objective point being Dritte, as proposed in his conference with the President.
What he had considered a strategic movement, was sow as. suming the proportions of a dire military necessity.
The morning of Sunday, April 3d, broke clear and cloudless upon the city of Richmond. The balmy zephyrs waited the fragrance of returning life through the open windows, and gently stirred the foliage, green with the refreshing tints of early spring. sportive birds trilled their choicest melodies. The long streets where lay the glad sunshine, sifting through the branches of the trees, in patches of brightness, seemed restful and peaceft :. The homes of refinement and culture assumed their most foriting aspect, and the benisons of Heaven seemed to brood over at the surroundings with that peculiar Sabbath calm which sinks deep into every human heart.
The privations, the trials and hardships of the war had been accepted and borne nobly by a self-sacrificing people, and as each new duty developed, had been taken up and performed with a beautiful consistency which challenged the world by compari- son.
Everything in military circles had been so quiet that all sus- picion of evil was disarmed. No news was now publisbei, un- less sanctioned by the War Department, and everybody rested in fancied security, nor dreamed that the terrors of evacuation were slowly but surely creeping up like a thief in the night, to en- velop them in despair, totally obliterate the labor of years, and pour out upon their heads vials of wrath, difficult for the wild- est brain to conceive.
Like that other Sunday, so long ago, when the war blast swept for the first time its baleful breath over the Southern land, and John Brown made his raid at Harper's Ferry, the citizens were gathering in the churches to worship their God who had een a refuge in every time of disaster.
President Davis occupied his pew in St. Paul's church. made the responses of the morning service, joined in the h; mas of praise, his great soul bowed with the weight of the accumulated troubles of his people, realizing as none other, the extreme per !! of the situation, after General Lee's letter, yet seeking at the altar of religion, to gain strength to battle with impending com- plications.
Into this sacred place, its membership numbering the elte of the Old Dominion, came General Lee's messeuger with a tele- gram to the President-interrupting the service. While Le read the dispatch, the realization that a reverse had come upon the
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army, fell like a thunder-bolt in the midst of the worshipers. Eves looked wild with misery, faces blanched with fear.
Mr. Davis, sublime in that powerful self-control which never deserted him, rose and quietly left the church, with the same measured tread as usual, to give orders for the withdrawal of the troops on the north side of the James, and to set on foot prepa- rations for the evacuation of the city.
General Lee's message had contained the sad news that his lines were broken in three places, he was compelled to retreat that night, and without delay Richmond must be abandoned by eight o'clock.
An uneasy whisper ran through the congregation, though the contents of the fatal telegram were unknown. Something dread- ful had happened, else no dust-stained messenger of defeat would have intruded here.
The minister hastily dismissed his flock. The news flew from lip to lip with lightning-like rapidity, and soon the population knew that the fall of Richmond was a foregone conclusion.
With the tramp of retiring troops so reluctantly passing through the city, and around which they had stood as guardians of safety, was mingled the din of wagons rumbling along the streets laden with boxes aud trunks from the departments, and driven to the Danville depot.
Vehicles suddenly rose in value, and fabulous prices were paid for conveyances to haul the valuables of those designing flight with the government. President Davis' family had left the city some time before, and it was arranged that he, his staff and mem- bers of the cabinet should leave for Danville at seven o'clock.
The banks opened their doors, and depositors were allowed to withdraw their specie, while that belonging to the government* was hurriedly placed in boxes and taken to the trains, a number of which were expected to leave during the evening.
Confederate money, bonds, bank checks, whitened the side- walks in every direction. Men tore through the streets wild with frenzy and excitement. Nobody could conjecture what would be their fate-all was lost, and "confusion became more con- founded."
The city council held a meeting during the afternoon and agreed that in each ward a committee of citizens should destroy all the liquor in the place, hoping thereby to avert some of the danger from the reckless element.
The train bearing away the last vestige of the Confederacy rolled out of the city at the appointed time. About the hour of
*Afterwards distributed to members of Johnston's Army.
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midnight the work of destroying the fiery fluid commenced. "Hundreds of barrels of liquor were rolled into the streets and the heads knocked in. The gutters ran with a liquor freshet, and the fumes filled and impregnated the air. But the evil was not wholly averted. A quantity was obtained by the lawless and then order ceased to exist. Stores were pillaged and the wild cries of distress, mingled with the yells of drunken rioters. No sleep blessed the eyes of the inhabitants that night, but they were yet to press to their lips a more bitter cup of anguish still.
In conformity with a resolution of Congress long before, from General 'Ewell's headquarters had been issued the order on Sun- day evening, to fire, next morning, the four principal warehouses, to prevent the tobacco from falling into the hands of the enemy.
When this became known to the council, a remonstrance was presented by a committee at thus placing in jeopardy the whole business portion of the city. It availed nothing.
At day-light the order was executed, as well as the one direct- ing the destruction of the armory, powder magazine, the Con- federate rams, and scuttling and firing of government vessels lying at the wharf.
The wholesale destruction was impossible to avert. There was nothing for the citizens to do but to submit to the sweeping away of their property with the dazed calmness of utter hopelessness.
An eye-witness says: "Morning broke upon a scene such as those who witnessed it, can never forget. The roar of the in- mense conflagration sounded in the ears: tougnes of flame leaped from street to street, and in its baleful glare were to be seen, as of demons, the figures of busy plunderers moving, pushing, riot- ing, through the black smoke, and into the open street, bearing away every conceivable soit of plunder.
"The scene at the commissary depot, at the head of the docks, beggars description. Hundreds of government wagons were loaded with bacon, flour and whisky and driven off in hot haste. Thronged about the depot were hundreds of men, women and children, black and white, provided with capacious bags, bas- kets, tubs, buckets, tin pans, and aprons, cursing, pushing and crowding, awaiting the throwing open of the doors and the order to help themselves. About sunrise the doors were opened by the populace and a rush that seemed to carry the building off its foundation, was made, and hundreds of pounds of bacon. four, etc., gathered there for the use of the army, were swept away by a clamorous crowd." The explosion of the powder magazine, where hundreds of kegs of powder were stored, in the northern suburbs of the city, resulted in the killing and wounding of be- tween thirty and forty people. The shock was tremendous, jar-
.
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ring every house in the city, extinguishing the gas lights and breaking a great quantity of glass in dwellings, and leveling in a shapeless mass some residences to the ground. All this, added to the continuous explosion of shells in the laborat ries but seemed to increase the horrors of the situation.
Furniture, hastily removed from the burning buildings, was piled in the streets; upon the grassy slopes, under the trees, were groups of frightened children, homeless and houseless, shrink- ing in abject fear from the fierce conflict of the elements of de- struction, while parents strove in vain to patch up some sort of protection for them from broken tables, dilapidated chairs and carpets torn hurriedly from the floors. Pandemonium reigned supreme.
The efforts of the fire brigade were paralyzed by the magui- tude of the havoc of the flames, and made little headway.
The last of the Confederates were gone; the Federals had not yet occupied the place, and the interval of no government, no law, no order, was but the signal for brutality, theft and degrad- ing displays of all unbridled passions turned loose upon a defence- less people that the most reckless imagination could conjure up.
An extract from the Richmond Whig, dated April, 1965, says: "After dark on Sunday the council held another conference, and this time, being assured by the Secretary of War that the Confederate pickets would be withdrawn from the Richmond front at three o'clock Monday morning, and that it was calcu- lated the city would be evacnated about night on Sunday, it was determined that a committee of prominent citizens should attend the mayor, with a flag of truce, to the intermediate line of forti- fications, and that there he might hand over the city to the gen- eral commanding the 'Army of the James.' Judge Lyons, Judge Meredith and several members of the council attended the mayor."
Pollard gives no account of the surrender of the city by the mayor. He says:
"When General Ord withdrew to the lines investing Peters- burg, he carried with him exactly one-half of his army: on the north side he left Major-General Weitzel. His command had or- ders to make as great a show as possible. A silence, complete and absolute, brooded over the contending lines, when the ene- iny's camp was startled by explosions heard at Richmond.
To Weitzel's brain, the full meaning of the event came home at ouce, and he did not need the confirmatory lurid light he saw hanging over the Confederate capital to tell him that the bour had come. His orders were to push on whenever satisfied of his ability to enter the city. He dispatched Major A. H. Stevens,
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of the 4th Massachusetts cavalry, and Major E. E. Gray, of his staff, with forty cavalrymen, to investigate the condition of af- fairs. The troops rode steadily into Richmond. On a trot, they proceeded to the capitol, and creeping to its summit, planted the Stars and Stripes, -- the colors of the enemy fluttered over the capitol of the Confederacy. On the occupation of the city by General Weitzel, about ten o'clock, he established his head- quarters in the capitol, and instituted measures to restore peace.
The citizens felt keenly the irony of fate which decreed that negro troops should be the first to enter the so long beleaguered city, but when General Weitzel at once ordered his soldiers to assist the fire brigade in extinguishing the flames, and by his firm restraint of reckless, insulting conduct on the part of his troops, he won the everlasting gratitude of a people who had suffered all that falls to the lot of mortals to suffer from the ter- rors of war. By evening, the progress of the flames was checked. but the wreck of fourteen blocks by fire, in width, through the very heart of the city, revealed an aspect of desolation impossi- ble now to retrieve, while the burning and shattering of homes in other parts of the city, by the explosions, completed the loss to individuals of far more importance than the gain of tobacco gunpowder, etc., would have availed to the United States.
With Confederate money worthless on their hands, little spe- cie in their possession, and no medium of exchange to procure the necessities of existence, in the face of all their difficulties. the military issued rations to the people, who were obliged to accept this assistance, or starve for want of sustenance.
General Weitzel issued the following order, as soon as his headquarters were established:
"HEADQUARTERS DETACHMENT ARMY OF THE JAMES, } "RICHMOND, VA., April 3, 1865. -
"Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, commanding detachment of the Army of the James, announces the occupation of the city of Richmond by the armies of the United States, under command of Lieutenant-General Grant. The people of Richmond are as- sured that we come to restore peace, prosperity and freedom, under the flag of the Union.
"The citizens of Richmond are requested to remain, for the present. quietly within their homes, and to avoid all public as- semblages or meetings in the public streets. An efficient pro- vost-guard will immediately re-establish order and tranquility during the day. Martial law is, for the present. proclaimed.
"Brigadier-General George F. Shipley, United States Volun- teers, is hereby appointed Military Governor of Richmond.
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"Lieutenant-Colonel Fred L. Manning, Provost-Marshal-Gen- eral, Army of the James, will act as Provost-Marshal of Rich- mond. Commanders of detachments doing guard duty in the city will report to him for instructions.
"By command of
"MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL. "D. D. WHEELER, Asst. Adjt .- Genl."
Brigadier-General G. F. Shipley, having been announced as Military Governor of Richmond, issued the following order:
"HEADQUARTERS MILITARY GOVERNOR OF RICHMOND, ) "RICHMOND, VA., April 3, 1865. 1
"I. The armies of the rebellion, having abandoned their ef- forts to enslave the people of Virginia, have endeavored to de- stroy by fire the capital city, which they could no longer occupy with their arms, Lieutenant-Colonel Manning, Provost-Marshal- General of the Army of the James, and Provost-Marshal of Rich- mond, will immediately send a sufficient detachment of the pro- vost-guard to arrest, if possible, the progress of the flames. The fire department of the city of Richmond, and all citizens inter- ested in the preservation of the beautiful city, will immediately report to him for duty, and render every possible assistance in staying the progress of the conflagration. The first duties of the armies of the Union will be to save the city doomed to destruc- tion by the armies of the rebellion.
"II. No person shall leave the city of Richmond without a pass from the office of the provost-marshal.
"III. Any citizen, soldier, or any person whatever, who shall hereafter plunder, destroy, or remove, any public or private prop- erty of any description whatever, will be arrested and summarily punished.
"IV. The soldiers of the command will abstain from any of- fensive or insulting words or gestures towards the citizens.
"V. No treasonable or offensive expressions, insulting to the flag, the cause, or the armies of the Union, will hereafter be al- lowed.
"VI. For the exposition of their rights, duties and privileges, the citizens are respectfully referred to the proclamation of the President of the United States in relation to the existing re- bellion.
"VII. All persons having in their possession, or under their control, any property whatever of the so-called Confederate States, or of any officer thereof. or the records or archives of any public office whatever, will immediately report the same to Colonel Manning, provost-marshal.
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"In conclusion, the citizens of Richmond are assured that with the restoration of the flag of the Union they may expect the restoration of that peace, prosperity and happiness which they enjoyed under the Union, of which that flag is the glorious symbol.
"G. F. SHIPLEY, Brig. - Gen. U. S. A., "and Military Governor of Richmont. '
Contrary to the expectations of the people, who had so often read the threats in Northern papers with regard to their city. the troops, officers and men, acted with so much quiet deliberation to secure the safety and well-being of the citizens as to awaken a great deal of wonder and appreciation of the leniency of a fue who had so long been thundering at their gates unsuccessfully.
So many "Ons to Richmond" had been hurled back with de- feat, that when the prize was at last within their grasp, it seemed to calm every exultant demonstration of delight, and inspire them with those nobler traits of forbearance, forbidding the utter annihilation of crushed hearts.
The spectacle of a beautiful city wrapped in flames lighted by a retiring enemy, of a lawless populace depradating urca the helpless, was such a scene of stupendous misfortune that gress ribaldry was arrested, lips that might have uttered imprecations were silenced, and the schemes of revenge, so long conjured up, were forgotten.
Not a bell was rung, not a bonfire lighted, but quietly. with the deliberation of a conscious possession of an end which for four years had been persistently sought, the captors proceedel to afford peace and protection to the captives, and bring order out of chaos.
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