thousand
two hundred and thirty-one. If we add to this the captures made during
the preceding week, and the thousands who deserted the failing cause at
every by-road leading to their homes, we see how considerable an army
Lee commanded when Grant "started out gunning."

With these brief and simple formalities, one of the most momentous
transactions of modern times was concluded. The Union gunners prepared
to fire a national salute, but Grant forbade any rejoicing over a fallen
enemy, who, he hoped, would be an enemy no longer. The next day he rode
to the Confederate lines to make a visit of farewell to General Lee.
They parted with courteous good wishes, and Grant, without pausing to
look at the city he had taken, or the enormous system of works which had
so long held him at bay, hurried away to Washington, intent only upon
putting an end to the waste and burden of war.

A very carnival of fire and destruction had attended the flight of the
Confederate authorities from Richmond. On Sunday night, April 2,
Jefferson Davis, with his cabinet and their more important papers,
hurriedly left the doomed city on one of the crowded and overloaded
railroad trains. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the
State departed in a canal-boat toward Lynchburg; and every available
vehicle was pressed into service by the frantic inhabitants, all anxious
to get away before their capital was desecrated by the presence of
"Yankee invaders." By the time the military left, early next morning, a
conflagration was already under way. The rebel Congress had passed a
law ordering government tobacco and other public property to be burned.
General Ewell, the military commander, asserts that he took the
responsibility of disobeying the law, and that they were not fired by
his orders. However that may be, flames broke out in various parts of
the city, while a miscellaneous mob, inflamed by excitement and by the
alcohol which had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed
from store to store, smashing in the doors and indulging all the
wantonness of pillage and greed. Public spirit was paralyzed, and the
whole fabric of society seemed crumbling to pieces, when the convicts
from the penitentiary, a shouting, leaping crowd of party-colored
demons, overcoming their guard, and drunk with liberty, appeared upon
the streets, adding their final dramatic horror to the pandemonium.

It is quite probable that the very magnitude and rapidity of