d the flight of the Confederates from
Richmond. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, carrying with them their more
important state papers, left the doomed city on one of the crowded
and overloaded railroad trains on the night of April 2, beginning a
southward flight that ended only with Mr. Davis's capture about a
month later. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the State
departed hurriedly on a canal-boat in the direction of Lynchburg, while
every possible carriage or vehicle was pressed into service by the
inhabitants, all frantic to get away before their city was "desecrated"
by the presence of the Yankees. By the time the military left, early on
the morning of April 3, the town was on fire. The Confederate Congress
had ordered all government tobacco and other public property to be
burned. The rebel General Ewell, who was in charge of the city, asserts
that he took the responsibility of disobeying, and that the fires were
not started by his orders. Be that as it may, they broke out in various
places, while a mob, crazed with excitement, and wild with the alcohol
that had run freely in the gutters the night before, rushed from store
to store, breaking in the doors, and indulging in all the wantonness of
pillage and greed. Public spirit seemed paralyzed; no real effort was
made to put out the flames, and as a final horror, the convicts from the
penitentiary, overpowering their guards, appeared upon the streets, a
maddened, shouting, leaping crowd, drunk with liberty.

It is quite possible that the very size and suddenness of the disaster
served in a measure to lessen its evil effects; for the burning of seven
hundred buildings, the entire business portion of Richmond, all in the
brief space of a day, was a visitation so sudden, so stupefying and
unexpected as to overawe and terrorize even evildoers. Before a new
danger could arise help was at hand. Gen. Weitzel, to whom the city
surrendered, took up his headquarters in the house lately occupied by
Jefferson Davis, and promptly set about the work of relief; fighting the
fire, issuing rations to the poor, and restoring order and authority.
That a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this work of mercy must
have seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their
cup of misery.

Into the rebel capital, thus stricken and laid waste, came President
Lincoln on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world
has the head of a mighty nation