Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

War between the States
April 1865


A distraught President Davis wrote General Lee that he had "been laboring without much progress to advance the raising of Negro troops" and he admitted, "The distrust is increasing and embarrasses in many ways."  "I think it is absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position tonight", telegraphed General Lee to President Davis in Richmond.  The Confederate capital of Richmond was doomed and with it the whole Petersburg-Richmond front.  At 4-40AM, Federalized advances under way and was everywhere successful.  Horatio Wright's Sixth Corps dashed through the defenses to the South Side railroad.  Along Hatter;s Run the Confederate lines vanished.  West of Boynton Plank Road, Lt. General A.P. Hill was killed.Lee determined to hold inner fortifications until night enabled him to withdraw.  The delaying action at Forts Gregg and Baldwin did buy enough time for new lines to be formed.  In a few places the Confederates stiffened in the afternoon but it was obvious they had to pull out.  Orders were issued in midafternoon to evacuate Petersburg and for the defenders north of the James River to retreat through Richmond and join the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The retreat soon began with Amelia Court House, some forty miles west, the concentration point.  Federals may have numbered over 63,000 engaged with 625 killed, 3189 wounded and 326 missing for 4140 total. Possibly 18,500 Confederates were engaged; losses are unknown.  During the day Lee told an officer, "This is a sad business, colonel. It has happened as I told them in Richmond it would happen.  The line has been stretched until it has broken."

In Richmond a messenger had entered St. Paul's Church as the minister gave the prayer for the President of the Confederate States.  Mr. Davis left quietly and went to his office to hear of the disaster to Lee's army. Mrs. Davis and the children had already left the capital. By 11 PM, Davis and most of the Cabinet departed on a special train for Danville VA.  Scenes in Richmond were heart-rending as the news spread.  Many wept openly and then prepared eiher to stay and face the enemy or to attempt evacuation.  Rail stations were jammed and the streets filled with many of the local citizens and refugees crowding the city.  Soon the unruly began looting.  Inmates broke from the state prison and the Local Defense Brigrade was unable to keep order.  Government records were either sent away or burned.  Cotton, tobacco, and military stores were set afire, and the fires soon raged out of control; others were set by looters. Shells from the arsenals roared upward as the main section of Richmond became a great inferno.  Many business houses, hotels, and residences, factories and warehouse were destroyed.  In the James River, Confederate gunboats exploded shaking the city.

After four years and many threats, Richmond at last was falling.  On the train going into the night toward Danville, "Silence reigned over the fugitives."  But the Confederate government still existed in transit, the war was not quite over.


  Return to Civil War Index


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast