.jpg)
Richmond, Virginia, served as the capital of theConfederate States of America during theAmerican Civil War from May 1861 to April 1865. Besides its political status, it was a vital source of weapons and supplies for the war effort, as well as the terminus of five railroads; as such, it would have been defended by theConfederate States Army at all costs.
The Union made many attempts to invade Richmond. In thePeninsula Campaign of 1862, GeneralGeorge McClellan moved up theJames River, almost to the suburbs of the city, but was beaten back byRobert E. Lee in theSeven Days Battles. In 1864–65,General Ulysses S. Grant laid siege to nearbyPetersburg. By April 1865, the Confederate government realized the siege was almost over and abandoned the city lest they be captured. The retreating Confederates chose to burn military supplies rather than let them fall into Union hands; the resulting fire destroyed much of central Richmond.
In the1860 United States census, Richmond was the 25th largest urban area in the United States, with a population of 37,910.[1][2] The city had been the capital of Virginia since 1780, and became the third largest city in the Confederacy.[3]
TheConfederate States of America was formed in early 1861 from the first states to secede from the Union.Montgomery, Alabama, was selected as the Confederate capital.
After the Confederate Army fired onFort Sumter inCharleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, beginning theCivil War, additional states seceded. Virginia voted to secede from the Union on April 17, 1861, ratified its secession by popular vote on May 23, and existed briefly thereafter as a republic before joining the Confederacy on June 19, 1861. However, on May 8, 1861, in the Confederate Capital City ofMontgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond in recognition of Virginia's strategic importance. Virginia was the South's industrial center, with an industrial output nearly equal to that of all other Confederate states combined. The Confederacy also hoped the move would consolidate its hold on the state since it had difficulty securing other states bordering the Union.[4]
TheSeal of the Confederate States, adopted April 30, 1863, features a depiction ofGeorge Washington based on theWashington Monument adjacent to the Confederate Capitol building.
Richmond remained the capital of the Confederacy until April 2, 1865, at which point the government evacuated and was re-established, albeit briefly, inDanville, Virginia.[5]
Positioned on theFall Line along theJames River, the city had ready access to an ample supply ofhydropower to run mills and factories.
TheTredegar Iron Works, sprawling along theJames River, supplied high-quality munitions to the Confederacy during the war. The company also manufacturedrailroadsteam locomotives in the same period. Tredegar is also credited with the production of approximately 10,000 artillery pieces during the war which was about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery between the war years of 1861–1865. The foundry made the 723 tons of armor plating that covered theCSSVirginia (the formerUSS Merrimack), which fought the firstbattle betweenironclad warships in March 1862. The Tredegar works were adjacent to theRichmond Arsenal, which was recommissioned in the lead-up to the war. OnBrown's Island, the Confederate States Laboratory was established to consolidate explosives production to an isolated setting in the eventuality of an accidental explosion.
Numerous smaller factories in Richmond produced tents, uniforms, harnesses and leather goods, swords and bayonets, and other war materials. As the war progressed, the city's warehouses became the supply and logistical center for much of the Confederate forces within theEastern Theater.
Richmond was also a transportation hub. It was the terminus of five railroads: theRichmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad; theVirginia Central Railroad; theRichmond and York River Railroad; theRichmond and Petersburg Railroad; and theRichmond and Danville Railroad. In addition, theJames River and Kanawha Canal ran through it with access to theChesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. At the fall of Richmond in April 1865, all but the Richmond and Danville Railroad and the canal had effectively been cut off by Union forces.
In the late spring of 1862, a large Federal army under Major GeneralGeorge B. McClellan landed on theVirginia Peninsula. McClellan, who had enjoyed early publicity from a series of successes inwestern Virginia, was assigned the task of seizing and occupying Richmond. His military maneuvers and the resulting battles and engagements became collectively known as thePeninsula Campaign, culminating in theSeven Days Battles.
McClellan's starting base was the Union-heldFort Monroe at the eastern tip of the Peninsula. Efforts to take Richmond by the James River were successfully blocked by Confederate defenses at theBattle of Drewry's Bluff on May 15, about eight miles downstream from Richmond. The Union Army advance was halted shortly outside of the city at theBattle of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1, 1862 (near the site of what is nowRichmond International Airport).
Over a period of seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, Richmond's defensive line of batteries and fortifications set up under GeneralRobert E. Lee, a daring ride around the Union Army by Confederate cavalry under GeneralJ.E.B. Stuart, and an unexpected appearance of GeneralStonewall Jackson's famous "foot cavalry" combined to unnerve the ever-cautious McClellan, and he initiated a Union retreat before Richmond.
Even as other portions of the South were already falling, the failure of the Peninsula Campaign to take Richmond led to almost three more years of warfare between the states.
As a result of its proximity to the battlefields of theEastern Theater and its high level of defense, the city processed many casualties of both sides: as home to numerous hospitals (the largest such beingChimborazo Hospital), prisons (notablyLibby Prison,Castle Thunder, andBelle Isle), and various cemeteries.
On March 13, 1863, the Confederate Laboratory on Brown's Island was rocked by an explosion that killed dozens of workers.
On April 2, 1863, the city was beset by a largebread riot as housewives could no longer afford very highfood prices and broke into stores. The riot was organized byMary Jackson, ahuckster and the mother of a soldier.[6] The militia was called out to end the riot.[7]
The Confederacy hit itshigh-water mark at theBattle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Subsequent campaigning in the balance of the year failed to bring about a decisive battle, and Richmond residents settled down to the winter of 1863–64 mostly still optimistic about the Confederacy's fortunes.
One of the Civil War's most daringprison breaks, theLibby Prison escape, took place in February 1864 when more than 100 Federal captives escaped and fled into the night. Fewer than half were recaptured, with the majority reaching Union lines and safety. The city was shaken shortly thereafter by the March 2, 1864Dahlgren Affair, a failed Union raid on the city.
Ulysses S. Grant's 1864Overland Campaign resulted inRobert E. Lee's Confederate army retiring to the vicinity ofRichmond andPetersburg, where they checked Grant's progress.
After along siege, Grant captured Petersburg and Richmond in early April 1865. As the fall of Petersburg became imminent, onEvacuation Sunday (April 2),President Davis, his Cabinet, and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond and fled south on the last open railroad line, theRichmond and Danville.
The retreating soldiers were under orders to set fire to bridges, and supply warehouses as they left. This included exploding the Powder Magazine in the early morning of April 3, at theShockoe Hill Burying Ground, where theAlms-house was also located. The explosion killed several of the paupers who were being housed in a temporary Alms-house, and a sleeping person on 2nd St. The concussion shattered windows all over the city.[8] The fire in the largely abandoned city spread out of control, and large parts of Richmond were destroyed, reaching to the very edge of Capitol Square mostly unchecked. The conflagration was not completely extinguished until the mayor and other civilians went to the Union lines east of Richmond on New Market Road (nowState Route 5) and surrendered the city the next day. Union troops put out the raging fires in the city. The event became known as theEvacuation Fire. The occupation was overseen by GeneralGodfrey Weitzel and later GeneralEdward Ord.
PresidentLincoln, who had been visiting General Grant and staying nearby atCity Point, toured the fallen city (April 4–7) by foot and carriage with his young sonTad, and visited the former White House of the Confederacy and the Virginia State Capitol.
About one week after the evacuation of Richmond,General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9 ending theBattle of Appomattox Courthouse. Within the same week, on the evening of April 14,President Lincoln was assassinated inWashington D.C. by the Confederate sympathizerJohn Wilkes Booth.
.jpg)
Richmond'sHollywood Cemetery is the final burial place of many Civil War notables, including Jefferson Davis,Stuart, former U.S. president and Confederate CongressmanJohn Tyler, Virginia Governors and Confederate GeneralsHenry A. Wise andWilliam "Extra Billy" Smith, Tredegar Iron Works owner and Confederate Brigadier GeneralJoseph Reid Anderson, and Major GeneralsGeorge Pickett,Fitzhugh Lee,Henry Heth, andJohn Imboden. A large, stone pyramid dominates the Confederate Soldiers' section, where over 18,000 (many of whom are unknown) Confederates are buried.
War dead were also buried atOakwood Cemetery,Shockoe Hill Cemetery, and the Confederate Soldiers section of theHebrew Cemetery. Numerous Union dead who were buried at these sites were re-interred after the war to severalnational cemeteries outside of the city. Over 600 Union Prisoners of War had been originally interred in theShockoe Hill African Burying Ground, and removed in 1867 to theRichmond National Cemetery.[8][9]
The city used to have a number of markers and monuments commemorating the Civil War and the city's role in the Confederacy.Monument Avenue was laid out in 1887, with a series of monuments at various intersections honoring the city's Confederate heroes. Included (east to west) wereJ.E.B. Stuart,Robert E. Lee,Jefferson Davis,Stonewall Jackson, andMatthew F. Maury.
TheRichmond National Battlefield Park, a unit of theNational Park Service, maintains several battlefields from the Peninsula Campaign and subsequent actions. A driving tour through Civil War sites in Richmond and its surrounding counties is maintained byVirginia Civil War Trails. TheWhite House of the Confederacy (part of the private, non-profit Museum of the Confederacy) has been fully restored to its wartime appearance and is open for daily tours. Immediately next door to the White House, the internationally renownedMuseum of the Confederacy houses the largest comprehensive collection of artifacts and personal effects relating to the Confederacy. Other museums include theVirginia Historical Society. Astatue of Lincoln, commemorating his visit to the former Confederate capitol, was unveiled in 2003, causing controversy.[10]
TheCharlie Daniels Band song, "Trudy", compares the taking of Richmond by Grant with the narrator saying that he was "raking in chips like Grant took Richmond" in a poker game.
In1969The Band released "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which features the lyric, "...by May the 10th (1865) Richmond had fell, it was a time I remember oh so well". On May 10, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, fleeing Richmond and having dissolved the Confederate government, was captured by Union forces in Irwinville, Georgia.[11]
The Richmond-based punk bandLove Roses features an image of the famousCurrier and Ives print of the city burning as the cover art for their albumA New Reason for the Same Old Mistakes.
