Bitter Bitter Tears

The Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia fell to Union control April 3^rd 1865.

Union General Ulysses S Grant had been working toward a takeover of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia for nearly ten months.  On April 1^st 1865 Grant crushed Confederate Robert E Lee’s line at Five Forks, and Grant kept up the pressure the next day all along the Confederate’s Petersburg line.  Lee’s line collapsed.  That same night the Confederate government in Richmond evacuated the city leaving on the last open railroad line, with the army leaving right behind them.  As the Confederate soldiers left, they set fire to the armory, bridges and warehouse, a fire that burned out of control and spread through the city.

On the morning of April 3^rd 1865 the mayor and some other elite citizens surrendered Richmond, and Union troops entered the capital city.  The Union soldiers fought and put out the fires, but not before it burned about 10% of the city.  Mary Fontaine a resident of Richmond, Virginia wrote that she "saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent."  Among the first Union troops to enter the city were the black troops of the 5^th Massachusetts Cavalry, many of the city’s residents considered this proof that their world was over.

President Abraham Lincoln toured the city just a few days later with his son Tad.

Lincoln Toures The Confederate Capital

Two day after the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, Virginia; on April 4^th 1865 President Abraham Lincoln toured the former capital.

President Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas Tad Lincoln visited the former Confederate Capital of Richmond, Virginia on April 4^th 1865.  Just days after the Confederate forces evacuated, leaving the city in smoking ruins.  Lincoln who had only 12 soldiers as escort was quickly mobbed by former slaves as he made his way to the previous Confederate White House then being used as the Union military headquarters. He hoped to meet with his commanding general, but instead was faced with a delegation of Southerners looking for the war to be brought to an end.

Following the meeting Lincoln and his son rode through Richmond by carriage, making visits to Libby Prison and other famous sites around the city.  Once they reached Rocketts Landing, Lincoln and Tad boarded the USS Malvern.  The next morning Lincoln left Richmond.

Union Admiral David Dixon Porter said of the President’s trip to Richmond, "I should have preferred to see the President of the United States entering the subjugated stronghold of the rebels with an escort more befitting his high station, yet that would have looked as if he came as a conqueror to exult over a brave but fallen enemy. He came instead as a peacemaker, his hand extended to all who desired to take it."