Richmond in the American Civil War
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Richmond, Virginia, served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the vast majority of the American Civil War. It was the target of numerous attempts by the United States Army to seize possession of the capital, finally falling to the Federals in April 1865.
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[edit] Early war years
Historically an area steeped in the plantation and slavery culture, Richmond's aversion to the slave trade was growing by the mid-nineteenth century. In 1848, Henry "Box" Brown made history by having himself nailed into a small box and shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, escaping slavery to the land of freedom.
By the time of the 1860 census, Richmond ranked as the 3rd largest city in what later became the Confederacy, but it was only 25th in size in the United States, with a population of 37,910.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the strategic location of the Tredegar Iron Works was one of the primary factors in the decision to make Richmond the Capital of the Confederacy. From this arsenal came much of the Confederates' heavy ordnance machinery. In 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America. One month later Davis placed Richmond under martial law. Two months after Davis' inauguration, the Confederate army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War had begun.
Tredegar Iron Works made the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimack), which fought the first battle between ironclad warships in March 1862.
[edit] Peninsular Campaign
In 1862, the Peninsula Campaign, led by General George B. McClellan, was a Union attempt to take Richmond, beginning from Union-held Fort Monroe at the eastern tip of the Virginia Peninsula at Old Point Comfort. Efforts to take Richmond by the James River were successfully blocked by Confederate defenses at Drewry's Bluff, about 8 miles downstream from Richmond. The Union march up the Peninsula by land culminated in the Seven Days Battles. Ruses to make the defending forces seem larger by General John B. Magruder, Richmond's defensive line of batteries and fortifications set up under General Robert E. Lee, a daring ride around the Union Army by Confederate cavalry under General J.E.B. Stuart, and an unexpected appearance of General Stonewall 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 falling, the failure of the Peninsula Campaign to take Richmond led to almost three more years of bitter and bloody warfare between the states.
[edit] Richmond under siege
The Confederacy hit its high-water mark at Battle of Gettysburg in mid-1863. Subsequent campaigning in the balance of the year failed to bring a decisive battles, and Richmond residents settled down to the winter of 1863–64 mostly still optimistic about the Confederacy's fortunes. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign resulted in Robert E. Lee's Confederate army retiring to the vicinity of Richmond and Petersburg, where they checked Grant's progress. Grant decided to lay siege to the Confederates. This eventually caused the fall of Richmond, which was a crushing blow to the confederacy.
[edit] Fall of Richmond
After a long siege, Confederate General Ulysses S. Grant captured Petersburg and Richmond in April 1865. As the fall of Petersburg became imminent, on Evacuation Sunday, President Davis, his Cabinet, and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond, and fled south on the last open railroad line, the Richmond and Danville. The retreating soldiers were under orders to set fire to bridges, the armory, and warehouses with supplies as they left. 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 (now State Route 5) and surrendered the city the next day.
President Abraham Lincoln, who had been staying nearby at City Point, toured the fallen city by foot with his young son Tad, and visited the former White House of the Confederacy and the Virginia State Capitol. Also, about one week later after the evacuation of Richmond, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant ending the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. Unfortunately for the South, within the same week, Lincoln was assassinated in Washington D.C.. Northern leadership would deal much more harshly with the fallen states than Lincoln had planned
[edit] Richmond's Civil War heritage
The city has a number of markers and monuments commemorating the Civil War and the town'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) were J.E.B. Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Matthew F. Maury.
Richmond is the final resting place of both Stuart and Davis, as well as many other Civil War notables (see Hollywood Cemetery).
The Richmond National Battlefield Park, a unit of the National Park Service, maintains several battlefields from the Peninsula Campaign and subsequent actions. The White House of the Confederacy houses a museum. A driving tour is well marked (Virginia Civil War Trails).
[edit] External links
- Richmond in the Civil War
- Virginia Historical Society exhibition, The Story of Virginia: Becoming Confederates
| U.S. cities in the Civil War |  |
|---|---|
| North: Cincinnati - Cleveland - Harrisburg - New York City - Philadelphia - Washington, D.C. Border / disputed states: Baltimore - Louisville - Romney, WV - St. Louis South: Atlanta - Charleston - Columbia - Mobile - Nashville - New Orleans - Petersburg - Richmond - Selma - Vicksburg - Winchester - Wilmington |
