Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

But the horrours of that night in the Confederate capital were to be studiously veiled from the eyes of the enemy. The Federal force on the north side of James River consisted of three divisions under the command of Gen. Weitzel; while Gen. Ewell covered this approach to the capital with a force about four thousand strong. The Confederates were silently withdrawn from Weitzel's front, their rear-guard traversing the city before daybreak. Weitzel had been instructed to push on, whenever satisfied of his ability to enter Richmond. During the whole day that Grant had been engaged in front of Petersburg, the entire lines north of the James were perfectly quiet. Weitzel's command had orders to make as great a show as possible. He fired no gun during the day, but as darkness came on, he set all his bands of music to work upon national airs. The Confederates vied with the musical entertainment; for many hours the night was filled with melodious strains. But about midnight a complete and absolute silence fell upon the lines. It was a dead quiet; a close mask to what was taking place in the doomed city; and not until the morning hours did the direful blazon in the sky proclaim to Weitzel that his hour had come and that Richmond was at his mercy.

There had been but little sleep for the people of Richmond in the night which preceded their great misfortune. It was an extraordinary night; disorder, pillage, shouts, mad revelry of confusion. In the now dimly-lighted city could be seen black masses of people, crowded around some object of excitement, besieging the commissary stores, destroying liquor, intent perhaps upon pillage, and swaying to and fro in whatever momentary passion possessed them. The gutters ran with a liquor freshet, and the fumes filled the air. Some of the straggling soldiers passing through the city, easily managed to get hold of quantities of the liquor. Confusion became worse confounded; the sidewalks were encumbered with broken glass; stores were entered at pleasure and stripped from top to bottom; yells of drunken men, shouts of roving pillagers, wild cries of distress filled the air, and made night hideous.

But a new horrour was to appear upon the scene and take possession of the Community. To the rear-guard of the Confederate force on the north side of James River, under Gen. Ewell, had been left the duty of blowing up the iron-clad vessels in the James and destroying the bridges across that river. The Richmond, Virginia, and an iron ram, were blown to the winds; the little shipping at the wharves was fired; and the three bridges that spanned the river were wrapped in flames, as soon as the last troops had traversed them. The work of destruction might well have ended here. But Gen. Ewell, obeying the letter of his instructions, had issued orders to fire the four principal tobacco warehouses of the city; one of them — the Shockoe warehouse-situated near the centre of the city, side by side with the Gallego flour mills, just in a position and circumstances