Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[549] it was evident to General Shepley, who had prosecuted the inquiry, that the Confederates were leaving their capital.¹ then a deserter came in, and said they were; and his story was confirmed by a negro, who drove into the Union lines, in a buggy, at four o'clock.

Weitzel would have advanced upon Richmond at once, but for the known fact, that the ground in front of the intricate Confederate works was thickly strewn with terra-torpedoes. He waited until broad daylight, when Draper's negro brigade was put in motion. They found the road as they approached Richmond, thickly strewn with abandoned munitions of war. Cannons were left unharmed on the deserted works; and the place of every torpedo was marked by a little red flag. These indicators of their position had been placed there for the safety of the Confederates, and, in their hasty flight, they had forgotten to remove them.

General Weitzel's whole force moved toward Richmond, and at six o'clock, he and his staff, at the head of the Second brigade of the Third division of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps, commanded by General Ripley, were in the near suburbs of the town. At that time the shells in the burning arsenal were exploding, and these, with the roar and light of the flames,

the Virginia Capitol or State-House.

and the crashing of falling walls, presented a scene grand and impressive beyond description. Major A. H. Stevens, of the Fourth Massachusetts, and Major E. Graves, of General Weitzel's staff, were sent, with a small squadron of cavalry, to demand of the mayor, Joseph Mayo, the surrender of the city. They were courteously received, and the keys of the public buildings were handed to them, at the City Hall, at seven o'clock.

April 3, 1865.

Then they placed two small cavalry guidons on the top of the State Capitol. At eight o'clock, General Weitzel and staff rode in, at the head of Ripley's brigade of negro troops, who had