CH. XIV] GRANT - LEE 431 attempt was unsuccessful, demonstrated that there was still a great deal of fight in him and his army. The Union lines did not encircle Richmond and Petersburg, but left open an avenue of escape to the west and southwest. The Richmond and Danville railroad and its Petersburg connection, the Southside or Lynchburg railroad, which were the lines of supply for Richmond and Petersburg, were in operation. Grant "spent days of anxiety" lest Lee should abandon these places and, after getting away from him, either make a junction with Johnston, or, retreating by way of Lynchburg, secure himself in the mountain fastnesses and make a raid into East Tennessee. Should the two Confederates unite their forces he feared "a long, tedious and expensive campaign consuming most of the summer."1 Lee considered the two alternatives and preferred the union with Johnston; but, if Davis's memory may be trusted, Lee "never contemplated surrender" but, in emulation of a plan of Washington's, purposed as a last resort retreating to the Virginia mountains where he thought that he might carry on the war for twenty years.2 Taking all conditions into account the game was equal and was played with skill on each side. On March 29, Grant began his movement on his own left and at night had an unbroken line from the Appomattox river to Dinwiddie Court-House. From his headquarters in the field he wrote to Sheridan, "I now feel like ending the matter if it is possible to do so without going back." Two nights and a day of heavy rain interrupted operations, but on the 31st the advance was resumed, when Lee attacked the Fifth Corps and the Union cavalry and gained a temporary success. Sheridan in falling back, wrote Grant, "displayed great generalship." On April 1 Sheridan fought in a masterful way the battle of Five Forks, which resulted 10. R., XLVI, Pt. 1, 47, 50, 52. 2 J. Davis, II, 656. 432 EVACUATION OF RICHMOND [1865 in disaster to the Confederates. "He has carried everything before him" is Grant's account of this action. The General-in-Chief received the intelligence of the victory of Five Forks at nine in the evening and immediately ordered an assault on the enemy's line, which was made at an early hour next day; his army won a decisive victory.1 On the night of April 2, Lee evacuated Richmond and Petersburg, with the intention of concentrating his troops at Amelia Court-House, and making his way to Danville whence he would effect a junction with Johnston's army. After him, next morning, followed the Union forces in eager pursuit. As late as April 1, Davis apparently thought that there was no immediate necessity for the abandonment of Richmond. On the morning of Sunday the 2d he was at St. Paul's listening to the noble liturgy of the Episcopal Church; the clergyman was reading for the last time in his ministry the prayer for the President of the Confederate States. Here Davis was apprised by a messenger from the War Department of the gravity of the military situation. He left his pew quietly and walked out of the church with dignity to receive Lee's telegram which gave an account of his disaster and advised that Richmond be abandoned. The news spread rapidly, and so unexpectedly had it come upon the city that the greatest confusion and excitement prevailed as functionaries and citizens made ready for flight. Davis with all the members of his cabinet (except the Secretary of War), a number of his staff and other officials, got away at eleven o'clock in the evening on a train of the Richmond and Danville railroad and reached Danville next afternoon in safety. Under Lee's previous order, Ewell, who was in command of the troops in Richmond, directed that the tobacco in the city should be burned and 1 O. R., XLVI, Pt. 1, 53, 54, Pt. 3, 394. CH. XIV] OCCUPATION OF RICHMOND 433 that all stores which could not be removed should be destroyed. It is probable that the fires lighted in pursuance of this order spread to shops and houses and it is certain that in the early morning of April 3 a mob of both colors and both sexes set fire to buildings and "began to plunder the city." Ewell said in his report that by daylight the riot was subdued and Jones wrote that at seven o'clock in the morning men went to the liquor shops in execution of an order of the city government and commanded that the spirits be poured into the streets. The gutters ran with liquor from which pitchers and buckets were filled by black and white women and boys. By seven o'clock also the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederates was completed. The Union troops passed cautiously the first line of the Confederate works but as they met with no opposition, they went by the next lines at a double quick, and when the spires of the city came into view, they unfurled a national banner, and their bands striking up "Rally Round the Flag," they sent up cheer on cheer as they marched in triumph through the streets. But they found confusion, an extensive conflagration and a reign of pillage and disorder. Their commander, Weitzel, received the surrender of Richmond at the city hall at quarter past eight, and, by two o'clock in the afternoon, they had quelled the tumult and put out the fires but not before a considerable portion of the city had been destroyed. The Union soldiers were received by the white people gratefully and by the negroes with joy. Full of meaning was the visit of President Lincoln to Richmond, which was made from City Point next day in an unostentatious and careless manner. Proper arrangements had been made for his conveyance and escort but, owing to two accidents, |