April 2: The Fall and Burning of Richmond

Today was the day the South had feared. General Grant launched an all-out assault on the Confederates defending Richmond. After fierce fighting starting at sun-up the U.S. troops succeeded in breaking Lee's lines.

Lee informed Jefferson Davis, who was at Palm Sunday church services, that he could no longer defend Richmond, so the Confederate government prepared to flee with all the valuables they had left. By the afternoon all Richmond citizens knew and chaos ensued. By 11pm President Davis and his cabinet left by train to Danville VA.

Southern generals were ordered to destroy anything that could help the Union forces so they set fires that quickly got out of control. Liquor was poured in the streets to prevent approaching Union soldiers from drinking and rampaging, but Southerners drank the liquor from the streets and rampaged themselves.

Witnesses described Richmond that night, April 2, as "hell." And as yet no Union forces had entered the city. Southerners had done all this to themselves.