![]() ![]() “As I walked up between 5 and 6 in the morning of Monday, the 3rd, to catch the early train,” wrote observer Francis Lawley, “a vast column of dense black smoke shot into the air … as the eye ranged backwards along the James River, several bright jets of flame in the region of Pearl and Cary streets augured the breaking forth of that terrible conflagration, which subsequently swept across the heart of the city. “Women and boys, black and white, were seen filling pitchers and buckets from the gutters,” wrote John B. ![]() ![]() In a well-intentioned but disastrous move, the Confederates emptied hundreds of whisky kegs onto the streets. ![]() The last regiments to leave Richmond had orders to destroy the ordnance depots to keep them from enemy hands, and to dispose of the city’s liquor supply. Some of the guards on the trains were boys, barely in their teens. Every car was crowded with refugees more were riding on the roofs and clinging on to the sides. First went the government train, followed by the Treasury’s, and finally the government archives. The trains began rumbling out of Richmond at 11 o’clock. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. ![]()
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