3 April 1865 A.D. Confederate Richmond Falls to Union
3 April 1865 A.D. Confederate Richmond Falls to Union
Editors. “1865 – The Rebel capital of Richmond falls to the Union, the most significant
sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days.” This Day in
U.S. Military History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/april-3/. Accessed 1 Apr 2015.
1865 – The Rebel capital of Richmond falls to
the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final
days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to
infiltrate the city. After Lee made a desperate attack against Fort Stedman
along the Union line on March 25, Grant prepared for a major offensive. He
struck at Five Forks on April 1, crushing the end of Lee’s line southwest of
Petersburg. On April 2, the Yankees struck all along the Petersburg line, and
the Confederates collapsed. On the evening of April 2, the Confederate
government fled the city with the army right behind. Now, on the morning of April
3, blue-coated troops entered the capital. Richmond was the holy grail of the
Union war effort, the object of four years of campaigning. Tens of thousands of
Yankee lives were lost trying to get it, and nearly as many Confederate lives
lost trying to defend it. Now, the Yankees came to take possession of their
prize. One resident, Mary Fontaine, wrote, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and
I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” As the
Federals rode in, another wrote that the city’s black residents were
“completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women
kissed.” Among the first forces into the capital were black troopers from the
5th Massachusetts Cavalry, and the next day President Abraham Lincoln visited
the city. For the residents of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned
upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were
possible to be erased, but that cannot be.” 1865 – Battle at Namozine
Church, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign).
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