that he flourished in his hand. He hummed- my eye toward the Capitol building, and saw the worn-out old creature who had not sung that the flag raised to indicate that they were since his childhood-hummed, as he paced the in session had by mistake been put up that day platform, the few fragments he could remember bottom upward, and was in fact "Union down," of a worn-out old song. the signal of distress. Superstitious minds might have read in this apparent omen the coming doom of the Confederacy; but few, if any, took that view.

Following the instructions that had been given to him, Mr. Bashwood made his way as well as the crowd would let him along the line of car-that it became a matter of common remark and riages; and discovering no familiar face on that first investigation, joined the passengers for a second search among them in the custom-house waiting-room next.

He had looked round the room, and had sat-friend's one evening, his conversation was almost isfied himself that the persons occupying it were all strangers, when he heard a voice behind him, exclaiming, "Can that be Mr. Bashwood!"

NOTWITHSTANDIN Grivations and hard-sand, but had lost by sickness and desertion; so

The sermon over, the congregation joined in the | his telling us that the tobacco warehouses had Doxology to Old Hundred, accompanied by the been burned to prevent the tobacco from falling grand notes of the organ, and then reverently into the Federal hands, we knew that Petersdispersed. That was the last service ever to be burg was gone. held there under the Confederate Government. As I was passing out through the vestibule two friends came up, and said they wondered what could be going on; that there must be something of unusual importance; that the President and some of the other high functionaries had been sent for out of church; and that there was evidently some exciting news.

On leaving the church-door I saw a bank officer meet another one for whom he appeared to have been in search, and as I passed them I heard a few words indicative of trouble. Just then espying a young man whose connection with the Government ought to make him acquainted with any important intelligence, I asked him what it was that was producing such a ferment. He replied that he was not at liberty to communicate what he knew, but that there had been terrible fighting near Petersburg.

"Favorable or unfavorable ?"

"So far as we have heard not favorable." Then, in a subdued voice, he added, "I'll tell you that I shouldn't be surprised if we are all away from here before twenty-four hours."

This was news indeed! No wonder the President hurried out of church, and no wonder bank officers held solemn council.

About nine o'clock in the evening, the young man already referred to not having got off as soon as he had expected, came in and told my relative, who was anxious to get to his family. up the country, that his only chance was to go to the dépôt immediately, that the last Confederate trains would leave in the course of the night, and that to-morrow all intercourse would be cut off. Being better acquainted than my friend, and knowing he would encounter difficulties, I went with him to the dépôt. Arrived there, we encountered a file of soldiers obstructing the entrance, and the officer in command positively refusing admittance to any one who had not a pass from the Secretary of War. But that condition was an impossibility. Finding the Secretary of War, under such circumstances, would indeed be "like hunting a needle in a hay-stack." There was no other way, therefore, than just to stand our ground, hoping that something might "turn up." Numerous were the arrivals while we stood there, multitudinous the applications, appeals, and remonstrances, but all to no purpose. The man of the "stars" was inexorable.

In the course of an hour or two one of the trains moved off. "There goes the President and his Cabinet." And sure enough they were gone; and that was the last of the Confederate Government in its capital. The Argus-eyed sentinels must have a little relaxed their vigilance after this, for my friend, who had been on a reconnoissance, soon came back with the report that he had found a place where we could flank the guards and get into the dépôt. This we accomplished. But here a new difficulty had to be encountered. We could find no ad

Returning to the house of the friends with whom I was sojourning, and believing that there need be and could be no longer any secrecy about such events, I mentioned at the dinner-table what had been told me. The ladies were greatly agitated and distressed-apprehending violence from the dreaded "Yankees," and also lamenting the separation which the withdrawal of the Confederate army would make between them and their young relatives who were in it. In a moment the deep pall of un-mittance into the cars. There were numerous certainty and gloom was cast over every thing. trains-all, I believe, rough box cars-waiting What scenes that day or the next would dis-their turn to go. One after another of them close, who could tell?

we applied to, but in vain. One was the TreasBefore we had arisen from dinner one of the ury Department, another the Quarter-Master's young gentlemen of the family connected with Department, another the Telegraph Departa government bureau came in, with a counte- ment, and so on. Most of them contained lanance indicative of serious work, asking that dies as well as gentlemen. "Can't we get in his trunk might be gotten, and adding that they here?" "No! Impossible! we're crowded to were to be off at six o'clock that evening-that suffocation." Passing on to another: "Won't the city was to be evacuated! This was the you just let one gentleman in here? His home signal for every one of our little company to be and family are up the country, and he is anxon the move to save what he could. Silver-ious to get to them." "No, no! we're too full ware was quickly collected for hiding; watches already. This car is marked for 14,500 pounds, were gathered up to be sent away; spoons and and we have 18,000 in it now. We'll break forks likewise; and every preparation, practica- | down before we get five miles." ble in the short time and amidst the excitement and confusion, made for the speedily anticipated pillage.

In the course of the afternoon a relative of the writer came over from Petersburg, bringing us the first definite news of the breaking of the Confederate lines, and the disaster General Lee's army had experienced. Of the full extent of it, however, he was not aware. From

We were about giving up in despair, when there hove in sight a man with a lantern, escorting two gentlemen, whom he evidently intended to put into one of the cars. "Now," said I to my friend, "be on the alert, and when he pushes those two up I'll push you immediately following, as if one of the party." We did so, and succeeded. They found out the ruse, it is true, and I heard them berating my friend as an in

truder; but having the "nine points of the law," he held his ground. Many a day elapsed before I heard what became of him; but I had the satisfaction of seeing him safely out of Richmond, for I stood there until his train was gone, and indeed until all were gone. One after another they rolled off; the guards dispersed; and the dépôt was forsaken and desolate, never more to be visited by Confederates.

their mercy. What will be the fate of this beautiful city? what the fate of these hitherto happy homes? what the fate of these noble-hearted and lovely women? The accounts which we had received of the burning and pillage of Columbia were fresh in our minds.

After seeing the last of the Confederate Government I did what not very many in Richmond did that night-went to bed and slept soundly About half past four o'clock in the morning I was awakened from profound slumbers by a tremendous concussion. But I fell asleep again, and slept until about half an hour longer, when I was aroused by what might almost have awakened the dead. The earth seemed fairly to writhe as if in agony, the house rocked like a ship at sea, while stupendous thunders roared around. This was the blowing up of the Confederate magazine; and this was the opening gun of the august and sublime pageant of that ever-memorable day. Soon after the flames burst out from the tobacco warehouses, set on fire to prevent the tobacco from becoming spoils

Some were very slow to realize what was going on. While engaged in our efforts to get a place in the cars a clerical friend came up, and, recognizing us in the dark, asked if there was any chance of getting away. He said that he had been preaching down on the lines some six or seven miles below the city, and that in the afternoon the colonel of the regiment where he was advised him that he had better go up to Richmond. This, however, our friend not wishing to do, and finding that the colonel seemed to be getting his command ready to move, he thought he would go over to another point on the lines and spend the night there. But on arriving there he found that they also were go-to the enemy, and proving the cause of the tering to Richmond. As he now had no place to stay, he concluded, though reluctantly, to go along. As they advanced the numbers tending that way thickened, but still for some time he did not see the true state of the case, and it was not until he was half-way to Richmond that the unwelcome truth at last flashed upon him. He was under the influence of this fresh discovery when he encountered us in the dépôt-his mental perturbations by no means allayed by the struggle to get off, and particularly by the fact that when I pushed him up into the same car into which I had thrust my relative they repelled him; so that when I last saw him he was in a most disconsolate and hopeless condition. But he must have got off after all, as I heard of him afterward in North Carolina.

During our long tarrying at the dépôt one of the batteries from below-the last, it was saidcame up, carrying torches and cheering, I suppose to keep their spirits up. They moved off over the bridge, thus completing the departure of the entire army from our side of the river, and thus completing also the abandonment of the capital of the Southern Confederacy.

The curtain had now fallen on one act of the stupendous drama; it was soon to rise on what, in its opening at least, would prove even more striking and impressive. But the interval between the two acts was one of painful suspense. The Government and army which for years had guarded and protected us was gone; that other army which had been stretching out its hands in vain to grasp this most coveted prize-that army which had come so near that they could hear our church-bells and we could see the flash and smoke of their guns-that army which had been so repeatedly foiled, and with such sore disappointment and terrible slaughter-that army, probably by this time exasperated and infuriated to the last degree, was to be upon us with the dawn of the coming day, and we helplessly at

rific conflagration which ensued. The bridges across the river-one of them the lofty Petersburg Railroad bridge, about a mile long-were speedily long lines of flame; while on the side of the city the devouring element set to work in fearful earnest. The fire had scarcely got fairly under way when the arsenal, containing, it was said, seven hundred and fifty thousand loaded shells, and the dépôts of cartridges and fixed ammunition, with the laboratory and its combustibles, began to explode. This was not instantaneous, but continuous, resembling the cannonading and musketry of a heavy battle, and lasting through most of the day.

Imagine our condition, left by our own army and anticipating the enemy's; the entire business part of the city on fire-stores, warehouses, manufactories, mills (Galligo's the largest in the world), dépôts, and bridges-all, covering acres, one sea of flame, and as an accompaniment the continuous thunder of exploding shells, and in the midst of it that long, threatening, hostile army entering to seize its prey-imagine all this, and you will probably conclude that those who were there will not soon forget that third day of April, 1865, in Richmond.

Our unwelcome visitors were not so quick to avail themselves of the now open door into Richmond as we had anticipated, some hours elapsing before the first of them made their appearance. My host, anxious to get his ship in order for the coming storm, went down to his place of business early in the morning, and returning soon afterward, announced to us that "the Yankees" were in the city, he had seen the first of them pass up Main Street. It would be impossible to convey to any one not of our way of thinking and feeling the impression produced by that piece of intelligence; the disappointment and regret, the realization that all we had been looking and hoping and struggling for through weary years was gone, and that all we

had most deprecated had come; that our mortal foe was at last in the fruition of the spoils he had most desired; that the fortunes of war had made him our master, and placed us in the position of a conquered people. Such thoughts, mingled with anxiety as to what was to be our fate, flowed freely through our minds when assured beyond all doubt that "the Yankees" were in the city.

Notwithstanding the uncertainty as to how far it would be safe for a citizen to venture out, I determined to make the experiment, and see what was to be seen. Never expecting and fervently hoping never again to have the opportunity to see a victorious army enter a conquered capital, I was willing to run some risk. Moreover, I wished if possible to save some valuable papers I had down town from what now threatened to be an almost unlimited conflagration.

tion of elegant and luxurious repose was the happy consummation to which she congratulated herself this glorious day was to introduce her.

Becoming after a while sufficiently assured to venture beyond our post of observation in the Powhatan piazza, I pushed through the swarthy crowd around into Governor Street, just opposite the Governor's house. Scarcely had I reached this point when the first body of colored cavalry came moving up the hill. Their appearance called forth a greeting from their brethren in the streets. No sooner had the cavalry fairly comprehended by whom they were surrounded than they returned the greeting with a will, rising in their stirrups, waving their flashing sabres, their white eyes and teeth gleaming from rows of dark visages, and rending the air with wild huzzas. Considering that they had been slaves, that they were suddenly released and armed, and that they were now entering our city as conquerors, one could not look upon these men without a shudder at the possible impending horrors. Passing on down Governor Street I persevered until I reached Main Street. Here the spectacle again was most remarkable. The progress of the fire rendered it certain that the contents of the stores and shops would be destroyed, and hence, possibly, the throngs of negroes set to the work of helping themselves to whatever they liked. Here would come one rolling before

I found the streets thronged with the black population, but almost absolutely and literally forsaken by the whites. Richmond seemed in a night to have been transformed into an African city. On getting down as far as the Powhatan House, opposite the Capitol, I at length espied one white man, and as he proved to be an old acquaintance I joined him, and we stood together in the piazza looking on at the spectacle. The United States flag was floating from the Capitol-a sight which had not been seen for many a day; but instead of taking the place of the Confederate flag, it was put up, through some mistake, on the opposite end of the build-him a barrel of flour; here another with a bag ing, thus occupying the place of the State flag; of coffee or sugar upon his back; another with and thus, as some facetiously suggested, unin- a bag full of shoes; another with four or five tentionally symbolizing the triumph of Federal bolts of cotton cloth on his head; another with centralized power over States Rights. The au- a bolt of woolen goods under his arm; a woman thorities were probably never apprised of the with an armful of hoop-skirts; a girl with a faux pas, inasmuch as the Stars and Stripes box of spool thread-and so on through the were still waving over the old Virginia end of crowd. But yesterday these articles-run at the building when I left, some weeks after- great risk and expense through the blockadeward. were bringing fabulous prices; to-day he who wills may have them for the carrying away. Never in the history of Richmond were the colored population so well stocked with necessaries and luxuries.

En

Some of the troops had stacked their arms in the Capitol Square, and were gazing curiously around; others were marching thither through the street before us. The latter attracted much attention from the colored crowds who thronged Continuing to thread my way through the the sidewalks. I watched with some interest crowd, I reached the point on Main Street for the swarthy spectators, anxious to see how they which I was aiming. The papers I was in quest regarded the advent of those whose coming of were in a room on the fourth floor, which had promised to introduce them to liberty and po- to be reached through a store on the first-floor, litical equality. A large portion of them-very a tailor's shop on the second, and so on. much the largest, I think-simply looked on, tering the store, whose doors were wide open, I as upon any other novel and remarkable spec- saw no one but a colored man, who was filling tacle. Here and there a man waved his hat a bag with shoes from the shelves, all the while and huzzaed. The most marked demonstra- talking to himself, and swearing he would have tions were the shaking of hands by those near- them. And have them he did, for there was no est with the passing troops, much of which was longer any one there to dispute his right. Asdone. Some of the women courtesied and bowed cending to the tailor's shop I found it deserted, at a great rate. One little weazened-faced old and the rolls of cloth for which hundreds of dolwoman, her head crowned with a conical tur- lars a yard had been asked lying there waiting ban, seized a soldier's hand in both of hers, and to be burned up. While getting together my shaking it up and down like a pump-handle, papers the flames burst through the windows said, "Welcum, masta! you's welcum! Glad opposite, and came lashing half-way across the to see you, Sah-glad to see you! Thank de street. There was no time to lose; and as I Lord, dese hands do no mo' wurk!" A condi-emerged from the front-door the heated atmos