BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- State Capitol -- Exhibit: Eye on the Capitol

VA -- Richmond -- State Capitol -- Exhibit: Eye on the Capitol:

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Description of Pictures: Eye on the Capitol
Beginning April 2, 2015, the Virginia General Assembly will showcase a new exhibition in the gallery of the Capitol Extension, accessed by the public from the Bank Street entrance. Called Eye on the Capitol, this exhibit was developed in partnership with the Capitol Square Preservation Council, and will run for several months to support spring and fall fieldtrips as well as the summer tourist season.
Eye on the Capitol takes the visitor from the lead-up to the evacuation of the Capital City and its burning on April 2, 1865, to occupation by Federal troops and officials, and to the beginnings of recovery and rebuilding on new foundations. The Capitol and Square and environs are seen through the words of eye witnesses and the images of artists, map-makers and photographers of the day. Eye on the Capitol provides a visual and content-rich experience to teach about this defining period of our shared journey as a nation.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SCAPEC_150602_001.JPG: Eye on the Capitol An exhibition by the Virginia General Assembly in partnership with the Capitol Square Preservation Council
2. SCAPEC_150602_005.JPG: Eye on the Capitol: With this exhibition, Eye on the Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly takes visitors into and around the Capitol through the eyes of witnesses, period artists and unblinking photographers. Their remarkable words and works captured our nation's defining conflict, its suffering and loss, its hopes and promises, and the steps on the road to rebuilding and redemption. Timed for the 150th commemoration of the end of the Civil War as the conflict came to Richmond and across the threshold of the Capitol in April 1865, this exhibition provides a visual and thematic touchstone for visitors to explore our shared history of strife, struggle, and upheaval, and our rebirth as a people committed to a more perfect union.
3. SCAPEC_150602_020.JPG: A Southern City Transformed: By 1861, the once rough-and-ready riverside settlement of Richmond had become a teeming city of 40,000, one in five of whom were immigrants. A third were blacks, enslaved and free, whose labor had long contributed to Richmond's growth and development. The population multiplied during the war as rural Virginians sought refuge from the battle-torn countryside. Smokestacks, factories, mills, shops, crowded marketplaces -- some engaged in the horror of human trade -- a beehive of activity on the waterfront, and the sights and sounds of ships, trains, and canal boats, all marked the city as a place of economic manufacturing might and as a vital transportation hub. At its visual heart stood Jefferson's Capitol on its hill above the hustle and bustle, the literal centerpiece and symbol of influence and power. With its location just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, and as home to the Confederacy's largest and most effective army, Virginia was "ground zero" of the Civil War. Just as the Union had to retain Maryland to keep the Confederacy from surrounding the capital, it had to secure Virginia to win the war. As President Abraham Lincoln long understood, the General Ulysses S. Grant agreed, securing Virginia meant defeating the army of General Robert E. Lee, whose charge was to defend Richmond, a vibrant capital city now remade by war in expectation of the coming storm.
4. SCAPEC_150602_024.JPG: Legislator's Desk, from Confederate Hall of Congress circa late 1861 This desk was bought after the war by Mrs. J.W. Hughes when the furniture at the Capitol was sold at auction. It was used by an unknown lawmaker in the Hall of Congress, located on the second floor near the south portico. The present-day Old Senate Chamber occupies a portion of that same space. "Within an arrow's shot from St. Paul's [Church], in the State capitol on Capitol Square, were the halls of the late Confederate Congress. I visited them only once and found them a scene of dust and confusion -- emblematical. The desks and seats had been ripped up, and workmen were engaged in sweeping out the last vestiges of Confederate rule. The furniture was already at an auction room on Main Street, selling under the hammer. "I reported the fact to Mr. C___, of the Union Commission, who was looking for furniture to be used in the freedmen's schools, and he made haste to bid on the relics. I hope he got them, for I can fancy no finer poetical justice..." -- John T. Trowbridge, Northern travel writer
5. SCAPEC_150602_029.JPG: "Throughout the life of Richmond as a capital, the streets were peopled with soldiers on their way to or from the several headquarters. There was an unintermitting beatings of drums..." -- Virginia Tunstall Clay, wife of US and CS Senator Clement C. Clay These two images, the first a steel engraving and the second a lithograph, show Richmond from the south in the 1850s with its already vibrant manufacturing presence along the James River, an important transportation link to other parts of Virginia and beyond.
6. SCAPEC_150602_033.JPG: This 1854-56 reverse-image daguerreotype of downtown Richmond, as seen from Church Hill to the east, shows many prominent landmarks still evident today. Note the Capitol in the center background, and the Executive Mansion to its left. The spire of St. Paul's rises between the Capitol and the Mansion. The notorious slave holding facility, Lumpkin's Jail, is seen in the center of the middle ground just a few blocks from the Capitol. Richmond was the largest domestic slave trading center, second only in size to New Orleans, which had a large international trade.
7. SCAPEC_150602_043.JPG: Published in 1862 in New York, this map of Richmond and the surrounding area was drawn by engineer Charles Sholl and engraved by W. Kemble. The map of the city's defenses shows roads, rivers, railroads, and batteries. Relief is shown in hachures.
8. SCAPEC_150602_046.JPG: Civil War Trust The 1864 Overland Campaign May 5-June 15, 1864 Map prepared for the Civil War Trust by Steven Stanley
9. SCAPEC_150602_050.JPG: "It was evident to all older and graver people that the iron belt surrounding the southern country was being gradually drawn closer and her vitality in mortal peril of exhaustion..." -- Constance Cary Harrison, wife of Burton Harrison, Private Secretary to President Jefferson Davis
10. SCAPEC_150602_057.JPG: Civil War Trust The Siege Patersburg June 15, 1864 - April 3, 1865 Map prepared for the Civil War Trust by Steven Stanley These representations of the Overland Campaign, and of the action in and around Petersburg, were created for this exhibit by the national battlefield preservation organization, the Civil War Trust of Washington, DC. Of the 123 national significant battles fought on Virginia soil, a full third took place during the Overland Campaign and the siege of Richmond and Petersburg.
11. SCAPEC_150602_059.JPG: Confederate Evacuation and the Great Conflagration: In May 1864, Grant crossed the Rapidan River and launched his Overland Campaign against Lee and the city, fighting a series of bloody battles for the next month and a half while maneuvering south to either draw Lee into a decisive battle or force him into a siege to hold Richmond and the vital rail center at Petersburg. In mid-June it became a siege. Grant extended his lines south and west around Petersburg, attacking the Confederate lines there and at Richmond, and compelling Lee to stretch his lines and spread his men even more thinly. Almost ten months later, on April 1, 1865, the Federals turned Lee's right flank at Five Forks, a dozen miles west of Petersburg. The next day, the Breakthrough came early in the morning at Petersburg. By late that Sunday morning, the news came from Lee to Confederate President Jefferson Davis during services at St. Paul's Church in Richmond. Davis ordered the city evacuated. As word spread, so did chaos in the streets. Trains carried Davis and other Confederate officials west in the afternoon. Wishing to leave little to Union hands, the evacuating army destroyed bridges, boats, and supply stores. After midnight on April 3, on orders, Confederate soldiers set fire to two tobacco warehouses, and two separate fires spread throughout the city's commercial and industrial core, burning small businesses as well as homes. Residents flocked to Capitol Square for news and safety, and huddled while looters rampaged and firefighters battled fires.
12. SCAPEC_150602_062.JPG: This Currier and & [sic] Ives lithograph, created by the firm quickly from an earlier image of Richmond, depicts the evacuation and burning of Richmond on April 2, 1865. Retreating Confederates are shown crossing the Mayo Bridge to the south side of the James River as the city burns in the background.
13. SCAPEC_150602_067.JPG: This illustration, after a war time sketch by W.L. Shepard, depicts citizens displaced by the evacuation fires as they huddle on Capitol Square for safety and fresh air, their belongings around them.
14. SCAPEC_150602_071.JPG: This illustrated title page from "Lee and His Lieutenants," by Edward A. Pollard, 1867, depicts Union troops entering Richmond on April 3, 1865, while it still burns. Note the Capitol is shown as the focal point of the illustration.
15. SCAPEC_150602_074.JPG: "No thought of evacuation before 1 o'clock on this day [April 2] and by midnight the evacuation was completed." -- John C. Rutherfoord, Virginia House of Delegates, Goochland County
16. SCAPEC_150602_076.JPG: This south-up map, drawn on stone by Charles L. Ludwig and published in 1865 by W.I. Smith, shows the burnt city districts from the fires of April 2, 1865.
17. SCAPEC_150602_085.JPG: "The whole river front seemed to be in flames, amid which occasional heavy explosions were heard, and black smoke spreading and hanging over the city..." -- Edward Porter Alexander, Brigadier General, CSA
18. SCAPEC_150602_086.JPG: This image from the collections of The Valentine looks east from Gamble's Hill to the Capitol, evacuation damage in view to the right.
19. SCAPEC_150602_088.JPG: This image looking south through the fence that surrounds Capitol Square even today, is from the collections of the Library of Congress.
20. SCAPEC_150602_091.JPG: This composite created from images in the collections of the Library of Congress, looking north from beside the Customs Building and across Bank Street to the Capitol, shows debris and ruins in the foreground.
21. SCAPEC_150602_095.JPG: This photograph from the collections of the Library of Congress shows the destruction of buildings from fire up to the very threshold of Capitol Square.
22. SCAPEC_150602_099.JPG: This panoramic view from the collection of the Library of Congress shows the devastation that resulted from the Confederate evacuation fire on April 2, 1865.
23. SCAPEC_150602_102.JPG: "Cavalier" Historical Figurine, before 1865 In 1977, Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Washburn of New Hampshire returned this small brass statuette to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Family tradition states Mr. Washburn's grandfather, Charles Watson Washburn, took it from the State Capitol in April of 1865. Washburn served as a musician in Co. G of the 13th New Hampshire Infantry. This regiment was among the first Federal troops to enter Richmond on April 3, 1865, and performed military occupation duties in Manchester until June 1865.
24. SCAPEC_150602_109.JPG: The Life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1833: In 1940, this illustrated volume was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia by Mr. Aubrey J. Drummond of New York. Mr. Drummond's father, Alonzo J. Drummond, visited the Capitol on April 20, 1865, and took this book as a souvenir. Drummond wrote that he took the book from the desk of the Confederate Speaker of the House of Representatives (Thomas Bocock of Appomattox County). The Speaker's desk was located in the Hall of Congress.
25. SCAPEC_150602_113.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress it taken from the water looking north to the Capitol, flying the Stars and Stripes. Damage from the evacuation fire is extensive along the riverfront.
26. SCAPEC_150602_117.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress is looking south from Capitol Square through the fence that still surrounds the Square. Beyond the tethered horses and men of the 4th Massachusetts is evidence of extensive fire damage south to the river.
27. SCAPEC_150602_125.JPG: "Dense black clouds of smoke arose as a pall of crape to hide the ravages of the devouring flames, which lifted their red tongues and leaped from building to building..." -- Sallie Brock Putnam, Richmond resident and memorist
28. SCAPEC_150602_127.JPG: This image of the Capitol from the south to the portico is from the collections of the Library of Congress. Broken windows and other signs of damage to the Capitol can be seen. Matthew Brady is shown in the right hand foreground in a top hat.
29. SCAPEC_150602_130.JPG: Union Occupation and Rebuilding Anew: The Union army entered the city from the east soon after sunrise on April 3, and set to work to contain and extinguish the fires, and quickly replaced flags over public buildings and opened offices inside the Capitol, Governor's Mansion and City Hall to restore order. As smoke still rose from the ruins, Lincoln determined to visit, telegraphing US Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that same evening: "It is certain that Richmond is in our hands and I think I will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself." Arriving at Rocketts aboard Admiral David D. Porter's flagship on April 4, and then transported by rowboat to 17th Street, Lincoln first walked on foot through the streets. He attracted an expectant crowd, including jubilant former slaves, and later went by carriage to Capitol Square. For the Union, occupation meant distributing food amid scarcity, providing housing in fire-ravaged areas, managing taxes and rents, and restoring social order. Railroads and river crossings were reestablished to transport food and goods. The cleanup began immediately, as ruins were pulled down and bricks were carefully stacked for reuse. The city's rebuilding soon began and would continue for years to come. Rebuilding is more than bricks and mortar. The Civil War brought momentous change, and both desolation and jubilation to Richmond and its diverse people. These people lived their lives in the eye of the storm. After 1865, white and newly enfranchised black citizens began to rebuild their state, not just on architectural footings, but on new political foundations. Former Confederate soldiers as well as civilians recommitted themselves to the Union, and Virginia and the nation took the first steps on the ongoing journey to achieve the promise of our American principles. The Virginia General Assembly reconvened in the Capitol in December 1865. From 1867 to 1868, the Virginia Constitutional Convention met in the Capitol with 104 members, including 24 elected black delegates. The state constitution they crafted enabled Virginia to rejoin the Union in 1870, and to takes [sic] it place among the United States.
30. SCAPEC_150602_134.JPG: This image from the collections of The Valentine, looks west from Libby Hill, likely taken after the Civil War. It is included to show the direction from which Union troops first entered Richmond early on April 3, 1865, their sights set on the Capitol in the background.
31. SCAPEC_150602_136.JPG: "The rebellion is virtually at an end, and... freedom and the Union will henceforth maintain their supremacy..." -- Thomas Morris Chester, African-American correspondent, Philadelphia Press
32. SCAPEC_150602_137.JPG: This engraving depicts President Abraham Lincoln entering Richmond the day following the city's surrender into Union hands on April 3, 1865. Although smoke had not yet cleared, the President and his youngest son Tad, with only a small party to protect them, made their way through the streets surrounded by large jubilant crowds.
33. SCAPEC_150602_143.JPG: "When the president passed through the Capitol yard it was filled with people. Washington's monument and the Capitol steps were one mass of humanity to catch a glimpse of him." -- Thomas Morris Chester, African-American correspondent, Philadelphia Press "Upon reaching the Capitol whose flagstaff waved the Stars and Stripes in place of the stars and bars, the party halted for a few moments to enjoy the panorama spread before them..." -- George T. Dudley, US Corps of Engineers
34. SCAPEC_150602_151.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress looks west from Capitol Square to St. Paul's Church on Grace Street. Two young men are shown right of center in the middle ground selling items. Also evident just outside the Capitol fence on the left are what appear to be ambulances, perhaps being used as taxis. Note the presence of Union officers and guards.
35. SCAPEC_150602_154.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress looks west across Capitol Square to just north of Grace Street. A sign in the center foreground warns against walking on the grass and prohibits camping; nonetheless, in the background are tents and clothing, apparently drying on the fence.
36. SCAPEC_150602_158.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress was taken on April 14,1865. It shows Union and Confederate men intermingling casually on Capitol Square. The moment and mood were fleeting; that evening President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington and died soon after, leaving a nation in shock.
37. SCAPEC_150602_160.JPG: This unusual image from the collections of the Library of Congress was taken from a window inside the Capitol looking down on the Washington Equestrian Monument.
38. SCAPEC_150602_166.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress shows General Charles Devens and other officers on the portico of the Virginia Executive Mansion. During the siege of Petersburg, Devens commanded the 3rd division of the XXIV Corps. His troops were among the first to occupy Richmond in April 1865.
39. SCAPEC_150602_169.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress shows Francis H. Pierpont, Provisional Governor after the war, sitting on the porch of the Virginia Executive Mansion, likely 1865. Pierpoint is joined by a group of other people.
40. SCAPEC_150602_177.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress shows men, women and children, and blacks and whites, outside the US Christian Commission, a religious charitable organization. Located at 10th and Broad Streets, the Commission is seen from Capitol Square.
41. SCAPEC_150602_184.JPG: This illustration depicts Confederate soldiers taking a loyalty oath to the Union in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol at the close of the Civil War. Copied from Harper's Weekly, June 17, 1865.
42. SCAPEC_150602_186.JPG: This illustrates depicts crowds gathered for a meeting on August 29, 1865, at the Capitol to reaffirm the loyalty of Virginians to the United States after the Civil War. Copied from Harper's Weekly, Volume 9, 1865.
43. SCAPEC_150602_189.JPG: This image from the collections of the Library of Congress is a view of the Capitol from the south at Cary Street and across Main Street. It shows rebuilding underway after the Civil War. Note the Exchange Bank to the right in the middle ground and its new windows.
44. SCAPEC_150602_192.JPG: This image from the collection of the Library of Congress shows rebuilding in progress. Note the appearance of a railroad trestle in the center of the picture, and what appears to be a lumber yard to its left.
45. SCAPEC_150602_196.JPG: This image from the collection of the Library of Congress shows early efforts to clean up after fire. Ruins have been pulled down and bricks are neatly stacked on Bank Street across from Capitol Square near the Customs Building.
46. SCAPEC_150602_199.JPG: This image from the Collections of the Library of Congress shows a railroad construction camp, including former slaves, located in the outskirts of Richmond.
47. SCAPEC_150602_207.JPG: This illustration depicts the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1867-68, in the Capitol. The 104 members, including 24 African-Americans, wrote a new state constitution that permitted Virginia to rejoin the United States in 1870.
48. SCAPEC_150602_209.JPG: "We brought Government, Order, and Heaven born liberty." -- Henry Swift DeForest, Chaplain, 11th Connecticut Infantry
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