Existing comment:
On April 2, the day after Union general Philip H. Sheridan overwhelmed Lee's right flank, Union general Ulysses S. Grant broke through the Petersburg lines in three places. Lee retreated westward the same day, leaving Richmond without defenses against the Union army.
Confederate troops set fire to military, tobacco, and cotton warehouses before evacuating the city across Mayo's Bridge.
Fires started by the evacuating army soon spread through the city's commercial and industrial districts. That night, the powder magazine on 47th Street exploded, and in the morning, the ironclad ships of the James River Squadron were blown up to prevent their capture by Union forces. |