THE FALL OF RICHMOND.
Graphic Description of Events of Evacuation-Day.
SURPRISE AND CONSTERNATION.
Faith in Lee and His Men so Great That Both Citizens and Officials Were Unprepared for
Abandonment of City-From Gay to Grave-
Boys and Their Plunder-Searching for "Bev." Tucker-
Personal Recollections of General Meade.
The following personal reminiscences of the evacuation of Richmond are contributed to the
Dispatch's Confederate Column by Rev. Dallas Tucker, now of Bedford City:
In this article I do not propose to describe any of the military operations which led up
to the evacuation of Richmond nor, of course, what occurred in connection with it in
official circles. Of these, I was then too young a lad to know really anything, and I am
not now sufficiently informed or competent to write on these subjects. What I shall record
here will be, as the title indicates, reminiscences of things which came under my personal
observation, and in which, as a youngster, I took part. Years, indeed, have passed since
these things occurred but the tremendous impression they made upon me has never been
effaced, and is to-day as fresh in my minds as though they were of yesterday.
As I recall that period, nothing seems more remarkable to me than the absolute surprise
the fall of Richmond caused in Richmond itself. Whether or not it was anticipated by the
government, I do not know; but there can be no doubt that outside of official circles-
that is, to almost every one in the city-the announcement came with the unexpectedness and
surprise of an earthquake. My father , * who, at the commencement of the struggle, entered
the Confederate army as a surgeon, was at the time, in charge of to connected with the
medical department of Libby Prison, and, from both his official
---------------
*Dr. David Hunter Tucker, son of Hon. Henry St George Tucker and grandson of Judge St.
George Tucker's Medical Author and Emeritus Professor, Medical College of Virginia.
---------------
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position and social standing, had more than usual opportunity for observing and knowing
the trend of events. But I am sure neither her nor one of his associates who lived with us
had the least idea that the end, in near, was at all so imminent as it proved to be. Among
the people generally I do not think it was seriously thought of, certainly, boys like
myself did not do so. The fact is, though several times threatened by raiders, and
although we had often heard the cry, "They Yankees are coming," yet, Richmond
had come to be regarded, through its long practical siege, as an impregnable Gibraltar,
and the army defending it as invincible as a Grecian phalanx.
Time and again "Uncle Bob," as the soldiers lovingly and familiarly called
General Lee, had hurled back the advancing forces of the Federal army, and it was felt
that as long as Lee stood for the defence of Richmond, Richmond was safe. I remember,
indeed, that as a boy I left some anxiety when the conqueror of Vicksburg was placed in
command of the Army of the Potomac; but it never seriously occurred to me, or to any one
else, that Lee would not successfully with General Grant, and this conviction grew
steadily stronger as the former defeated the latter in battle after battle, from the
Wilderness to the Crater before Petersburg. On the other hand, the people little realized
with what an ever-increasing superior force General Lee had to contend, how attenuated his
lengthened line of defence had become, and how decimated and nearly starved his army was.
But however explained, the fact remains-I am sure it was a fact among my playmates-that as
late as Sunday morning, April 3, 1865-the fatal day-there was hardly a thought among the
people that such a thing as the evacuation of the city was either near or probable. Final
success was expected. Confidence prevailed. A sense of security remained, except, as may
have been the case,in high official circles. Mr. Davis, of course, must have known much of
which I and 10,000 like were absolutely ignorant; but even Mr. Davis was in church on that
eventful day, seemingly as placid and confident as others, and certainly as attentive to
the services as any one present. As there was nothing, so far a least as the people
generally knew, in either the political or military condition of thighs to betoken the
approaching collapse, neither did external nature suggest- supposing it to have such
power-anything of the kind. There were no physical portends for superstition to feed on.
On the contrary, the day was as perfect a day as Richmond had ever seen; the budding
trees, the flowers of spring, the balmy atmosphere, the clear sky, bright sunlight, all
combining to make it
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a spring-day of unsurpassed loveliness. Then, too, it was Sunday; and this, strange as it
may seem, added somewhat to its quiet, sweet brightness. Richmond had enough during those
four years to make it said, and where were, indeed, many mourners and much sorrow.
STARVATION PARTIES.
But in the midst of all this there was, as I recollect, much gayety also. This was not
merely rejoicing over a victory which seemed to bring final success nearer, but that
social gayety which nature demands, and in which, it would seem, a people must indulge,
even when otherwise heavily oppressed. Thus it was that crowds promenaded on the Capitol
Square, afternoon after afternoon, to music furnished by the government or city, walking,
talking, and laughing. In house after house the young people met at what were called
"starvation parties" to enjoy "the feast of reason and the flow of
soul," to dance and make merry, and to do, indeed, everything usual on such
occasions, except eat. Food was the severest problem in those days. Richmond laughed while
it cried, and sang while it endured, and suffered and bled. With all the suffering in and
around it, Richmond was yet not a sad place during the war. And of all days, taking it as
a whole, there was none during which, in at least some respects, life assumed a more
stirring and animated appearance than on Sunday. On this the streets, especially in the
president portion of the city, were thronged with people, variously dressed, but all
dressed in their best, going to some church, for Richmond was then, and still is, for
aught I know, a great church-going place. Among these churches to which, perhaps, an
unusually large crowd might have been seen going on Sunday. April 3, 1865, none was more
popular and has become so historically interesting as St. Paul's. Architecturally, this
church always seemed to me a rather strange combination of the Greek temple surmounted by
a tall, graceful spire. But, nevertheless, it is a noble, dignified building, at the
corner of Ninth and Grace streets, near the main gate of the Capitol Square, and within
almost a stone's throw of the Washington monument. Its rector then, and for years before
and after, was Rev. Charles Minnegerode, a German by birth, who had come to this country
in consequence of some revolutionary complications in the Fatherland. He was a small man,
striking in personal appearance, of great learning, earnest religious faith, strongly
southern in his patriotism, eloquent in the use of the English language, which, however,
he spoke with a slight German accent. If it be said this
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church was the fashionable one of the fashionable one of the city, nothing more is
intended than a large parentage of the wealth, the refinement, the culture of Richmond was
found among its members. Moreover, officialism for the most part found its religious home
in this church. Here General Lee worshipped when in the city, and here also Mr. Davis and
his family were seen Sunday after Sunday, and many others whose names stood high in both
the legislative and executive departments of the Confederate Government.
In its church, it was my privilege to be brought up, and its dear old rector was my father
in the faith, as ever Paul was such to Timothy. With boys of that day-certainly with me-it
was as customary to go to church on Sunday as it was to go to school during the week, and
this memorable Sunday found me in my proper place, and yet, by a strange accident, not
exactly in my place either. Our family pew was No. 15, and here along with the family I
usually sat, but on this particular Sunday, for some reason I cannot now recall, I was
allowed to go up into the gallery, which I well remember to have considered a great
privilege and liberty. The church on that day was thronged as usual and my seat on the
front row of pews was on exact line with the President's pew down stairs, so that I not
only saw him, but had a full view of the congregation except that portion immediately
beneath me. It was inspiring to look down on that throng of beautiful women and
fine-looking men assembled to worship Almighty God. But this was as nothing compared to
the scene destined to take place then and there. For it was here that Mr. Davis was
notified that General Lee's lines had been broken, and Richmond would have to be
abandoned. How can I describe how this was done, and the wild, terrific scene which
followed. The morning service proper had been concluded, and Dr. Minnigerode was
delivering one of his stirring and fervid communion addresses (for the communion was a
follow), when the sexton of the church was seen to walk up the aisle. He was a large,
pompous, swaggering kind of a fellow, whose Sunday costume at the time was a faded blue
suit with brass buttons and a short with waving ruffles at the bosom and wrists. His
supreme delight, aside from keeping us boys in order, was seemingly to walk up the aisle
with a message for some one. On this occasion his manner was in perfect keeping with is
usual consequential sir, only it was more so, for this time he was the bearer of a message
to the President of the Southern Confederacy. Gently and respectfully touching Mr. Davis
on the shoulder, he handed him something, whereupon the latter immediately arose and
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left the church. I have often through since then that moment must have been the most
trying one in Mr. Davis' remarkable career, Yet, whatever his feelings, and they must have
been excruciating, his self-control was perfect, and he withdrew from the sacred edifice
with a quiet grace and dignity that was not only superb, but well calculated to disarm
suspicion and allay excitement. I can see now his lithe, erect, stately figure as it
disappeared down the aisle, and I shall never forget it, for it was the last time I ever
saw him. His withdrawal was so quiet that the service was in no wise interrupted, and I
believe it would have been concluded in the usual way but for what followed. Hardly had
Mr. Davis disappeared than the sexton came in again and spoke to General Joseph R.
Anderson, who at once went out. This made people look up and shoot inquiring glances at
each other. Then the sexton came again, and the excitement became manifest. But when the
sexton appeared the fourth time, all restrain of place and occasion yielded, and the vast
congregation rose en mase and rushed towards the doors. I sat still for a moment,
wondering and withal listening to the preacher's earnest appeal to the people to remember
where they were and be still. Good Dr. Minnigerode, he might just a well have tried to
turn back the waters of Niagara Falls. Something had happened, and the congregation knew
it without being told, and nothing could have kept the people in the church. At any rate
nothing did, and I went along with the crowd, excited and alarmed. If the scene in the
church was all excitement, outside the vast crowd that thronged the spacious church porch
and the pavement beyond was standing for the most part in dumb, bewildered since. I shall
never forget the first thing which met my eyes as I gained the open street. Just across
the street in a large house there were a number of government offices, and before these,
in the middle of the street, were several piles of government documents burning their way
to destruction. I think these burning papers were the first intelligent intimation the
people had of what was occurring. They told me, as they told others, and it was pathetic
to see that crowd meld away, too full of foreboding and anguish to express the surprise
and despair which possessed every mind.
I have no recollection how the rest of that Sunday was spent, but I do remember that
before it closed there was a widespread impression that the rumors and fears of the early
morning were false. When my father's friend, Dr. Harrison, came home that night he told us
it was a false alarm; that here had been a crisis, but it was
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safely passed. It may seem strange, but such was our unwillingness to believe the worst,
and such our confidence in Lee and his army, that in the absence of any official
announcement we all went to bed that night feeling little or no concern. I do not know how
many others in the city did this, but we did, and, what is more, we slept the sleep of the
just until suddenly awakened in the early hours of Monday morning by a tremendous shock,
which rocked the house and rattled the windows. At first we thought it was an earthquake,
but very soon concluded, from the terrific report, it must be an explosion of some kind.
It was not long before we learned it was, in fact, the blowing up of the government powder
magazine just beyond the city limits. Then we knew for sure the fears of the day before
were not idle fears. With the advancing morning all doubts were dissipated, and as the sun
rose it shone with fiery redness through a dense blackness, which at first we took to be
heavy clouds, but soon saw in reality a great volume of smoke passing over me city from
south to north. Richmond was on fire. My first impulse, as this became a settled fact, was
to go and see for myself what was happening in the lower part of the city. I was deterred,
however, from carrying out this impulse at once by certain household duties. I had to go
to market, and my experience there must not go undecided. Food was the scarcest thing in
Richmond towards the close or the war. Money, such as it was, was the most plentiful. It
seemed to grow on tress. At the time of the evacuation, we had an unusual quality of it,
which, in consequence of its bulk, was kept in a box in a closet. Arming myself with the
inconsiderable sum of $500, I sallied forth to make such purchases as I might be able to
do for our day's need. When I arrived at the market-house I found only one butcher's stall
open, and noticing here a piece of mutton about as big as my two first. I asked the price.
I was only after some persuasion that the kindly butcher let me have it for $250, which I
paid at once. Then seeing a grocery store open on the next square, I went there, and
offered to purchase several things, but could only get three quarts of black eye peas, for
which I paid $25 a quart. This closed my marketing operations for that day, and I went
home with my mutton and peas in my basket, and $175 change in my pocket. I had some
feeling, as I did so, that I had been greatly imposed on my these voracious merchants, but
events showed me, and I have ever through those purchases the cheapest I ever made. Free
now to indulge myself, I started off down town. On my way I was joined by several friends
of about my age,-,
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now one of Richmond's most distinguished lawyers; ---, at present a leading merchant of
the same place, ---, now dead, and others whose names I cannot recall. Together we
hastened down Main street, and soon stood face to face with a fire, which was destined, as
the day grew longer, to lay in ashes almost the whole of the business portion of the city.
At that early hour it had not reached much north of Cary street, but such was its
fierceness and the rapidly with which it was spreading that, in sheer despair, warehouse
after warehouse was thrown open, and the gathered crowd of hungry, despairing people were
told to go in and help themselves. Pell-mell they went, without regard to position in
life. I remember to have seen one of the richest men in the city going up the street with
what I was told was a bold of red flannel under one arm and a bolt of something else under
the other. Naturally I and my friends, like others, suited our action to the opportunity,
and to the word of permission, and went in where to some extent angles might have feared
to tread. For these was some danger in doing this. I remember how several times, when we
were on the second or third story floor of a large building, the cry would be raised:
"This ouilding is one fire; get out quickly"; and down we would scramble, only
to try our fortune elsewhere. I do not recall how long this looting continued, but the net
result of it was ridiculously small, as I remember. We had all filled our hands, our
pockets, and our arms with such things as we could find, and when the pillaging was over,
we each had a great variety of things of one kind or another. Some had, however, more
shoes, or more stockings, or more of something else than others, and we decided to
equalize things by exchanging. With this in view we went to an alley running from Main to
Cary street, where we dumped the booty into the pile, and proceeded to distribute it
equally. I remember the spot well, not only because of what has already been said, but
because it was while standing here, thus engaged, that we were startled by the cry:
"The Yankees are coming." And, sure enough, there came the advance guard of the
Federal army up Main street. Now we were, or at least we thought we were, a lot of very
brave fellows, but I must say the alarm and sight of the Federal troops so demoralized the
whole crowd that we took to our heels, leaving almost all of our booty in the alley. The
only thing I took home with me was a pair of rough, tanned, brogan shoes, such as
corn-field hands might wear. These, however, I did save, and in the hard times that
followed they were the only shoes I had for months.
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In the excitement and stampede which followed the appearance of the Northern army our
party became separated, and I have no recollection of how the others reached their homes.
But what happened to me is as distinct in my mind to-day as it was the day after it
occurred. I was living at that time on Seventh street, between Clay and Leight, and my
most direct way home was to go diagonally through the Capitol Square, entering it at
Eleventh and Bank street and leaving it a Ninth and Capitol. This route I took. It carried
my by the old Library Building, since destroyed, then by the from of the Capitol itself,
and so by the Washington Monument. When I arrived here my experiences of the day reached a
final climax. When I started up town a few minutes before, the Federal advance force of
occupation was coming up Main street. This street was followed until Ninth street was
reached, where a turn was made to the north in the direction of St. Paul's Church, and
just as I reached the Washington Monument, I was little less than horrified to see the
troops entering the Square through the main entrance facing Grace street. In my youth I
was not, at least, notoriously either a bad or cowardly boy, but that sight, so new and
unexpected, was rather too much for my surprised nerves, and for one thing I quickly
betook myself to the largest tree I could find and hid myself. Here I stood as the
soldiers swept into the Square, passed the Monument, and went on to the Capitol. It was
then only a few minutes later- so my memory serves me-that I saw the United States flag
appear on the flag-pole above, where the Stars and Bars had floated for years. Four years
before this, on a day, I think, in this same month of April, my father, always a strong
secessionist, had taken me to this same Square to a great meeting in ratification of the
ordinance of secession, and I recollect to have seen then the flag of the Confederacy
raised on the Capitol where the Stars and Stripes had waved from time immemorial. Putting
the two things together. I have often said that, as a boy, I saw the Alpaha and Omega-the
beginning and the end-of the Southern Confederacy in old Virginia. As to the first, I was,
of course, far too young to in any way affected by it, but as to the latter, I must say,
as I stood behind that tree and saw what I saw, I remembered my dead soldier brother, what
we had suffered for what we deemed right, and my young heart was filled with bitter hate,
and my lips, which had never before uttered an oath, poured maledictions on our triumphant
foes. Than I went home, and so practically closed those two days in my
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life, which of all others will ever stand forth as living, dreadful pictures before my
mind.
HUNTING "UNCLE BEV."
Within a few weeks of the evacuation two things occurred, with an account of which these
reminiscences will be closed. One of these things is a somewhat unpleasant memory, and I
shall relate it first. It is, of course, well known that after the dastardly assassination
of Mr. Lincoln a reward was offered by the government for the arrest of certain Southern
gentlemen who were supposed to have been accomplices of J. Wilkes Booth. Among those thus
charged born babe, and utterly incapable, by nature, of having had anything whatsoever to
do with this deed. Nevertheless he was supposed at was offered for his apprehension. Some
timer after things had quieted down in Richmond, perhaps late in May or early in June, we
had a small company at our house, and among those present was a son of my uncle, who bears
his father's name. He is now quite a distinguished minister of the Episcopal Church,
having charge of the old historic parish of St. Paul's in Norfolk, Va. At the time of
which was given in honor of his brother's safe arrival home.
During the evening, a gentleman, whom we afterwards learned was General Dent, a
brother-in-law to General Grant, came to pay a visit to a Mrs. Young, occupying rooms on
the third floor, and to whom General Dent had been, and was always, uniformly most kind
Instead of ringing the bell at once, General Dent waited several minutes-so long, indeed,
as to create a pause in the conservation-and I was sent to the door. After asking for Mrs.
Young, he passed up to her parlor, but stayed so short a while as to cause some slight
remarks downstrais. Nothing much, however, was said, and after myself slept down in the
basement, and the rest of the family up on we were aroused by heavy footsteps on the
porch, and a vigorous ringing of the doorbell. At my father's suggestion I went to the
answered window, and opening it, asked: "Who is there?" Replying again to me,
our midnight visitor said, in a very commanding way: "Well, I wish him to dress at
once, and go with me to head-
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quarters. He is wanted there," This brought both my father and Dr. Harrison to the
window, where a vigorous conversation ensued. The party declined to give his name or
authority or i any way to explain his conduct, and it was natural, therefore, that my
father declined positively to leave the house at that unearthly hour. I am sorry to say,
some pretty strong language was used on both sides, but the immediate result was, the man
left not, however, without threatening us with all kinds of horrible thighs. We thought
the episode strange, but considered it closed. But this was by no means the case. Early in
the morning our cook came rushing into the house, saying it was surrounded by soldier. It
was even so. They were on the front porch and back porch, they were in the street and side
alley-they were everywhere, bristling with arms, and under orders to allow no one to go in
or out. In my simplicity, I remember starting out into the yard to look after some
chickens, and being sent back at the point of the bayonet. We were prisoners, not knowing
why, and so we remained, shut up and ignorant, for hours. About 11 o'clock in the day, an
officer of low rank-and, I must think, of lower character grain-appeared, saying, with
chilling coldness, he had orders to search the house for Mr. Beverly Tucker. When told
that he was not in the house, and had not been there, the man simply told us we lied, and
proceed to show that he honestly thought so. He looked in the closets and under the beds.
He looked between the mattresses and up the chimney. He looked in every nook and corner,
and when this search proved unsuccessful, he proceeded to look for clues of my uncle's
whereabouts. In doing this he was absolutely without mercy, or even decency. He transacted
bureau-drawers, rummaged through trunks, and sitting down, as to a specially sweet morsel,
he read much of our private family correspondence, all the while commenting on what he
read in the most impertinent and insulting manner. After he had done all he could, he
demanded to know where my uncle was, saying it was perfectly well known by the authorities
that he had been in the house the night before; that General Dent had heard him spoken to.
It then dawned on us what it all meant, and we told the man it was not Mr. Tucker who had
been with us, but his son, who had his father's name. Whether he believed us or not, I do
not know, but at any rate, as there was nothing else to do, he took his departure,
withdrew the soldiers, and we were left to life, liberty, and something to eat.
