, 1865-07-07
Scene in Richmond.
THE EVACUATION.

The outline of the scenes Immediately associ-
ated with the evacuation of Richmond has been
told by telegraph. Now that the stupifed citi-
zens have recovered reason and memory
so well as to tell the story, it seems the most
dramatic and fearful of the war On Saturday
the city was calm and trusting; Lee, its idol,
held Grant fast at Petersburg; the daily journals
came out as usual, filled with soothing accounts;
| that night came vague rumors ofeyacuaton; by
Sunday night the public records were burned in
the streets, and the only railway left carried Nof
the species of the banks; before daylight on
Monday the explosion of bridges and half-built
ships of war shook the houses; in the imperfect
day, women, old men and children began to
sway and surge before the guarded depot which
refused to admit them; then the town fell afre;
no oremonstrance could pacify the incendiarics,
Spring winds carried the flames from the burn
ing boats on the canal to the great Galego Mills,
to files of massive warehouses groaning with to-
bacco, into the heart of the town, where stores,
and vaults, and banks and factories lined the
wide, undulating streets; it filled the gray con
cave With flame till the stars ofthe dawn shrank
to pale invisibility in the advancing glare and
the crackle of hot roofs and beams and the
crash of walls and timbers, drowned the cries of
the frightened and bankrupt, who beheld their
fortunes witlrer in an hour and the inheritance
Of their children fall to ashes. By the red con-
suming light poured past the struggling Confed-
crate soldiers, dead to the acknowledgement pf
| private rights, and sacking shop and home with
curses and rbaldryi the suburban citizens and
menial negroes adopted the example, carrying
off whatever came next to their hands, and with
arms full of "swag;" dropping it in the high
way, lured by some dearer plunder. Negroes
with baskets of stolen champagne and rare Jars
of tamarinds, sought their dusky quarters to
swell and carouse, and whites of the middle and
even Of the higher class, bent themselves to
theft, who, before this debased era, would have
died before surrendering their sacred honor
All was peril, and terror, and license; all who
had nothing to lose were thieves; all who had
anything left to lose were towards.
The conAagraton swept through the densest
proudest blocks, driving off not only the resi-
dent worthy, but the resident corrupt. Where
were the lewd contractors who had boarded Con-
federate scrip by the basest exertions2 With
the fall Of the Capitol their dollars dwindled to
dust four years of crime had resulted in beggary;
still with grasping palms they adhered to their
valueless paper, bearing it away. But of all
the wretched the cyprians were the foremost
These inhabited the dense and business part of
the town, where their houses were serried and
compact, and driven forth by the fire, they sought
the street in their plumes and calicoes, to spend
a coldand shivering bivouac in the square of the
Capital From afar the rich men of Sunday
watched the flames of Monday sweeping on in
terrible impetuosity, knowing that every tongue
of light which leaped on high carried with it
the competence they had sinned to acquire. And
behind all plunder, incendiary and straggler,
came the one vague, overlapping, dreadful fear
4 of-the enemy. Would they finish what friends
had commenced-the sack, the desolation the
slaughter of the place? Richmond had cost
them half million of lives, mountain of
blood and wealth. fouryears of deadly struggles
would they not complete its ruin
The morning came the Confederates were
! gone; cavalry in blue galloped up the streets; a
brigade of white infantry filed after them, then
came the detestednegroes. Behold the victors,
the subjugators assist to quench the flames
Richmond is captured but securel
THE TRANSITION PERIOD.
Richmond, uncoiling itself, is emerging
| from its den. Its streets to-day populous,
its shutters and blinds are unclosed, its doors
stand aiar, admitting the soft Spring airs. Wo-
-