The Portland daily press., 1865-06-06
Letter from Richmond.
RIoHMoNn. Nav. lso5.


ern bank Of the James river upon the slopes,
sides, and submits Of several long ana prose
hills which rise with gradual ascent rom
the river. and extend back for one or Two
miles. The streets are broad, well paved, and
bordered with capacious side walks and shade
trees, eoualling II not rivaling our FOREST
CITY in this particular. The linden, locust,
white and silver leafed maple predominant,
but In the flower yards and grounds around
many of the houses there are oleanders and
cedars Of great Iuxuriance and beauty, magno-
las with their unique leaves and gorgeous
flowers, the white, blush, cluster and other
rose bushes which grow and blossom with an
exuberance peculiar to warmer cline, with
running jessamine which has delicate flower
and rich fragrance, and which blooms almost
continuously during the warm season.
There are many palatial mansions upon
Capitol Hill and in the aristocratic parts Of
the city, more, probably than in any city of
the same size on the continent. Every thing
about them indicates the epulence and
luxury which abounded prior tosthe rebellion.
With elegant houses, beautiful grounds and
splendid turn outs, p and plenty of means and
slaves, they lived like nabobs and ruled the
social, professional, political and peeuniary
power Of the country. Such mas Richmond,
with its proud and wealthy inhabitants. wa
But the vortex Of the rebellion drew all
men, Of all classes and grades into it. Scarce
" no one could withstand the tide and Union
men were rare as angels visits or flowers in
winter. The young ladies banded together
and refused to speak, to or recognize any
young man who did not join the army or work
in the cause. The ministers preached it from
their pulpits and prayed for it in Closets
Songs we're written and music made to fire
the Southern heart, and the ladies sang them
in drawing rooms and receptions, and the
boys echoed them in the streets. The press
advocated the war with unanimity and abili-
ty that has never been surpassed. And the
people literally staked their property and
lives, aye, their all, to achieve independence.
This appears as plain in Richmond as letters
of fire, weeds Of mourning and signs of desti-
tuition can make it.
The consequence is, that two-thirds Of the
able bodied men have been killed or disabled.
EUerv familyha lost father, husband, broth
ers or sons, and many have lost all. The grave
stones and wooden slabs in their thickly
buried cemetry painfully ettest the fact. And
the higher classes have lost the nest, as they
had the most to lose. They were in the fore
front of the battles and on the sanguinary
field Of Gettysberg; IS prominent officer as
sured me, the flower and best blood Of Vir-
ginia went down.
With the exception of the soldiers and the
blacks and the strangers whom CURIOSITY or
speculation had carried there, the streets Of
Richmond appeared deserted. Some elderly
men with seedy garments, and hare-footed
boys and an occasional "grey back" are met
with, but there is silence, desolation,
sense of poverty which excited our pity.
A large portion of the city has been des-
troyed by fire. Whole blocks and squares of
spacious and elegant stores with stone or iron
or brick fronts, immense ware houses, manu-
facturies, Touring mills and Banks, extending
more than mile in length and half mile in
width in the very heart Of the business part of
the city were In ruins. The naked walls stood
as the fire left them, blackened, broken, par
TALLY or wholly demolished The stone pill
lars, marble slabs, granite blocks, bricks, iron
shutters and bars, safes and debris lay as they
fell during that awful confagration when
shells were bursting in every direction, and
the fire famed and roared as If eager to oyer
Wheln. The city and its terrified inhabitants in
one common doom. 90 fE3
Imagine a fire Wseeping our city from MuDjoy
to Bracket.street taking all the buildings from
Middle, Free and Spring streets to the harbor
and leaving only walls and ruins, and you
can form some idea Of the appearance of Rich
mond. To walk down through the midst
and see it on every side, the stranger feels as
If he were amid the ruins Of some ancient and
deserted city.
The property and lives Of the inhabitants
have been consumed by fire and sword. They
invested their means freely In Confederate
bonds and scrip; and Banks, Saving and bene-
violent institutions did likewise, and all this
has been swept away as wen as their slaYes-
Comparatively nothing remain except real es-
tate, and the families who occupied the pala-
tial mansions and lived almost in regal style,
and Jared sumptuOusly every day. are now
literally in want Of their daily bread. Isno-
ticed in many Of these houses. broken glass in
the parlor or front chamber windows, which
had been mended or covered over with paper.
The halls and drawing-rooms looked bare and
desolate, the wall paper worn, torn and de-
faced, carpets old and worn, while. paint and
repairs were needed inside and outside. These,
with decayed fences, crumbling walls and
overgrown walks told louder than words of
deserted homes and exhausted means.
With all my hatred Of slavery and the rebel
leaders, 1 could but pity the people of Rich
mond when saw them so woe-begone, DESC
late and wretched. could but respect them
for their heroic and selfsacrifcing efforts to
maintain what they believed to be noble
cause. Ms8rrab
But when crossed the river to Belle Isle,
and saw the six or eight acres Of fiat, low
land, just above the bend OF the James, where
they penned up some thousands of our brave
boys, surrounding them with trench and
low earth walls, and not giving them parti-
Gle of shelter, not even blanket during the
cold winter months of 1864, where they lay in
the rain and snow and Icy sleet during the
long days and still longer nights, without fires
ana nalf starved, and where they dug holes
ana crswied in like dogs to keep warm, and
where they wept and moaned and sickened
and starved and froze to death. nv blood boil
ed with indignation, pity gave way to anger,
and the blackened walls of the ruined CITY
rose up before me as fearful memorials of thu
retributive justice of God.
If any one has sympathy for the arch trail
tor Davis, and deplores his close confinement
and approaching condemnation, let him go to
Belle Isle, and all feelings of mercy will dis