The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1867-12-13

elevator q Ia continental" or Fifth
Avenue" Hotels, to his allotted cham
Der; but the impression given, after
leaving the tunnel and coming into the
daylight once more, Is no less remarka-
BILE. Everywhere arise blackencd and
tottering ruins. Bare piles of meaning
less bricks, stained apparently by the
soiling hands Of Ages. Dcsolation
dank and drear One might imagine
himself in Hercuaneum or Pompeii-
those cities destroyed and entombed for
centuries.
To the right hand arise the turreted
remains of the great Armory, extend
ing for over Il square in length, and re-
sembling some old Feudal castle, sacked
and ungarrisoned. TO the left arise in
nondescript piles, the charred and
crumbling walls of immense factories
and mills, wherein once, the hum Of
hsnest industry was wont to be heard,
now, the abode of the bat and the
screech-owl.
All around, and covering the ground
| for acres, lie the debris of the Danville
g. Petersburg r. r. Depots, engine
| houses etc.
What has desolated the city thus?
| Fire-and worse-mdn!
| 1t was on aSunday morning in April
| 1865, bright and lovely, that the news
arrived In Richmond, of the fall of Pc
| tersburg and itsoccupation by the Union
armies. jefferson Davis, the President
of the so-called Confederacy, was mt
church. when messenger, booted and
spurred, pushed his way through the
crowd to his pew, and handed him a
letter.
There was pause in the exhortation
of the preacher rs the letter was taken
and opened, then Davis walked totter-
ing and stricken from the church. The
services weresbrought to a sudden close,
and the people streamed out upon the
sidewalk with anxious faces and fast
beating hearts. The stiffness and ter
rible constraint of the sacred place, had
weighed upon each one there, like the
sitting effects of an air-eXhausteu re-
ceiver. Each gasped for breath The
| threatened blow had fallen at last. The
| inevitable had come, with its front OF
| terror! But it was not until later in the
afternoon, when the boxes containing
the public archives and treasure, cum
bered the sidewalks, that the people of
| Richmond could realize it. Then came
| the terrible rush, the despairing cry,
"We are to be deserted by our own peo-
pie !" "They are going to evacuate
Richmond as they did Petersburg"
| Crowds of citizens, bearing their most
valuable worldly goods, filed through
the streets; horses and wagons sudden
ly brought fabulous prices; and pale wo-
men and,speechless men, followed by ne
gross, bending beneath their burdens,
choked every avenue of esress from that
city of doom. With nightlall came the
certainty that forced evacuation of the
city must quickly take place, and TO
prevent the violence and confusion. CON
sequent upon the too free use of liquor
under such depressing circumstances, a
committee was appointed by the mayor
of the city to broach all barrels of whis-
key or other spirits in the various store
houses; an act which perhaps brought
about the very evil sought to be guarded
against. Soon the cutters were flowing
with the choicest liquors; crates and
baskets of the finest and most cost
ly wines were thrown from the topmost
windows. Asthe work progressed, some
struggling Confederate soldiers on the
retreat, nassed through the city, say
a Southern writer: "From that moment
law and order ceased to exist. Many
of the stores were pillaged, and the side
walks were encumbered with broker
| glass, where the thieves had smashed
1 the windows in their reckless haste tC
A get their hands on the plunder within
The air was filled with the wild cries O
y distress or thcyells ofrOVing pi!lagers.
e But still more terrible agent of ruiz
v was soon to appear on the scene! a
# the night advanced, the yells and.blas
phemous shouts OF the drunken rebl
-oldiery grew louder and louder, AM
above the house tops appeared, II
II though in fitting accompaniment t
l. such ficndish cries, the sharp cracklin
, and roar and flame Of Il great cOniiagru
- tion, while from the river came the tc
" rible conclusion caused by the BLOWN
y up of the rebel rams "Richmsndn an
It "Nirginia."
U General Ewell, the Confederate con
:, mander, had given orders to fire Il
" four principal tobacco warehouses of Il
d city and these communicating with Il
r, surrounding buildings, soon envelope
the whole business portion of the doom
ed city in its destructive folds. lmai
, inc this, and, a. Pollard vividly d
l. scribes it, sin the midst of all, the vii
l. agony, the fugitive distress of womC
le and children rushing towards the ope
,e square for breath of pure air, all thu
!, was now left them in heavens gre,
II holloWness.n
n The very heart of the city was burnC
II out of it! For one-half mile on Ol
- side of the main street, the fire had L.
nothing but blackened walls and chin
" mes. On the other siue lie rum eNteh,
y ca upwards OF iWehtN Dloehn' Am
tiie confusion ana terror 'ne c'oar cli'
Oh mill!ary p4hu Wa hc"fI.
If General WeilAel haQ ehtoTeH the Vit,
ana ill9ftii'iS rislit toWttua t,e l.V
y pianteo tlie sl,'rS 'l'iu s'tipc9 HnoNG IT,
u lliiS was ioi lile M Il'l'G t'''' my
|, hlohu i'aa suAclEn l1uni iron, ','at 'tnlto ',io,
e StolrIGI-iire, Ih t.od lIie tt"'I' y
= Arhol'i Ied an oNlcuit,io'i WT,'Iisl ~ u
+, stroyeu IN tnc PuTiic tDu.lHi''ss 1I' 1,Ii'
u Hio1t NOS! ol tiie i, .n"h, me me uutiIi'S ~ u
: No. ('''T 5Hih isiI 81 VIII II" i0n,rG j"tTyn
= n fnnrli,, no,,r in Tho nistnr, of C;r.,
y L,ir"i f.,ii"d In H. Trost ,,,ra,,Iina, .ho