By the time the military left, early on the morning of
April 3, the town was on fire. The Confederate Congress had
ordered all government tobacco and other public property to be
burned. The rebel General Ewell, who was in charge of the city,
asserts that he took the responsibility of disobeying, and that
the fires were not started by his orders. Be that as it may, they
broke out in various places, while a mob, crazed with excitement,
and wild with the alcohol that had run freely in the gutters the
night before, rushed from store to store, breaking in the doors,
and indulging in all the wantonness of pillage and greed. Public
spirit seemed paralyzed; no real effort was made to put out the
flames, and as a final horror, the convicts from the
penitentiary, overpowering their guards, appeared upon the
streets, a maddened, shouting, leaping crowd, drunk with liberty.
It is quite possible that the very size and suddenness of the
disaster served in a measure to lessen its evil effects; for the
burning of seven hundred buildings, the entire business portion
of Richmond, all in the brief space of a day, was a visitation so
sudden, so stupefying and unexpected as to overawe and terrorize
even evildoers. Before a new danger could arise help was at hand.
Gen. Weitzel, to whom the city surrendered, took up his
headquarters in the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis, and
promptly set about the work of relief; fighting the fire, issuing
rations to the poor, and restoring order and authority.
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