Richmond vignettes

Before the second of three classes on Appomattox campaign, I stop to pick up a library book called
Five Days in 1865, The Fall of Richmond. It is a series of historical/fictionalized vignettes taken from journals and memoirs that begins on the morning of  April 2.

The book opens with a bucolic description of a Sunday morning in Richmond as people attend church in their usual manner. But this would not be a normal day, as Jefferson Davis, receiving Episcopal communion for the first time, then  receives a note from Lees' messenger telling him to leave Richmond.

All around the city, soldiers receiving the news, get up from their pews and prepare to join their regiments. Throughout the afternoon, each short story highlights the drama of the day as people of all stations and walks of life make decisions about what to take with them, how to hide their valuables, or how to steal valuables from untended stores.
Whiskey barrels roll down the road, breaking into shards, with liquor spilling out onto the streets.

After all, nothing of what they have should go to the invading forces.

And then the order to burn, burn burn the remaining supplies and armaments. Dry tobacco goes up in flames, ships off shore are blown up, creating tremors throughout the town.

 Soon the city will be ablaze.