Editing Richmond, Virginia (section)

===American Civil War===
{{main| Richmond in the American Civil War}}
Five days after the Confederate attack on [[Fort Sumter]], the Virginia legislature voted to secede from the United States and join the newly created [[Confederate States of America]] on April 17, 1861. The action became official in May, after the Confederacy promised to move its national capital to Richmond from [[Montgomery, Alabama]].[[File:White House of the Confederacy - entrance, May 2013.JPG|thumb|upright|The [[White House of the Confederacy]]]]Richmond held local, state and national Confederate government offices, hospitals, a railroad hub, and one of the largest slave markets. It also had the largest Confederate arms factory, the [[Tredegar Iron Works]]. The factory produced artillery and other munitions, including heavy [[Ordnance ammunition|ordnance]] machinery and the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']], the world's first [[ironclad]] ship used in war.<ref name="Tredegar">Time-Life Books. ''[[iarchive:blockaderunnersr00time|<!-- quote=CSS Virginia Tredegar Iron Works 723 tons. --> The Blockade: Runners and Raiders]] {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DcvAAAAMAAJ&q=CSS+Virginia+Tredegar+Iron+Works+723+tons |title=The Blockade: Runners and Raiders |year=1983 |publisher=Time-Life Books |isbn=9780809447091 |access-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-date=January 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115004242/https://books.google.com/books?id=8DcvAAAAMAAJ&q=CSS+Virginia+Tredegar+Iron+Works+723+tons&dq=CSS+Virginia+Tredegar+Iron+Works+723+tons&pgis=1 |url-status=bot: unknown }}''. Published 1983, Time-Life, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-8094-4709-1}}</ref> The [[Confederate Congress|Confederate States Congress]] shared quarters in the Jefferson-designed [[Virginia State Capitol]] with the [[Virginia General Assembly]]. The Confederacy's executive mansion, known as the "[[White House of the Confederacy]]," was two blocks away on Clay Street.

Located about {{cvt|100|mi|km}} from the national capital in [[Washington, D.C.]], Richmond was at the end of a long supply line and difficult to defend. For four years, its defense required the bulk of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] and the Confederacy's best troops and commanders.<ref>Bruce Levine, ''The Fall of the House of Dixie'' (New York, Random House 2014) pp. 269–70</ref> The Union army made Richmond a main target in the campaigns of 1862 and 1864–65. In late June and early July 1862, Union General-in-Chief [[George B. McClellan]] threatened but failed to take Richmond in the [[Seven Days Battles]] of the [[Peninsula campaign]]. Three years later, Richmond became indefensible in March 1865 after nearby [[Petersburg, Virginia|Petersburg]] fell and several remaining rail supply lines to the south and southwest were broken.
[[File:General Robert E. Lee MET DP248323.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Robert E. Lee]] at [[Stewart–Lee House|his home]] in Richmond (1865)]]
On March 25, Confederate General [[John B. Gordon]]'s desperate attack on [[Battle of Fort Stedman|Fort Stedman]], east of Petersburg, failed. On April 1, Union Cavalry General [[Philip Sheridan]], assigned to interdict the Southside Railroad, met brigades commanded by Southern General [[George Pickett]] at the [[Battle of Five Forks|Five Forks]] Junction, defeated them, took thousands of prisoners, and advised Union General-in-Chief [[Ulysses S. Grant]] to order a general advance. When the Union Sixth Corps broke through Confederate lines on the Boydton Plank Road south of Petersburg, Confederate casualties exceeded 5,000, about a tenth of Lee's defending army. Lee then informed President [[Jefferson Davis]] that he intended to evacuate Richmond.<ref>Levine pp. 271–72</ref>

On April 2, 1865, the Confederate Army began Richmond's evacuation. Confederate President Davis and his cabinet, Confederate government archives, and its treasury's gold, left the city that night by train. Confederate officials burned documents and troops burned tobacco and other warehouses to deny the Union any spoils. In the early morning of April 3, Confederate troops exploded the city's gunpowder magazine, killing several paupers in a temporary Almshouse and a man on 2nd St. The concussion shattered windows all over the city.<ref>"The City Magazine" The Richmond Whig, April 27, 1865</ref> Later that day, General [[Godfrey Weitzel]], commander of the 25th Corps of the [[United States Colored Troops]], accepted Richmond's surrender from the mayor and a group of leading citizens who did not evacuate.<ref>Levine, pp. 272–73</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=August 4, 2001 |others=Regimental Losses in the American Civil War William F. Fox |title=The Civil War Archive Union Corps History 25th Corps |url=http://www.civilwararchive.com/CORPS/25thcorp.htm |url-status=live |access-date=November 28, 2021 |website=The Civil War Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207183702/http://www.civilwararchive.com/CORPS/25thcorp.htm |archive-date=February 7, 2005}}</ref> Union troops eventually contained the fires, but about 25% of the city's buildings were destroyed.<ref>Mike Wright, ''City Under Siege: Richmond in the Civil War'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995)</ref>

[[File:Richmond Virginia damage2.jpg|right|thumb|Retreating [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] troops burned strategic war materials so they would not get into [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] hands, but the fires went out of control and one-fourth of Richmond was burned in April 1865.]]On April 3, President [[Abraham Lincoln]] visited Grant at Petersburg and took a launch up the [[James River]] to Richmond on April 4. While Davis attempted to organize the Confederate government in [[Danville, Virginia|Danville]], Lincoln met Confederate Assistant Secretary of War [[John Archibald Campbell|John A. Campbell]], handing him a note inviting Virginia's state legislature to end their rebellion. After Campbell spun the note to Confederate legislators as a possible end to the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], Lincoln rescinded his offer and ordered General Weitzel to prevent the state legislature from meeting.

On April 6, Union forces killed, wounded, or captured 8,000 Confederate troops at [[Battle of Sayler's Creek|Sayler's Creek]], southwest of Petersburg. The Confederate Army continued a general retreat southwestward, and General Lee continued to reject General Grant's surrender entreaties until Sheridan's infantry and cavalry encircled the shrinking [[Army of Northern Virginia]] and cut off its ability to retreat further on April 8. Lee surrendered his remaining approximately 10,000 troops the following morning at [[Appomattox Court House, Virginia|Appomattox Court House]], meeting Grant at the McLean Home.<ref>Levine pp. 275–78</ref>

Davis was captured on May 10 near [[Irwinville, Georgia]] and taken back to Virginia, where he was imprisoned two years at [[Fort Monroe]] until freed on bail.<ref>Levine pop. 279–82</ref>