Ruins of Richmond, April 12, 1865

Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882 · April 12, 1865

From "War Memories" catalog: When the Rebel army was forced to evacuate their Capitol at Richmond, they set fire to the city, exploded the powder in their magazines, and did their worst to entirely destroy the city. The Union troops came in as conquerors and immediately set to work with a will to extinguish the fires, and save as much of the city as possible, but before the fire could be quenched, over 700 buildings were in the ruins. This is a view of a portion of the ruins.