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April
2, 1865 was a Sunday, and in Richmond Jefferson Davis was at church. In the midst of the services a courier
arrived with a message from the War Department: "General Lee telegraphs he
can hold his position no longer." Davis quietly left the
church and set about removing his government from Richmond .
By
late afternoon it seemed that all who could leave the city were
stampeding. Commissary stores were
thrown open, and their hoarded contents distributed to eager crowds. As the day wore on the scenes at the various
government stores changed from the fairly orderly distribution of supplies to
rank plundering. Whiskey stocks were
broken into and the streets ran with liquor.
Factories,
arsenals and mills were ordered destroyed, some were blown up, others were
burned. The fires were soon out of
control. There was absolute panic in the
city. Men, women, and children hurried
to and fro. Commissary stores were
destroyed. The streets were blocked with
men and beasts. Fierce crowds of
skulking men and coarse, half drunken women gathered, breaking into shops and
fighting among themselves over the spoils they seized. Through the night, drunken mobs of civilians
and Army deserters roamed the city, looting and burning.
The main reasons given for the South’s decision to
secede from the Union, thus provoking the American Civil War, are often given
as slavery and state’s rights. Both answers are correct in so far as they go.
But underlying both are economic self-interest. Economic self-interest was the
key motive in the South’s virulent embrace of both slavery and state’s rights.
Part I provides background information on the reasons for Southern secession. Part II provides key Southern documents, which speak for themselves.
Part I provides background information on the reasons for Southern secession. Part II provides key Southern documents, which speak for themselves.
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