Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/588



N Sunday, April 2, 1865, the day following the defeat of Pickett at Five Forks, the day of the breaking of the Petersburg lines and the death of A. P. Hill, General Lee sent the following dispatch to Gen. J. C. Breckinridge, the Confederate secretary of war:

This dispatch was received in Richmond at 10:40 of the morning of Sunday, April 2, 1865, and was at once sent to President Davis, who was at that time attending service at St. Paul's church, not far from the war department. He at once left the church and preparations were begun for the immediate evacuation of Richmond; and late in the day the officials of the Confederate States government took a train for Danville, and those of the State of Virginia started toward Lynchburg.

On the afternoon of the 2d, at 4:55, a dispatch from General Lee read:, "I think the Danville road will be safe until to-morrow;" but at 7 p. m. he communicated:

On the 5th of April the most of Lee's army reached Amelia Court House, where, he had been officially informed, he would find a food supply for his army. Of this he subsequently wrote: "Not finding the supplies