Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/87

 The Burning of Richmond. 75

frantically imploring protection. They were oent to their homes under the escort of guards, who were afterwards j osted in the center house of each block and made responsible foi the safety of the neighborhood. Although these men were taken indiscriminately from the detail for duty that day from regiments from Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Brooklyn, Northern and Central New York, and were not selected men, I never heard a complaint of rudeness on their part, but uniformly unstinted praise of their soldierly performance of a trying duty, of which I hear echoes down through the years to this day. Many painful cases of destitution were brought to light by the presence of these safeguards in private houses, and the soldiers divided rations with their temporary wards, in many cases, until a general system of relief was organized.

You say, ''that considering the tumult and panic of that heart- breaking day, the wonder is not that Richmond suffered so greatly, but that it did not fare worse." That it did not fare worse is due to the heroic efforts and high character of these representative men of the Army of the James, to whom I think you give but faint praise.

You also sayu " From what we have heard there must have been a time when the operations of the fire department were practically suspended." In this you are quite correct, for the Richmond fire department was not a factor in that fight for the city's existence.

At 2 o'clock that night, with my staff, I mounted my horse and rode through the city on a tour of inspection, encountering no sign of life in the streets except the sentries pacing their beats. The fire was under control, though still burning, and the silence of death which brooded over the city so lately in the hands of that wild mob, was only broken by the occasional explosion of shells in the ruins.

And now, may I ask you to give to the citizens of Richmond the names of the regiments to which all this was due, in justice to and in perpetuation of their memory ?

I have before me as I write the morning memorandum report of my Assistant- Adjutant-General of the strength of the ist brigade on the day after our taking possession of the city. It is as follows:

Staff On duty 7, aggregate 7, effective 6.

Eleventh Connecticut Officers 15, men 390; officers 26, men 412; officers 15, men 390; commanding, Major Charles Warren.

Thirteenth New Hampshire Officers 9, men 227; officers 13,