e vast, livid flame roared
and screamed before the wind, from Tenth street to Rockett's; licking
its red tongue around all in its reach and drawing the hope--the very
life of thousands into its relentless maw!

Should the wind shift, that rapidly-gaining fire would sweep uptown and
devour the whole city; but, while the few men left looked on in
dismayed apathy, deliverance came from the enemy. The regiments in
Capitol Square stacked arms; were formed into fire-squads; and sped at
once to points of danger. Down the deserted streets these marched; now
hidden by eddying smoke--again showing like silhouettes, against the
vivid glare behind them. Once at their points for work, the men went at
it with a will; and--so strong was force of discipline--with no single
attempt at plunder reported!

Military training never had better vindication than on that fearful
day; for its bonds must have been strong indeed, to hold that army,
suddenly in possession of city so coveted--so defiant--so deadly, for
four long years.

Whatever the citizens may vaguely have expected from Grant's army, what
they received from it that day was aid--protection--safety! Demoralized
and distracted by sorrow and imminent danger; with almost every male
absent--with no organization and no means to fight the new and terrible
enemy--the great bulk of Richmond's population might have been
houseless that night, but for the disciplined promptitude of the Union
troops. The men worked with good will; their officers, with ubiquitous
energy. If the fire could not be stayed, at any particular point, a
squad entered each house, bore its contents to a safe distance; and
there a guard was placed over them.

Sad and singular groups were there, too. Richmond's best and tenderest
nurtured women moved among their household gods, hastily piled in the
streets, selecting this or that sacred object, to carry it in their own
hands--where? Poor families, utterly beggared, sat wringing their hands
amid the wreck of what was left, homeless and hopeless; while, here and
there, the shattered remnant of a soldier was borne, on a stretcher in
kindly, if hostile, hands, through clouds of smoke and mourning
relatives to some safer point.

Ever blacker and more dense floated the smoke-pall over the deserted
city; ever louder and more near roared the hungry flames. And
constantly, through all that dreadful day, the _whoo!_ of shells from
magazines, followed by the thud of explosion, c