w Yorker
eighteen years of age, was the first to raise the national
colors, and then, in the morning light of the 3d of April,
the flag of the United States once more floated over
Richmond.

"The command of Weitzel followed--a long blue line--with
gun-barrels gleaming, and bands playing 'Hail Columbia' and
'John Brown's Soul Goes Marching On.' One regiment was
black.[33] The magistrates formally surrendered the city to
Weitzel at the Capitol, which stands on a hill in the centre
of the town, and overlooks the whole country for miles. The
national commander at once set about restoring order and
extinguishing the flames. Guards were established,
plundering was stopped, the negroes were organized into a
fire corps, and by night the force of the conflagration was
subdued, the rioting was at an end, and the conquered city
was rescued by the efforts of its captors from the evils
which its own authorities had allowed, and its own
population had perpetrated."

[Illustration: RECEIVING THE PRESIDENT.

Abraham Lincoln riding through Richmond, April 4th, 1865, after the
evacuation of the city by the Confederates.]

Lee and his famishing host were fleeing towards Danville, hotly pursued
by the Federal Army. Resting there until the 5th they resumed the march,
fighting and running, until, at Appomattox they gave up and surrendered.
Major Alexandria S. Johnson of the 116th Phalanx Regiment thus relates
the story in part which the Phalanx brigade took in the memorable
movement of the two armies to Appomattox. He says:

"As a participant in these events I will speak merely of
what came under my own observation. The One Hundred and
Sixteenth (colored) Infantry, in which I commanded a
company, belonged to the Third Brigade, Second Division of
the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, and during the winter of
1864-65 held the lines on Chapin's farm, the left resting on
Fort Burnham. The division was commanded by Major-General
Birney. The winter was passed in endeavoring to get the
troops in as high a state of discipline as possible by
constant drill and watchful training. When the spring opened
we had the satisfaction of feeling that they were the equal,
as soldiers, of most of the white troops. They were a
contented body, being well fed and clothed, and they took
delight in their vario