woodpiles or deserted
houses. The negroes awaited with stolid curiosity the approach of the
"Yankees," who were by this time vaguely recognized as the "deliverers";
while the poor whites were thankful that their poverty for once proved a
blessing.

In February the Confederate Congress offered a certain number of slaves
their liberty on condition of their fighting for Southern independence;
but it was too late for any test of the radical policy. The new
commissioner to Europe had hardly reached London before the collapse of
his Government was seen to be imminent. The debts of the Confederate,
state, and city governments of the South had grown so rapidly that no
one knew just what they were; the armies of Lee and Johnston were forced
to forage upon the country nearest at hand. Soldiers were barefoot,
half-naked, and dispirited. Grant pressed steadily upon Lee at
Petersburg, Sheridan approached Lee's rear from Lynchburg, Virginia, and
B. F. Butler, with 40,000 men, threatened Richmond from the lower James
River. To escape the toils of the enemy, Lee decided to retreat toward
the west. Jefferson Davis received the dispatch which told of Lee's new
purpose and advised the evacuation of the capital about noon on April 2.
It was Sunday, and the people were at church. Rapidly the fateful news
spread. An indescribable scene followed. Men, women, and children
hastened out of the doomed city with the little clothing they could
carry in their hands, or begged the owners of carts and wagons to come
to their assistance. Thousands thus sought to escape the avenger, while
the high officials of the Government and their families went away on the
last train. Documents, private correspondence, stores of all sorts,
tobacco, and other property were burned to prevent their falling into
the hands of the hated enemy. Early Monday morning the city was deserted
save by certain hangers-on, men and women, white and black, who hoped to
pick up something from the wreckage of their neighbors' fortunes. The
local government ordered the thousands of barrels of whiskey, still in
the bar-rooms, emptied into the streets. People drank from the gutters,
and drunkenness soon added to the difficulties of the situation. Federal
troops entered the city, already in flames, and before nine o'clock the
Union colors flew from the flagpole of the ancient capital of Virginia.

[Illustration: Map of regions which surrendered with Lee and Johnston
April 1865]

Davis a