ital; the
troops of the Union patrol the streets of Richmond, and occupy all the
principal towns of Virginia; Lee's army has melted away, and the power
of the Rebellion is broken.

Before entering upon a narration of the campaign of a week which gave us
Richmond and the Rebel army at the same time, it will widen our scope of
vision to inquire

HOW RICHMOND BECAME THE CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY.

On the 17th of April, 1861, Virginia in Convention passed an Ordinance
of Secession. The Convention, when elected on the 4th of February
preceding, was largely Anti-Secession; but the events which had taken
place,--the firing on Sumter, its surrender, with the machinations of
the leaders of Secession,--their misrepresentations of the North, of
what Mr. Lincoln would do,--their promises that there would be no war,
that the Yankees would not fight,--their bullyings when they could not
cajole, their threatenings when they could not intimidate,--their
rejoicings at the bloodless victory won by South Carolina,
single-handed, over a starved garrison,--their bonfires and
illuminations, their baskets of Champagne and bottles of whiskey,--all
of these forces combined were sufficient to carry the Ordinance of
Secession through the Convention. But it was hampered by a proviso
submitting it to the people for ratification on the Fourth Thursday of
May following.

John Letcher was Governor of Virginia. Weak in intellect, grovelling in
his tastes, often drunk, rarely sober, at times making such beastly
exhibition of himself that the Richmond press pronounced him a public
nuisance, he was a fit tool of the Secession conspirators. Ready to do
what he could to commit the State to overt acts against the United
States Government, on the evening after the passage of the Ordinance he
issued orders to the State militia around Winchester to seize the
Arsenal at Harper's Ferry,--on his own sole responsibility, and without
a shadow of authority from the people of the State, inaugurating civil
war, a proceeding which he followed up directly afterwards by
proclaiming Virginia a member of the Confederacy, and thus carrying the
State at once out of the Union, without awaiting the formality of a
popular vote.

Already the intentions of the Confederate Government were manifest.

"I prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float
over the old Capitol in Washington before the first of May," said Mr.
L.P. Walker, Secretary of War, th