in
all, swept clean by the devouring flames. It was the work of the
Confederate Government. And not only this, but human life was
remorselessly sacrificed.

In the outskirts of the city, on the Mechanicsville road, was the
almshouse, filled with the lame, the blind, the halt, the bedridden, the
sick, and the poor. Ten rods distant was a magazine containing fifteen
or twenty kegs of powder, of little value to a victorious army with full
supplies of ammunition. They could have been rolled into the creek near
at hand; but the order of Jeff Davis was to blow up the magazines, and
the order must be executed.

"We give you fifteen minutes to get out of the way," was the sole notice
to that crowd of helpless creatures lying in their cots, at three
o'clock in the morning. Men and women begged for mercy. In vain their
cries. The officer in charge of the matter was inexorable. Clotheless
and shoeless, the inmates of the almshouse ran in terror from the spot
to seek shelter in the ravines. But there were those who could not run,
who, while the train was laying, rent the air with shrieks of terror.
The train was fired at the expiration of the allotted time. The whole
side of the house went in with a crash, as if it were no more than
pasteboard. Windows flew into minutest particles. Bricks, stones,
timbers, beams, and boards went whirling through the air. Trees were
wrenched off as though a giant had twisted them into withes. The city
rocked as if upheaved by an earthquake. The dozen poor wretches
remaining in the almshouse were torn to pieces. Their bodies were but
blackened masses of flesh, when the fugitives who had sought shelter in
the fields returned to the shattered ruins.

How stirring the events of that morning! Lee retreating, Grant pursuing;
Davis a fugitive; the Governor and Legislature of Virginia seeking
safety in a canal-boat; Doctors of Divinity fleeing from the wrath to
come; the troops of the Union marching up the streets; the old flag
waving over the Capitol; Rebel iron-clads blowing up; Richmond in
flames; the fiery billows rolling on from house to house, from block to
block, from square to square, unopposed in their progress by the
panic-stricken, stupefied, bewildered crowd; and the Northern Vandals
laying aside their arms, manning the engines, putting out the fire, and
saving the city from total destruction! Through the terrible day, all
through the succeeding night, the smoke of its torment went up to
hea