Early on the morning of April 3, 1864, immigrant Major General Godfrey Weitzel wrote, “a little before two o’clock I was awakened by General Shepley and informed that bright fires were seen in the direction of Richmond.” The fires indicated that the Confederate army was on the move. “Shortly after, while we were looking at these fires, we heard explosions,” he wrote later, presumably ammunition being blown up by the retreating army.1
Fires swirl beneath the Confederate Capitol designed by Thomas Jefferson.
A black teamster who was employed by the Confederates was captured and, Weitzel wrote, “[h]e informed me that immediately after dark the rebels began making preparations to leave, and that they had all gone.”2
Weitzel ordered his entire picket line forward to scout, and found the black informant’s intelligence corroborated. “I therefore directed all of my troops to be awakened and furnished with breakfast, and to be held in readiness to move as soon as it was light enough to see to pass through the lines of rebel torpedoes without injury” he reported.3…