April 2, 1865

Richmond in the American Civil War

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government evacuate Richmond

Davis learned that his capital had to be abandoned when a messenger handed him Lee's warning during Sunday worship at St. Paul's Church.

Evacuation Sunday

After United States forces broke through the Confederate defences at Petersburg on 2 April 1865, Robert E. Lee notified Jefferson Davis that Richmond and Petersburg would have to be evacuated that night.

Davis received the message while attending Sunday services, left the church and began arranging the Confederate government's departure. At roughly eleven that evening he and members of his Cabinet left by the Richmond and Danville Railroad for Danville, Virginia.

Fires set by order

Confederate troops and government offices evacuated overnight while authorities ordered military stores, tobacco warehouses and bridges destroyed to deny them to United States forces. The fire spread from there through the commercial district.

The Richmond Whig attributed twelve deaths to the predawn powder-magazine explosion — eleven almshouse inmates and one Black resident of Second Street. Encyclopedia Virginia puts the buildings consumed at hundreds, possibly as many as a thousand.

The city fell on the 3rd

The fires and explosions intensified before dawn on 3 April. Mayor Joseph C. Mayo then requested an orderly occupation, and troops under Godfrey Weitzel entered Richmond, fought the fires and restored order.

Calling 2 April the fall of Richmond collapses that overnight sequence: the 2nd was the evacuation, the surrender and occupation came the next day.

The capture did not end organised resistance either. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fought on through the Appomattox Campaign until 9 April.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 9 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The evacuation began April 2, but Richmond’s formal surrender, United States occupation, worst fires and powder-magazine explosion occurred on April 3. Accounts that call April 2 the “fall” of Richmond collapse this overnight sequence.
Responsibility for individual fire orders remains contested because Confederate military and city officials later disagreed about who authorized particular acts of destruction.