Anniversary of Confederate capitol Moving to Richmond

 May 20, 1860---163 years ago...

The Confederate Government leaves Montgomery and relocates to Richmond, Virginia.

From The Washington Post:

 

"...Montgomery was not the Confederate capital for long. It was too small, its population consisting of only 9,000 people with but half of these being white. The city's infrastructure was too small to support the added population the government would attract, and its location in the Deep South was not easy to reach.

Conversely, Richmond's 1860 population was 38,000, over sixty percent of which was white. Serviced by five railroads, it was easy to reach. Steamboats connected it to Washington and Baltimore. It had spacious halls, good hotels, appetizing restaurants, and the heritage of the Founding Fathers."

 From the website www.battlefields.org:

"Richmond was a much larger metropolis than Montgomery. The heart of the South's industry, Richmond was also a market town specializing in flour and slaves. It was a beautiful town located at the foot of the Great Falls of the James River and on seven hills. Its citizens compared it to Rome. Between 1861 and 1865, its population swelled to 100,000 and more. Much to its citizens' dismay, many of the new residents were rowdy, noisy, and troublesome. In addition, because the city was the Confederate capital, it became the focus of Union attention. The threat of capture by Federal forces was constant.

Richmond at first thrived as the capital of the Confederacy. Then starved. Then burned when, at last, Robert E. Lee's forces were forced to retreat, leaving the city defenseless."

 

(Left) Richmond Virginia AFTER the war. The North virtually destroyed the city that had become the Capitol of The Confederacy. (I've wondered aloud how Montgomery would have suffered the same fate had it remained the confederate capitol!)

 

 

 

Because it was no longer a confederate capitol, it was largely spared.  The 1852 Capitol building remains in good shape.

I'm a docent there part-time, Come visit!