Monday, 3 April 1865

Petersburg, Virginia is now occupied by Federal troops. Union President Abraham Lincoln and Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant confer at a private home in the town and review the troops passing through the city, which has undergone more than nine months of siege warfare.

The first flag flying over Richmond, Virginia, was a small guidon raised by Major Atherton H. Stevens Jr., of Massachusetts over the former Capitol of the Confederacy building. More Federal troops arrived as more people, many of whom were jubilant Negroes, swarmed into the streets of the city that was still in flames. Federal infantry playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me” soon arrived. The Union occupation of Richmond was commanded by Major General Godrey Weitzel, who received the surrender in the City Hall at 8:15 a.m. Federal troops immediately attempted to restore order and put out the fires.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slowly moved westward towards Amelia Court House, shadowed by Grant’s Army of the Potomac who ran parallel to keep Lee from intersecting General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina. Union Major General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry skirmished with the retiring Confederates on the Namozine Church Road.

The train from Richmond to Danville moved slowly due to roadbed difficulties but by midafternoon, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet had arrived in Danville, where citizens hurriedly prepared to receive their guests. Headquarters for Davis was at the home of Major William Thomas Sutherlin. Davis admitted that he was not abandoning the cause.

Federal troops scout from Huntsville to near Vienna, Alabama.

A large sale action breaks out at Northport, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, between the forces of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Major General James H. Wilson.

The unsuccessful Union pursuit of partisan guerrillas commences near Farmington, Missouri, as they take no prisoners in their way, appropriating their teams of horses to escape the pursuing Yankees.

A Federal expedition to Asheville, North Carolina, by Major General David S. Stanley commanding the 4th US Army Corps begins.

Skirmishing occurs at Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.

A skirmish erupts near Hillsville, Virginia, with Major General George Stoneman's troops.

Fifty of the sixty Midshipmen at the Confederate Naval Academy, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Parker, escorted the archives of the government and the specie and bullion of the treasury from Richmond to Danville. There, Midshipman Raphael Semmes, Junior, was detached from the escort corps and detailed to the staff of his father. The Midshipmen Corps continued to be entrusted with this select guard duty during subsequent moves of the archives and treasury to Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; and finally to Abbeville, South Carolina. The ten Midshipmen who remained in Richmond under the command of Lieutenant James W. Billups, CSN, fired and scuttled the CSS Patrick Henry, schoolship of the Naval Academy.

As General Lee withdrew from the lines he had so long and brilliantly held against an army 3 to 4 times larger than his own, the Federal fleet sought to move on with the Army into Richmond; many hazards, however, lay in the course. Rear Admiral David D. Porter had ordered: "Remove all torpedoes carefully and such of the obstructions as may prevent the free navigation of the river, using our torpedoes for this purpose if necessary. Be careful and thorough in dragging the river for torpedoes and send men along the banks to cut the wires."

Sweeping for the torpedoes (mines) was conducted by some 20 boats from 10 ships in the flotilla. Lieutenant Commander Ralph Chandler, directing the sweeping operations, gave detailed orders: "Each boat's bow laps the port quarter of the boat just ahead and will lap within the 2 or 3 feet of her. Each vessel will send an officer to take charge of the two boats. Lieutenant Gillett of the Sangamon , and Lieutenant Reed, of the Lehigh, will have charge of shore parties to keep ahead of the boats and cut all torpedo wires. The wires should he cut in two places. Lieutenant Gillett will take the right bank going up and Lieutenant Reed the left. Twenty men from the Monadnock will be detailed for this service and will be armed as skirmishers with at least twenty rounds of ammunition. Two pairs of shears should be furnished the shore parties. The officer in charge will throw out the pickets, leaving two men to follow the beach to cut the wires." With the upper river cleared of torpedoes and obstructions, Union ships steamed up to Richmond.

General Lee, in his hard-pressed, harried and hurried evacuation of Richmond, neglected to apprise Commodore John R. Tucker, commanding the Confederate Naval Brigade at Drewry's Bluff on the James River, of the projected evacuation of the capital. Tucker maintained his station until the 3rd when he saw the smoke from the burning ironclads and learned that Confederate troops were streaming out of Richmond. Tucker then joined the Naval Brigade to Major General Custis Lee's division of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell's corps. The brigade participated in Ewell's rear guard stand at Sailor's Creek on 6 April which was intended to cover the westward retreat. The Naval Brigade was captured along with Ewell's entire corps but was the last unit in the corps to surrender. Tucker tendered his sword to Lieutenant General J. Warren Keifer. Some years after the war, when Keifer had become a prominent member of Congress, he returned the sword to the ex-Confederate naval officer.