Looking back at the burning of Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Confederate General Robert E. Lee lost Petersburg 157 years ago - April 2, 1865 - and the fall of the rebel capital would soon follow.
The next day a letter from Lee to Confederate President Jefferson Davis set off a chain of events that lead to fires being intentionally set in Richmond’s business district. By the evening of April 3, the Union army finally controlled the city.
The burning of Richmond was seen in the North as the South’s punishment for seceding from the Union, but that’s not the whole story.
Learn all about the events of this day from local author Nelson Lankford in Episode 4 of Season 6 of the How We Got Here Podcast:
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