THE FALL OF RICHMOND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 504, 24 June 1865, Page 6

THE FALL OF RICHMOND.

(From the Alia Oilifort.ia) The lightning was trifling in a most outrageous manner with tho feelings of the people of t his coast nil day yesterday. If there cvc-r was a time when good doeile lightning was required, it was on Monday, the third of April 1865—if there ever was a time when news from the seat of war was awaited with an anxiety approaching to fever heat, it was last night: yet tlu> magnetic fluid was nevermore capricious, fnore uncertain, and more unmanaseable. Our despatches, or that portion oftiiem which came to hand, lifted a corner of the curtain which vei's Kicnmond and its camps from our view, and gave us a glimp-eof Grant and his veterans advancing for a general onslaught upon the doomed city. Wright and Parke on the left~tli.it is to say, in (lie vicinity of Petersburg —had bro!. : n through the enemy's lines willi ficsperate valour ; Phil, bheridan, with his gallant troopers, and reinforced by a corps, was sweeping down upon the west of Richmond, having captured three brigades of rebels—probably of Longstreet's Corns, which had been watching his movements for some time from the right bank of the V. .munkcy on his way—'while all along the vast lines s--'i;th o'tlie J Times, the battle ebbed and flowed with a fury never before witnessed even in this sanguinary W;ir. So far all was straight ard comprehensible, but as evtning approached, despatches were received by the president of the Telegraph Company from operators on tli.- route of the line—one from Omaha, setting forih that before the line got out of order east of that place, a despatch from Chicago had reached him sai ing " Petersburg evacuat d : Eichmond taken l f »0 guns; many thousand prisoners taken." The other was from Salt Lake, and was to the effect that Petersburg was taken- Wo expected to be able to procure, early in the evening, tho details of these great and glorious •vent-, but nothing came to hand but some particulars of the fighting on the 2oth, whieh had probably been awaiting transmission for some days at some point on the line. At ten o'clock, however, we received a special despatch fr-om our agent at Chicago, announcing that -Ki.-hmond w»s occupied by the troops under Weitzel at a quarter pa it eight o'clock yesterday (Monday) morning. There is no longer room for'doubt, then, fiiat the capital of the bogus Confederacy has indeed lallen ; and that Richmond, whieh has so long defied all our efforts at capture, now cowers beneath tho stars and stripes. We are in the dark as to whether it was taken by hard fighting, or evacuated after the late fighting. We incline to the latter view of the question. Davis and Lee have left, bag and baggage, but where are they going ? Johnston has fallen back to iialeigli. Will the rebels attempt a concentration ■there, or retreat farther westward p If they concentrate at Ral igh, Sherman may have some hard fighting b> fore him ; but he has formed a junction with JSchofield and Terry, and he is an old hand at that sort of business. But whatever they may attempt in tnat direction will be on the return of a forlorn hope lor the end draws nigh. The rebellion is done for. The evacuation or capture of Richmond of course involved the fall of Petersburg. Tho great triumph on the Tames, it is true, adds little to the area in possession of the National forces, but much to the enthusiasm of the soldiers and the power of the armv while it weakens the rebels in a correspondent manner, '.f he extensive fortiiications are ot little use to us, hut they were valuable to tho enemy, and by having them we command positions of vast importance for further military operations. According to the last National census, there were, in 18G0, sixteen cities with more than fifty thousand inhabitants each in the United States, and of these onjy two—New Orleans and Charleston—are within the limits of the rebel States. Both of these are now in our possession. We hold the following rebel towns:— D

New Orleans .... 168,472 Charleston .... 51,219 .... 22,625 Savannah . . . .22293 Petersburg 18*266 Hichmond 37,910 Nashville 10*987 Norfolk 14,60!) Natch en 13,533 Augusta 12,493 Portsmouth ..... 9,487 As against these, the rebels aie reduced to the following:—■ Mobile . » ■ . 29 250 Staunton 14,4^4 Waynesboro ..... 13,626 "We hold tho Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and tho Potomac entire; we have all tho harbours on th«) coast; we have possession of the communications between the east and the west, tho noith and the aouth of the rebellious States ; we have control of three-fourths of their territory and resourcL's ; we have cut o(F their trade with Europe; we have taken their capital; we have destroyed their foundries, their arsenals, and their machine-shops • we have dispersed all their armies save one. The rebel soldiers have lost their spirit, the generals their prestige, the money its value* the people llidr lwpfi, but they fight as if they were seekincr {ll death preferable to that of the gallows. equal desperation may be found, but not of equl folly. Ihe punishment of individuals will be tho most .eiupnt treatment of stubborn rebels on record • hut tho ]' -wy brought on incidentally in the course of the Wiii. u) the slaying of tho men, the destruction of property, and the confiscation of estates, will be a lesson of humiliation to which the world will for ever point, if ow many will recall in anguish tho burning, prophetic Words of holmes, written in January, 1861: — " The Lord have mercy on ihe weak. And cftlm their frenzied ire : And save our brothers, ere they shriek 1 \7e played with Northern 'firel*

"Reckption' of the JTkws of the Fall or R'chhond. —Tho despatch to Mr. Carpentier, announcing tho fall of the rebel capital, and tho ovacua* tion of Petersburgh, was no sooner received last evening, and spread upon the bulletin boards of tho Alta and Bulletin, than crowd* commenced to gathor in Mon'-gomery-street, and tho wildest excitement prevailed on every side. Tho public had been so often misled by premature despatches, founded on speculations of army correspondents of tho Fact, or well planned canards, gotten up to rfTeet tho New York gold and stock markets, that few fully believed the glorious news when it came in authentic shape. Still everybody felt that the end of the war was at hand, that tha last blow at rebellion was being dealt by linnets used to the work, directed by otlicers who nover learned how to fail, and that in any ovciit. the liour of final triumph was at handi ff not already come. The stars and stripes wero run up in a twinkling all over tho city, and the irrepressible Sam Brannan had bonfires burning at different points along Montgomery-Btreet., as soon as the material could be got together, and in a few minutes more a splendid band on tho balcony of his building, on Montgomery-street, between Sacramento and California-streets, was playing the glorious " Battle Cry of Freedom" to a vast concoursc of excited people. "The Union Right or Wrong," " Star Spangled Banner," " Red, White, and Blue," "John Brown," and other national airs followed in rapid succession, tho air was rent with cheers, and in response to tho calls of the multitude, a number of gentlemen, including Ira I'. Rankin, Dr. Gibbons, Samuel Piatt, and others, came forward, and made short, pithy speeches, appropriate to tho occasionFireworks wero let of!'in profusion, and tho excite ment was still fit a boiling point at half-past nino o clock, whon Sam Brannan proposed that tho band should head a procession. This hint was taken at at once, and the crowd started with music playing and colours Hying, and shouting the " Battle of Freedom" at the top of their lungs on a long tour 'thvouuh the principal streets. During the procession a salute was fired by Bluxotne's Battery, and on tho return to tho starting point, cheer afror cheer was given, and tho crowd finally reluctantly dispersed. At Maguiro's Op ra House, at the close ot' the performance, Mr. Anderson read the despatch announcing tho i'lll of Richmond, which was received with cheers bv the audience ; and up to a late hour of tho night groups of enthusiastic citizens could bo soeu at every streetcorner discussing tho news, and rejoicing over the most glorious event of our country. Tho unexpected suddenness with which tho news arrived left no time for any extensive preparations for a celebration to be made, and everything was therefore extemporaneous, but the enthusiasm of our people made up for the lack of preparation, and San Francisco celebrated the capture of the last great stronghold of tho rebellion with a spirit and a will.