THE EALL OF RICHMOND.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 799, 23 June 1865, Page 3

THE EALL OF RICHMOND.

(From the Alta California, of April 4th.)

Tp there ever was a time when news from the Seat of War was awaited with au anxiety approaching to fever heat, it was last night; yet fche magnetic fluid was never more capricious, more uncertain, and more unmanageable. Our despatches, or that portion of them which came to hand, lifted a corner of the curtain which veils Richmond and its camps from our view, and gave us a glimpse of Grant and his veterans advancing for a general onslaught upon the doomed city. Wright and Parke on the left—that is to say, in the vicinity of Petersburg—had broken through the enemy's lines with desperate valor; Phil. Sheridan, 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 Corps, which had been watching his movements for some time from the right bank of the Pamunkey on his way —while all along the vast lines south of the James, the battle ebbed and flowed with a fury never before witnessed even in this sanguinary war. So far all was straight and comprehensible, but as evening approached, despatches were received by the President of the Telegraph Company from operators on the route of the line—one from Omaha, setting forth that before the line got out of order east of that place, a despatch from Chicago had reached him, saying:—" Petersburg evacuated; Richmond taken—loo guns; many thousand prisoners taken." The other was from Salt Lake, and was to the effect that Petersburg was taken. We expected to be

able to procure, early in the evening, the details or these great and glorious events, but nothing came to hand but some particulars of the fighting on the 25th, which had probably been awaiting transmission for some days at some point on the line. At ten o'clock, however, we received a 5 special despatch from our agent at Chicago,; announcing that Richmond was occupied by the troops under Weitzel, at a quarter past eight o'clock yesterday (Monday) morning.; There is no longer room for doubt, then, that the capital of tho bogus Confederacy has indeed fallen, and* that Richmond, which has so long defied all our efforts at capture, now cowers beneath the 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 Raleigh. Will the rebels attempt a concentration there, or retreat farther westward ? If they concentrate at Raleigh, Sherman may have some hard fighting before him; but he has formed a junction with Schofield and Terry, and he is an old hand at that sort of business. But whatever they may attempt in that direction will be on the return of a forlorn hope, for the end draws nigh. The rebellion is done for. The evacuation or capture of Richmond of course involved the fall of Petersburg. The great triumph on the James, it is true, adds little to the area in possession of the National forces, bufc much to the enthusiasm of the HoHiera and the power of the army, while it weakens the rebels in a correspondent manner. The extensive fortifications are of little use to us, but they were valuable to the enemy, and by having them we command positions of vast importance for further military operations. According to the last National census, there were, in 1860, sixteen cities with more than fifty thousand inhabitants each in the United States, and of these only two—New Orleans and Charleston —are within the limits ofthe rebel States. Both of those are now in our possession. We hold the following rebel towns :—

New Orleans ...168,472 Charleston ... 51,210 Memphis 22,625 Savannah 22,292 Petersburg 18,266 Richmond ... 37,910 Nashville 16,987 Norfolk K609 Natchez 13,533 Augusta 12.493 Portsmouth 9,487 As against these, the rebels are reduced to the following: —

Mobile

29,-250

Staunton

14.424

Waynesboro

13,626

We hold the Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, aud Potomac entire; we have all their harbors on the coast; we have possession of the communications between the east and the west, the north and the south of the rebellious States; we have control of three-fourths of their territory and resources ; we have cut off 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 their hope, but they fight as if they were seeking a death preferable to that of the gallows. Examples of equal desperation may be found, but nofc of equal folly. The punishment of individuals will be the most lenient treatment of stubborn rebels on record; but the misery brought on incidentally in the course of the war by the slaying of men, the destruction of property, and the confiscation of estates, will be a lesson of humiliation to which the world will for ever point. How many will recall in anguish the burning, prophetic words of Holmes, written in January, 1861 :—

" The Lord hava mercy on the weak, And calm their frenzied ire; And save our brothers, ere they shriek, 1 We played with Northern fire.!' * « * * * •

Enough of speech! the trumpet rings; Be silent, patient, calm— God help them if the tempest swings The pine against the palm!"