The piece I chose is titled The Fall of Richmond, Virginia, on the Night of April 2nd, 1865. It was created in 1865 by Currier and Ives. The painting is a recreation that depicts one of the final moments in the history of the Civil War. The Confederate army retreated to the city of Richmond knowing that the final moments of the war was approaching. Once they retreated to their capital city they realized that they would not be able to hold off the incoming blue coats. They thought that they could only do one thing and that was to burn it down. The reason they did this was not because they wanted to give up, but that they still wanted a true fighting chance and would not roll over in any battle against the north. They wanted to make sure that if they lost this battle that they would lose on their own terms. They decided to set the city ablaze. The reason they decided to do this is because they had a stockpile of weaponry and supplies that could have aided the north and as a result ended the war sooner. Taking a look at this painting you can see the true detail the artist put into it. At first glance the viewer sees just a city on fire and being truly wrecked in the self-inflicted carnage. But after looking into the piece, there details that the describe that actual physical affects of what was happening, but also what the painting represents. On the physical spectrum the city is on fire and being destroyed yes, but there are other details that show on what the true affects were. You can see closely in the smoke that there are almost flares coming off one of the fires. Moving from left to right you see three billowing smokestacks, while the 4th one next to them seems somewhat different. The 4th one seen is a more rich sunset orange than the ghastly pillars of smoke to its right. This is because this was not just a regular fire. This was an explosion of an armory stockpile. The fire set to the building triggered a reaction to cause a massive explosion. A first hand report was told in “A French View of the Fall of Richmond”. He describes it as “the city which had also been set afire, began to burn in those portions where the munitions of war were stored. This establishment contained large quantities of powder and shells… the bombs exploded and fragments were thrown into surrounding streets” (Warren 182). As described the explosions caused great damage to the city and its people. In the painting you can see the destruction painting the night sky while illuminating the fleeing troops. I feel that this is another detail the painter tried to use to show us something that would not be seen with the first glance. I feel that this is showing the troops are fleeing but still have a purpose to fight. They are riding in the night in great numbers to the left showing that are moving backwards, but have the loss of their city as a reason that they need to keep fighting for what they believe in. They are not shown as in much detail on purpose to convey to the audience that this is a pack mentality and now that this has happen to them they now have the motivation and the causation to retaliate when the time is right.
Annotated Bibliography
Coffey, Michael W. The North Carolina Historical Review 91, no. 2 (2014): 242-44.
Accessed November 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23719107.
The article listed above is a piece that talks about the overview of a country as a whole. The social, political, and overall background of the country and what happen during the fall of Richmond.
Richmond Must Fall: The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, is about the events leading up to the fall of Richmond. It focused more on the political aspects and climate of the United States.
Hackemer, Kurt. “Richmond Must Fall: The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, October 1864. By Hampton Newsome. (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2013. Pp. Ix, 447. $65.00.).” The Historian 77, no. 1 (2015): 135–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/hisn.12056_24.
Spencer, Warren F. “A French View of the Fall of Richmond: Alfred Paul’s Report to Drouyn De
Lhuys, April 11, 1865.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 73, no. 2 (1965): 178-
88. Accessed November 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4247106.
A French View of the Fall of Richmond: This entry was the first hand account of a French man
witnessing what was happening the day Richmond fell