    
|
 Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997 |
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997 |
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RHY-RON |
|
|
RICHMOND , the capital of Virginia, U.S.A., the county-seat of Henrico county, and a port of entry, on the James river (at the head of navigation), about loo m. S. by W. of Washington, D.C., and about 125 M. by water from the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1850) 27,570; (186o) 37,910; (1870) 51,038; (188o) 63,600; (189o) 81,388; (1900) 85,050, of whom 32,230 were negroes and 2865 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 127,628. Richmond is served, by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Seaboard Air Line, the Southern and the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railways, and by the Old Dominion, the Virginia Navigation and the Chesapeake steamship lines. The city has a beautiful situation on the hilly ground (maximum elevation
About three-fourths of the city's total street mileage (120 m.) is paved, Belgian block
Of Richmond's public buildings, several have great historic interest
Hall
interest
The more modern buildings include' the City Hall
As built in Richmond in 1845 by Luther Libby, it was a brick structure, three storeys high in front and four in the. rear. It had six rooms, each about 100X45 ft., was used as a tobacco ware-house and a ship-chandlery until 1861, and then until the capture of Richmond was used as a prison, chiefly. for Federal officers. Frequently it was terribly overcrowded (by as many as 1200 prisoners at a time), the inmates often suffered great privations, and many died or were physically disabled for the remainder of their lives. General Lee that General Grant had broken through the lines at Petersburg
Rosemary
Richmond has many fine monuments and statues of historic interest and artistic merit, the most noteworthy of the former being the Washington Monument, in Capitol Square. In 185o the commission accepted the model submitted by Thomas Crawford (1814-1857), an American sculptor, the corner-stone of the monument was laid in that year, and the equestrian statue of Washington, with sub-statues of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, was unveiled on the 22nd of February 1858. Thereafter were added sub-statues of Chief-Justice John Marshall and George Mason (1726-1792) by Crawford, and statues of Andrew Lewis (17301781) and Thomas Nelson (1738-1789), and six allegorical subjects, by Randolph Rogers (1825-1892), the monument being completed in 1869, at a cost of about $260,000, of which about $47,000 represented private gifts and the interest thereon. The greatest height of the monument is 6o ft., and the diameter of its base is 86 ft. In Capitol Square are also a marble statue of Henry Clay, by Joel T. Hart (1810-1877), a bronze statue of Stonewall Jackson, by John Henry Foley (1818-1874), an English sculptor, " presented to the city by English gentlemen " (Hon. A. J. Beresford-Hope and others) and unveiled in 1875; a statue of Hunter Holmes McGuire (1835-1900), a famous Virginia surgeon; and a statue of William Smith (1796-1887), governor of Virginia in 1846-49 and in 1864-65. In Monroe Park is a statue by E. V. Valentine of Brig.-General Williams Carter Wickham (1820-1888) of the Con-federate army. Another noteworthy monument is the noble equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee, surmounting a lofty granite pedestal at the head of Franklin Street. This statue, by Marius Jean Antonin Mercie (b. 1845), was unveiled in 189o. Adjacent is an equestrian statue of General J. E. B. Stuart, by Frederick Moynihan, and at the west end of Monument Avenue is the Jefferson Davis Monument, by W. C. Nowland, in front of which is a statue of Jefferson Davis, by E. V. Valentine. On Libby Hill, in the south-eastern part of the city, is a monument to the private soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy. In Hollywood Cemetery (dedicated in 1849) are the graves of many famous men, including presidents James Monroe and John Tyler; Jefferson Davis, John Randolph of Roanoke, the Confederate generals, A. P. Hill, J. E. B. Stuart and George E. Pickett; Commodore Matthew F. Maury (18o6-1873); James A. Seddon (1815-r88o), Secretary of War of the Confederate States in 1862-64; and John R. Thompson (1823-1873), widely known in his day as a poet and as the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in 1847-59. Here, too, are buried about 16,000 Confederate soldiers (to whose memory there is a massive pyramid of undressed granite, 40 ft. sq. at the base and 90 ft. high). In the north-eastern part of the city is Oakwood Cemetery, in which are the graves of about 18,000 Confederate soldiers. Two miles north-east of the city is the National Cemetery, with graves of 6571 Federal soldiers (5700 unknown) most of whom were killed in the actions near Richmond. Richmond is the seat of Richmond College (opened in 1832; chartered in 184o; and co-educational since 1898), which in 1909-10 had 21 instructors and 341 students, of whom 55 were in the School of Law (established 187o; re-established 189o) ; the Woman's College (Baptist; opened in 1854), .which in 190910 had 20 instructors and 275 students; the Virginia Mechanics' Institute (1856), including a Night School of Technology; the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (Presbyterian; opened in 1824 and removed to Richmond in 1898 from Hampden-Sidney), which in 190910 had 7 instructors and 8o students; the Medical College of Virginia, (founded in 1838), which has medical, dental and pharmaceutical departments, and in 190910 had 5o teachers and 2533 students; the University College of Medicine (1893), which has departments of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, and in 19o9Io had 57 teachers and 220 students; the Hartshorn Memorial College (Baptist), for women; and, for negroes, Virginia Union University, founded in 1899. periodicals
Dispatch (Democratic; Dispatch, 185o; Times, 1886; consolidated in 1903) and the News-Leader (Democratic, 1899). Among the city's clubs are the Westmoreland and the Commonwealth. The city's charitable institutions include the Memorial (1903), Virginia Sheltering Arms (1889) and St Luke's hospitals, the Retreat for the Sick (1877), the Eye, Nose, Ear and Throat Infirmary (188o), the Confederate Soldiers' Home (1884), supported jointly by the state and the city, a Home for Needy Confederate Women (1900), the City Almshouse and Hospital, and several orphanages and homes for the aged. Richmond is the leading manufacturing city of Virginia, the value of its factory products in 1905 being $28,202,607, an increase of 22.4% since 1900 and nearly 19% of the value of the state's factory products in this year. The chief industry is the manufacture of tobacco for. smoking and chewing, of cigars and cigarettes and of snuff. There are large iron and steel works here, notably the Tredegar Iron Works. Other important manufactures, with their product-values in 1905, are lumber and planing-mill products, $508,953; fancy and paper boxes and wooden packing boxes, $432,522; coffee and spices, $245,689; foundry and machine-shop products, $238,576; and saddlery and harness, $235,839. Richmond is the port of entry for the District of Richmond; in 1907 its imports were valued at $913,234 and its exports at $158,275; in 1909, its imports at $693,822 and its exports at $24,390. The city has a large jobbing and retail trade. Richmond is governed under a charter of 187o with amendments. The mayor is elected for two years and has the powers and authority in criminal cases of a justice of the peace. The city council is composed of a common council (five members from each ward, elected for two years) and of a board of aldermen (three members from each ward to be elected for four years). Other elective officers are the mayor, city treasurer, city sergeant, commonwealth attorney, city collector, city auditor, sheriff and high constable, elected for four years; and clerks of the various courts elected for eight years. The commissioner of the revenue is appointed for a term of four years by the judge of the corporation court. Three justices of the peace are elected from each ward for a term of two years. The city council appoints an attorney for the corporation , a city engineer, a city clerk, a police justice, a board of fire commissioners and a board of police commissioners, one from each ward, who have control of the fire and police departments, respectively, and a number of other officers. The city owns its gas works, water works and an electric-lighting plant (1910) for municipal lighting. The debt limit is set by the city charter at 18% of the assessed value of the taxable real estate of the city. In 1909 the taxable real estate and personal property was valued at $108,663,716, and the city had no floating debt; on the 1st of February 1910, there were $10,706,318 worth of bonds outstanding, and the sinking fund was $2,011,857.An exploring party from Jamestown, under command' of Captain Christopher Newport (c. 1565-1617), and including Captain John Smith, sailed up the James river in 1607, and on the 3rd of June erected a cross on one of the small islands opposite the site of the present city. The first permanent settlement within the present limits of the city was made in 1609 in the district long known as Rockett's. Later in the same year Captain Smith bought from the Indians a tract of land on the east bank of the river, about 3 M. below this settlement, and near the site of the present Powhatan. This tract he named " None-such," and here he attempted to establish a small body of soldiers who had occupied a less favourable site in the vicinity; but they objected to the change and, being attacked by the Indians, sought the protection of Smith, who made prisoners of their leaders, with the result, apparently, that the settlement was abandoned. In 1645 Fort Charles was erected at the falls of the James as a frontier defence. In 1676, during " Bacon's Rebellion," a party of Virginians under Bacon's command killed about 150 Indians who were defending a fort on a hill a short distance east of the site of Richmond in the " Battle of Bloody Run," so called because the blood of the slain savages is said to have coloured the brook (or " run ") at the base of the hill. Colonel William Byrd,l who owned much land along the 1 The Byrds and their ancestors, the Steggs, were conspicuous in the early history of Virginia. The first of the family was Thomas Stegg (or Stegge) (d. 1651), born in England, who became an Indian trader on the James river as early as 1637, and had his home near what is now the village of Westover, Charles City county. He left his estate to his son Thomas (d. 1670), who settled at the falls of the James in 1661, and was auditor-general in 1664-167o. He was succeeded by his nephew, William Byrd (1652-1704), who was born in London, went to Virginia about 167o, became a successful Indian trader, was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1677-1682, was a supporter of Nathaniel Bacon at the beginning of James river, at the falls, visited the tract in September 173.3, and decided to found there the town of Richmond, at the same time selecting and naming the present site of Petersburg
capital . On the 5th of January 1781 the town was partly burned by a force of about Boo British troops under Gen. Benedict Arnold, the 200 or 300 Virginians offering little resistance, and much of the damage being done by Lieutenant-Colonel John G. Simcoe's celebrated Rangers. Richmond was first chartered as a city 17.82, and in 1788 it was allowed a representative in the House of Delegates.The importance of Richmond during the Civil War was principally due to its having been made the capital of the Confederate States (by act of the Provisional Government on the 8th of May 1861). Its nearness to Washington, the material and manufacturing resources concentrated in it, and the moral importance attached to its possession by both sides, caused it to be regarded as the centre of gravity of the military operations in the east to which the greatest leaders and the finest armies were devoted from 1861 to 1865. (See AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.) The city's system of defences, which began to take form in May 1861, included a line of 17 heavy batteries, completely encircling it at an average distance of about 2 m.; another line of smaller batteries and trenches, from about a mile (or less) to about 2 M. beyond the heavy batteries, and practically unbroken from the north bank of the James (west of the city) to about r m. west of that river (south of the city); and the outer works, approximately paralleling the inner line, at distances of from 2 to 3 M. from this line north and east of the city. There was much confusion and lawlessness in Richmond during the earlier stages of the war. The city's police force was unable to cope with the situation created by the influx of soldiers, gamblers and adventurers, and on the 1st of March 1862 President Davis (by authority of a secret Act of the Confederate Congress passed on the 2nd of February) declared martial law in the city and the country within a radius of To m., suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and appointed General John H. Winder (1800-1865) to enforce military rule. General Winder's arbitrary exercise of his power was, however, resented so vigorously by the citizens that on the 19th of April the Confederate Congress materially modified the law under which he received these powers from the president. The opening of M'Clellan's Peninsula Campaign (see YORKTOWN; SEVEN DAYS, &c.) in 1862 caused great apprehension in Richmond, and in May 1862 some of the government records were packed up and preparations made to ship them to a place of safety. The approach of the " Monitor " and the Union gunboats up the James river caused a partial and temporary panic; President Davis appointed a day for prayer, and the families of some of the cabinet secretaries and many citizens fled the city precipitately; but confidence, restored by " Bacon's Rebellion," was auditor-general of the colony from 1687 until his death, and was a member of the committee which founded the College of William and Mary. His residence, within the limits of the present city of Richmond, was preserved until about 185o. His son William (1674-1744), the founder of Richmondand above referred towas educated in England; returned to Virginia in 1696; succeeded his father as auditor-general of the colony, and was receiver-general in 1705-1716. In 1727 he was appointed one of the commission (of which William Fitzwilliams and William Dandridge were the other members) to mark the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia, concerning which undertaking he wrote (probably in 1737) The History of the Dividing Line. This with his other publications, A Journey to the Land of Eden and A Progress to the Mines, was published at Petersburg, Va., in 1841, and again (New York
the checking of the fleet at Drewry's Bluff (Fort Darling), about 8 m. below the city, on the 15th of May 1862, was increased by the battle of Fair Oaks and the Seven Days, after which the Army of the Potomac retreated. Unsuccessful attempts were made in February and March 1864 to free the Federal prisoners in Richmond by means of cavalry raids. The most important of these was that of General H. Judson Kilpatrick, a portion of whose force, under Col. Ulric Dahlgren (b. 1842), was annihilated, Dahlgren being killed (2nd March). General U. S. Grant began the final campaign against Richmond in May 1864 (see WILDERNESS and PETERSBURG). Sheridan's cavalry, during the Richmond Raid," carried the city's outer defences (May 12), but found the river line too strong to be taken by assault and moved away. In June Grant's army crossed the James and attacked Lee in Petersburg. Then followed many months of unintermittent pressure upon both Petersburg and Richmond. General Benjamin F. Butler captured the southern outer line of the Richmond defences on the 29th of September 1864. On the 2nd of April 1865 Petersburg fell. Richmond was evacuated that night, after the ironclads, the bridges and many of the military and tobacco store-houses had been set on fire by order of General R. S. Ewell, so that when the Federal troops, under General Godfrey Weitzel (18351884) entered the city on the following morning (3rd April) a serious conflagration was under way, which was not extinguished until about one-third of the city, including several of its historic buildings, had been destroyed. During the war the principal iron foundry of the. Confederacy (Tredegar Iron Works) was in Richmond, and here most of the cannon used by the Confederate armies were cast. In 1910 the city of Manchester was annexed. See William W. Henry, " Richmond on the James " in Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York
End of Article: RICHMOND If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/RHY_RON/RICHMOND.html"> RICHMOND </a> |
|
|
(Previous) RICHFIELD SPRINGS |
(Next) RICHMOND AND DERBY, MARGARET, COUNTESS |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
Free & Cheap Cell
Phones |
Cheap Long Distance
Phone Service Carriers |
Talk America Local Phone Service
|
Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare
Cell Phone Plans & Companies |
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards |
Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone
Service | Wireless
Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
