Beschreibung:

Albumen photograph capturing the burned ruins of Haxall's flour mills in Richmond, VA, with L.C. Handy's Studio, Washington, D.C. backstamp, 6.5 x 8.5 in., unmounted, made in the 1860s from the original, large format, wet-plate glass negative. Alexander Gardner or one of his operators, is credited with taking this photograph. The silhouette of Haxall's Mills is an iconic photographic symbol of the destruction of Richmond and the fall of the Confederacy. The mill and the rest of Richmond was burned by an order directed from the Confederate Congress and was further randomly torched by marauding mobs. The citizens of Richmond were ordered to evacuate the city followed by the defending Confederate troops on April 2, 1865. As ordered, the troops set fire to cotton, tobacco, and other warehouses along the waterfront of the James River to prevent materiel and foodstuffs from falling into Union hands. As the day went on, the conflagration was aided by unruly mobs who roamed, looted, and set fires in the city at will. To complicate matters more, a hot southern breeze came up and spread the fire, which engulfed Haxall's Mills, a huge complex that had a floor surface of eight acres. By noon on April 3, over 700 buildings had been burned in the once proud capitol of the Confederacy. The Union troops entered the city, trying to extinguish the remaining fires, and on April 4, President Lincoln came to Richmond to inspect the ruined and smoldering city. Condition: Few vertical tears in print; few spots in upper left corner; loss to lower right corner.