RICHMOND, THE REBEL CAPITAL, TAKEN. GENERAL WEITZEL OCCUPIES THE CITY. [SPECIAL.]

Evening Post, Issue 116, 23 June 1865, Page 2

RICHMOND, THE REBEL CAPITAL, TAKEN. GENERAL WEITZEL OCCUPIES THE CITY. [SPECIAL.]

Chicago, April 3—93 —9 p.m. —Richmond was occupied by our troops, under General Weitzel, at a quarter past eight, this (Monday) morning. (FROM THE ALTA CALIFORNIA, 4TH APRIL.) 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 the 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,¦

gcneral^onslaught upon the doomed city. ,#iasjffcfttnd Pfirke on the.left— that is to say, Jn tfes *!emitV of Petersburg— had broken through Ahe enemy's lines with desperate Valour i 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 h's way— whili all along the vast lin.s south <f the Jnmes, the battle ebbed and flowei with a fury never before witnessed in this sanguinary war. So fur all was straight and comprehensible, but as evening approßpherf, despatches were received by the President of the Telegraph Company from operators on the route of the line— one from Omaha, setting forth that befr >re tlie line pot out of order east of tin t place, a despn tch from Chicago had reached him saying ¦• — " Petersburg evacuated ; Richmond taken.— loo punsj many thousand priioners taken". The other was from Salt Lake, and vt&s to the effect that Petersburg was (aken, We expected to be able to procure «a-ly in the evening the detnils of these grcßt and glorious events, but nothing came to hand but some particulars of the fighting en tbe 25th, which had probably been awaiting transmission for some days at some point on the line At ten o'clock, however, we received a special despatch from our agent at Chicago ( announcing that Richmond was occupied by the troops under Weitzel, at a quarter pnst eight o'clock yesterday (Monday) morning, There is no longer room for doubt, then, that the capital of the bogus Confederacy has indeed fallen, and that Richmond, which has <o long defied alt our efforts at capture, now cowers beneath the Stars and Stripes. We are in the dark as to whether it was taken by hard flghiing, or evacuated after tlie late fighting— we incline to the latter view of the question. Davis and Lee have left, hag and baggage, but where are they going ? Johnston has fallen back to Raleigh. Will the rebels attempt a concentration there, or retreat farther westward ?