With overwhelming Union action battering his army, Confederate General Robert E. Lee telegraphed his government in Richmond that the city must be immediately abandoned. During the day, hasty preparations ended with the 11 p.m. departure of President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet by train for Danville, Virginia. Behind them, Richmond was in chaos. Mobs roamed the streets and flames from fired stores spread, eventually gutting more than seven hundred buildings in the business district. (By John Osborne)