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CHAPTER XXIX.
READING
Geographical Position and History of Reading. – Manufacturing Interests. – Population, Streets, Churches and Public Buildings. – Boating on the Schuylkill. – White Spot and the View from its Summit. – Other Pleasure Resorts. – Decoration Day. – Wealth Created by Industry.
Reading, the seat of Justice of Berks County, Pennsylvania, is beautifully situated near the junction of the Tulpehocken with the Schuylkill River, and is midway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It was named after the ancient borough of Reading, a prominent market town of Berkshire, England, which it is said to resemble in some of its geographical surroundings. Attention was first called to Reading in the fall of 1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn, who represented it as "a new town with great natural advantages, and destined to become a prosperous place." It was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. The original settlers were principally Germans, who gave character to the town, both in language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship by more than one-half the present population.
The manufacturing interests of Reading are second to no city of like population in the United States; while it is the third city in Pennsylvania in its manufactures, Pittsburg and Philadelphia alone exceeding it. Among these manufactures the working of iron holds the first rank. Much of the ore is obtained from Penn's Mountain, on the east of the town. Rolling mills, machine shops, car shops, furnaces, foundries, cotton mills and hat factories, from their number and extent, establish beyond question the claim of Reading to be considered one of the first manufacturing towns of America. The shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad alone employ two thousand men. From an early hour in the morning the eastern bank of the Schuylkill rings out the discordant music of numberless factories, betokening the enterprise of her productive industries.
Reading has, at the present time, a population numbering not far from fifty thousand. It is delightfully situated on an elevated and ascending plain, which rises to the eastward into Penn's Mountain, and to the southward into the Neversink Mountain. The city is abundantly supplied with pure water, by streams flowing from these mountains. It is surrounded by a rich farming country, which looks to it for supplies. The streets cross each other at right angles, and the chief hotels and stores are built around Penn's Square, which occupies the centre of the city. It contains thirty-one churches, most prominent among which is Trinity, German Lutheran, an antique building with a spire two hundred and ten feet in height. Christ Church, Episcopal, is a handsome Gothic edifice of more recent date, and with a spire nearly as high. The Grand Opera House and Mishler's Academy of Music furnish amusements for the pleasure-seekers of the city.
The Schuylkill River is one of the most charmingly picturesque in America. Taking its rise among the rocky heights of the Blue Ridge, when it reaches Reading it has left all the ruggedness of the mountain region behind, and flows between gently sloping banks, which, though sometimes rising in the background to considerable elevations, never lose their softness of outline and their pastoral beauty. One evening we strolled down to this river, and took a most delightful boat ride from the Lancaster bridge to the dam opposite the White House and Neversink. Two boats were placed at the disposal of our party. It was a lovely May evening, the air soft and warm, yet with all the freshness of spring. We glided down the stream, the trees upon the banks overhanging the water, and catching reflections of themselves in its depths. Our downward progress was easy and pleasant. The current aided our efforts, while the tranquil waters, rippled only by a passing boat, offered no resistance to us in our course. When we turned and headed up stream, we found it quite another matter. Then we had to bring all our energies and wills to aid us in the labor of rowing. This is something that a man is apt to discover many times in his life, that, in both material and moral matters, it is easier to float with the current than to make headway against it.
A call from Mr. W. H. Zeller, of the Reading Eagle, paid me early one day, before the sun was up, was an indication that that gentleman was ready to pilot me to "White Spot," the famous resort of Reading. Starting as soon as possible, we walked up Franklin street, crossed Perkiomen avenue, and took a "bee line" for our destination. Up and up and up we walked, ran and jumped, over gulches and stones, and from log to log, halting occasionally for breath, and to discuss the city and landscape at our feet. It was but half-past five o'clock when we reached the goal of our walk. Taking in a view from its elevated heights, I felt that my visit to Reading would have given me a very indefinite idea of its natural beauties, had I not seen it from this point. White Spot is upon Penn's Mountain, one thousand feet above the river. I would but mislead the imagination of the reader, were I to attempt to convey a faithful impression of the magnificent panorama which, for a while, almost bewildered me. But let him imagine, if he can, a vast girdle of far-off, misty, blue hills, faintly defined by the horizon; against them to the north and west jut rows of towering but withal gently sloping mountains, purple, black, or darkly blue, just as each drifting cloud shadows them; within these encircling hills and mountains scatter the loveliest landscape features of which the human mind can conceive; green meadows, wooded hills, enchanting groves, dotted here and there with the most charming irregularity; farmhouses and farms, in themselves a little Arcadia; roads diverging from a common centre, and winding about until in the distance they look like the tiny trail which a child's stick makes in the sand; a clear, silvery river, looking in the sunshine like liquid light, reproducing on its mirrored surface the wonderful beauty which clothes either bank, studded with green isles that "blossom as the rose," spanned by splendid bridges as delicate in their appearance as lace work or filigree, yet supporting thousands of tons daily; in the heart of all a city, whose factories, furnaces, churches, majestic public buildings, handsome private residences, and attractive suburbs betoken prosperity, intelligence, culture, wealth and constant improvement; over the whole throw that peculiar couleur de rose with which the heart in its happiest moments paints all it loves, and he will have a faint conception of the aspect of Reading and its surroundings as seen from White Spot.
After resting on the summit, and taking in, to the full, this magnificent view, we returned to the city by the way of Mineral Spring, another delightful resort, which lies surrounded by charming natural beauties, about a mile and a half east of Reading. White House Hotel, a mile and a half to the southeast, on the Neversink Mountain, three hundred feet above the river, is still another favorite visiting place, from which a fine view of the city and surrounding country may be obtained, though not equal to that of White Spot.
I was particularly fortunate in finding myself still in Reading on Decoration Day, that day which has become a national holiday, and is universally observed throughout the northern States. The occurrence of this anniversary is hailed by the "Boys in Blue" as affording a blessed opportunity for doing honor to their dead comrades, and renewing their devotion to the flag which they followed through a four years' war for the preservation of the Union. Reading manifested her patriotism by a parade of all her civic and military organizations, and by invitation I was permitted to participate in the decoration exercises, at the Charles Evans Cemetery. The people of Reading are truly loyal, as industrious and order-loving people are sure to be. The perpetuation of the Union means to them the protection of their homes and the encouragement of their industries.
Although the manufacturing interests of Philadelphia and Pittsburg are exceedingly large – those of the latter without parallel on the continent, if, in the world – a visit to Reading is, nevertheless, desirable, for one who would gain a comprehensive idea of the industries of Pennsylvania. The city is not a large one, but it is almost wholly a city of workers. With the great coal and iron regions of the State at its back, their products brought to it by river, railroad and canal, its manufacturing enterprises are multiplied in numbers, and are almost Cyclopean in their proportions. Here the brawn of the country, with giant strength united with surprising skill, hammers and fashions the various devices of an advanced civilization, which its brain has already imagined and planned. Here wealth is created by the sturdy strokes of industry, and the permanent prosperity of the State secured.
CHAPTER XXX.
RICHMOND
Arrival in Richmond. – Libby Prison. – Situation of the City. – Historical Associations. – Early Settlement. – Attacked by British Forces in the Revolution. – Monumental Church. – St. John's Church. – State Capital. – Passage of the Ordinance of Secession. – Richmond the Capital of the Confederate States. – Military Expeditions against the City. – Evacuation of Petersburg. – Surrender of the City. – Visit of President Lincoln. – Historical Places. – Statues. – Rapid Recuperation After the War. – Manufacturing and Commercial Interests. – Streets and Public Buildings. – Population and Future Prospects.
On the morning of October twenty-third, 1863, a large company of Union prisoners, including the author, made an entry into Richmond, which was the reverse of triumphant, we having been, four days before, made prisoners of war in the cavalry fight at New Baltimore, in Northern Virginia. A brief stay in Warrenton jail, a forced march on a hot day, for a distance of thirty miles, to Culpepper, and then a transfer by march and rail, landed us at last at Libby Prison, Richmond. The "chivalry" and the descendants of the F. F. V's did not impress us very favorably, as we marched from the depot, through some of the principal streets, to the James River. Contemptuous epithets were bestowed freely upon us, while the female portion of the community was even more bitter in its expressions of hatred, and a troop of boys followed in our rear, hooting and yelling like young demoniacs.
Libby Prison was situated at the corner of Fourteenth and Cary streets, and was an old, dilapidated three-story brick structure, which still bore upon its northwest corner the sign "Libby & Son, Ship Chandlers and Grocers." The windows were small and protected by iron bars. The story of my stay in this prison-house I have recorded in "Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape." It was my abiding place until the seventh of the following May, when, in a filthy, rough box-car, a number of prisoners, including myself, were shipped to Danville. It is needless to say that my prolonged stay in Richmond did not materially alter or improve my impressions in regard to the city. True, our view of the city from our prison windows was limited, but memories only of suffering, privation and unnecessary barbarity, prompted by the cruel nature of those who had us in charge, are associated with it. The city was at that time the heart and centre of the then Southern Confederacy, the seat of the Rebel government, the rendezvous of troops, and the hatching place of treason and rebellion.
Yet one who views Richmond at the present day, unbiased by the untoward circumstances which threw their baleful influence over us, will see much to admire in and about the city. It is situated on the north bank of the James River, about one hundred miles by water from Chesapeake Bay, and the same distance a little west of south of Washington. It is built upon several eminences, the principal ones being Shockoe and Richmond hills, separated by Shockoe Creek. Like so many other Southern cities, its residences are surrounded by gardens, in which are grass plots, shrubbery and flowers; and in the business quarter are many substantial edifices.
The Richmond of to-day is very different from the Richmond of war times. The loyal city has been literally reconstructed upon the ruins of the rebellious one. There are few cities around which so many historical associations cluster, as around Richmond. It is on the site of a settlement made as early as 1611, by Sir Thomas Dale, and in honor of Prince Henry called Henrico, from which the county afterwards took its name. An early historical account says it contained three streets of framed houses, a church, storehouses and warehouses. It was protected by ditches and palisades, and no less than five rude forts. Two miles below the city a settlement had been made two years previously. In 1644-5 the Assembly of Virginia ordered a fort to be erected at the falls of the James River, to be called "Forte Charles." In 1676 war was declared against the Indians, and bloody encounters took place between the aborigines and their white neighbors. Bloody Run, near Richmond, is so named, according to tradition, on account of a sanguinary battle which one Bacon had there with the Indians; though it is stated on other authority that its name originated from the battle in which Hill was defeated and Totopotomoi slain.
In 1677 certain privileges were granted Captain William Byrd, upon the condition that he should settle fifty able-bodied and well armed men in the vicinity of the Falls, to act as a protection to the frontier against the Indians. Richmond was established by law as a town in May, 1742, in the reign of George II, on land belonging to Colonel William Byrd, who died two years later. The present Exchange Hotel is near the locality of a warehouse owned by that gentleman. In 1779 the capital of the State was removed to Richmond, from Williamsburg, the latter, its former capital, being in too assailable a position. In 1781 the traitor Arnold invested the city with a British force. As soon as he arrived he sent a force, under Colonel Simcoe, to destroy the cannon foundry above the town. After burning some public and private buildings, and a large quantity of tobacco, the British forces left Richmond, encamping for one night at Four Mile Creek. The village at that time contained not more than eighteen hundred inhabitants, one-half of whom were slaves. In 1789 it contained about three hundred houses. At that period all the principal merchants were Scotch and Scotch-Irish. Paulding describes the inhabitants as "a race of most ancient and respectable planters, having estates in the country, who chose it for their residence, for the sake of social enjoyments. They formed a society now seldom to be met with in any of our cities. A society of people not exclusively monopolized by money-making pursuits, but of liberal education, liberal habits of thinking and acting; and possessing both leisure and inclination to cultivate those feelings and pursue those objects which exalt our nature rather than increase our fortune." In 1788, a convention met in the city, to ratify the Federal Constitution.
At the corner of Broad and Thirteenth streets stands the Monumental Church, in commemoration of a terrible calamity which once befell the city. On the twenty-sixth of December, 1811, a play entitled "The Bleeding Nun" was being performed in the little theatre of the city, and proved such a great attraction that the house was crowded, not less than six hundred people being present on the eventful night. Just before the conclusion of the play the scenery caught fire, and in a few minutes the whole building was wrapped in flames. The fire falling from the ceiling upon the performers was the first notification the audience had of what was transpiring. A scene of the wildest confusion ensued. There was but one door through which the entire audience, composed of men, women and children, could make its exit. The fire flashed from one portion of the interior to another, catching on the garments of the frantic people. All pressed in a wild panic toward the door. People jumped and were pushed out of the windows. Many were rescued with their clothing literally burned off from them, and no less than sixty-nine persons perished in the flames, among them George W. Smith, Governor of the State, and many other prominent men and women. A great funeral was held in the Baptist meeting-house, and the entire population of the city attended, as mourners. The remains of the unfortunates were interred beneath a mural tablet which is now in the vestibule of the church that was subsequently erected on the site of the theatre.
St. John's Church, on Church Hill, at the corner of Broad and Twenty-fourth streets, dates back to ante-Revolutionary times, and in it was held, in 1775, the Virginia Convention, in which Patrick Henry made his famous speech, containing the words "Give me liberty or give me death!" It was subsequently the place of meeting of the Convention which, in 1788, ratified the Federal Constitution. Among the members of this Convention were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Nicholas, George Mason, Edmund Randolph, Pendleton and Wythe. Rarely has any occasion in a single State presented such a list of illustrious names as we find here. This church is a plain, unpretending edifice, built in the style of a century ago, to which has been added a modern spire.
The State Capitol stands on the summit of Shockoe Hill, in the centre of a park of eight acres. It is of Graeco-Composite style of architecture, with a portico of Ionic columns, planned after that of the Maison cassée at Nismes, in France, the plan being furnished by Thomas Jefferson. Beneath a lofty dome in the centre of the building is Houdon's celebrated statue of Washington, of marble, life size, representing him clad in the uniform of a revolutionary general. Near by, in a niche in the wall, is a marble bust of Lafayette. This building has been the scene of many noted political gatherings. In it, on January seventh, 1861, was read Governor Letcher's message to the Legislature, in which he declared it was "monstrous to see a government like ours destroyed merely because men cannot agree about a domestic institution." Nevertheless, on the seventeenth of the same month, the Capitol Building witnessed the unanimous passage of the following resolution: —
"Resolved, That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy differences between sections of our country shall prove abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with her sister slaveholding States."
And on the thirteenth of February, the same edifice saw a State Convention meet within its walls; on the sixteenth of April, Governor Letcher refused the requisition of the Secretary of War for troops to assist in putting down the Rebellion in South Carolina; and the next day the Ordinance of Secession was passed, two months having been given to an active discussion of its expediency, pro and con. The Confederate flag, with eight stars, was raised from the dome of the Capitol, and the Custom House, which stands on Main street, between Tenth and Eleventh, had the gilt sign on its portico, "United States Court," removed. A citizen writing from Richmond, on April twenty-fifth, says: "Our beautiful city presents the appearance of an armed camp. Where all these soldiers come from, in such a state of preparation, I cannot imagine. Every train pours in its multitude of volunteers, but I am not as much surprised at the number as at the apparent discipline of the country companies. * * But the war spirit is not confined to the men nor to the white population. The ladies are not only preparing comforts for the soldiers, but arming and practicing themselves. Companies of boys, also, from ten to fourteen years of age, fully armed and well drilled, are preparing for the fray. In Petersburg, three hundred free negroes offered their services, either to fight under white officers, or to ditch and dig, or any kind of labor. An equal number in this city and across the river, in Chesterfield, have volunteered in like manner."
A resolution was passed by the Convention inviting the Southern Confederacy to make Richmond the seat of government. The Ordinance of Secession having been submitted to the people, the vote in the city stood twenty-four hundred in favor and twenty-four against, being less than half the vote polled at the Presidential election in November previous. Richmond became a general rendezvous for troops.
The Confederate Congress met in Richmond, in the hall of the House of Delegates, on the twentieth of July, 1861, and the seat of government continued there until the taking of the city marked the fall of the Confederacy. A school-house in the vicinity of the rear of Monumental Church, was at that time known as Brockenburg House, and was the residence of Jefferson Davis, president of the Southern Confederacy. Two tobacco warehouses, under their former titles of Libby & Son and Castle Thunder, together with Belle Isle, were military prisons during the war, and in the former of these, as already narrated, the writer was confined for several months.
About the middle of May, 1862, the Federal forces having passed Yorktown and Williamsburg, began to move directly upon Richmond. Consternation seized the city, all who could get away packed up everything and fled southward. Even President Davis took his family and hastened to North Carolina. It was resolved to destroy the city by conflagration as soon as the Union troops reached it. The Federal army was, however, compelled to abandon the Peninsula, and Richmond was safe for the time being. On February twenty-ninth, 1864, General Kilpatrick, with his division of cavalry, commenced his march upon the city, and came within six miles, when he was compelled to withdraw to Mechanicsburg. The next day he made a second attempt, advancing by the Westham or river road, but was confronted by superior forces, and again compelled to fall back, and shortly after he returned down the Peninsula.
From the beginning of the war Richmond had been the objective point of a series of formidable expeditions for its capture, under Generals McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade and Grant. The strong earthworks which were drawn around the city for its protection still remain as mementoes of the great struggle. On July thirtieth, 1864, the Union forces advanced as far as Petersburg, and after destroying one fort, were repulsed. It was not until April second, 1865, that the Rebel forces were obliged to surrender that outpost, and on the following day, General Weitzel, with his troops, entered the city of Richmond.
President Davis was attending church at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, at the corner of Grace and Ninth streets, when a messenger brought him a dispatch from General Lee, announcing that Petersburg was about to be evacuated. The officers of the Southern Confederacy stood not on the order of their going, but went at once. Jefferson Davis took his family and left the city immediately. The Rebel authorities took with them what stores and treasures they could convey away, burned what they had to leave behind, and set fire to the warehouses, public buildings, and bridges across the James River. The flames communicated to adjacent structures, and it was thought the entire city would be destroyed. A large portion of its business section was thus laid waste; the number of buildings destroyed being estimated at one thousand, and the entire loss at eight millions of dollars.
On the fourth of April, President Lincoln reached Richmond, and entered the house which had but two days before been occupied by Jefferson Davis, but which was now the headquarters of General Weitzel. He came unattended, and walked up from the river into the city, without parade, as any ordinary citizen might have done. The news of his presence soon spread, and the colored people flocked around him, with strong demonstrations of joy. "God bless you, Massa Linkum!" was heard on every hand, while the tears rolled down the cheeks of some, and others danced for joy. And here, perhaps all unconsciously, the second father of his country emulated the first. It is told of Washington, that, a colored man having bowed to him, he returned the bow with stately courtesy. Being remonstrated with for bowing to a colored person, he replied that he did not wish to be outdone in politeness by a negro. At Richmond a colored man bowed to Lincoln, with the salutation, "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" Lincoln returned the bow with cordiality, evidently, like Washington, determined not to be outdone in politeness by a negro. But that bow not only indicated the noble nature of the man who recognized a humanity broader than a color line, and over whom already hung the dark shadow of martyrdom; but it also was a foretoken of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights act, which so quickly followed the quelling of the Rebellion.
In the soldiers' section of the Hollywood Cemetery, in the western limits of the city, overlooking the James River, are the graves of hundreds of Confederate dead, from the midst of which rises a monumental pyramid of rough stone. In the same cemetery, on a hill at its southern extremity, a monument marks the resting-place of President Monroe. General J. E. B. Stuart, commander of Lee's cavalry, is also buried here.
The Tredegar Iron Works, which are still in active operation, and whose buildings cover thirteen acres of ground, were the great cannon manufactory of the Confederacy. Several battle fields and national cemeteries are within a few hours' drive of the city. The old African Church, a long, low building in Branch street, near Monumental Church, is famous as a place of political meetings, both before and during the war.
Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington, in the esplanade leading from the Governor's house to the Capitol Square, will recall the early days of the Republic. The statue is of bronze, representing a horse and rider of colossal size, the horse thrown back partly upon its haunches, on a massive granite pedestal, and around it are grouped bronze figures of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, George Mason, Thomas Nelson, and Andrew Lewis, all illustrious sons of Virginia. In the Capitol Square, north of the Capitol Building, is Foley's statue of General "Stonewall" Jackson, of heroic size, on a granite pedestal, and near it a life-size marble statue of Henry Clay. In the State Library, which contains forty thousand volumes, are many historical portraits.
Richmond has rapidly recuperated since the war. Her streets have been rebuilt, and, in common with many other Southern cities, she has, since the abolition of slavery, and the consequent elevation of labor and attraction of Northern enterprise and capital, developed many industrial interests. The Gallego and Haxall flour mills are among the largest in the world. It has a large number of cotton, and a still larger number of tobacco factories; and contains also forges, furnaces, paper mills, and machine shops. Its chief exports are, however, tobacco and flour. Richmond owes its present flourishing condition to its river facilities, and the immense water power supplied by the falls. It is alike the manufacturing and the commercial metropolis of the State. Vessels drawing ten feet of water can come within a mile of the centre of the city, those drawing fifteen feet, to three miles below. A canal around the falls gives river navigation two hundred miles further into the interior. Steamboat lines connect it with the principal Atlantic cities, and railroads and canals open up communication with the North, South, and West.
The city is regularly laid out, the streets crossing each other at right angles. Those parallel with the river are named alphabetically, A street being on the river. The cross streets are named numerically. The principal thoroughfare is Main or E street, which is the centre of business. The fashionable quarter is on Shockoe Hill, in the western part of the city, where are also the chief public edifices. The Penitentiary is in the western suburbs facing the river, and is a massive structure three hundred feet long and one hundred and ten feet deep. The Almshouse is one of the finest buildings in the city. There are a large number of churches, thirteen colleges, and an orphan asylum. Five bridges across the James River connect it with Spring Hill and Manchester, the latter a pretty town containing two cotton mills.
The population of Richmond, by the census of 1880, was 63,803, which showed an increase of more than ten thousand persons in ten years. Unlike Charleston, S. C., it is surrounded by a populous rural region, whose products find a market here, and whose population look largely to the city for their supplies. It will never attain the commercial consequence of Savannah or of Norfolk, but as the centre of the tobacco region, and the seat of large manufacturing interests, it will always possess a certain importance and prosperity.
