RICHMOND 321 corn husks, furniture, and paper boxes ; a type foundery, a stone-cutting establishment, and five flouring mills, capable of producing 2,000,- 000 barrels annually. The Tredegar company has a capital of $1,000,000 and employs 1,200 hands, producing spikes, axles, bar iron, freight cars, &c., to the annual value of $3,250,000. There are several granite quarries in the vicin- ity. The city contains four national banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,400,000, six state banks and savings institutions, with $1,000,- 000 capital, and ten insurance companies. It is divided into six wards, and is governed by a mayor and council. The police force on Feb. 1, 1875, consisted of 82 men. The fire depart- ment comprises five steam engine companies, two hook and ladder companies, and one hose company, with a total of 100 men, and has a telegraphic alarm. The city is supplied with water from two reservoirs, with an aggregate capacity of 50,000,000, gallons, which are filled from the river by force pumps. The assessed value of real estate in 1874 was $41,600,000. The receipts during the year ending Feb. 1, 1875, amounted to $1,574,355 37, including $68,670 84 on hand at the beginning of the period; disbursements, $1,495,717 56; balance, $78,637 81. The bonded debt on Feb. 1, 1875, amounted to $4,239,727 97; floating debt, $82,379 18; total, $4,322,107 15. The whole number of persons admitted to the city alms- house during the year ending on that date was 812; average number of inmates, 245. One of the state insane asylums is situated here. There are several orphan asylums and other charitable institutions. The public schools are under the charge of a board of nine members, besides the mayor, who is president ex qfficio. There are seven school houses for white children, with an aggregate seating capacity of 3,093, and five for colored children, with a seating capacity of 1,758. The number of schools in operation during the year ending June 30, 1874, was 92, of which 59 (1 high, 21 grammar, and 37 pri- mary) were white, and 33 (5 grammar and 28 primary) were colored; whole number of teach- ers, 105, of whom 10 were colored; pupils en- rolled, 4,959 (3,041 white and 1,918 colored) ; average daily attendance, 3,595 (2,228 white and 1,367 colored). The expenditure for school purposes during the year ending Aug. 1, 1874, amounted to $80,932 52, of which $50,542 90 were for teachers' wages and $19,108 26 for construction and furniture; value of school property on the above date, $207,537 75. There are numerous private schools. Rich- mond college, under the control of the Baptists, founded in 1840, has a library of 6,000 volumes and a law department organized in 1868. The Richmond institute (Baptist), for theological instruction, was founded in 1868; it has a library of 1,200 volumes. The medical college of Virginia was established in 1851. Seven daily (two German), four semi- weekly, and ten weekly newspapers, and two semi-monthly and seven monthly periodicals are published. There are 49 churches, viz. : 15 Baptist (7 colored), 1 Disciples', 6 Episcopal, 1 Friends', 4 Jewish, 3 Lutheran, 11 Methodist (1 colored), 4 Pres- byterian, 3 Roman Catholic, and 1 Unitarian. Richmond was founded by William Byrd in 1737. It was incorporated in 1742, and be- came the state capital in 1779, at which period it was a small village. On the night of Dec. 26, 1811, the theatre took fire while crowded with spectators, of whom upward of 70 per- ished, among them the governor of the state. A church, known as the " Monumental " church, has been erected on the site. In May, 1861, Richmond was made the seat of government of the " Confederate States of America," and it so continued until their overthrow in April, 1865. Although geographically near the N. E. fron- tier, it was practically the military centre of the confederacy. If the railroads meeting here, and extending to every part of the south and southwest, had been planned for military purposes, they could not have been better placed. The defensive position of the city is excellent. On two sides it is covered by the James ; on the other sides the Chickahominy and swamps form a natural line of exterior defence. Here also were mills, manufactories, and founderies. When McClellan landed on the peninsula in the spring of 1862, the imme- diate capture of Richmond was apprehended ; and even while he was held in check at York- town a panic arose. On April 21 the con- federate congress hastily adjourned ; the gov- ernment archives were packed up, and the railroads were crowded with fugitives. The panic increased when Yorktown was aban- doned, Norfolk seized, and the Merrimack de- stroyed. But the state legislature resolved that the city should be defended to the last extremity ; the governor ordered that all busi- ness except the filling of government contracts should be suspended at 2 o'clock ; the militia was to assemble at 3 and drill till sunset. At this time there were no fortifications, and no attempt was made to obstruct the passage of the Chickahominy; and a determined attack at any time during the campaign would have had good chances of success. From August, 1862, to June, 1864, while the war was car- ried on in northern Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, Richmond was held only by a few thousand militia ; and several expeditions, mostly of cavalry, were undertaken rather with the design of liberating the Union prisoners and destroying the public works than of per- manently holding the city, which might have been easily retaken by the confederates, who were in force between it and the Union army of the Potomac. In March, 1864, Kilpatrick, with 4,000 cavalry, came on the north within 4 m. of the city, penetrating two lines of de- fences, but was stopped at the third, and aban- doned the enterprise. At the same time Dahl- gren with a few hundreds reached the inner line from the south, but was repulsed, himself killed in the retreat, and his command dis-
