(The Whig Party had collapsed by 1856, but its former members in Virginia were inclined to oppose secession.) People debated secession at length and, like many across the Upper South, tended to adopt a cooperationist stance. While many states in the Deep South were dominated by the Democratic Party and its radical, “fire-eater” wing, Richmond and the state of Virginia had a tradition of healthy political competition between Democrats and former members of the Whig Party. Such interests encouraged moderation in politics. After all, Richmond’s merchants supplied Northern markets with tobacco its flour-milling firms dominated trade with South America and Tredegar ironworks produced railroad iron and ordnance for the federal government as well as state governments in the North. Like most Southern cities, Richmond opposed secession on economic grounds. Just as ironic, that destruction was largely caused by Confederates, although images of the city’s ruins have become iconic representations of the cost of war. In a sense, its success-especially in mobilizing, outfitting, and feeding the Confederate armies-predestined it to near-destruction in 1865. Because of its economic and political importance as well as its location near the United States capital, Richmond became the focus for most of the military campaigns in the war’s Eastern Theater.
From the start of war, Confederate citizens flocked to the capital seeking safety and jobs, leading to periodic civil unrest, manifested most notably in the Bread Riot of April 1863. It boasted a diversified economy that included grain milling and iron manufacturing, with the keystone of the local economy being the massive Tredegar ironworks. Besides being the political home of the Confederacy, Richmond was a center of rail and industry, military hospitals, and prisoner-of-war camps and prisons, including Belle Isle and Libby Prison. It also served as the capital of Virginia, although when the city was about to fall to Union armies in April 1865, the state government, including the governor and General Assembly, moved to Lynchburg for five days. Richmond, Virginia, was the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
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