The history of Richmond, Virginia, as a modern city, dates to the early
17th century, and is crucial to the development of the colony of
Virginia, the American Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. After
Reconstruction, Richmond's location at the falls of the James River
helped it develop a diversified economy and become a land transportation
hub.
East Main Street circa 1900
Richmond, from the hill above the waterworks, showing the city ca.
the 1830s
Civil War History
Map of Richmond during the Civil War
Virtual Tour of Richmond
In February 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the
Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama. Two months after
Davis' inauguration, the Confederate army fired on Fort Sumter in
Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War had begun. With the
outbreak of war, followed by Virginia's secession in May 1861, the
strategic location of the Tredegar Iron Works was one of the primary
factors in the decision to relocate the capital of the Confederacy to
Richmond. From this arsenal came much of the Confederates' heavy
ordnance machinery, making 723 tons of armor plating that covered the
CSS Virginia, the world's first ironclad used in the two-day Battle of
Hampton Roads in March 1862, against the USS Monitor.
