File-5-001-CONFEDERATE-CAPITOL
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File-5-001-CONFEDERATE-CAPITOL |
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The photograph features Confederates standing in front of a building. The description below the photograph says "V26150- Confederate Capital.". The back of the photograph says "(V26150) CONFEDERATE CAPITOL This beautiful building, the capital of Virginia, was built according to plans which Thomas Jefferson brought from France. It is modeled after the Maison Carree, an old Roman temple at Mimes. The corner stone was laid in 1785 and four years later, on the seventh anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, the Virginia Legislature held its first meeting in the new statehouse. In the rotunda is Houdron's statue of George Washington, modeled from life. This statue is the most valuable one in America. This capitol stands in a beautiful park of twelve acres, a fitting setting for so splendid a piece of architecture. Some of the most dramatic events of American History occurred here. Here, in 1807, Aaron Burr was tried for treason. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, presided over the trial and ordered President Jefferson to appear as a witness. President Jefferson did not appear as he declared the rpesident was independent of the court. In 1861, after the storming of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for the troops and men knew there was to be war. Virginia then had to choose which side she would take. Two days after the President's proclamation, a convention met in this Statehouse and voted to secede. This gave the South her greatest general, Robert E. Lee. At this time Richmond was made the capital of the Confederacy and the Southern Congress held its meetings in this building from July 20, 1861 till the end of the war. This made the taking of Richmond the important object of Northern campaigns. Washington and Richmond, the two capitals, were just about a hundred miles apart and the two armies swept over the intervening land, leaving devastation behind. Finally Lee was forced to evacuate Richmond, then to surrender and the war was at an end. Copyright by The Keystone View Company". |
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