Lee foresaw the eventual loss of Richmond through siege if he could not stop Grant. During the battles in 1864 in the Overland Campaign Robert E. The winter of 1863-1864 saw further food shortages, price increases as Confederate money became increasingly worthless and a rise in robberies especially of food. After the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, the Richmond Capitol building was used for Stonewall’s Jackson’s lying in state. On April 2, 1863, the Richmond Bread Riot occurred as women concerned about the good prices looted stores. In March 1863, an explosion at the Brown’s Island munitions facility killed and injured many young girls working there. The battles of Second Manassas and Antietam added to the already overcrowded and strained hospital system as thousands of wounded and captured men streamed into the Confederate capital as did the subsequent Battle of Fredericksburg. As the war progressed, Richmond suffered from food shortages and massively inflating prices. By the end of the war, the Chimborazo Hospital would care for almost 70,000 patients with a mortality rate under ten percent and Richmond became the hospital center of the Confederacy. Locals opened their doors to tend to the wounded. After the Battle of First Bull Run Richmond did not contain enough hospitals to take care of the 1,600 Confederate wounded as well as the 1,400 Union prisoners of war. The initial prosperity that the relocated Confederate capital brought soon was accompanied by a crime wave, the establishment of houses of prostitution and gambling haunts. Lodging, food and other necessities of life quickly disappeared. With the constant influx of soldiers, visitors and other newcomers flocking to the city, Richmond’s economy was stretched. By 1864 it had swelled to between 100,000 and 130,000 inhabitants. Richmond’s population in 1860 was 38,000 including 11,700 slaves. While the first Confederate capital was in Montgomery AL, Richmond was Confederacy’s most industrial city and Virginia was the largest Confederate state, so Richmond was chosen as the permanent capital for the Confederacy. The Virginia Secession Convention had voted against secession on April 4, 1861, however, with the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s subsequent call on April 15 for 75,000 ninety-day volunteers to “crush the rebellion,” by a vote of 88 to 55 the Convention took Virginia out of the Union on April 17, 1861.
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