The arsenal blew up early on the morning of Monday, April 3.
The explosion shattered windows across town, lofted ordnance into the sky and knocked down tombstones in the Shockoe Hill Cemetery.
Much of the city already was on fire, the blaze spread by flames from burning tobacco warehouses. Mobs were looting. The inmates had gotten out of the prison. And a man was seen torching a pile of worthless money in the street.
It was the spring of 1865 and, after almost four years of civil war, the Confederacy was dying.
The government had fled by train the previous night with what remained of its gold and silver, headed southwest for Danville. Desperate people had packed onto the departing rail cars. But many were turned away.
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