Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Friday, May 12, 1865

It rained very hard all night. We left our bivouac at 4 o'clock this morning and at 6 o'clock passed through Richmond.¹ The town looks fine and business seems to be good. We marched ten miles and went into bivouac on the Chickahominy river. The entire army is taking the same route and thus we cannot move fast.

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¹ The Union general in command at Richmond requested General Sherman to have his army pass in review through Richmond, but Sherman flatly refused, declaring that he would march his army around the city before he would do anything of the kind, and Sherman had his way as to how we should pass through. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 274