Boston Herald, 4/8/1865, p. 1, c. 1

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S VISIT TO RICHMOND.

A correspondent of the New York Herald gives the following account of President Lincoln's fast visit to Richmond, on Monday last:

Mr. Lincoln left City Point in the flagship of Admiral Porter, accompanied by the Bat, and, ascending the James, arrived at Rockett's Landing early in the day. He was accompanied, in the way of a guard, by one company of marines and one company of armed sailors (a distinction without a difference). As the President approached the headquarters of Major General Weitzel the salutes were opened, and he was found to be accompanied by Admiral Porter and an immense crowd of the people, who accorded to their liberator the cordial acclamations of a race owing him so much. It was truly a cheering sight to see Abraham Lincoln walking, rather than riding in pageant, the streets of Richmond – proud, but fallen city of the South – followed by an admiring crowd, where, but a few hours before, he would have been the subject of rebel jest and ribaldry, which his own patience has overcome, even to the approaching point of rebel consideration of folly[?].

The President, upon his arrival in the city, was immediately escorted, by his own choice, upon feet, to the headquarters of Major General Weitzel, commanding department, which are in the house of Jefferson Davis, and the threshold of which that arch-rebel crossed for the last time on Sunday evening, to take the cars for Danville, followed by his broken army. The President of the United States receiving the congratulations of an admiring auditory in the city of Richmond, and within the (late) domestic precincts of Jefferson Davis, needs no comment to cause the American people to believe that this atrocious struggle is quite at its end.

Major General Weitzel, upon the sudden appearance of Mr. Lincoln, held extemporized drawing-room receptions in the Executive mansion of the Confederacy, to which the President loaned, in his presence, the chiefest attraction. He was introduced to the leading general and staff officers of the Department of Virginia and the Army of the James now present in Richmond.

Just subsequent to the reception there was a private conference, after which the President rode out to see the city of Richmond – object of all his Presidential affections.

The ride over, the President proceeded to his ship, leaving us to the kindly realm of future developments. The President's condition of body and mind is best understood by the presentation of the fact, that physical inability, confessed to those with him in his carriage, alone prevented him from hoisting the flag of his country over the ancient Capitol building of Virginia – several hundred years of age in respect of patriotism, only four years old in treason.

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