I reached Richmond without further incident, and soon after midnight I was married to Elizabeth Selden Saunders....
As will be readily understood, the occasion was not one of great hilarity, though I was very happy; my eyes were the only dry ones in the company....
The people of Richmond were greatly excited and in despair in the contemplation of the abandonment of their beautiful city by our troops.

General Lee had for so long a time thwarted the designs of his powerful adversaries for the capture of the city, and seemed so unfailing and resourceful in his efforts to hold them at bay, that the good people found it difficult to realize that he was compelled at last to give way.

There was universal gloom and despair at the thought that at the next rising of the sun the detested Federal soldiers would take possession of the city and occupy its streets.
The transportation companies were busily engaged in arranging for the removal of the public stores and of the archives of the government.

A fire in the lower part of the city was fiercely raging, and added greatly to the excitement.
Somewhere near four o'clock on the morning of the 3d of April I bade farewell to all my dear ones, and in company with my brother-in-law, Colonel John S.Saunders, proceeded toward Mayo's Bridge, which we crossed to the south side of the James, in the lurid glare of the fire, and within the sound of several heavy explosions that we took to be the final scene in the career of the Confederate navy, then disappearing in smoke on the James River, near Rockets.
Before we departed from the colonel's library, which we felt obliged to do much sooner than we wished to, owing to the condition of his health, he called our attention to an oil portrait of his old commander, which occupied the place of honor above the mantelpiece, and asked his daughters to let us see his scrap-book, containing personal letters from General Lee, Jefferson Davis, and other distinguished men, as well as various war documents of unusual interest.
We felt it a great privilege to handle these old letters and to read them, and the charm of them was the greater for the affection in which the general held Colonel Taylor, as evidenced by the tone in which he wrote.

To us it was a wonderful evening....