Richmond: A View of the City from the Banks of the James River in 1858

Soon to become the “Capital of the Confederacy,” Richmond, on the eve of the Civil War, had become an industrialized city in addition to its longtime dominance in tobacco and flour production. It’s regional economy grew through “the dynamic interplay of diverse populations including slaves, free blacks, Irish and German immigrants, northern workers and native born Virginians.”

Founded by William Byrd the Second, descendant of early Virginian colonial settlers, the city was laid out in 1737 with the help of Irishman William Mayo of County Mayo on Ireland’s western shore. Likely named following Byrd’s several visits to Richmond upon Thames, the chosen site was at the James River fall line, where a ridge of hard rock, and rapids, terminate deepwater navigation. This was in an age when transportation depended on sailing ships and America’s great geographical asset of long, wide rivers reaching far into the hinterland.

The arsenal of the Confederacy, it was Richmond’s strength in manufacturing that was the key to the South’s successes in the Civil War. The Tredegar Iron Works, downriver from the viewpoint of this painting, produced canons and all necessary munitions and arms for the conflict.

In this scene, based on a collection of several very fine contemporary etchings, a packet brig arrives with immigrants at a dock just below Rocketts Landing, a mile below the city. The paddle tug boat is about to cast off the towline prior to nudging the vessel to her berth.

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