When a pair of collectors, Franklin Miller and Bob Joseph, purchased a painting in London by the French-Belgian painter Alexandre-Thomas Francia (1820-1884), they could see immediately that it portrayed the burning of Richmond on April 3, 1865 – even though it was not so identified by the sellers.

The question that hung in the air was this: had Francia actually been in the Confederate States in 1865?

The pair queried readers of the Civil War News, a publication based in Tunbridge, Vt., but unfortunately, no reader was able to provide any details on Francia. As luck would have it, a recent trip to Richmond, which included visits to the Virginia Historical Society and the Museum of the Confederacy, produced a gold mine of information, according to Miller, and the pair recently related what they found:

Richmond, capital of the Confederacy, was set ablaze on April 3, 1865, during the evacuation of Southern forces. The fire would burn and smolder for several days. The best known depiction of the fire was circulated by Currier & Ives. The Currier & Ives piece, however, was not based on eyewitness accounts. Currier & Ives had published a lithograph of Richmond years before the war, and, on hearing the news of the fire, the enterprising print makers had one of its artists in New York add flames to the previous image and rushed it into print.

The Francia painting represented a challenge, according to Miller, because it presents a different view of the burning city. The view is from Manchester, looking across the pontoon bridge built by Union forces. Furthermore, unlike the Currier & Ives lithograph, many of the burned out buildings in the Francia painting conform to surviving photographs taken at the time.

After failing to discover information that would have placed Francia in Richmond in 1865, Miller and Joseph reversed course and sought to discover an image similar to that painted by Francia. Virginia Historical Society experts recalled seeing an image similar to Francia’s and suggested exploring contemporary editions of the Illustrated London News. “The very helpful staff of the Museum of the Confederacy produced the 1865 copies of the News from the museum’s back rooms – and therein lay the answer,” said Miller. The May 20, 1865, edition carried a long letter, accompanied by sketches, from a T.W. Kennard, chief engineer of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, describing his April 7, 1865, visit to Richmond, and a subsequent meeting with President Abraham Lincoln.

The News introduced the story as follows: “The first vessel that went up the James River to Richmond after the evacuation of that city by the Confederates on Monday, April 3, was a private yacht, the steamer Octavia, of 430 tons, built in America but belonging to an English gentleman, Mr T.W. Kennard, the chief engineer of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, who was accompanied by his son and several other gentlemen in this early visit to the fallen capital of the South… He gives the following account of his visit to the ruined city:

…Upon arriving at Manchester, on the south side of the James River, we found the fine railway bridge, three-quarters of a mile long, destroyed by fire. Nothing remained but the stone piers. All the other bridges were destroyed in the same way, and we entered the town over a bridge of boats thrown across by the Federal troops. The scene of ruin and devastation presented on entering the place is beyond description. The main street and the entire blocks of buildings stretching down to the river had been totally destroyed by fire…

In all excursions some of the party get adrift. One of ours did on this occasion, a circumstance he had no reason to regret, as he passed the evening with General Weitzel, who occupies Jefferson Davis’s house, and visited points of interest in the fugitive President’s carriage. Saturday was spent at City Point in making our adieus to all those who had shown our party such great and unusual attentions. We saw a train of 2,000 men dispatched to bring back some 12,000 prisoners captured on Thursday, including General Ewell and five other generals. Upon our way back to the yacht, the English portion of the party called upon the President, who had been there for some time on board the River Queen steamer. The President received us with the greatest courtesy, and we enjoyed a long and interesting conversation with him, not the least amusing part of it being a history he gave of General Grant’s career…The President looked very careworn, and with feeling expressed his delight at the prospect of a speedy close of this dreadful war.

Francia, moved by the sketch when he saw it in London, used it as the basis of his painting. Thus, his depiction of the fire that made headlines around the world is the only known contemporary painting of that historic event based on an eyewitness representation (and that recorded less than 100 hours after the fall of the city). As such, it is more accurate than the widely published Currier & Ives image, which is popularly thought of as depicting the conflagration.

The painting, like most of Francia’s known works, is done in watercolor. Further research revealed that Alexandre-Thomas Francia was the son of Louis Francia, also an artist. In an 1985 catalog, titled Louis Francia and his Son Alexandre, Davidson University scholar Anthony Reed writes of Alexandre: “During a long and energetic career, he bustled around Europe, exhibiting regularly in London, Paris and Brussels, the city in which he eventually settled. Medals and honors were heaped on him, among them the portentous title of Artiste Chevalier des Orders de Leopold… It was undeniably impressive. No wonder, after he died in 1884, one of the streets of Calais was re-named rue Francia.”

Following the discoveries by Miller and Joseph, the painting was displayed this past April at the National Parks Services’ special exhibit commemorating 140th anniversary of the fall of Richmond.

For information, email nmjoseph1@verizon.net.