Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 8 - War Is All Hell (1865) | Ken Burns Documentary' (Apr. 2, 1865, 38:43)

(Sunday, April 2, 1865, 11:00 p.m. local time; immediately following the Third Battle of Petersburg, part of the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War) — While attending church in Richmond, Virginia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis received a message from General Robert E. Lee telling him that he will have to evacuate the Confederate capital immediately because the Confederate troops are being forced to abandon the defense of Petersburg because of advancing Union forces.

Davis quietly left the church and in the evening, he and several members of his cabinet boarded a special train bound for Danville, Virginia.

Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 8 - War Is All Hell (1865) | Ken Burns Documentary' (Apr. 2, 1865, 36:53)

(Sunday, April 2, 1865; during the Third Battle of Petersburg, part of the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War) — The Union Army launched an assault on Confederate trenches and fortifications in Petersburg, Virginia, today, exposing or cutting the Confederate right flank, rear and remaining supply lines.

Confederate defenders were reduced by over 10,000 men killed, wounded, taken prisoner or in flight. Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill was killed in the fighting.