This page contains sources on various crimes, riots, and general
mayhem that occurred in Richmond during the Civil War. Related pages
are those on Slaves and Slavery, and Castle Thunder.
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/30/1860; John Gorman, sailor on USS Brooklyn
passes out drunk and taken to the Mayor who lets him go |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/1/1860; more on John Gorman, the drunken
sailor |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
10/8/1861;
Geo. Sheridan,
Ala. soldier, goes crazy, runs through streets in underwear, leaps to death
in canal at "Armory Bridge" |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
10/17/1861;
J. H. Greanor's
slave George attacks Dr. Wellford's slave Phebe with an axe, in the bottom
near the Central depot |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
10/18/1861;
details on case
of axe-wielding slave of Capt. John H. Greanor |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
10/25/1861;
"Extraordinary
Freak" - man in drag appears on Main street |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
12/12/1861; duel
takes place at the Broad Rock Race Course |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
2/10/1862;
“John Taylor, charged with exposing his
person in the street, was committed for want of security for his good
behavior” |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
3/28/1862; Shockoe Hill Cats and Butchertown Cats are engaging in rock
battles, but have not been caught yet |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
5/6/1862; owners of the YMCA
hospital, established "next to Crawford's old saloon" complain
about "resort
for lewd females" across the street |
|
Richmond
Dispatch |
5/13/1862; excellent description of
the proliferation of prostitution in Richmond, of "both sexes." |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
7/22/1862; Fake
provost officer murders a man - paragraph within testimony from Lt. Booker
describing Provost Procedure for arrests |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
8/19/1862;
Humorous – two women fight, corner 9th and Broad |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
9/1/1862; police
raid Cary St., especially “that prolific locality” between 17th and 18th |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
9/8/1862; “Of
Evil Name &c” Woman arrested for “indulging in horseback exercise on one of
the public streets of the city in company with a person said to be a
Lieutenant in the army, to the disgust of decent people…” Witnessed by the
Mayor, woman was sent to jail. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
9/20/1862;
soldier stabs & kills another soldier at T. R. Stewart’s bowling alley, 10th
between Main and Cary |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
9/22/1862; 2
soldiers in Castle Thunder for robbing citizen. Mayor forced to contemplate
extent of his authority in city over military personnel. Slave items and
prostitution as well. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
9/23/1862;
Someone stole one of the old silver communion goblets from St. Paul’s |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/7/1862;
Patrick Fagan kills James Morrissey with single punch. Both in Whitingham’s
Battery. Fagan taken to Castle Thunder. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/7/1862;
Mayor’s Court: James Williams, drunk soldier, sent to Castle Thunder; Hoenniger
charges men with burglary, room #44 Spotswood Hotel; slave charged with
stealing money from guest at the Ballard House (discharged); free negro
without papers ordered whipped for smoking a cigar in the street; another
free negro threatens boy in Second Market & used “indecent language” –
ordered to be whipped. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/8/1862; gang
of thugs roaming Church Hill |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/23/1862; negro
convicted of stealing bushel of flour from Camp Winder bakery |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
10/30/1862;
George Rollins into Castle Thunder for breaking and entering |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/1/1862;
thieves rob City Hall |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/6/1862;
Mayor’s Court: Jas. Pearson, of Drewry’s Bluff command, jailed for assault;
woman tried for stealing $10 worth of silverware from Spotswood; details on
E. Hunter Taliaferro case |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/17/1862;
details on murder of Lt. J. O. Withmell, CSA, from England & St. Louis,
killed in “alley on Cary Street, between 14th and 15th streets.” Col. B. D.
Harmon present at the shooting. “The public clock” is at corner 14th and
Main |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/17/1862;
Police raid Ann Thomas’, scene of above killing. Arrest everyone. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/17/1862;
Richard Barry in Castle Thunder for shooting Samuel Crump, soldier, on Cary
between 17th and 18th, area known as Dublin. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/18/1862; More
testimony in Withmell murder case. Includes some remarks of girls at Ann
Thomas’ – not called prostitutes. |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
11/18/1862; Mayor
keeps everyone in jail who was arrested at Ann E. Thomas’ “bawdy house” |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/1/1862;
merchant garroted and robbed in Shockoe Slip – two assailants later captured |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/2/1862; “Cage
Cases:” Emanuel Olliberg jailed “for exposing his person in the street;”
slave arrested for killing another slave by stabbing |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/2/1862;
Frederick Lindsey, 1TX & Mathew Pitman, 1GA, both arrested for drunken
fracas at Rockett’s. Pitman to Castle Thunder, Lindsey left behind, “having
had his skull broken by a skillet in the hands of a female whose house he
had entered.” |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/2/1862; Capt.
Jackson Warner’s (prison commissary) horse stolen on 12th street |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/3/1862; long
paragraph on substitute/AWOL/robbery/Castle Booker scam |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/3/1862;
Mayor’s Court items: as usual, many slave items; James A. Minor, NC soldier
(see above), to Castle Booker for forgery; Emmanuel Olliberg (see yesterday)
fined one dollar and released |
|
Richmond Dispatch |
12/5/1862; enormous list
of court martial results |
|
Richmond
Sentinel |
6/24/1864; boys are throwing stones
at the Washington and Clay monuments and each other. The mayor clamps down
and orders all offenders arrested. Brief description of a rock battle
between boys on Gamble's and Penitentiary hills |
|
Richmond
Examiner |
6/30/1864; hilarious account of a "fistic
scene." |
|
Richmond
Sentinel |
7/1/1864; house of "ill fame" is
broken up by police. Women there "exposed their persons in the windows, and
halloed at, threw at and spit upon all passers by." |
|
Richmond
Sentinel |
8/5/1864; items from the Mayor's
docket: two negro girls are thrashed for calling a white man "poor white
trash;" a boy escapee from the Alms House is sent back there after stoning a
man at the Petersburg depot |
|
Richmond
Sentinel |
11/7/1864; two boys
arrested near the Second Baptist Church for throwing rocks. They are
members of the "basin cats." |
