From the Richmond Dispatch, 5/20/1861, p. 1

Police Operations. - ...Alderman Sadler informs us that the disorderly characters who congregate on 17th, between Main and Cary streets, always select dinner time on Sunday to make the biggest sort of rows, knowing that the police are generally away at that time. A soldier fell into the hands of certain parties in that neighborhood yesterday, and was dreadfully beaten.

The vicinity of the old United States Hotel has been the place of drunken revelry and bloody fights on several occasions lately. - Last Friday, we saw a desperate affray between two white men, about dinner time, in which the most savage ferocity of temper was displayed, and blood flowed in copious streams. Unfortunately the police were on duty in another place, and n arrests ensued. Rowdyism will have to be stopped, else Richmond will acquire an unenviable notoriety.

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