From the Richmond Dispatch, 8/18/1864, p.1, c. 5

Henrico County Arrests. - Two negro fellows, named George and Isham, charged with stealing watermelons, on Friday night last, from James Gunn, in Henrico county, were arrested yesterday by Constable E. W. Robinson, of that county, and carried before Justice Nettles, who after a hearing of the case, ordered them to be whipped.


A negro man, hired by Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks, on Union Hill, charged with stealing a hog, was also arrested in the First Market yesterday morning by Constable Robinson, and committed by Justice Nettles to the Henrico county jail. When arrested, this fellow was mounted upon a goods box in the vicinity of the market, haranguing a crowd of boys, negroes, dogs and loafers, at a great rate, on the subject of religion; and so enthusiastic had he become on the theme of his discourse, that two or three well-plied licks from a cane had to be given before he could be persuaded to dismount from his improvised rostrum. During the passage from the justice’s office to the jail, the negro fellow’s mistress followed along and assailed the officer who had him in charge with all the abuse which she was capable of uttering, sometimes rushing at him as if she intended exercising personal violence.


Mrs. Mary James, the white woman at whose house a large lot of stolen property from Camp Winder was found about a week ago, was yesterday arrested by the same efficient officer who made the above captures, at the house of Signiago, on Cary between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets. Signiago, when first called upon to state whether Mrs. James was there, denied that she was; but upon a search being made of the premises, she was discovered secreted behind some rubbish in an out-of-the-way part of the house. Since the discovery of stolen goods in her house she has succeeded in keeping out of the way of the officer; and indications pointed so clearly to the belief that she had made her way to the enemy that an order for the confiscation and sale of her property had been issued by Mr. Henry L. Brooke, the commissioner for the sequestration of all the goods and chattels left behind by alien enemies.

Go to top