From the Richmond Dispatch, 5/8/1862, p. 2, c. 3

The Gas Works of Richmond now produce about 190,000 feet per day. The Superintendent's report of last year's operations is now in the hands of the printer. We learn that it will show that the works realized last year over expenses the handsome sum of $70,000. After the breaking out of hostilities between the Confederate and United States, a number of the white workmen were discovered to be disloyal, which led to the adoption of the plan now in operation of employing negro labor. It has worked admirably. While more docile than those they have supplanted, they are equally as intelligent, work more faithfully, and cost much less. The interior of the Gas House shows a neatness commendable in either white or black men.

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