The Cost of Doing Business

"On mature reflection it can scarcely be considered extravagant to say that the average cost of operations this year are ten fold what they were before the war when as appears by the annexed table taken from the Report of the General Superintendent that the prices of many leading articles of expense have increased since the year 1860 from thirty to fifty fold and when it appears by the vouchers of the Company that the cost of a single barrel of oil this year exceeds by upwards of $600 the whole cost of Oil Tallow Lard and Grease for the year 1862 .

COMPARISON OF PRICES                 1860               1864

Clothing and Subsistence of a negro     $60.00            1,870.00

Iron castings and wrought iron                   .04             1.00

Brass ditto                                              .34             4.60

Car wheels each                                   15.00           500.00

Oil and tallow per gallon                            .90             50.00

Coal for shops per bushel                          .12              2.60

Lumber per 1000 feet                             12.50          100.00

Shovels per dozen                                  10.00          300.00 t

In 1862
oil used                    1,227 gallons
do tallow used          1,984 pounds
do lard used             4.586 pounds
do grease used         7,488 pounds

Cost of a bbl of oil 42 gallons at present price $100 per gal $4,260 00

 Cost of barrel 10.00

4,200 00

Cost of oil tallow lard and grease used during the year 1862   3,054.48

$605.52

-Annual Report ...Virginia Central Railroad Company
Publisher    H.K. Ellyson, 1864

While the Army of Northern Virginia Retreats from Antietam . . .

A DISGRACEFUL ROW.- Seventeenth street, north of Broad, was the scene of a most disgraceful row about one o'clock yesterday afternoon. For some time a free fight raged. It appears that a soldier passing along, stopped at the fruit store of an Italian named Longonotti, took up an apple, and started out without paying for it. On his refusal to pay, the proprietor attempted to eject him, and a fight ensued between himself, wife, son, and soldier, the soldier getting the best of the fight. The soldier then left, but returned with several companions, broke open the door, and make(sic) an indiscriminate assault upon all persons who they encountered. The provost guard finally appeared, and the disturbance was quelled. Several citizens were arrested, but from what we can learn of the affair, the most guilty escaped.

-the Richmond Daily Examiner, September 19, 1862


This would probably be the confectionery of Joseph Longinotti at 17th street between Grace and Broad(though that would be south of Broad)

A Stabbing on Cary Street

MAYOR'S COURT- August 21st, 1862.- William Smith, a semi-militaire looking individual, was charged by James A. McClure, a member of the 14th North Carolina regiment, with assaulting and stabbing him with a knife, with intent to murder. The assault occurred on Friday night last in the vicinity of one of the numerous drinking dens that abound in Cary street, notwithstanding the vigilance of the Provost's Guard. It appears from McClure's statement, that he was directed to the den as a place where he could obtain a "nip" of the "muddy ruin;" and following his direction, obtained a drink, and gave the woman in change a five dollar bill, out of which to take the price- fifty cents. The woman took the bill and went out to get the change. McClure, to keep an eye on the woman and his money, followed her out the door, across the draw near the bridge, where he was confronted by the accused, (Smith)who wanted to know what he was following the woman for. McClure replied that he was after his money, not the woman. Some other words passed, which Smith ended by drawing a knife and entering it in  McClure's back, between the shoulders, the blade penetrating several inches. His assailant was arrested and lodged in the guard-house, and McClure was sent to the hospital, and it was only yesterday that his condition warranted his appearance against the accused. The Mayor remanded the accused for the Hustings Court.

The above is the second or third case of the kind that has been brought before this court within a week or so. The plan seems to be to inveigle soldiers into these dens, and when a bill of a large denomination is presented in payment for liquor, to attempt by threats &c., to drive the customer off without his change.

-Richmond Daily Examiner, August 22, 1862


James H. McClure(the H. was for Henry) was a 26 year old farmer from North Carolina. A private in Co. H, the "Stanly Marksmen," he apparently recovered from his wounds and returned to his regiment. He appears on a . . .

List of casualties, of Brig Gen. Ramseur's Brigade, in the battles at Gettysburg, Pa. July 2 and 3, 1863

 Wounded severely in head and foot.

 and . ..

 Died 5 July, '63, from wounds rec'd at Gettysburg, Pa.

"The following deaths . . . "

                                NOTICE!

HD'QRS PAROLED AND EXCHANGED PRISONERS,

Jackson, Miss., December 29, 1862

THE following deaths have been reported from Vicksburg

hospitals by Surgeons Somerville Burke and

David W. Both :

DATE                     NAME                   COMPANY          REGIMENT

Dec. 23,                J H Tyson..                        E              5 Texas Regiment.

Dec. 23,                Lieut W O Capurs..            C             4th Tennessee

Dec. 23,                Chas Dennis..                    A             38th Tennessee

Dec. 23,                S S Nelson..                      H             7th Florida.

Dee. 23,               Thos Burch..                                       Forrest's Cavalry.

Dec. 23,                H Sevy..                                            Citizen of Virginia.

Dec. 24,                W W Ciuson..                   G            16th Tennessee.

Dec. 24,                Jas McCord ..                    I             24th Tennessee.

Dec. 24,                Daniel Barfield..                 I              2d Arkansas.

Dec. 24,                R H Shelton..                    K             29th North Carolina.

Dec. 26,                J Reaves..                         D             1st Georgia.

Dec. 26,                J Parks..                           K             9th Arkansas.

Dec. 26,                Lewis Barton..                   H             6th Florida

By order of Brigadier-General D. RUGGLES.

                                IG.SZYMANSKI

                A. A. and Inspector-General.

Of Levers and Pistols Full of Wax

Attempt to escape.

--We were informed yesterday that a number of the convicts at the Penitentiary made a daring attempt to escape on Monday night. They had by some means contrived to fill the muskets of the guard with wax, and at a preconcerted signal a number of them assembled in the inner yard, when the movement being observed, an alarm was given. The guard, finding their arms useless, resorted to the device of sounding an alarm of fire, which caused a number of persons to assemble, and prevented all possibility of a successful events. None of the convicts escaped.

Since the above was in type, we have been furnished with the following additional particulars respecting the attempted stampede.

Only thirty of the prisoners united [ in in ] the attempt. By means of a false key and an ingeniously constructed lever they succeeded in opening thirty-two cells, when their key broke. The inner guard, composed of two citizens, employed for the purpose, were in their room and asleep at the time. They were aroused by the efforts of the prisoners to open their door, and hearing one of them remark, "God d — n them, go in and kill them," they drew their pistols and attempted to fire, but soon found that the tubes had been waxed, and that the cape would not explode. They then screamed aloud for help, and attracting the attention of the Corporal of the Public Guard, who was on outside duty, was soon relieved by him and his seven men, each armed and ready for execution. The prisoners took to their cells on the appearance of the soldiers, and were afterwards looked up for trial and punishment.

The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) April 23, 1862.

The Resent attempt to escape from the Penitentiary.

--Speaking of this affair, Lieut. E. S. Gay, commanding Public Guard, under date of yesterday, says:

"In your issue of yesterday, in noticing the affair at the Penitentiary on the night of the 21st inst., you say the muskets of the guard were filled with wax. As the detachment of the Public Guard always kept at the prison is the only guard there armed with muskets, the public is led to believe from your paragraph that it was the arms of that corps which were waxed, instead of the pistols of the citizen interior guard. A court of inquiry, held at these quarters yesterday, establishes the fact, from the evidence of Col. Pendleton and every other witness called, that the Public Guard was prompt and efficient in discharging its duties, while the sergeant in charge testifies that be examined the muskets of his guard, and found them in good order."

The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) April 25, 1862.

Following the Greek Cross . . . through the Penninsula

FOLLOWING THE GREEK CROSS OR, MEMORIES OF THE SIXTH ARMY CORPS By Thomas W. Hyde, Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers

"Our marches were short and slow from Williamsburg to the vicinage of Richmond. Going through that ancient burgh where was the College of  William and Mary, and where all thegirls were patriotically clustering about the Confederate hospitals, we seemed a while in the world of Thackeray's Virginians*, and almost expected to see the coach of Madame Esmond.
The next night the moon shone clear upon our picket lines, and upon the roofs of a stately mansion far in front. A spirit of adventure led Connor and me to slip through our guards and ride a few miles out into the rebel land, in the belief that if there, the enemy must be asleep. We rode up the long avenue of elms, up to the ancient and hospitable looking veranda, and, leaving our horses in charge of an orderly- began to explore the premises. Doors and windows were wide open. Half-packed trunks were lying about, and all tokens bore witness to the hurried flight of the family. We lighted candies and explored the grand old rooms, looking at ourselves in the ancient pier glasses, and made acquaintance, in its sadness and desolation, of a Virginia homestead of the olden time when the county families vied with the nobility of the England from whence they came. A trembling black butler soon appeared and served us old Madeira in quaint decanters. We sent his fellow-servants to act as sentinels and warn us of the approach of the enemy, and made careful exploration of the mansion. In the third story a distinct snore became audible, and when we had summoned its author, and fully expected to bring in a rebel brigadier-general, we found we had only waked a stray signal officer of ours who had lost his way and put up there for the night.  As others less appreciative would, no doubt, have taken the Madeira, we loaded up our steeds with it and a memento or two. Mine was a feather pillow, which luxury was soon after purloined from me in turn. While we were looking over the library of choice books, the darkies gave the alarm, and we were at once in the saddle galloping across country toward the distant haze that concealed our faithful pickets. Such little episodes sweetened the usual grind of campaigning of which mud and hard-tack, rain and marching, were the salient features.

As we drew nearer and nearer to Richmond,one day we came to a crossing where four roads met. Above it was a weather-beaten and timeworn sign-board that no doubt was doing duty when Washington marched with Braddock; its legend read, with hand pointing westward, "21 miles to Richmond ; " beneath it another was nailed of the new pine of a bread-box, with a large hand pointing in the opposite direction, and "647 miles to Gorham, Maine " showed
unmistakably that some of our fellow-citizens had passed that way."

* A reference to William Makepeace Thackeray's 1857 novel The Virginians

This is a cross posting from New Kent County History