In the following letter, “O.K.” details scarcity, inflation, and speculation in Lynchburg, Virginia. The correspondent also echoes the Richmond press in his concern about how the poor can possibly cope during the coming winter given the bad economic situation. “O.K.” also tells of a free black man accused of murder who was saved from Lynch law.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 7 1863:
Letter from Lynchburg.
[special Correspondence of Dispatch.]
Lynchburg, Oct.5th, 1863.
We have very little news from the army of upper East Tennessee. At last accounts our forces had advanced as far as Greenbrier, where a few prisoners were captured.
Local affairs are without special interest with the exception of the steady advance in the prices of all necessaries of life. The speculators and extortioners with us, as well as elsewhere in our beleaguered country, seem determined to involve the nation in ruin. –They permeate every channel of business. Every railroad, canal, stage or mail route, is overrun with them. The markets are completely forestalled — not a pound of butter, lard, bacon, flour, meal, leather, wool, or clothing of any description, is to be had unless it has first passed through the grasp. of their withering clutches. But it may be asked, who are they ? The answer is ready at hand — shopkeepers, traders, commission merchants and their agents. Railroad, canal, and stage route employers, from high officials down to the lowest menial on the routes, men occupying every grade of position in life, are engaged in this nefarious practice of speculation and extortion. How the poor are to live during the winter is a question that has been frequently asked in times past, but it may be pertinent to ask now, under the present aspect of affairs, how the great bulk of the population of our cities are to keep from actual starvation without a change in the present system of warfare carried on by these greedy dupes of mammon and enemies to our country. Much more might be said, but I shrink from the task; the time is not far distant when the truth of these remarks will strike hard to every heart.
The quarterly term of the Hustings Court for this city commenced its session here to-day, but little business of interest was transacted. Albert Wood a free negro, was tried for the murder of Mr. William J. Burton, company I, 30th Virginia volunteers, and sent on to the Circuit Court, which meets on the 3d of next month, for final trial.–Young Burton was from Stafford county, and was well spoken of by his comrades. On last Thursdayevening, being engaged at one of the hospitals in this city, cooking rations for his company an altercation sprung up between him and the negro, (Wood,) which resulted in his untimely death, caused by a blow dealt by a Spade in the hands of the negro. The morning after the occurrence the negro was taken from the jail by a party of the friends of Burton, and would have been summarily dealt with but for the timely arrival of Gen. Corse, who, after some trouble, rescued the negro from the fate of Lynch law. From the cast of the evidence elicited in Court to-day nothing short of a miracle will save the negro from hanging.
O. K.
You can read a good overview of Lynchburg in the Civil War at Encyclopedia Virginia. Riots may have been avoided by the wise generosity of local leaders:
In April 1862, Confederate president Jefferson Davis authorized a military draft, and resistance to this and the impressment of resources became not only common but also accepted practices. In addition, city residents came to resent the many soldiers who congregated in Lynchburg, blaming them for the rising crime rate and acts of public disorder. Inflation and supply shortages caused claims and counterclaims of speculating, price gouging, and hoarding. The poor suffered miserably, and bread riots that plagued other Southern cities were avoided only because civic leaders donated enough food to maintain some semblance of order.
