| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| March 9, 1865 |
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| A commercial Transaction |
| For some days past parties in
this city have been sending large quantities of manufactured tobacco
hence to Fredericksburg. Report said that this tobacco was to be
traded with the Yankees for bacon, and that General Singleton was the
prime mover in the arrangement, this being the business that brought
him again to Richmond. It was transported to Hamilton's crossing by
rail, and thence hauled to Fredericksburg, five miles distant, in
wagons. The Yankees were expected to come up in vessels to
Fredericksburg, bring bacon, and carry off the tobacco. |
| On Monday last, two hundred
thousand pounds of tobacco had been sent up the Fredericksburg railroad
{Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR},
forty thousand pounds of which had been hauled to Fredericksburg and
stored in a warehouse on the Rappahannock, convenient for shipping,
and the other hundred and sixty thousand pounds was in thirty-one box
railroad cars at Hamilton's crossing.
The enemy came up to Fredericksburg in gunboats on Monday night, but
brought no bacon that we have been able to hear of. Their first step
was to send a part of cavalry to Hamilton's crossing, who set fire to
and destroyed all the cars and all the tobacco there. This party also
burnt the bridge over the Massaponax creek, a short distance this side
of Hamilton's crossing. |
| There are two reports as to
what was done with the tobacco in Fredericksburg -- one, that the
enemy carried it off; the other, that they set fire to the warehouse
and destroyed both house and tobacco. It is ascertained that they
burned the wagons (five in number) employed in hauling the tobacco
from Hamilton's to Fredericksburg, and carried off the teams. So ends
one of the most brilliant schemes of our latter-day speculators. The
only thing to be seriously regretted about the business is the loss by
the Fredericksburg Railroad Company of
the thirty-one valuable freight cars. We presume the company would not
have risked its property by leaving it at so exposed a point as
Hamilton's crossing unless they had felt satisfied that some
understanding had been come to with the enemy that it would not be
molested. |
| The common report was, that
the enemy would interfere neither with the road nor the tobacco while
this bacon tobacco traffic was going on. The whole thing seemed
ridiculous enough, it must be admitted; but there can, at the present
time, be no report so absurd as not to find believers. The loss of the
tobacco is a small matter. There is much more of the article still
left in Richmond than either Government or people know what to do
with. |
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