Society in the Rebel Capital

The Richmond Examiner, of Feb. 5^th, says:

“That our citizens may see at a glance to what a fearful condition the reign of whisky and rowdyism is hurrying us, we group together some of the flagrant instances of riot, violence and disorder which have occurred within the past two days:

“About six o’clock Monday evening, a Zouave, named McGinn, ripped open the bowels of a member of the same regiment at Maurice Dennis’s, a low groggery near the Central Depot.

“At ten o’clock on the same night, the performances at the Metropolitan Hall were broken up by a row in the gallery set apart for prostitutes.  Pistols were fired, men and women leaped from the galleries, and some even from the windows of the building.  A man named Washington Jenkins, an officer employed to keep order in the Hall was, in attempting to allay the disturbance, severely, if not mortally, wounded by a pistol shot in the back; and a woman sprained her leg, in jumping, in her terror, from the second-story window.  The audience was put to route, and for an hour after the clearing of the hall, night, in the neighborhood of the building, was made hideous by drunken revelry and lawless riot.

“Yesterday a quiet and respectable citizen was assaulted in open day, on Main Street, because, forsooth, he would not lend his influence to get a Baltimore Plug Ugly a situation under government.  And at the very time this outrage was being committed, a portion of the civil police were engaged in quelling a riot in a grogshop on Twelfth street, between Main and Cary streets.

“Yesterday a gentleman connected with this office, who had just arrived in this city was knocked down and beaten by a ruffian.”

The Dispatch of the same date has this paragraph:

“Rude encounters, in which bad temper and a host of evil passions play their part, are becoming so frequent that we fear the well established reputation of Richmond for good order and decency will be seriously endangered.  If the belligerent patriots who select this place as theater of their bruising exploits would only join the army, they could be afforded an opportunity to deserve the praise bestowed on them by their admirers for military and pugilistic prowess. – The residents of Richmond located in the vicinity of Main and Thirteenth streets, near this office, were edified yesterday by the pleasing spectacle of two men wallowing in the mud, the top one pounding the other with his fist, and kicking him in the face on his attempting to rise; while several gentlemen known by the generic appellation of ‘Plugs,’ stood around and prevented anybody from interfering and putting a stop to the disgusting scene.  One party who interfered got ‘one from the shoulder,’ which effectually extinguished his desire to act as a conservator of the peace where the actors were ‘Plugs.”  A savage personal reencounter also occurred yesterday morning, on Ninth street, between two men who were said to be from Mississippi.  Unfortunately, in neither of the above instances were the police notified in sufficient time to effect the arrest of the offenders.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 2