Military
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On 2 Apr. 1863, the largest wartime food riot in the Confederacy took place in Richmond after a group of women met at Belvidere Baptist Church in Oregon Hill the previous day to complain about rising costs, inflation, and speculation. In the morning, a crowd gathered at the Washington equestrian statues in Capitol Square and grew to at least several hundred. The rioters looted warehouses on Cary and Main Streets as well as in Shockoe Slip. Mayor Joseph Mayo, Gov. John Letcher, and Pres. Jefferson Davis tried to quiet the crowd, which dispersed by late morning with the arrival of the Public Guard.
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Richmond, Virginia · United States
