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with Joseph Mayo, Esq., mayor of the city, went out to meet the enemy and surrender the city; that having taken a position and awaited their arrival, the party after awhile were met by the enemy, when a formal surrender of the city was made; that this was about two miles from the corporation line, on the Osborne turnpike, near the James river; that the Federal commander stated on the occasion to Mr. Mayo that he would at once send a party forward to destroy all the liquor in the city before the arrival of the main body of the troop, when he was informed by Mayor Mayo that his action had been anticipated by the City Council, who had already had everything of the kind destroyed.
On returning toward the city, and when about a mile and a half distant, upon an elevated point of the road, he saw that the tobacco warehouses in the city were on fire, and among them two belonging to his mother, situated on Twenty-first street, in which a large amount of tobacco was stored.
This was about sunrise.
That on taking possession of the city, the United States army did not sieze any tobacco belonging to private persons, so far as this affiant ever knew or heard; he and his brother-in-law, Mr. Maxwell T. Clarke, were fortunate enough to save some $10,000 worth of tobacco by having it stored in a house distant from the warehouse, although they gave a list of it, with their other tobacco, to the Confederate Government in due time for its destruction.
This tobacco, some two or three weeks after the capture of the city, with the full knowledge of the officers of the United States army, Mr. Clarke, and himself, was shipped at the dock in a schooner via New York for Liverpool and London, receiving astonishingly large prices therefor.
Other citizens of Richmond, owners of tobacco, sold it here and elsewhere, without molestation from the Federal Government, which, so far as this affiant ever heard, never troubled any tobacco in Richmond, except that which belonged to the Confederate Government.
(Signed)
Sworn to before me this 10th day of May, 1887.
(Signed)
J. L. Apperson, N. P.
