[1]. Form of certificate:—
Richmond, Va., ............... 1865.
I CERTIFY, on honor, that I am well acquainted with Mrs. Jane Smith, and that she is the owner of no real estate or personal property, or effects of any kind; and that she has no male member of her family who is the owner of real estate or personal property or effects of any kind, upon which there can be realized sufficient money for the maintenance of her family; and that she has no means of support, and is a proper object of charity; and that her family consists of four females and five children.
Given under my hand, this 17th day of September, 1865.
Jefferson Jones, M. D.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE UNION MEN OF RICHMOND.
At the tent of the Union Commission, pitched near a fountain on Capitol Square, I met a quiet little man in laborer’s clothes, whom the agent introduced to me as “Mr. H——,” adding, “There were two votes cast against the ordinance of secession in this city: one of those votes was cast by Mr. H——. He is one of the twenty-one Union men of Richmond.”
He looked to be near fifty years of age; but he told me he was only thirty-two. “I’ve been through such things as make a man look old!” He showed me his gray hair, which he said was raven black, without a silver streak, before the war.
“I was four times taken to the conscript camp, but never sent off to fight. I worked in a foundery, and my employer got out exemption papers for me. The Confederates, when they wanted more men, would declare any time that all the exemption papers then out were void, and go to picking us up in the street and sending us off to camp before we knew it. Some would buy themselves off, and a few would get off as I did,—because they could do work nobody else could do.”