The gray-headed man who was then the Mayor of the City was apparently overseeing these preparations.
I had been in the habit of sleeping late, and while all this was going on outside I was alternately dressing myself and running to the window to watch the proceedings.
Without waiting for breakfast, I went out on to the street to investigate. The first person I questioned happened to be the hotel proprietor, who said, laughingly:
"Oh, they are just burning the gamblers' stuff that the police captured on the last raid."
It seemed that Richmond had, and has yet, a law that compels, or at least authorizes, their Judge of Police Court to destroy by public fire in the open street any material or paraphernalia which has been used, or intended to be used, for gambling purposes.
The Mayor of Richmond in 1861 was a Mr. Mayo. He was certainly an efficient official, as some of the Maryland refugees will bear testimony.
Extra Billy Smith, who I think had been a Governor of Virginia, was one evening put into our room to sleep, the hotel being quite crowded, it being the occasion of some Virginia State gathering. He was full of talk and kept our crowd aroused and interested until late in the night.
He was living, I believe, somewhere in the neighborhood of where the armies were confronting each other.
One of his stories, which interested me more than anything else, referred to the death of the brother of the Secretary of War, Colonel Cameron, of the 79th New York Regiment, at Bull Run.
The body of Colonel Cameron, it seems, had been found after the battle inside of the Rebel lines.