Suffolk Christian Sun

March 7, 1862

Page 2

Martial law has been declared in Richmond, Norfolk and Portsmouth, and for 10 miles around those cities. In Richmond a number of Union men have been arrested, among them John M. Botts, Franklin Stearns, Valentine Hechler, Jno. M. Higgins, D. Wardwell, and others. Stearns is the great whiskey distiller, and is said to have remarked when carried to prison that it would take a much larger house than that for all the Union men in Richmond. He is a Northern man, by birth. The manufacture and sale of ardent spirits has been forbidden in Richmond.

[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]