3-008-720 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Civil War in America: High-street, Richmond, Virginia, 1862. From a sketch by Eyre Crowe. 'This street straggles picturesquely down one side of a hill and up another. The stores are of a strictly utilitarian character, with nothing pretentious about them. The poles which extend throughout the breadth of the flagway are intended, during the summer heats, to protect the lounger from the blistering sun. By far the greatest object of curiosity to European visitors in Richmond is the little street running at right angles with High-street, and on the left-hand side. It is called Wall-street: in it the sales of negroes take place. From this narrow little passage have issued entire armies of "likely hands" after being sold, as they have gone southwards to the plantations...As in every town in America, the telegraphic wires festoon the street, and send sensation headings to the Richmond Times or the Richmond Enquirer. Doubtless they have ere this flashed to these offices news of more than ordinary import, and the High-street is thronged with soldiery seldom seen there in more peaceful times'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.