WOMEN CAN LEAD RIOTS TOO: On this day in 1863, about 5000 people, mostly poor women, led by Mary Jackson, Martha Fergusson, and Minerva Meredith, broke into Richmond, Virginia shops and seized food, clothing, shoes and jewelry.

“Bread riots” of this sort also broke out in other parts of the South during the last couple of years of the war, but the one in Richmond was the worst. “Bread or blood!” was their rallying cry.

All had not been well in Richmond. Union forces had blockaded the ports and had gained control of parts of Virginia. Farm output was low, since so many farmers and farm laborers were in the military. Richmond’s population had swelled as a result of war. And a late March snowstorm had turned the roads to mud, thus making it difficult to make it to town with what little food there was.

A few days earlier, Jefferson Davis, who no one ever accused of being overly diplomatic, had set people on edge by calling for a day of fasting and prayers. One man wrote in his diary,  “Fasting in the midst of famine! May God save this people!”

Davis was the one who ultimately brought the crowd under control. But it took a lot: Only when he got on top of a wagon and threatened to have the Confederate army open fire on the crowd did they disperse.