The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-04-24
HE GREAT MAY FRESH OF I77l.


THE GREAT NAY FRESH OF i77l.
We subjoin, for the edi6cation Of such ofour
seaaers as are interested in the subject, the fol.
sswing account Of this awful visitation. Il Is
aaea from the Virginia Gazette, published at
Williamsburg, by Dixon and Purdie. ltwiA be
seen that the writer uses the word FTesh every
uhere. We have iialicised it, wherever II Is
sSed, though il was not italicised in the printed
espy.
virginia Gazette, Purdie and Dixons) June 9th,
III. Published at Williamsburg
From Richmond, we learn that they receive
daily accounts of the devastation occasioned
kx The late foods. From the mountains to the
falls the low grounds have been swept of all
most every thing valuable and the soil is so
mnch injured that it is thought not 10 be of
Aalf lis former value, and great part is en-
assely ruined. One instance may suffice A
saci Of land where the river forks. which be-
sere the Fresh was judged to be richly worth
sen thousand pounds, is not now rated at so
many hundreds. Fourteen negroes, belonging
% that estate, were drowned, and one house
EFT ont Of forty, which were sixty by forty
ket. Of Elk Island, between six and seven
bundred head of cattle, hogs, horses and sheep,
have been lost, and near hundred houses /;
besides grain, tobacco, &c. At Farrar's Is.
land, which the highest Fresh never before af-
keied, above eighty acres off fine land are rem
Sesed forever incapable of cultivation, the
hair nd steo fem fxua va
kes deep ofsand, upon which is layer of stones
N If paved. Many other islands have been
sorn to pieces, hills of sand thrown up, chan
nels stopped, and their courses altered, and, in
short, the face Of Nature almost changed. Old
Zoe, an honest and we'll known negro fellow, at
ssse Falls Of James River, who is intimately ac-
anainted with the remains of an Indian Nation
that has resided there for ages, says that he
xns shown by their old men the marks of the
greatest Fresh handed down to them by ira
Gi,iou and that upon his carefully mea suring,
4 wanted near fifteen feet of the late dreadful
xse. A ship, at Warwick, sounded from the
beginning of the perceiyabie increase in the
ssse Of the river, and found that the Fresh, at
as highest, was upwards of forty feet higher
nan the common tides. The lessened value
u lands, loss of stocks, houses, tobacco, wheat
sad corn houses, with fencing and crops on the
ground, battle all description. Byrds, Shocko,
Richmond, Rocky Ridge and Warwick, have
suffered amazingly, in the loss Of merchandise
saa tobacco, besides houses, &c. Between
Eve and six thousand hogsheads of tobacco are
gase from these places. The distresses OF the
people in Albemarle, and those parts of the
eountry in the reach of the Fresh, are not to
be described most of them being left without
s4ead to eat, or dwelling, and their stocks
gone. The trading part of the country has
likewise suffered extremely, in European and
saher goods, as well imports as exports. The
IGeses, and very great distress of the numer
sas sufferers, call loudly for the interposition
and assistance of the Legislature which, no
doubt, that respectable body will take into as
early consideration as may be, and grant the
5BRlsdiate and effectual relief which is so much
wanted. In some places, trees, carcases, &c.,
are matted together, from IL to 20 #. in height;
aad, from their horrid stencil, there is no com.
ng near enough to separate them. Happily,
il at this season, we escape some conta gious
disorder. Miles in length, of trees and logs,
came driving down the river, and nothing could
withstand their force. The logs were almost
UP to the bolisprits of many vessels; so that
zheir anchors could not avail them, and were
chiefly lost There were no rains to speak of
a Richmond and thereabouts, so that they
Dast have fallen from the mountains TO about
thirty or forty miles above the falls. From
she FIRST perceivable rise of the river at that
place was about sixty hours, and the water
sometimes rose at the rapid rate of sixteen
inches an hour. Daily accounts are received
Of the loss ofwhole families; and houses came
soating down with people on them calling for
help. though none could be afforded. Accounts
are already received of ifty sdd people being
asowned.
Appomattox has been little or nothing af.
&cted, which proves that the rains must have
sahen high up the country.
The Devastation on Roanoke, if possible, is
s.hi grea'er, in The ruin of valuable lands, loss
ssnegroes, stocks, houses, &c.
VI ramunkey river, the low grounds are
chiefly laid under water, the crops and mea-
-sows destroyed, and the fencing gone. Many
Asnses and mills are carried away, and deal
Of grain and other commodities spoiled.
A letter from Fredericksburg saws that
several houses and mills have been sweep,
away from that place and Falmouth that
dc highhst Fresh in the Rappahannock
mer never came up to the floors of the
sare-honses but that this rose as high as
'he lolsi, whereby large quantity Of iobac.
was hoa,ed out; nine hundred hog sheads
nohi aimoa,h, or the lower warehouses;, and
'ee hundred from Dixon's. the upper inspec.
i'on. Much salt and other goods lost several
vessels driven from their anchors /; a deal O
valuable land washed away incredible ouan.
saes OF trees and fencing come down the river
sa'y one life lost that had been then came !,
she knowledge Of.
We have no accounts from PotowmacL. I'm