In the long list of things we likely wouldn’t know about if it wasn’t for this job: the Bread Riot of Mobile. One of the major bread riots of the Civil War, this began on 4th September and continued on through the 5th.
“On Friday, the 4th inst., the women of Mobile, rendered desperate by their sufferings, met in large numbers on the Spring Hill road, with banners on which were printed such devices as ‘Bread or Blood,’ on one side, and ‘Bread and Peace’ on the other, and armed with knives and hatchets, and marched down Dauphine-street, breaking open the stores in their progress, and taking for their use such articles of food or clothing as they were in urgent need of. It was, in fact, a most formidable riot by a long-sufferings and desperate population.”
- The New Orleans Era, printed October 1, 1863
top: the Richmond Bread Riot, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, May 23, 1863. Artist uncredited.
bottom: from Pictorial War Record: Battles of the Late Civil War. Artist uncredited.