In the early morning after President Davis had declared martial law in the town, troops under Provost Marshal John Henry Winder surrounded the Richmond home of former Constututional Unionist congressman John Minor Botts, dragged him from his bed, and incarcerated him without trial in a prison formerly reserved for slaves. Other Unionists in the city were arrested at the same time. The unwaveringly Unionist Botts was not released until late April 1862 and then held under house arrest for four months more. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
John T. Kneebone et al., eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 1998– ), 2:114–117.
John Minor Botts, The Great Rebellion: Its Secret History, Rise, Progress, and Disastrous Failure (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1866), xiii.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
