Female Raid

March 18th 1863. About 40 wives and mothers of Confederate soldiers invaded Salisbury and marched to business houses in pursuit of flour, molasses, salt and other much-needed staples. They believed that some merchants were speculating - hoarding supplies so that they could later demand an inflated price for their cache. The ladies first called upon merchant Michael Brown demanding he sell them flour at the government price. When he refused, they went to work, hatchets in hand, on his store room door. Brown offered ten barrels free to satisfy them. They accepted and proceeded to compell other merchants to share their goods. By day's end, they accumulated 23 barrels of flour, one barrel of molasses, and two sacks of salt. Although the Salisbury female raid is eclisped in history books by the famous bread riot in Richmond, the hungry and destitute women of Rowan rose up a full two weeks before their Virginia sisters. Salisbury History & Art Trail Civil War & Reconstruction