Appeal for Fredericksburg

The citizens of Fredericksburg have been great sufferers by the horrid devastation inflicted upon that town by the Yankees. Not only have their dwellings been destroyed, or rendered uninhabitable, but, in almost every instance, their furniture, clothing, and personal effects of every kind, have been torn to pieces or stolen, so that a community in which such a thing as poverty was once unknown is now homeless, comfortless, and, in the case of many of its inhabitants, actually requiring the assistance of others for food and lodging. The rich inhabitants, though much impoverished, may not be thus destitute; but the rich are but a small minority of any community. The great mass of them who have been dispossessed of their habitations and homes by the sudden convulsion which, like an earthquake, has swallowed up Fredericksburg, have no surplus means to provide against such an exigency, and must, therefore, either perish for want of the absolute means of subsistence, or be relieved;--we will not say by the charity — but by the justice and humanity of their fellow-citizens.

We invoke all just and humans people to contribute every dollar they can spare, and all the influence they possess, to the relief of the community of Fredericksburg . On this Christmas day, what better Christmas gift can we lay upon the altar of Almighty God, what better thank- offering for the great deliverance which He has just effected for us at this same Fredericksburg and by which we ourselves, perhaps, have been saved from being rendered houseless and homeless, than a literal and universal donation in all the churches to the relief of the Fredericksburg people? Richmond Daily Dispatch, Dec. 25, 1862