A day after entering Richmond, after the fall of that city in 1865, with the Army of the James, Thomas Morris Chester sat down in the Speaker's chair at the Virginia state building, the seat of Confederate power. According to Chester's biographer, R.J.M. Blackett, he was "well aware of the irony and eager to thumb his nose at the Confederacy."
Datelining his story, "Halls of Congress, Richmond April 4, 1865. "Seated in the Speaker's chair, so long dedicated to treason, but in the future to be consecrated to loyalty, I hasten to give a rapid sketch of the incidents which have occurred since my last dispatch."
A paroled Confederate officer saw him sitting there and yelled at him, "Come out of there, you black cuss!" Fellow correspondent Charles C. Coffin of the Boston Journal reported what happened next. "Mr. Chester raised his eyes, calmly surveyed the intruder and went on with his writing. 'Get out of there, or I'll knock your brains out!' the officer bellowed, pouring out a torrent of oaths, and rushing up the steps to execute his threat, found himself tumbling over chairs and benches."
he New York Tribune finished the story, "Chester planted a black fist and left a black eye on the prostrate Rebel," and went on to complete his dispatch to the Philadelphia Press-- but not before the Confederate officer demanded the sword of a Union soldier to cut "the N_____'s heart out."
--Old Secesh
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