From the Richmond Dispatch, 4/11/1862, p. 1, c. 4

The Gunboat – Patriotic Appeal – Capt. Maury's Address.

Editors of the Dispatch:

We send you for publication a copy of the address by Capt. Maury, for the Ladies' Defence Association. The address was read by the Rev. Dr. Doggett, before the Association, in consequence of the unavoidable absence of Capt. Maury.

It is our wish to publish, from time to time, the list of subscribers to the Association.

The Dispatch will oblige the Association by giving a place in its columns to the following appeal:

To the Ladies and Gentlemen and Boys of Richmond and the surrounding Country:

In consequence of the great scarcity of iron, lead, and brass, it is of the utmost importance that every one should collect, and send to the Tredegar Works, all the metals they can, for the gunboat now to be built by the Ladies' Defence Association; a great deal of the successful accomplishment of this object will depend on this effort, and we urge every one in town and country to assist us and spare no pains to collect and send all they can possibly obtain; and to encourage you in this good work, I will mention the case of a poor widow who has offered to the Association a bell-metal kettle, which she has owned for forty years.

I trust we shall have many more such examples of self-denial. Do not delay, but all who are friends to the cause send the iron, lead and brass as early as possible. A committee of ladies – Mrs. Brooke Gwathmey, Mrs. B. Smith, and Mrs. George T. Booker – were appointed at the last meeting to call on the manufacturers of tobacco to contribute some of their screws and frames for this purpose. The gentleman who made the suggestion, besides other liberality, will give as large a number of screws, &c., as any other tobacconist in the city. Now, gentlemen in the tobacco trade, who will need of this matter?

MARIA G. CLOPTON,
President L. D. A.

[remainder of article, including Capt. Maury's appeal, was not transcribed]

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