From the Richmond Dispatch, 8/13/1864, p.1, c. 5

Mayor’s Court Yesterday. – Granville Montelle was again brought up on the charge of feloniously receiving one gray mare, of the value of $3,000, which was stolen from Henry Debell, and stealing a sorrel horse, valued at $1,500. The property of the Confederate service, testified, that about the 14th of July last he arrested Montelle and a man named Childress, in Fredericksburg, on hearing that the former was a refugee from justice, and the latter a deserter from the service. They were both on horseback – Childress on the grey, which he said he had traded for on the Brook turnpike, and Montelle on the sorrel, which he claimed as his own. One the way to this city, Montelle escaped, but Childress was lodged in Castle Thunder, where he still it. Montelle states that the same horse which he has been charged with stealing is his property and, if necessary, he can prove it by fifty persons. In order to procure other witnesses, the case was further postponed till next Friday.

Ellen, slave of William Roganni, was charged with being guilty of impudence towards Miles Cary, near the Second Market, on Friday.

George, slave of N. A. Wilson, of Amelia, was charged with going at large. George acknowledged he was a runaway, and had recently sustained himself here by selling newspapers. He had under his arm, while in the presence of his Horon, a large bundle of the daily papers. The Mayor, previous to disposing of the matter, took occasion to remark that he did not consider the exemptions held by newspaper publishers contemplated the privilege of selling papers to slaves without the written consent of their owners, and advised them to be cautious how they dealt with them in future. He was not sure that the party before him bought his papers from the publishers direct but thought the possession of them was prima facie evidence that he had. George was committed till his owner could be communicated with.

Twenty-odd watermelons, which were bought by a negro whose name could not be ascertained, with the object of reselling them at an advance on cost, were ordered to be confiscated and sold by Mr. Tyler, the Clerk of the Second Market, who reported the case, for the benefit of the city treasury.

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