Finally the power of this pompous commander reached Fredericksburg, and many of her citizens shared the fate of the unfortunate citizens of Fauquier and Culpeper counties. By General Pope's order nineteen of our most prominent and highly esteemed citizens were arrested and sent to Washington, where they were incarcerated in Old Capitol prison. These men were arrested in retaliation for the arrest of two Union men by the Confederate authorities--Major Charles Williams, of Fredericksburg, and Mr. Wardwell, of Richmond--and confined in prison at Richmond. Major Williams was a native of Fredericksburg and died here several years after the war, and Mr. Wardwell, we are informed was a northern man and was appointed superintendent of the penitentiary when Virginia was made "Military District No. 1, with headquarters at Richmond." These nineteen gentlemen were arrested in August, 1862, and confined in Old Capitol prison until the latter part of the following September, a period of about six weeks. It will be seen from the list of the names that they were the leading citizens of the town, exempt from military service by reason, either of age or official position, and were the natural guardians of the helpless women and children who were then in town. The list is as follows:[26] Rev. Wm. F. Broaddus, D. D., James McGuire, Charles C. Wellford, Thomas F. Knox, Beverley T. Gill, James H. Bradley, Thomas B. Barton, Benjamin Temple, Lewis Wrenn, Michael Ames, John Coakley, John H. Roberts, John J. Berrey, Dr. James Cooke, John F. Scott, Montgomery Slaughter, George H. C. Rowe, Wm. H. Norton, Abraham Cox. The _Christian Banner_, then published in Fredericksburg by Rev. James W. Hunnicutt, of the Free Will Baptist denomination, himself a strong Union man, and who would not have written complimentary of these gentlemen beyond their respective merits, published the following short sketches of the "Fredericksburg prisoners": Thomas B. Barton is the oldest lawyer at the Fredericksburg bar and Attorney for the Commonwealth. He was originally an Old Line Whig and a member of the congregation of the Episcopal church. Thomas F. Knox was a large wheat speculator and flower manufacturer, an Old Line Whig and a prominent member of the Episcopal church. Beverley T. Gill was, for a number of years, a large merchant tailor, but for several years past had retired into private life. Was an Old Line Whig and a prominent member of the Presbyterian church. Charles C. Wellford was an extensive dry goods merchant, the oldest in town, than whom none stood higher. Was an Old Line Whig and an elder in the Presbyterian church. James McGuire was one of the oldest merchants in Fredericksburg, an Old Line Whig, a prominent member of the Presbyterian church and a most excellent man. James H. Bradley was a grocery merchant, an Old Line Whig and a deacon in the Baptist church.