No Ice in Washington

This entry is from the Richmond Daily Dispatch, August 15, 1861.  Ice was relied upon during the summer to help beat the heat, but apparently Washington went without during the late summer of 1861.

--In this sweltering weather, with the thermometer ranging from one hundred to one hundred and twenty degrees, the ice dealers announce that their stock of ice is exhausted, and that there is no more to be had there this summer. Five large vessels, loaded with the precious commodity, have been over due now more than ten days, and the consignees there have come to the reluctant conclusion that the vessels have been captured by "the pirates of the gulf." The ice-dealers say also that it is impossible to get vessels to bring ice here, because vessel-owners are afraid of losing, in this manner, both vessel and cargo. So that they have the very pleasant prospect before them of living through the hot months of August and September, without ice.

Washington D. C. view from Georgtown heights, with Aqueduct Bridge and Mason's Island, created by William Morris Smith, 1865, from Library of Congress collection