1870, April 1: The bitterness of Virginians towards the U.S. occupation was intense in the early years after the end of the war. Nowhere was it felt more strongly than in the South’s former capital, where the state’s leading citizens were uneasily transtioning from positions of prominence in the Confederacy to uneasy relations with the true governing power. 

According to an internal (1931) Virginia Historical Society “History of the V.H.S.” published in its journal:

All of our officers and committeemen were deeply interested in the effort to free Virginia from the oppressions of Reconstruction. The last effort to deprive the people of Virginia of their rights under the constitution was the attempt made by George Cahoon the military appointee as mayor of Richmond to prevent H. K. Ellyson, who was elected by the people of Richmond, from holding the office. There was great excitement, each mayor had a police force, there was fighting in the streets and around the station houses. Children (some of them afterwards officers of this Society) sang with great glee:

 “Up in a balloon, boys,

Up in a balloon,

Flying around the station-house,

Shooting at Cahoon”