Lynchburg Virginian

FIRE AT VICKSBURG.—The Vicksburg Whig of the 17th inst. gives the particulars of a destructive fire which occurred in that city on the 7th.

At about one o'clock in the morning the flames were seen issuing from the office of John F. Persun, attorney at law, on Cherry street, and in a few minutes the whole block of buildings from Maine to Magnolia street, were in a blaze. The extreme dryness of the weather during the three previous months rendered it impossible to check the progress of the fire till it had but burned the office in which it originated, the offices of Messrs. Church & Turnsalt, Mott & Bryen, Ross & Taylor, Walham, A. Lake, Esq., Dr. Chewing, John H. Martin, Geo. S. & J. S. Yerger, and the office of Messrs. Pentse & Girion. The residences of Hon. S. S. Prentiss and R. H. Cryup Esq. at the north end of Cherry street, were also burned. Proceeding South, it consumed the jewelry store of I. B. Downing, at the corner of Cherry and Main streets, and advanced its ravages down Main burned several offices, together with the fine brick store of the Messrs. Trump, together with several ware-houses in the rear, and further down the street. A high wind was blowing during the whole time.

No estimate of the amount of damage is given, but it must have been very great. The fire was unquestionably the work of incendiaries. Two men were seen running from the premises at the moment the fire was discovered. Great praise is bestowed on the firemen for their exertions and indomitable courage, which saved the city from a more extensive devastation, which at one time seemed inevitable.