From the Richmond Enquirer, 5/27/1862, p. 1, c. 5

SACRILEGE TO THE DEAD. – Evidences of vandalism have recently been discovered in the beautiful city of the dead, Hollywood Cemetery, that would bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of the most hardened villain. Beautiful rose trees, which for years have diffused their sacred odors over the dead, and shed the light of smiling flower amidst the darkest shadows of this silent vale of death, have been stripped and sapped. Rare plants, set ??? by the hands of affectionate devotion over the graves of husband, father, mother, wife and child, have been torn away, and the pathways strewn, at intervals, with the broken branches and bruised leaves. The perpetrators of such unpardonable sacrilege may excuse themselves upon the score that their offences are dictated by a love for flowers, but if they loved them ever so well, no justification could be found to blot out the sin of their cupidity, or cover up their wantonness. Flowers are beautiful everywhere; divinely beautiful when blooming above the dead. It is better to love them as they grow, opening their tender leaves, and nodding their perfumed branches to the sunlight and the zephyr, than to admire them, as all do, arranged in the most luxuriant bouquets. But it is one of the meanest of crimes to steal them from the portals of the tomb, and merits the punishments of the common felon.

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