Henry S. Trout

Henry S. Trout was a Virginia lawmaker who served as both state delegate and senator, and later as mayor of Roanoke, Virginia.

Civil War service

Henry Trout served as a lieutenant in Company A, 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment, of George Pickett's Division. He participated in Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was twice wounded. He mas made a captive near the end of the war, and imprisoned in Johnson's Island Prisoner of War camp.^[1]

Political and professional life

Henry Trout was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the term 1877-1881. He was then elected to the Virginia Senate for the session 1882-1886.^[2] He was elected mayor of Roanoke in 1892. Trout was also the first president of the First National Bank of Roanoke, which he held the office for over 30 years.^[3]

Riot of 1893

Henry Trout was the mayor of Roanoke when the infamous city riot of 1893 took place. A black man had been accused of assaulting a white woman, and later a white mob assaulted the militia and stormed the city jail. The mob, about 5,000 strong, threw rocks at the troops, who returned fire, killing eight men. However, the mob entered the jail and lynched the accused man, Thomas Smith. Mayor Trout tried to stop and reason with the mob, but was shot in the foot by the angry mob, and then the mayor was hurried away from the mob and sent out of town by his friends for his own protection. Later, the mob took the hanged man's body to the unprotected home of Mayor Trout, and threatened to lay him out on the mayor's dining room table. Afterwards, they planned to bury his body in Trout's front yard.^[4]

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