From the Kentish Gazette, 28 July 1857.

Military Outrage.

On Wednesday the county magistrates at Rochester were engaged in investigating the causes which led to the serious outbreak on this part of a portion of the military, on Monday and Tuesday morning, whereby several persons were seriously injured and a great deal of property destroyed. The office was crowded with tradesmen, who complained of the injuries they had sustained through the violence of the soldiers. The Superintendent of the county constabulary, Mr. Thomas Everest, observed that with his force of police constables he could do nothing, and he therefore procured the assistance of the military. The troops in barracks were roused from their beds, when about 400, headed by officers, were very quickly in the town. Skirmishing parties were sent on the lines, to endeavour to secure the rioters in their attempt to effect their escape. Such was the extent of the violence of the soldiers, that the town bore the aspect of a place in a state of siege. On Tuesday morning, previous to the troops leaving the garrison for embarkation, the 24tb, 27th, and 70th were paraded by order of Colonel H. Jervis, and he (the superintendent) with other persons attended to see if they could identify any of the men, but they only picked out four from the ranks, viz., Thomas Mascall, Thomas M’Ellish, and Thomas Shea, 70th, and Henry White, 27th. By order of Colonel Jervis these men appeared before the court, to be dealt with by the civil power. Mrs. Hodges identified Mascall and Shea: they with a number of other soldiers forced in the front door of her house, the "True Briton," and smashed all the windows with flint stones, and they cut her husband's head open with a quart pot.

Mr. Richard Blackman, of the "Old Barn," said his house was broken into, and the rioters nearly demolished everything in the place.

The magistrates came to the conclusion to take the case against the prisoners for a riot, and they were sent to Maidstone Gaol, to be brought up again in a week for final examination. A superintendent said that upwards of forty prisoners were taken, but they could not be sworn to.

Mr. White, the brewer, is confined to his bed; his head is cut in four places, and he was robbed of his money and watch. An old lady, who happened to come out of her house, was knocked down, and her life is despaired of; and two men are now lying in the Medway Union in a dangerous state, from the kicks and injuries they received.