Tom Fitch made a stirring speech then Marshal Sam Arnold was auctioneer. Mining Companies bid generously, milling companies, local businesses, private citizens, some tosses money into a hat. MTIVC pg 188 Virginia outbids everyone. even SF Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows President of the US Sanitary Commission said that the Gridley sack promised to become more renowned than other in history since the sack of Troy