Editor National Tribune: I see that some of the boys are having slight contention concerning the execution of a man of the 3d Md., Second Brigade, First Division, Ninth Corps. Here are the facts as currently reported at the time: This soldier had been on picket just east of the Peeble farm, and deserted his post, going into the rebel lines. In a day or two he led a night expedition toward the Union lines, with a view, possibly, of capturing the Union picket line, but in the melee he was captured by his own regiment. He was court-martialed, found guilty of being a spy and deserter and was sentenced to be shot. He was executed on the drill ground just south of the location of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Ninth Corps, and in front of a line of works thrown up by this brigade, on the morning of Oct. 1, '64, in the rain. You will recall, no doubt, that standing on this line of earthworks were quite a number of colored soldiers. They were almost directly in front of the section detailed to execute the man. One of the balls went astray and shot the lobe of an ear of one the colored soldiers. As I write I see the memory picture of that colored man running up that slight incline to the south and disappearing in the woods. Quite an effort was made to keep those men from getting directly in front of the detail. Do you recall the entire division, or maybe only the brigade, marching to the field and forming three sides of a square, the man being blindfolded and sitting down on the foot of his coffin and his falling back when shot? I was a boy 18 years old, and the entire transaction made an indellible impression upon my memory.

Henderson, J. E. "Executed as a Spy." The National Tribune: Washington, D.C., July 1, 1909, page 7.