Richmond Dispatch, 4/28/1862

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From the Richmond Dispatch, 4/28/1862, p. 2, c. 3

Man Shot. - A man was found on Saturday evening loitering about the C. S. Military Prisons, on Cary street, and his conduct being deemed suspicious, he was arrested and required to give an account of himself. Being put in charge of Mr. Ross, clerk of the prison, he made an assault on that gentleman, rendering it necessary that an armed guard should be placed over him. Lieut. Turner, who has charge of the prison, came in about 10 o’clock, and in reply to his questions, the man said his name was Ned Brown; that he belonged to the 21st Mississippi Regulars, Col. Mott, and Capt. Harris’s company. He afterwards denied this, and said that the Southern Confederacy did not owe him anything, and he did not owe the Southern Confederacy anything; also, that Gen. McClellan would soon be along from Yorktown and make everything right in Richmond. He appeared to be facetiously sarcastic in his remarks. Lieut. Turner said it was his duty to send him before the Provost Marshal, and started the man thither in charge of a guard. The two had proceeded about a square from the prison, when Brown grappled the guard by the throat with one hand and seized his musket with the other. Failing in his attempt either to disable the guard or get his musket, he quit his hold and started to run off. He had gotten about forty yards distant, near the corner of 19th and Cary streets, in rear of the Quaker meeting-house, when the guard presented his musket and fired at the fugitive, who fell, shot through the lower part of his abdomen. He bled profusely, and cursed everything about him. He told Lieut. Turner, [who had been sent for and was soon on the ground,] with an oath, to take hold of his hand and talk to him, which he did. The wounded man being conveyed to the prison, lingered on till 1 o’clock, when he died. Some person, who viewed the body, said deceased was named Sheffey. An examination of the body revealed the sum of $247 in Confederate treasury notes and a few shinplasters; also a passport, signed by Capt. Godwin, permitting J. M. Fields to go to Fredericksburg on the 26th of March. Who and what the man is, is not known, save that he lost his life of the manner above described.

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