From the Richmond Enquirer, 6/25/1862, p. 2, c. 5
A PRECIOUS VILLAIN. – The deserter Wilson, alias
Summerfield, who had accumulated a considerable sum of money by enlisting in
various companies as a substitute, and deserting from each in rotation, has
again escaped from the C. S. Prison, on the corner of 6th and Cary
streets. The fellow had been arrested several times before, but on each occasion
effected his exit from confinement after methods which prove him to be versed in
all the expedients of the accomplished villain. His last escape was on Saturday
night. He had been placed in a room in the fourth story of the building, and, in
order to secure his retention, the commandant of the post, Lieut. Booker, had
employed a blacksmith, who first enclosed his wrists and ankles in strong
shackles, and riveted them on, and assured the Lieutenant and himself too, that
nothing under Heaven in the shape of manual force could get them off. The
deserter bore the operation with the greatest good humor, and spoke in a quiet
vein of amusing malice about the various escapes he had made, what he could do,
and what defy. On Monday morning he was missing, his shackles were found broken
on the floor and his window open. Wilson is a man of powerful muscle, and
intelligent and strongly marked features. He has already been branded for
desertion, and should he again be arrested will doubtless be branded again, as
that seems to be now the most popular way of punishing deserters.
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