Thursday, September 19, 2013

Thriller Thursday: Arundel and Davis Murder (4th Virginia Cavalry)

Alexandria Gazette
February 10, 1864

John T. Arundel and Samuel Davis, of Prince William county, privates in the 4th Virginia cavalry, were murdered one night last week in Dumfries, by a negro man while asleep.  They were guarding from negroes, whom they had captured, and falling asleep one of the negroes murdered both, by knocking them in the head, with an axe.  The Richmond Examiner of Monday last contains the following:  "We learn that on Friday last two members of the Prince William cavalry, named Davis and Arundel, succeeded in capturing four negroes in the Yankee service, belonging to the "Home Guard" of Fairfax county.  The cavalrymen took the negroes to Dumfries, and on Friday night placed them in an unoccupied house.  Having imprudently fallen to sleep, the cavalrymen were attacked and overpowered by the negroes, their skulls cleft by some sharp instrument, and their bodies, mutilated in the most horrible manner.  They were found next morning weltering in their blood, and lived only long enough to relate the circumstances of the terrible tragedy which had befallen them."

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, VA)
February 10, 1864


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