Joseph Hooker to C. H. Potter, January 26, 1865

No. 4. Cincinnati, Ohio, January 26, 1865.

Before a general court-martial which convened at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 17, 1865, pursuant to Special Orders, Nos. 212, 250, and 273, series of 1864, from these headquarters, and of which Lieut. Col. E. L. Webber, Eighty-eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is president, was arraigned and tried:

S. B. Davis, alias Willoughby Cummings.

CHARGE: Being a spy.

Specification.—In this, that S. B. Davis, alias Willoughby Cummings, a rebel enemy of the United States, and being an officer in the service of the so-called Confederate

States of America, did,on or about the Ist day of January, 1865, secretly and in disguise, enter and come within the lines of the regularly authorized and organized military forces of the United States, and within the States of Ohio and Michigan, and did, then and there, secretly and covertly lurk, in the dress of a citizen, as æ SPY» and on or about the 12th day of January, 1865, did attempt to leave the said States: of Ohio and Michigan, with the purpose and object of going to Richmond, Va., there to deliver dispatches and information from certain parties, whose names areunknown, hostile to the Government of the United States, to Jefferson Davis, President of the so-called Confederate States of America, but was arrested as a spy, on or about the 14th day of January, 1865, at or near Newark, within the said State of Ohio. To which the accused pleaded as follows:

To the specification, guilty, except to the word “lurk” and the phrase “as a spy.” To the charge, not guilty.

The court, after mature deliberation on the evidence adduced, find the accused as follows:

Of the specification, guilty. Of the charge, guilty. Two-thirds of the members of the court concurring therein.

And the court do therefore sentence him, S. B. Davis, alias Willoughby Cummings, to be hung by the neck until he is dead, at such time and place as the commanding. general may direct, two-thirds of the members of the court concurring therein.

The proceedings, finding, and sentence in the foregoing case of S. B. Davis, alias Willoughby Cummings, are approved and confirmed. He will be sent under proper guard by the commandant of post, Cincinnati, Ohio, and delivered into the custody of Col. C. W. Hill, commanding at Johnson’s Island, who will see that the sentence in this case is. duly executed at that place between the hours of 10 o’clock a. m. and 3 o’clock p. m. of Friday, the 17th day of February, A. D. 1865, and make due report thereof to the commanding general.

By command of Major-General Hooker: