August 3, 1863
A Soldier Shot. - On Saturday night a soldier by the name of Huston, a deserter from company F, Ringgold Cavalry, was shot in the Atheneum prson, and almost instantly killed. Huston, it is alleged has twice deserted his command. The last time he was arrested was on Friday last. On Saturday night the deserter, together with a number of other prisoners was making a noise, when he was ordered to go to bed and be quiet. Huston finally went to bed in his bunk but soon got up again, took off his clothes and and ran about the room upon his hands and knees apparently attempting to make his way to a hole in the floor out through which several prisoners have lately escaped. He was ordered back a second and a third time, and at last he climbed upon the top of some old bunks that are piled up in a corner of the prison and was coming down the side of a high bunk in the direction of the hole alluded to. Samuel Coats, of Capt. Hamilton's company, who was one of the guards inside the prison, drew up his gun and fired, the ball striking Huston's arm and passing through his body in the region of the heart. The deceased is about forty-two years of age.
In regard to this affair there is a diversity of opinion. Some are of the opinion that Huston was laboring under temporary derangement, while others think his object was to escape. During yesterday forenoon the deceased was lying on a bunk, near the spot where he was killed covered with a soldier's blanket, and religious services were being held in the prison.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: August 1863