Joseph Kiser
Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 1 January 1872, page 4
DESPERATE DESERTER AND A STERN SENTRY
Joseph Kiser, a soldier at the Newport Barracks, under sentence
of five years imprisonment at hard labor in the Penitentiary at Fort Macon,
North Carolina, for desertion, attempted to make his escape yesterday morning,
when he was shot through the head and instantly killed by Henry N Sawyer, one of
the sentries on duty at the time.
Some thirty soldiers were tried for desertion at the Barracks about a month ago by a Court Martial, of which Major Gibson was the President. The findings of the Court were forwarded to General Jeff C Davis for approval and on Saturday the sentence of the following prisoners was announced at the Barracks;
Joseph Kiser, desertion, five years
imprisonment in Fort Macon
F O C Dentley, desertion, five years imprisonment in Fort Macon, remitted to six
months confinement in the guard house
Timothy Carroll
Carl Haertel
Levi H Schoonover
John A Tarr
Alexander Nelson, desertion, five years imprisonment each in Fort Macon
When Kiser heard of his sentence he remarked that he would never go to Fort Macon alive. Yesterday morning he and three other prisoners were at work outside the Barracks under guard, when Kiser seized a favorable opportunity and ran off. After proceeding about 200 years he was fired at by Sawyer, the ball striking him in the back of the head and coming out one of his eyes.
Deceased was a German, twenty-three years of age. Sawyer states that he aimed at Kiser's feet, having no intention of killing him, but simply desiring to cripple him so as to prevent his escape, which was simple carrying out orders. When to this probably true claim, it is added that sentries have recently been severely punished for firing carelessly and permitting prisoners to escape, the public will generally sympathize with rather than blame the man who was compelled to shoot down a comrade so ruthlessly.
Sawyer will have an examination before the General Court Martial which will convene for the trial of Captain and Quartermaster T B Hunt on the 9th inst.