March 20, 1862
Last evening, W.H.H. Moyston, James Herriot and William Gorrell, three of the young men who joined the Shriver Grays in this city, and secretly departed for secession at the breaking out of the war, returned to their homes. They were arrested under the following circumstances: The young men names, with five others, had left their company's quarters to go up and see a wounded member of the same named Barket(?), who boarded at a house near Winchester. When our army approached a descent was made upon his house and the occupants scattered in all directions and were fired upon by the Federal soldiers. - Four of the men escaped but the three we have named together with a young fellow named Clem Sutherland from Steubanville, Ohio, were arrested, nearly all of them by a single man, from which circumstance it may be presumed they were not very anxious to escape. Indeed Herriot candidly submits this.
The four men were taken before the Federal officers. Moyston, Gorrell and Herriot took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and were discharged. Sutherland refused to take the oath and is now confined in Winchester jail. The other three procured passes through Mr. J.R. Ford, and started for Wheeling.
The men we have named have all been indicted for treason and upon hearing that they would reach the city at five o'clock P.M., Marshall Norton telegraphed the conductor of the train and his deputy at Moundsville to have the parties secured. Accordingly when the train reached the depot (where a large crowd had collected to see the boys, and perhaps for a less harmless purpose) the men were arrested upon capiases and confined in the county jail to be tried for treason.
A large number of citizens visited the jail last evening to enquire after absent friends in the land of Dixie, and the boys seemed willing and anxious to give all the information in their power. They report Watkins Kearns is not dead, as reported by the Press the other day. John Roban, a member of the Shriver Grays, and son of Michael Roban of this city, died last December. A young man named Foster is also dead. Also Frank Bushfield. With the exception of these three and those who were killed at Manassas, the member of the company are well.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: March 1862