From the Richmond Sentinel, 5/2/1864, p. 2, c. 3

Melancholy Accident – A Child of President Davis Killed by a Fall. – Saturday evening the Presidential mansion in this city was the scene of a most melancholy occurrence. At 5 o'clock that evening one of the servants discovered President Davis's third child, a little boy five years old, named Joseph, lying in an insensible condition on the ground, in rear of the back porch, with blood oozing from his mouth and nose and one of his thighs broken. The child had evidently fallen over the railing of the porch, a distance of, perhaps, twenty feet. None of the President's family being in the house at the time, the ladies of the neighborhood were called in and medical aid sent for. Every effort was made to revive the little sufferer but without success. – The child continued to sink, and expired at a few moments before seven o'clock, having lived about two hours after the discovery of the accident. How long after the accident before it was discovered is not known.

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