From the Richmond Dispatch, 11/30/1864, p. 1, c. 6

HUSTINGS COURT – Judge Gideon D. Camden, of the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit of Virginia, presiding. – The case of Robert S. Forde, indicted for the murder of Robert E. Dixon, was called yesterday; but, for reasons deemed sufficient by the court, it was postponed till the next term.

Jacob N. Hoeflich, indicted for the murder of a negro child belonging to him, was then put upon trial. After swearing in a jury, several witnesses were examined, one of whom testified that the prisoner and his wife had been in the habit of inflicting cruel beatings upon the child, and that in the dead of winter they have been known to strip it naked and hold it under the hydrant till life would be nearly extinct. Mr. John H. Gilmer, counsel for Hoeflich, rebutted said evidence by saying that the cruel treatment was inflicted by his client’s wife, who had already escaped to the Yankees, and was beyond the jurisdiction of our courts.

He was replied to by Littleton Tazewell, the prosecuting attorney, who concluded by asking for a verdict of “voluntary manslaughter.” The jury at 2 o’clock took the matter in hand and retired for deliberation; but up to a late hour in the evening had not determined upon their verdict.

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