From the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, 4/5/1895, p. 1

The Sad End of a Brave Soldier.

Lexington, Ky., April 4. – Major Andrew Jackson Hamilton, aged 57, who was major of the Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry, and who planned and superintended the famous tunnel escape from Libby Prison, in which 120 Union soldiers secured their freedom, was murdered in Reedyville, Butler county, Tuesday night by Samuel Spencer. The major, Spencer and Alford Belcher spent the early part of the night drinking together. They started for Hamilton’s home about midnight, and when within several squares of his house the three men got into a quarrel. Spencer, while Hamilton’s back was turned, fired a pistol ball into his head, killing him instantly.

The body was found by the keepr [sic] of the saloon at which they had last drank about 2 o’clock in the morning. He told the town marshal that Spencer and Belcher were with him when he left the saloon, and they were arrested. Spencer denied all knowledge of the crime, but Belcher confessed that Spencer had killed him.

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