The Daily Dispatch: June 7, 1861., [Electronic resource]

The arrest of Ed. C. Randolph.

On Friday night last, by the command of Major M. G. Harman, Lieut. B. F. Eakle, of the Greenbrier cavalry, detailed five men of the same company to go with him for the purpose of arresting Mr. Ed. C. Randolph, who was suspected of being a spy. Mr. Ed. C. Randolph is published in the columns of the National Intelligencer as a 1st Lieutenant in a company at Washington. He was arrested in the village of Middlebrook, in this county, where his wife resides, between 11 and 12 o'clock that night. The Home Guard of that place had him in duress when Lieut. Eakle arrived. He was brought to Staunton on Saturday morning.

On that day, he obtained a writ of habeas corpus returnable on Monday. On Monday, the question whether he should be tried by the civil or military authorities was discussed by James H. Skinner, Esq., on behalf of the prisoner, in advocacy of his right of trial by the civil authority, and by Thomas J. Michie, and H. W. Sheffey, Esqs., in behalf of the State, who maintained that he should be tried by the military authority. The Judge decided that evidence establishing ‘"probable cause."’ for his arrest should be furnished, and appointed next Saturday as the day of trial. Bail was denied, as he was not charged with a bailable offence. The decision rendered was so clearly correct that its justness was apprehended and appreciated without difficulty by the most common understanding.