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 Harrisburg's Civil War  
 
African American men crowd around a Union army recruiting station.
Harrisburg and the Central Pennsylvania region in the Civil War

 

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Year of Jubilee (1863)

Jacob Sanders, Servant to Colonel Charles John Biddle, Stabbed on Train

News article about the stabbing of Jacob Sanders, an African American servant to Colonel Charles John Biddle, on a train in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1862

STABBING AFFAIR. -- A colored man, named Jacob Sanders, a servant of Colonel Biddle, who had taken passage in the cars of the Pennsylvania railroad to Philadelphia, at noon to day, and occupied a seat assigned him by the Conductor, was accosted by a rough looking customer, named James Downey, who demanded Sanders to give him the seat he had possession of, which Sanders refused to do; whereupon Downey drew out a large knife and stabbed Sanders in the neck, making a very severe and dangerous wound, barely escaping the jugular vein. The wounde man was taken to Alderman Kline's office, where his wound was dressed, after which he was taken to the residence of William Jones. Downey was arrested by officer Fleck, and committed to prison to answer by Alderman Kline.

Sources

The Harrisburg Telegraph, 27 October 1862, page 3.

 
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