Author Description

Only two men knew what happened in the darkness?and one was dead.Union soldier Eli Ice was convicted of the 1863 murder of southern sympathizer, Uriah Wade, after the Civil War in 1870. Finally located at his post-war home in Wetzel County, West Virginia, he was arrested, tried, and found guilty. The result was spending the rest of his life in the West Virginia State Penitentiary. It all tragically unraveled his family.This story is embedded in the struggle amidst West Virginia's seceding from its secession parent state of Virginia. The debates were hot and deadly between Union loyalists and southern sympathizers beginning in 1861. Ice became a national symbol of the ongoing conflict during Reconstruction. Newspapers across the US carried the conviction that was loudly argued by both Northern and Southern advocates.This book chronicles Ice's life, Union service, events leading to the murder, his trial, and the aftermath. Two men walked along a rural path under the cover of darkness. Only one emerged from the encounter.