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Mr. Isaac Foster being duly sworn, stated that on the morning of the 22d January 1867 as near as he can remember, near 12 O. clock Wm Nelson, Dr. Burd, two James Goodwins, Benj. Goodwin, Ben. Cocke, a Mr. Blackburn, Wm Perry. Thos. Crosby. Miles Gardiner and others rode up to Mr. Rush Austin's where he (witness) at work with Thomas Jefferson (Cold) and beckoned him (Jefferson) to them and took him away with them in the direction of the woods that he did not follow not knowing what they intended to do, and knowing he could do no good.  After about 2/4 of an hour the party returned and inquired for "Tom's" wife. That he directed them to the house near by where she lived. Mr Rush Austin then informed him that they had "whipped Tom most unmercifully". He said they were going to whip his wife also but that he had told them they ought to spare her life as she was big with child and it would kill her to whip her, whereupon they desisted. That Mr. Austin said if he remembers rightly there were three actually engaged in giving the blows - Dr. Burd Thos. Crosby and one other, and that they had tied "Tom" up by the thumbs and stripped him to the skin. He saw Tom walking across the field soon after as though greatly exhausted. That the character of Tom is that of any ordinary colored man. That he is good to work.

The he heard soon after the fall of Richmond