Greensborough Patriot

November 13, 1862

Page 1

DEATH FROM A SPIDER BITE—The Fredericksburg Herald has the following notice elicited by the singular death of Captain Williams of North Carolina:

How uncertain the tenure of man; how carried the causes of death. Man may escape the desolating cannon, the fire of musketry, the thrust and cut of the sword and yet fall victim to a bite of a tiny insect! In glancing at the obituary of Capt. B. R. Williams, Co. C, 2d N. C. battalion we observe that the gallant soldier died from the bite of a spider even while surrounded with all the formidable death-dealing instruments of warfare! Whilst putting on his boots (at Drewry’s Bluff where he was stationed), Capt. W. unfortunately shut up a spider in one of them which by frequent stingings infused sufficient poison into his system to produce death within eighteen hours despite all the efforts of surgeons to counteract it.

[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]