Middleburg Police Chief Steven Webber was amazed when Chris Cosgriff, of The Officer Down Memorial called seeking Webber's help to have the name of Town Sergeant Milton Seaton carved into the granite walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at Judiciary Square near the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C.

Seaton is, to date, the only Middleburg Police officer to die in the line of duty. He was mortally wounded one dark Saturday night, on November 25, 1899.

Mr. Cosgriff found the story while researching the records of the local department for the National Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial database.

The police records he found, and turn-of-the-century reports from the Washington Post, the Leesburg Washingtonian and other sources, reveal a fascinating tale of murder and manhunts, rage, and rewards, pardons and the press, lynch law and the simple human charity of the law officer for whom such egregious shameful revenge was sought.

Turn-of-the-century reports indicate that around 11:00 PM on a Saturday night in Sergeant Seaton was making his rounds. Near W. H. Adams' store he ran into Richard "Dick" Thompson. Dick, according Sergeant Seaton, was engaged in "boisterous" behavior in and around the store.

Thompson was 5'9", weighed about 140 pounds and was described as dark, bent and "stoop-shouldered from inflammatory rheumatism" with the "appearance of a consumptive." He did not appear to be much a threat to the safety of anyone. He was, however, black. In the Middleburg of 1899 that did not help his cause.

Sergeant Seaton apparently knew and liked him, and thus, at first, simply warned him to keep quiet.

Thompson, however, who had something of a reputation for using alcohol to help with his rheumatism and consumption, persisted in what the Mirror described as "unruly behavior."

Seaton warned him again, telling him that if he did not quiet down he would have to be arrested. At this point a Middleburg Town Councilman arrived on the scene. He also knew Thompson, reminded Sergeant Seaton that the old man suffered badly from rheumatism and other infirmities, and suggested that they might best simply send him home to sleep it off.

Seaton quickly agreed and Thompson apparently promised that he would turn himself in on Monday morning.

Thompson, however, was drunk and angry. He appears to have decided to confront Sergeant Seaton, and within minutes he had found and fetched his 28-year-old brother, Harrison, to help him.

"Harry" was younger than Dick, twenty pounds heavier and apparently fearsome to look upon, his face badly scarred and disfigured by clumsy surgery to remove a tumor.

When the Harrison brothers found voices were raised and harsh words exchanged.

Some sources report that Harrison Thompson simply surprised Seaton during the course of the argument and slashed him.

Other accounts report a full-blown fight breaking out as Seaton tried to make good his threat to arrest Dick Thompson. In the midst of the fight, according to these sources, Harrison, grabbed Sergeant Seaton from behind, reached around him with a razor or knife in his hand, and cut him badly, inflicting two wide and deep abdominal wounds.

Sergeant Seaton, seriously hurt and bleeding profusely called for help and then collapsed.

The Harrisons fled into the night, stopping by their house for clothes and money, then fleeing into the nearby fields and forests.

Seaton was still conscious and able to identify his attackers when help finally arrived. Bulletins were sent to nearby police and sheriff's offices, a manhunt started, and by Monday, Middleburg Mayor E. F. (Eddie) Powell announced the offer of a $125 reward for the capture of the Harrisons.

Middleburg doctor W. J. Luck, who administered first aid at the scene of the crime held out little hope that the Town Sergeant would survive. But Seaton was tough. He held on longer than anyone could have expected and "plucky to the last" according to the Washington Post, he died of his wounds only after a seven-day fight.

The Harrisons, last seen crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, remained at large.

Now, however, they were charged with murder.

In response to public fear and outrage the Middleburg Town Council swore in 22 new special police officers and ordered all businesses in town to henceforth close at 9:00 P.M.

The manhunt did not go well. On December 8, 1899, the Washington Post reported Thompson-brother sightings in Cumberland, Maryland. The easily identifiable pair were said to be headed for Hagerstown with a Leesburg officer in hot pursuit.

By December 9 the Governor of Virginia had added $100 in state money to the reward. The editors of the Leesburg Washingtonian called for the County to add another $275 to bring the total to $500. "No effort or expense should be spared to make the murderers suffer for the crime they have committed."

The Loudoun Supervisors came up with another $100 by mid-December, bringing the total reward offered to $400. One quarter of the money was offered for the arrest of Dick Thompson and $300 for his brother, Harry.

The brothers, however, remained at large. A lead in Winchester proved false. A house-to-house search near South Mountain in Maryland yielded nothing. A man who seemed to fit the description of the badly scarred Harrison Thompson was caught hiding in a Western Maryland Railroad Car in Hagerstown. It was the wrong man.

There was some suspicion that the Thompsons had gone to Washington, DC, where Dick had worked as a hack driver for several years. DC Police mounted a fruitless search.

Then, on January 6, 1900, Washington Detective George W. Boyd arrested Richard Andrew Lee Thompson, the rheumatic "Dick" Thompson of Middleburg, as he walked near the corner of 13th Street and New York Avenue in the District.

Thompson had been in Washington for nearly three weeks. While there he had visited friends who were working for Mrs. H. F. Grant", a former resident of Middleburg, living on 14th Street. Thompson's friends told Mrs. Grant. She called the police.

Under Second Precinct police pressure, Thompson provided what was termed a "full confession." He swore, however that he had only witnessed the murder, blaming his brother Harrison for the murder itself.

He had last seen Harrison, he claimed, at the train station at Sandy Hook. Harry had taken a train "west" while Dick Thompson traveled east, into Washington, D.C.

Loudoun County Sheriff Russell took the train into Washington as soon as he was notified of the arrest. Leaving his Dick Thompson in the Alexandria jail for a night, he returned the Capital, in the vain hope of finding Harrison.

Giving up his search after only a day, Sheriff Russell returned to Leesburg. According to the Washington Post the Sheriff noted that he "...had no fear of mob violence at the present time."

The $100 reward was shared among several informers.

With Harrison Thompson still at large, and the Loudoun County Courts apparently moving too slowly for some sectors of Loudoun public opinion, ugly sentiments and thinly veiled incitements to racial violence began to appear in the press. "We see reason now why lynchings take place in law abiding communities," the editors of the Leesburg Washingtonian wrote in May 1900.

No doubt affected by such sentiments, an all-white jury convicted Dick Thompson and sentenced him to 18 years in prison as an accomplice to murder.

Despite public opinion, however, the bent, rheumatic consumptive Dick Thompson also had his defenders, including Henry Milton Seaton himself. Indeed, as he lay dying the Middleburg Sergeant reportedly told his friends that Dick Thompson was not to blame for his death and had actually tried to help him.

Another Defender appears to have been Susan Noland Haxall, the daughter of a prominent Virginia farmer, Bolling Walker Haxall of Exning. According to Eugene Scheel's History of Middleburg and Vicinity, Miss Haxall made a personal pilgrimage to Richmond to petition Governor Andrew Montague to pardon Dick Thompson.

Governor Montague did so, in July 1903, standing his ground in the face of general outrage in the white community and a petition signed by no less than 73 residents of Middleburg.

Harrison Thompson remained at large for another nine years. Not until June 20, 1908, did the Washington Post finally report his capture, in a two-inch story buried on page 11. According to the Post, Loudoun County Sheriff Thomas W. Edwards had boarded a train for Carroll, Ohio, where Harrison "Harry" Thompson, had been, at last, arrested.

Now, nearly a century later Middleburg Police Chief Webber expects to close the Seaton case once and for all, with the formal recognition of Sergeant Henry Milton Seaton's sense of duty, and justice, on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial.