When Jim Massie finally the side of the man who had gone down during the "scuffle" he'd witnessed, he found him lying "slightly twisted," on his left side, with his head resting in a deep rut in the Nelson Street mud.

He was still alive.

"He made no moan or groan," Massie later testified, "but there was a gurgling, snuffling noise made in his breathing . . . like a man with his mouth and nose full of something."

The lower half of the downed man's face was covered in blood, Massie remembered. In the shadows it looked "black, as though he wore whiskers."

"Hoping to prevent him from strangling in his own blood," Massie grabbed his right arm and pulled until his head was out of the rut.

Massie then "called to him and asked who he was," but "he gave no sign of consciousness."

"I believe some one is killed here!" Massie muttered to whomever might be listening, and then began to shout, "Help! Help!"

A "tall gentleman in citizen's clothes" was the first to reach Massie's side.

When this unidentified civilian asked what was the matter, Massie said he told him, "Some man is killed here!' or something to that effect.

Much to Massie's distress, the "tall gentleman" at that point made "an exclamation of horror and ran off."

Massie turned again to what he now saw was a very badly wounded man, and tried to get him to sit up.

Only then, he said, did he notice the victim's overcoat with its distinctive cloak and brass buttons, and realized at once the man was a Cadet.

Then, as soon as he could see man's face he "recognized the features of Cadet Blackburn" whom he "knew very well."

"A tall cadet and another gentleman then came up," and Massie, said "informed them that I believed some one had killed Cadet Blackburn, and requested them to go for a physician."

The cadet immediately set off "to fetch, a physician."

Another "gentleman" wearing the dark blue uniform and cap of a VMI musician was next on the scene.

Though never precisely identified, he was, no doubt, A. V. Bancker, the VMI drummer, or one of his two sons. The three comprised the entire VMI "band" and had been hired some five years earlier to replace "Mike" and "Ruben", two slaves who had provided martial music for the cadet corps during it's first decade.

Bancker recognized Blackburn immediately, "and stooping down near him called his name loudly several times."

"There was no answer," Massie later testified, though Blackburn was still alive and "the gurgling sound continued."

Bancker then took Blackburn by the shoulders while Massie hung on to his right arm, and together they dragged him a few yards, then up and onto some hay scales, by which time, by Massie's account, "some dozen persons had gathered around."

No more than two or three minutes had passed since Massie had seen young Blackburn shoved, stagger and fall in the road.

For a short time, some said three to five minutes, the wounded cadet lay bleeding atop the hay scales.

He was there, still alive, when Tom Taylor returned from the church and Kirkpatrick returned with a doctor, 36-year-old Patrick H. Christian. Dr. Christian had been born in Amherst County and, ironically, was a relative, a second cousin, of the man who had just stabbed Tom Blackburn.

Dr. Christian later testified he found Blackburn lying on the scales, breathing "slowly and heavily" with blood "oozing] from mouth and nostrils."

After what seemed to Massie to be another four or five minutes, Dr. Christian suggested that Blackburn be taken to his office.

Massie, however, didn't think Blackburn would make it that far and suggested that he be taken, instead, to the "counting room" of White's store, just steps away, on the corner of Nelson and Main.

With Massie leading the way, Benton Taylor and several others, helped carry Blackburn into a relatively sheltered area behind White's store, and then toward the counting room door.

Just as they got there Massie stumbled across one of White's employees, a Mr. Gold, who had apparently been working on a Sunday evening and was caught in the process of locking the counting room door behind him.

Massie convinced Gold to unlock the door for him and stepped inside the counting room.

As soon as he looked around Massie realized the space was much too small for Doctor Christian's or Blackburn's needs.

Thus the laid Tom Blackburn "on the cellar cap by the counting room door, in an area "separated from the street by a high fence, gated, and protected from the elements by a shed roof."

An unidentified cadet, sent for a lantern, ran to McDowell's Hotel.

There in the hotel bar/office, he met the ever-present barkeeper and front-desk clerk, Hugh Laughlin.

Laughlin gave the cadet the lantern that hung at the front door at McDowell's, and then followed him to White's store..

As soon as he arrived Laughlin, later testified, he thought Blackburn was dying.

Massie, by this time, was dead certain.

Blackburn lay helpless on the sloping cellar door, " Massie said, "his mouth and nose full of blood . . . gasping . . . his eyes set."

The arrival of the lantern settled the matter for Doctor Christian.

When he finally got a good look at Blackburn, he quickly came to the same conclusion as Laughlin and Massie.

"I saw a wound on his neck, on the left side, immediately below the ear, and directly in the course of the carotid artery," Christian later testified. "I saw that Mr. Blackburn was dying, and believed that his death proceeded from cutting the carotid artery."

Dr. Christian, nevertheless, went through the motions of trying to save the boy.

He requested that "stimulants be brought, and that another physician and instruments should be sent for."

He later admitted that he did so, not because he "thought they would be of service" but because he "thought it proper."