Bad company.

by Lisa Y. Henderson

Highway Robbery. – On Saturday morning last, Mr. Richard H. Blount, merchant of Kinston, Lenoir county, started from home for Newbern, with 4,860 in his possession in Bank bills, with the intention of procuring Northern funds.  About 1 o’clock of the day, when passing through a lonely place called Dover Swamp, 15 or 16 miles from Newbern, four men, three whites and a mulatto, rushed out of a thicket by the roadside, seized Mr. Blount, hauled him from the buggy in which he was riding, beat him until he was senseless, and then robbed him of all his money.  Mr. B. remained in an insensible condition for an hour or two, when a negro travelling the road discovered him.  He was taken back to Kinston, and so soon as the fact of the robbery became known, a large number of the citizens of that place started out in various directions in pursuit of the villains. – Wilmington Chronicle of 13th inst.

Carolina Watchman, 21 Sep 1848.