September 10, 1864
Federal Court - Hon. John J. Jackson, Jr., Presiding. - The Court met yesterday morning at 9 o'clock. The forenoon was occupied with the Grand Jury. The motion to quash the indictment against Simon Woodruff, charged with an attempt to evade the enrollment act, was then argued, Gen. Wheat for the accused and Col. Smith, the District Attorney, for the Government. The motion to quash was overruled, and the case went to trial.
Capt. B. B. Stone testified that Woodruff applied to the Board of Enrollment to have his name stricken from the rolls, claiming to be over 45 years of age. The Board required some evidence of this fact, when Woodruff brought a family bible in which his birth was recorded, and it was apparent that a recent change had been made in the year, and that a figure "9" had been changed to a figure "8", thus making it appear that Woodruff was born in 1818 instead of 1819. Woodruff's attention was called to this apparently recent change, when he denied that any change had been made. Subsequently he admitted that his wife might have made the change, and finally, when closely pressed, acknowledged that he had made the change in the figures himself.
The Court adjourned before the case was concluded.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: September 1864