[1] Webster married Charlotte Sprowles on October 23, 1841 in Princeton, New Jersey and the couple had four children, two of whom died young.

Their son, Timothy Jr., born in 1843, joined the Union Army from Onarga, Illinois on July 30, 1862 and was wounded in the Battle of Brices Crossroads near Ripley, Mississippi on June 11, 1864, and taken to a Confederate prison in Mobile, Alabama where his leg was amputated.

When Pinkerton heard the news of the sentence, he and President Lincoln sent a message to the Confederacy threatening that if Webster was put to death, the Union would reciprocate by hanging a Confederate spy.

The Confederacy ignored the threat[4] and on April 29, 1862, Timothy Webster climbed the gallows in Richmond, Virginia at Camp Lee.

[5] After the initial attempt to hang Webster failed, he was helped to the gallows again and was heard to say, "I suffer a double death!"