When Williams insisted on leaving the army, he was arrested on suspicion of having passed classified information to the Confederates, but was released after a few weeks.

[6][7][8][9] After joining the Confederate army, Williams was transferred to the West and served as an aide to General Leonidas Polk, fighting at the Battle of Shiloh.

There he changed his name to Lawrence Williams Orton, as he said because his brother remained in the Union army, but perhaps to wipe out the stains of the ugly killing.

A court was convened at short notice, sat during the night, and at three o'clock in the morning of June 9, found the accused guilty of being spies.

The execution of Orton dismayed Robert E. Lee; although he conceded that the officers were technically in violation of the laws of war, he believed that clemency should have been shown.