Infuriated by personal and professional clashes, the United States Assistant District Attorney for Alabama, Lucien Van Buren Martin, met the District Judge of the only federal court in Reconstruction Alabama, the fiery and controversial former political Union general Judge Richard Busteed as he made for his office in the U.S. Customs House in Mobile. Martin fired a Colt revolver at Busteed, hitting him in the chest, and then placed two more shots into the judge's right leg as he lay on the ground. Busteed recovered remarkably quickly and was holding court again in days. Martin fled to Texas to Texas. Busteed's career as a highly unpopular jurist continued until the House of Representatives moved to impeach him and he resigned in October 1874. (By John Osborne)
"Hon. Richard Busteed," Harper's Weekly Magazine, January 18, 1868, p. 44.
Jack D. Welsh, Medical Histories of Union Generals (Kent OH, Kent State University Press, 2005), 48-49.
