Biography
David Sheward is identified in Marshall, editor of the Constitution and Union at Fairfield, Iowa, as arrested Sunday, August 17, 1862 and taken to Old Capitol Prison on August 21. Pages 414-415 report his November 11, 1862 release with Duff, Mulkey and Mahony, conditional on a nonprosecution oath. This full name resolves the earlier surname-only Sheward mention. Source: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 406-407, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n421/mode/2up. Marshall is a partisan retrospective source; its allegations are attributed to the author.
Dennis A. Mahony’s 1863 memoir identifies Charles Mason as legal counsel assisting the Old Capitol prisoners. It describes Mason volunteering assistance to Mahony and David Sheward, and expressly identifies him as counsel for John H. Mulkey and Sheward on printed page 401. Mason’s professional title of judge does not make him the trial judge in these detentions. The memoir describes repeated efforts to obtain charges or a hearing and refusal of a conditional $10,000 bond; its criticisms remain the author’s account.
