USA > Illinois > History of the 112th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in the great war of the rebellion, 1862-1865 > Part 37
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About sundown this day we came to a valley which we had to cross. We saw a line of rebel infantry in the valley, reach- ing as far as we could see. Selecting the thinnest place in the line, we formed and charged upon them in a gallop. The reb-
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els ran in every direction to get out of the way, forgetting to fire a gun until after we had passed through their lines. They then fired but did no harm. We reached a road and going a short distance along it, a woman at a house told us that about four thousand rebels had passed along the road in the same direction we were going about an hour before.
We went along this road cautiously and at about 10 in the evening overtook several wagons. Making inquiries we found they were the baggage wagons of the force in front. We pa- roled the men with them, and as the wagons were very dry, made a bonfire of them in the road. The wagons contained the baggage of one of the rebel generals, and a paymaster with his outfit. We placed the paymaster in good shape to settle his accounts with his government by borrowing his funds, so he could account for all he was out as having been captured by the enemy. The boys distributed a million or two of Con- federate money among themselves, and I stuffed ninety-odd thousand dollars of it into my horse's empty nose sack.
We soon took another road from the gentlemen in front of us, and were now doing our best to get out of Tennessee. We liad the whole rebel army of forty thousand men beliind, be- fore and all around us. We knew they had sworn vengeance upon us, and we believed that capture would be certain and speedy deatlı. We doubted whether the acts we had done were authorized by the laws of civilized warfare, and therefore none of us intended to be taken prisoners.
At about 11 o'clock at night, while riding very quietly along, suddenly a volley of musketry came from a grove of timber to our right, and the musket balls whistled thickly over our heads. We were startled, but paid no more attention to it and went quietly on. We heard no more from it, and never knew who it was that fired upon us. We did not return a shot.
We continued on all night and all day the 23d without see- ing or hearing further of the enemy, keeping on by-roads mostly, until about 5 o'clock, while riding along a ridge on a wood road, we suddenly came to the edge of Powell's Valley again. On the other side of this valley were the Cumberland Mountains, and if we could once get into them we were safe. But as we went along we heard loud voices giving commands
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in the valley below us. We knew every gap in the mountains was blockaded, and that the whole rebel army of Tennessee was in this valley. determined to cut off and destroy us. Go- ing to the edge of the timber on the ridge, we saw that the val- ley was filled with men, artillery and cavalry, moving about in all directions. There was but one thing to do. We took axes and cut the spokes out of our artillery wheels and let the guns fall to the ground. We then spiked the guns, turned our extra mules and horses loose, after mounting the artillerymen, tight- ened onr belts around ns, and formed in line.
Powell's Valley was here about a mile wide, and just across it, opposite where we were, was a very high, steep and rugged mountain, covered with timber and immense ledges of rock. We rode down the ridge toward the valley quietly, in line of battle. We reached the foot of the ridge, and rode ont into the plain at a walk toward a line of rebel infantry and caval- ry a few hundred yards in front of us. When within a couple of hundred yards of them they seemed to have discovered for the first time who we were. A few scattered shots were fired at ns, when we gave them a solid volley, and driving the spurs into the sides of our horses, we charged, bolter-skelter, upon and over them. and struck straight for the side of the moun- tain in front. We started up its side, and the rebel forces by thousands closed in around its foot, and bringing their artil- lery, shelled us as we went up.
The mountain side was so rough and ragged that we could not ride, and dismounting, we hauled and lifted and pushed the horses over rocks, ravines and fallen timber, until it be- came dark. It was a very hot night, and our throats were parched with thirst and filled with dust. Of course our lines were broken and every man was acting for himself. Most of the 112th men kept together, however, and helped each other along, but it so happened that we got into the worst part of the mountain and our progress was slow. The other portion of our force, therefore, reached the top of the mountain long before we did. We did not reach the top until about midnight, and when we did reach it the remainder of the force had long before passed on, taking all the guides with them, and we knew not in what direction or where to go.
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But the worst of all was, that we found that the rebels were amongst us. We heard men whispering and conferring to- gether near us, and sometimes in the starlight we could see men with white rebel blankets around them, moving around among the trees. We were still in too strong force for them to attempt our capture, but they probably thought they had us safe anyhow We here held a council as to what we should do. We concluded that our only hope of safety was to wait until moonlight or daylight, and then try to find our way out. We did not dare follow anyone, for we might be following a rebel right into their line .. Many times persons would call to us to come that way or this way; but we, at least, believed them to be rebels and did not dare follow them. We were suffering terribly from thirst, and concluded first to search for water. None had been seen since we came up the mountain side, and the only hope we had of getting any was by digging for it.
It was so dark that we could not see a favorable place to dig. so we tied our horses to trees and went along feeling with our feet for places in the ground where we would be most likely to find water. I had my naked sword in my hand and was using it to part the bushes and discover any obstacle in the dark. Presently I thought I felt a depression in the ground, and the dead leaves under my feet rustled as if they were somewhat damp. I said to the men near me, in a loud whisper-which was the way we communicated with each other -- that I believ- ed I had found a good place to get water. They came toward me, but as I was about to get down on my knees to dig with my hands, suddenly there sounded at my very feet the loud rattle of a rattlesnake, and instantly it seemed as if a hundred snakes were rattling on every side of us. We knew at once that we were in a rattlesnake den. We expected every minute to feel their fangs piercing our flesh, which then and there would have been certain deatlı, as we had no antidote nor physician to assist us. But we stood perfectly still and after a minute or two of continuous rattling it gradually ceased, and we could hear the reptiles crawling in the leaves. I then took my sword, and after striking it around me in every di- rection, to drive away those near us, we turned around, and
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step by step slowly walked out until we reached a fallen tree, and getting on that were safely out of the den.
But we got no water. We concluded then that we would lie down and rest until it became light enough to see where we were going. We, seven men of Co. G, lay down together, and the next thing I remember was feeling a pain in my side, and suddenly waking up I saw that it was daylight, and that it was Tom Townsend's elbow that was giving me the pain. Tom whispered to me that two men clothed in gray uniforms had come to where we were, looked at us, whispered together for a minute or two, pointed down the mountain toward where the rebels were, and had just that moment gone away
We woke up all the men at once, and fortunately finding our horses near us, started away to the north. We had gone only a few steps when we found Lieut. Brown, of Co. E, and quite a number of other men of the 112th who had also been left on the mountain. We all got away from there, however, as fast as we could, finding some of our men as we went along, com- ing out from behind trees and rocks as they saw who we were.
Finally we found that we were going down the north side of the mountain, and we soon heard the sound of water in front of us, and instantly men and horses, all together, made a rush in the direction of the sound. We were in a sort of path, like a deer trail, among the rocks, and as we got near the water the trail became narrower and narrower, until finally it be- came so narrow between the ledges of rock that a horse could not squeeze through. We then abandoned our horses, and climbing the rocks, made our way to the water, and lying down, some in and some on the bank of the small mountain rivulet, we enjoyed a drink of pure mountain water.
When we had satisfied our thirst we began to consider what was the best to do. About forty of us were together. We concluded that every outlet from the mountains must by this time be guarded, and that our best chance would be to aban- don our horses and try to steal our way through the moun- tains. We concluded that it would be hopeless to try to fight, as that would only delay us and bring the whole rebel force upon our track. We therefore broke up and destroyed our guns, revolvers and swords, that they might not be of use to
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the enemy ; cut up our saddles and bridles, threw away all surplus clothing and divested ourselves of everything that would delay or retard us. I had to part with my little gray mare that had carried me over every obstacle that I had en- countered, that had eaten hardtack out of my hand when I had nothing else to give her, and that I had always found by my side when I wanted her. She had become a pet and was as dear to me as any friend I ever had. I was not the only one, however, of our party who shed tears when parting for- ever from our noble horses. I had about a quart of corn meal in a sack, which I divided, taking about a pint in my pants pocket-I had torn up and thrown away my coat-and gave the remainder to my horse.
We started from here toward the north in Indian file, three of the men with us keeping their guns and some ammunition. At about ten o'clock in the morning we came in sight of a clearing on the side of the mountain we were climbing over. We had had nothing to eat since the day before, and conclud- eil to reconnoiter the place and see if we could find some- thing. By gathering a piece here and there from one and an- other, we finally secured a suit of citizen s clothing, and select- ing one of the longest haired, lankest and most awkward look- ing soldier in the squad, we dressed him up as a Tennessee mountaineer, as near as we could, and sent him to the house in the clearing. We watched him go in, and in a few minutes he came out and motioned to us. A few of us went down to the house, and there we found Major Dow and Capt. John L. Dow with more of our men. We also found hid in the house a gen- uine Tennessee mountaineer, whom we at once pressed into service as a guide. We doubted his loyalty to the Union, but we placed him in front, and two men with guns immediately behind him, and instructed the men in his hearing that at the first sign of danger to at once shoot the guide. We then told him to guide us by the most unfrequented paths to the Cum- berland River.
But we found nothing whatever to eat, as the people in these mountains seemed to be poorer than the rocks themselves. We started on our long journey and marched all the first day, occasionally finding some of our men scattered along our route.
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The evening of the first day we had two hundred men, but with only nine guns among the whole number. We placed two men with guns in advance" and seven in the rear. We could not hope to fight any force we might meet in front, but the guns in the rear might check any force in that direction until we could scatter and some of us, perhaps, escape. We kept on all the first night, the night of June 23d. At daylight we lay down in the woods and slept until about nine o'clock, when we got up and away again.
At about 11 o'clock we came to a little cabin in the mount- ains, occupied by a woman and two or three children, and searched it for something to eat ; but found nothing. We fin- ally saw a little fenced in lot near the house, and going there found a bed of young cabbages with a few small leaves on. We made for them, and in less than two minutes the cabbage lot was a bleak and desolate plain. I got one small plant for my share and ate it, root, branch, dirt and all.
We traveled on all day the 24th and about two o'clock in the afternoon we came to another mountain cabin occupied by two women and some children, but here they did not have ev- en a few cabbage plants to eat. We finally convinced them that we were Union soldiers trying to escape, when they told us that their husbands had gone through to Kentucky and were then in the Union army. They then brought out from a bed-tick a peck of corn meal and offered it to us, but assured us that it was everything they had in the world to eat, and as we saw five or six children around the house, hungry as we were, we refused to touch their meal. They told us that two separate companies of rebel cavalry had been at their house that day inquiring for "Yanks", and saying that a lot of them were lost in the mountains somewhere. They told the women they were going to catch and hang them as soon as found, for these "Yanks" had been murdering people and burning liouses all through East Tennessee. The women cautioned us to be very careful, as the mountains were filled with rebels. They gave our guide full instructions as to the best route to take, and wishing us all sorts of good fortune, sent us on.
Near sundown this day we suddenly came to a well traveled highway, crossing our path at right angles. There was no
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way to avoid crossing it, but it was a dangerous point, as we believed every place along this road must be guarded. We finally found a dense thicket of low bushes extending up to the side of the road. We got into this thicket and arranged that one man at a time should cross the road as rapidly as possi- ble, at the same time looking up and down the road and giv- ing warning if anyone was seen, when all would scatter and do the best they could to save themselves. About sundown we were all safely across, without discovery. We felt almost safe after crossing this road ; and going a couple of hundred yards into the woods we concluded to camp, as we were utterly worn out. A party was sent out to quietly reconnoiter, and about nine o'clock at night came in with a side of bacon. We divided this up as well as we could, but it did not go far with two hundred men. I got a piece of pure fat an inch long and about as large around as my fore finger. We ate our meat raw, in the dark ; and this was the first and only bite of food of any kind any of us had had since four days before, except the handful of meal I had in my pocket, which I divided with some of my comrades. We lay down on the dry leaves and soon forgot our troubles and dangers in sweet and refreshing sleep. I remember of waking suddenly about midnight, with a terrible fear creeping over me. I was wide awake in a second, and my first thought was that something terrible was about to spring upon me as I lay upon the ground. I scarcely breath- ed. The night was dark, the leaves were thick upon the trees, and a star here and there in the sky was all that could be seen. A very slight breeze now and then stirred the leaves above us a little; but the night was so quiet and still that it seemed as if the stillness could almost be felt. It did not seem that the danger was from any living thing, but as if some- thing ghostly or supernatural was near me.
Presently I heard a rustling in the dead leaves near me. I thought at once that some wild animals were among us. But in a moment I heard the leaves rustling in several directions. I then thought that the enemy were among us at last, and that we would be captured just as we began to think there was some hope of our escape. Perhaps they were quietly num-
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bering our men in their heavy sleep, as they found them.
I was about to creep away and escape, when I thought I recognized Major Dow s whisper by my side. I reached my hand out and touched him and whispered very low, "Is this you. Major?" He replied, "Yes, but don't move or speak yet." He took my hand and led me quietly off some distance, where we found Capt. Dow and some other officers. The Maior then whispered, "Here is a little girl, fourteen years old, who lives at the house where we found the women this afternoon. She says that very soon after we left the house fifteen hundred reb- el cavalry came to the house on our trail, swearing vengeance against us." They asked the women which way we had gone, how many there were of us, and swore they were going to hang us whenever they found us. The women told them we had gone in a different direction from the one we really took, but the rebels did not believe them, and were then on our track. The girl said the rebels were at the house about sundown, and were then following us. She also said the women, one of whom was her mother, got her out and told her to take through the mountains ahead of the rebels, and warn us of the danger.
The little girl had come on this dark night over seven miles through the rough wild mountains, filled with savage animals and poisonous serpents, to tell us of our danger. While she was whispering this to us we heard the clank of sabers on the road near us. It was rebel cavalry passing along the road. We listened, but they passed by without discovering us.
We asked the little girl, small of her age and but a child, what we could do for her. She told us that she wanted noth- ing, and now that she had found and told us, she would go back home. We offered to send a guard back with her, but she said she was not afraid and wanted no guard. The Maj- or lighted a match and found that it was one o'clock in the morning. The Major asked if any of us had any money, and everyone contributed all the money he had, and we thus raised seven dollars and a few cents and gave it to the girl. It was all we could do. Sherefused the money, and seemed astonish- ed that we thought she had done anything worthy of thanks even. But we finally forced the money upon her, and each one pressed her hand and thanked her for what she had done
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for us. We took up our lonely walk again, leaving her to make the best of her way home through the lonely mountains. We never heard of her afterwards.
All this occupied but a few minutes, and we were soon on our route away from the danger that menaced us. I have no doubt the courage and loyalty of that little girl saved many, if not all, of our lives ; and no one who remembers that peril- ous night can ever forget the little girl who warned us of our danger. She gave us her name, but I am sorry to say I have forgotten it. How I should like to see and thank again that brave loyal little mountain girl, for her brave act.
We marched all that night and the day following, and the next evening reached the settlements at the foot of the moun- tains, near the Cumberland River. We were still inside the enemy's lines, but felt comparatively safe, and as we were suffer- ing from hunger we separated to search for food. The men of Co. G remained together, and finding a farm house we got a good supper and safe place to sleep. The next day we crossed the river and four days afterward joined our forces.
We found that the main body of our force had found its way out the night we were driven up the mountain, and they all es- caped with their horses and without trouble. In Powell's Val- ley four men belonging to our hospital were captured, but as they were non-combatants they were paroled and released soon after. In fact the five men drowned in Clinch River were the only men we really lost during the whole trip. We had two or three wounded, but none seriously
Too much can never be said of the loyalty and devotion to the Union shown by the people, and especially the women of East Tennessee. At the risk of their lives they aided us in every way in their power. Utter strangers though we were, and engaged in raiding and destroying property in their coun- try, yet we found them always ready to give us invaluable in- formation and assistance.
East of Knoxville we found women standing by the roadside with buckets of water, to give us as we passed along ; and at New Market, especially, we found young ladies, well dressed and beautiful, standing at the gates of the residences, with platters loaded with pie and cake for each soldier. This part
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of our raid was more like a pic-nic than war. Word had some- how been conveyed to the loyal people that we would be there about a certain time, and they had cooked provisions and pre- pared purposely for us, but not a whisper was conveyed to the enemy.
Justice has never yet been done by historians to the bravery and loyalty of the people of East Tennessee and the moun- taineers of the Cumberland and Smoky ranges. It was at the hazard not only of property. but of life itself, that they dared to express any love for the Union or the old flag. Yet there were men and women, and children, too, in Tennessee, who daily took all the chances when there was anything they could do for the Union or Union men. No soldier, who was on the Saunders Raid, at least, can ever forget the loyalty of the East Tennesseans, or of the mountaineers of Kentucky.
The foregoing are some of the incidents of the Saunders Raid. One of the first, and in its results and the little loss sustained, the most successful raid during the war. I have never seen any report of it in any history of the war, and many of the incidents connected with it I had forgotten, until I found among some old papers a letter I had written to my wife just after our return to Kentucky, giving her a history of it. From this, and after refreshing my recollection when meeting with comrades who were through it with me, I have compiled the foregoing narrative, which I think will be found substantially correct.
ESCAPE OF CHARLES T. GOSS FROM THE PRISON AT ANDERSONVILLE.
[Compiled by B. F THOMPSON from a letter written by Goss.
Charles T. Goss, of Co. I, 112th Illinois, was captured with Capt. Wilkins and many others of the same company, at Rice- ville, in East Tennessee, on the 26th of September, 1863. They were sent to Richmond, Va., and there Bconfined in an old tobacco factory near Libby Prison. After remaining there a few weeks they were loaded on freight cars and sent to Dan- ville, Va. During the night. while the train stopped at a sta- tion, Goss eluded the guards, escaped from the car and con- cealed himself among some trees and underbrush at the foot of a hill near a stream of water.
As the train pulled out he heard a few shots fired and the guards shouting, and feared his absence had been discovered, and that search would be made for him. But the train mov- ed off, and Goss struck out into the country. He called at a few negro cabins for something to eat, which was cheerfully furnished him, and was making good progress out of the Con- federacy when he was attacked with a fever and compelled to
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seek rest in a haystack. Here he was discovered by a farmer, while asleep one morning; and with gun in hand the farmer marched him to the nearest railway station and he was sent to Danville. In the spring the prisoners were sent to Ander- sonville. Goss was constantly studying some plan of escape. One day he was one of a squad of prisoners sent outside the stockade to gather wood.
Watching his opportunity, he dodged behind some trees out of sight of the guards, and again made an effort to escape. He traveled all day and the following night ; but just at day- break the next morning he heard the baying and yelping of blood-hounds, and rightly conjecturing that they were upon his track, turne l into the yard of a farm house near by. With the assistance of a woman at the house, he succeeded in keep- ing the dogs off until two men, who were following them on horseback, came up, and he was again a prisoner. The wo- man gave him a lunch; and he was then taken in a buggy through the green fieldls and forests back to Andersonville. Here Goss and some others who had been recaptured in other directions were taken before Wirtz, who eyed them sharply. and remarking, "Dese tam Yankees give me so much trouble I don't know what to do mit 'om," ordered them into the prison without punishment-contrary to his usual practice.
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