USA > Indiana > History of the Forty-sixth regiment Indiana volunteer infantry : September, 1861-September, 1865 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
Thus they traveled day by day, with food in their haversacks. to tempt them, but which must last them at least ten days. The stock - twelve pounds of bread and two pounds of coffee and sugar - must hold out until the cultivated distriets were reached ..
On the 20th they crossed the Neches river, quite a large stream. Heavy rains having fallen for two days, the country was flooded,. and all the streams were full. Owing to the cloudy weather, they were not able to travel for two days. With no compass, it was impossible to keep the direction in a wilderness without the sun or stars. Again getting a glimpse of the sun, and by good guess- ing, the fugitives marched on. At last, food all gone, hungry and wet, they reached a cornfield, the limit of civilization. They at once filled their haversacks with corn, built a fire in the woods,. and on a tin-plate cooked their grated corn-meal.
1
139.
FLORY AND LORING.
Having reached a part of the country where discovery was. possible, they prepared for night marching. At dark they started, guided by the moon, and made the greatest possible distance by morning. They had water to wade, bayous to swim, and tangled canebrakes to penetrate. About the 25th a cold norther sprung up, and ice froze on the water. Struggling through this was labo- rious and discouraging.
As the travelers approached the eastern line of Texas, which is the Sabine river, they became entangled in bayous, which formed a perfect network. Scarcely had they passed one before another was met. For two nights they marched hard without, as it. was afterward learned, making any material advance. Coming at. length to a saw-mill, they discovered a negro in a boat. They secreted themselves in the brush until dark, when, stealing cau- tionsly up, they borrowed the boat and quietly drifted out into the- bayon. When out of hearing, they rowed down the stream .. Down this bayou the navigators rowed until 3 o'clock in the morn- ing, when, coming to a larger one, running south, they thought. themselves in the Sabine river. Crossing this, they set the boat. adrift and took an eastern course, through a dense cypress forest. The sky being overcast with clouds, they had no guide for direc- tion. After three hours' march, in daylight, they were startled by - finding fresh tracks, and came to the conclusion that they were fol -- lowed; but on examination they proved to be their own tracks, and they found themselves not over 200 yards from where they landed. That day's march was made through briars and swamps. Three. times they were compelled to build rafts, undress and swim streams, two of which were fully 100 yards wide, swift, and very cold. Three times that day they crossed their own path, it being almost impossible to keep direction - getting only an occasional glimpse of the sun. Night found the fugitives on a plain traveled road, which, after a good rest, they followed all night, wading mud and water and swimming a very wide, cold stream. At daylight they entered a dense wood, built a fire and parched and eat their last. corn.
They took the road again at night, and coming to a dilapidated hut, learned from a woman that they had passed, during the night,. the road they should have taken. A retreat was made, and at dark the travelers found the road, and stopped at a house for the- night. Here the party got a good supper, bed and breakfast, and discovered, after a careful course of questioning, that instead of
140
THE FORTY-SIXTH INDIANA.
being cast of the Sabine and out of Texas, they were on the west side of that river and only five miles from where they set out thirty-six hours before.
Early next day the river was reached, and crossed on an old table turned bottom up. Now there was no mistake, and the fugi- tives must be prepared for bold movements before starting. They had prepared orders with the signature of the colonel of a Texas regiment directing them to go to their homes near Vermillionville, Louisiana, to remount and refit. The order stated that their horses had died, and the men were out of clothes. It was now the inten- tion to push boldly on as rebel soldiers. As such they successfully passed Niblet's Bluffs, went through the fortifications, eat dinner "with the rebels, and handled the "vandal Yankees" without mercy. Here, incidentally, the travelers gathered all necessary information in regard to stopping places on the road.
They were forty-five miles from Lake Charles, the most dan- gerous point on the road, where a number of escaped men had been recaptured and sent back. On the evening of the 30th of Novem- ber the travelers reached the city, crossed boldly over at the ferry, and lodged with the ferryman, at whose house was a squad of pro- vost guards. Their papers were examined and pronounced good. .On the morning of the 1st, they rode in the wagon of their host, which took them twelve miles on the road, and, with a letter of introduction to a friend, dismissed the travelers with his best wishes and hopes for the Confederacy. Traveling some twenty miles, the ferryman's friend was found, who treated the " boys from Vermillionville" with magnificent hospitality.
On the 2d the fugitives traveled hard over a low, flat prairie, -covered with water, and met the most dangerous adventure of the trip. A Confederate colonel, stationed at Lake Charles, met the fugitives on the road, and demanded their papers. They were handed over and closely examined. He deliberately gave it as his .opinion that the men were escaped Yankees, and that the papers . were forgeries. This insult was promptly resented in a becoming manner, but it required very careful management and skillful talking to convince the colonel that the party was truly Con- federate. This was finally accomplished, and the chivalrous officer atoned for his unjust suspicions by adding his name to the papers. 'This made the papers good up to Vermillionville, the point men- tioned. Approaching that town, it was deemed safer to travel by might and hide by day. There were Confederate troops at every
14]
FLORY AND LORING.
station and on the road, and the danger would be increasing as the- Federal lines were approached. After marching the first night until 4 o'clock, a heavy rain came on. The men waited until day- light and discovered a wood about a mile distant. Here they determined to remain all day, but found the wood to be only a. narrow strip of oak, with no brush, a house on either side not twenty rods off, and with the scene not improved by a negro riding- from one house to the other. Being almost discovered by the negro, and most probably seen from one of the houses, they were. forced to come out. They found an officer at home on leave, and two rebel soldiers on furlough. The clothes of the fugitives were- soaking wet, and they were almost frozen, as a norther had come. with daylight. The rebels made them welcome and gave them. hot coffee and good seats at the fire. They remained until after- dinner, and were treated with the greatest kindness. A rebel gov- ernment wagon train, going east, was overtaken, and the travelers. rode until night.
The fugitives passed the night of the 3d of December in the- woods near Vermillionville, where the Forty-sixth Regiment had encamped the year before. Colonel Flory had been over this road several times, and remembered it. The travelers had now about. eighty miles to the Union line, and walking by night, hiding by day, and living on parched corn, they made the march. They met. squads of rebels on the road, but would turn off as soon as they would see them. They passed around the towns, and had no fur -. ther trouble, reaching Berwick Bay on the 7th of December. A. gunboat lying in the stream was hailed, but no boat was sent over- until morning, when they were taken on board, the most com- pletely overjoyed men of whom it was possible to conceive. Their Confederate rags were soon stripped off and suits of navy blue- given them. They were once again under the stars and stripes,. and with reverence looked on the old flag.
In twenty-five days these men traveled 500 miles, swam twenty streams, pushing their clothes before them, on rafts; for twenty days they were in the water almost constantly, and for days had. nothing to eat but eorn.
Sergeant Joseph Carr and Jacob Guess, both of Company G,. of the Forty-sixth Indiana, escaped from the stockade at Camp. Groce on the night of the 3d of September. A good singer of the- One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois, who frequently officiated in this duty, was employed in attracting the attention of the guard ..
142
THE FORTY-SIXTH INDIANA.
When the entertainment was at its height, the fugitives climbed the stockade, dropped over, and made the best possible time until -daylight. At that time they had only twenty-five miles between them and the prison, and were clear of the hounds. All the next day they laid in a prairie, near a small town. The sun was very hot, and they obtained but little rest. They made a good march, but were much fatigued. On the third night they came to and crossed the San Jacinto and passed through an immense canebrake. On the other side was a cornfield, from which they obtained roast- ing ears. The next morning they found themselves, after a labo- rious night's march, surrounded by a settlement. They made a detour and were not seen. It was not safe to proceed, so they laid by all day, only three hundred yards from a house on either side, , and between which negroes with dogs frequently passed. During the next night the fugitives came to a railroad on Trinity river. While passing a plantation house, the men were attacked by dogs, which alarmed and brought out the proprietor. They asked for water, when the man began to ask suspicious questions, which ·scared the travelers and they started on. Carr subsequently learned that this man was an ardent sympathizer with escaping prisoners, and would have assisted them had they remained long enough to have satisfied him of their character.
Carr and his companion then struck a line of Union posts, fifteen, twenty and twenty-four miles apart, with whom they rested after their night's march. These points were inhabited by Union people, who often assisted Union men. At one of these places, the man being from home, the women directed the men where to hide, and then sent them food. She told them that if they would remain another day, she would prepare them a quantity of pro- visions, and send them some clothing. They remained, for both were sick and exhausted. The next day a friendly Irishman brought out enough clothing to make them comfortable, and a quantity of good provisions. They were now six days out, and Guess had become so sick that he was unable to proceed. Ile went to a neighboring house, acknowledged himself an escaped prisoner, and was taken back to the stockade, from Beaumont, on the train. Carr went on alone, traveling during the night and lying by in the daytime.
The stations on the railroad were kept by other than Southern people. They assisted escaping prisoners, in nearly all cases, and directed the fugitive from place to place. One station beyond the
143
CARR AND GUESS.
Sabine ended the friendly route. Here, when fifteen days from the prison, Carr had become very sick, and was obliged to halt. He had been lying out in the woods during the day and staying in a friendly house at night. He could not remain in the house dur- ing the day, because of the railroad hands. He became rapidly worse, and determined to give himself up. The man who had been taking care of him took him back to Beaumont on a hand- car, twenty-five miles. Here, Carr went to a friendly house, but finding that the family could not conceal him, directed the proprie- tor to go to the military commandant and inform him of the situa- tion. Carr was then arrested and taken down to Sabine City, to the hospital. He became very ill, and remained there four weeks, when he was promoted to the guard-house. There being a fleet of Federal vessels in the bay. Carr wrote, under a flag of truce, to the commandant, describing the condition of himself and another prisoner, and asking for some clothes. After some delay, a boat, under a flag, came off with a package containing a splendid suit of sailors' clothing for each man. The suit embraced every article preseribed by navy regulations. That the fit was not exact was not the fault of the donors. A letter accompanying the clothes, stated that the suits were the gift of the officers and men of the United States ship Pocahontas. Subsequently Carr's shoes were stolen by the guard, afterward his stockings, and finally his over- coat. He saved the remainder of his suit by sleeping in it.
After being in the guard-house five weeks, and being perfectly recovered, Carr was sent back to the stockade, and created an immense sensation on his entree with his fine clothes.
Dennis Bagley, of Company G, escaped from the stockade on the 15th of October. He took a wrong direction, and was seen by a negro, wading the river. The unusual circumstance was reported by the boy to his master, who informed some home guards, who followed and arrested Bagley as he was resting on a log. He was returned to the stockade the next day, ahnost before he was missed. Another opportunity offering on the night of the 16th of November, Bagley again went out with William Cook, of Company K of the Forty-sixth, and a member of the Thirty-fourth Indiana. They traveled east, and had good success until they came to the Sabine river, where they were seen and suspected. They were halted at Sibley's Bluff, where the three men arresting them went into a house. Bagley ran off and escaped. His comrades, unwill- ing to take the risk, were retained. But Bagley was fairly cap-
144
THIE FORTY-SIXTH INDIANA.
tured the next day at the fatal Lake Charles, where he was securely locked up in prison. After six days' confinement, he was taken toward Alexandria. When within forty miles of the city, a dance- was gotten up one evening at the camp fire by some Federal pris- oners, and Bagley and a member of a Missouri regiment, taking- advantage of the inattention of the guards, again slipped out .. The escaped men traveled rapidly all night, and were not over- taken. They kept on at nights, and, passing near Chinaville, came along the Red river road. At one place they came unex -- pectedly upon a negro in the woods. He knew what they were, but assured them that he would not expose them. After getting: them food, he got a horse and piloted them twelve miles. Subse- quently, when they heard chopping in the woods, the men would go directly to the negroes and obtain food and advice from them.
At Lake Charles, Bagley heard of Colonel Flory and his com -- panion. The officer who had met them had become convinced that he had been imposed on, and that the travelers were "the worst kind of Yankees." He was annoyed at his own stupidity.
The travelers crossed the numerous bayous on the road, and. finally struck the Atchafalaya. The great width of the stream for a time baffled them, but after much labor they got over. They were now within a day's march of the Mississippi river, and began, to be extremely anxious and fearful. On the east side of the. Atchafalaya, they stopped to get breakfast at a house on the road -- side. They passed for Confederate soldiers, and were invited to sit down to breakfast. The proprietor had been a heavy sufferer. from Federal soldiers, taking every horse he had, with much other- property. He waxed wroth in relating the outrages practiced. upon him by the Yankees. The fugitives became alarmed at his- vindictive utterances, and thought themselves discovered. The. breakfast they were eating was rapidly disposed of, and they were glad to find themselves again on the outside. There was no ques- tion but what the man knew what his visitors were, and was only .prevented from attacking them from prudential considerations .. The next day, December 16, brought the wanderers to Morganza,. where they were once more under the stars and stripes.
In August, some thirty men of the Forty-sixth escaped from the stoekade at Camp Groce. They scaled the walls one bright moonlight night unobserved, while a party of singers drew atten -- tion in another direction. After getting outside, the men sepa- rated into squads of two or four, and took different directions ..
145
EVANS AND BACOME.
One of the squads was made up of William Bacome and Thomas Smith Evans. They traveled hard during the night. After cross- ing the San Jacinto, they entered a wilderness country, in width from thirty to forty miles, and extending to the Sabine river, the eastern boundary of the State, a wild, uninhabited desert, abound- ing in marshes and jungles. On getting some forty miles into this wilderness, both men were taken sick. Their rations became exhausted, and after wandering about for some days, hunting a settlement or habitation, in vain, were obliged to stop from weak- ness. Evans became delirious from brain fever, and Bacome, from the effects of fever and ague, was rendered incapable of assisting him, or in any way alleviating his sufferings. In this deplorable condition, in the midst of a desert infested with wild animals, muttering around them by day and howling by night, with no hope, they looked for a horrible death. During the day, Bacome would roam over the wilderness, attempting to find even an unfriendly house, and return at night unsuccessful. Daylight would again find him on the same errand, to meet with the same disappoint- ment, and to pass a horrible night with his suffering and sinking companion. Four days he passed in this way, but found no signs of a habitation, or of a human being. Bacome chose to remain with his companion until he died, rather than seek his own safety by deserting him to the beasts that were about him. At last, Evans died, alone with his suffering and helpless but faithful friend, with the how) of the wolf the last sound that fell upon his ear.
Bacome dug a grave, as well as he could in his weak state, with sticks, and buried his comrade, and only then thought of his own safety. Almost exhausted, be nerved himself for a desper- ate effort to reach a habitation. After traveling a distance of twenty miles through canebrakes and swamps, alnost impenetra- ble forests, miles of fallen timber overgrown with briars, he was compelled to give himself up. He was kindly treated until he was sufficiently recovered to return to prison. Even rebel sympathies were enlisted by the story of his sufferings.
When Bacome returned to the stockade and related his sor- rowful experience, a gloom was cast over his comrades of the regi- ment, for both Evans and Bacome were much respected.
Bacome again escaped, in a few weeks, and was not heard of until March, when hearing that J. N. Mullins, a member of the Forty-sixth, was at Shreveport, on his way home, he sent him a line, stating that he was in prison at that place.
146
THE FORTY-SIXTH INDIANA.
In addition to the escapes already narrated, there were numer- ous others. Of these, but one, so far as known, was successful. Lawrence Hartlerode, who left Camp Groce on the night of the 4th, reached the Union lines on the 21st of September. He left the prison at a time when some forty escaped. They divided into small parties, but were retaken with the above exception, at various times and on different stages of the journey.
Of the Forty-sixth regiment, who were so unlucky, were Moses Tucker, Ellis Hughes, Alex. Reed, John Briggs, Theodore Taylor, George Oden, David Murphy, John T. Reece, Elihn Shaf- fer, George W. Nield, T. C. Jackson and Anthony A. Eskew. Tueker, Hughes, Briggs, Reed and Taylor went together on the night of the "big escape." Tucker gave up in two or three days, Briggs and Taylor were brought back in a short time, fol- lowed by Hughes and Reed. Oden, in company with two men from another regiment, got nearly to the Sabine, but, becoming sick, had to give up. They were taken to Houston and put in jail - again moved and put in jail, where he was when the prison- ers of the Forty-sixth left Camp Groce. He was subsequently paroled. Murphy, Reece and Jackson met with the usual ill luck, and one fine day found themselves back in Camp Groce. Nield and Eskew were lost sight of shortly after they escaped. Shaffer escaped with Hartlerode, and was with him several days ; they became separated, and Shaffer being sick, was obliged to give himself up. Jackson passed for a man of the Forty-sixth who was dead.
In April, 1864, an expedition of four transports and gunboats was sent from New Orleans up the Sabine Pass, into Calcasieu bay, for cotton, cattle, etc. There accompanied the fleet a squad of thirty-seven men, from the "non-veteran camp" at Algiers, under command of a lieutenant of the Thirtieth Maine. The fleet had arrived in the bay, and while two of the boats were below, the others, the "Wave" and the "Granite State," while lying without steam, and no proper watch, and with their guard on the ' opposite shore, were attacked at daybreak one morning by a force, with a battery, from Sabine City. The boats were not iron-clad and were exposed, helpless and unmanageable, to the rebels, con- cealed along the bank. After a short but sharp conflict, the two boats surrendered. The infantry on shore had taken no part in the contest, and might have, for the present at least, escaped, but through mismanagement on the part of the officer in command,
147
LIST OF PRISONERS.
they were captured. Among these prisoners were Maxwell Reece, R. V. McDowell, Hugh Quinn, Joshua T. Colvin, Philip M. Ben- jainin and Jacob Oliver, "non-veterans," of the Forty-sixth. The guard, with the officers and crews of the vessels, were taken to Sabine City, thence to Camp Groce, where they met the Red river delegation in August. The captured boats were hid away for a while in the Sabine river, but they afterwards engaged in the rebel service, and were subsequently destroyed. But little was said about this unfortunate affair, and no one was ever called to account for the disaster.
THE PRISONERS
OF the Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteers captured at the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, on April 8, 1864, were:
Lieutenant Colonel Aaron M. Flory, Captain William M. DeHart, Chaplain Hamilton Robb. 1
Sergeants: David Murphy, Corporals: Lewis Canter, John W. Castle,
William Bacome, George W. Nield,
Thomas S. Evans,
Ellis J. Hughes,
IIerman Hebner,
John Shaffer,
Moses McConnahay,
George Huffman,
Theodore Taylor, Jonathan Hiney,
Joseph H. Carr,
Jasper N. Mullins,
Bradley Porter,
Cyrus J. Peabody,
John A. Wilson.
D. C. Jenkins, Jesse Shamp, John VanMeter.
Privates: Levi Canter, John T. Reese, Joseph Davis, George W. Oden, Joshua P. Shields, George Lane, John Sheppard, Anthony A. Eskew, William HI. Small, John W. Briggs,
Privates: William Fahler, John W. Creason, J. R. Cunningham. William H. Grant, Benjamin F. Shelly, Anthony Babeno, Robert Lewis, James II. Gardner, Lewis Baer, Ilenry Itskin,
.
148
THE FORTY-SIXTH INDIANA.
Privates: James M. MeBeth,
Privates: Alexander Reid, Moses M. Tucker,
Charles T. Rider, John W. Welch,
James Coleman,
Jacob Yates,
Samuel Gable, John Meredith, Dennis Bagley,
Jacob Sell,
J. C. Chamberlin,
Jacob Guess,
William Hayward,
Allen White,
John B. Walden,
James Fisher,
Lawrence Hartlerode,
Daniel Garbison,
James Passons, John Hamilton,
George Sleh,
William Cook,
Samuel Johnson,
William Kreekbaum,
George W. Matthews,
Ambrose McVoke,
George Moore,
Elihu Shaffer,
Elmore Shelt.
John Stallard.
THE treatment of prisoners of war, by the rebels, is the foulest. blot on the pages of the brief history of the Confederate Govern- ment. Whatever may be claimed for the rebel soldiers for courage and manhood, the Southern prison pens will always rise up to brand with infamy those who stood guard over their starved and naked captives, and to expose to the contempt of the civilized world those in command in Richmond who directed the machinery at Saulsbury, Andersonville, Libby, the Texas-prison pens, and the many places of torture in the South, in creating and conducting the barbarous system under which Federal soldiers were destroyed. The uniformity in the conduet of rebel prisons proves that they had only one author and one purpose. The system was deliberately devised to destroy men who were captured in battle, and the pur- pose was most diligently and infamously carried out in each indi- vidual prison. Frequently complained to by the Federal authori- ties, Jefferson Davis and his colleagues could not be ignorant of the system, and, having full authority, those men should be held responsible.
THE VETERANS.
GENERAL, ORDER, No. 191, War Department, June 25, 1863, authorized the re-enlistment of three years' men who had already served two years, and awarded such a bounty of $400. This order was subsequently modified so that men being in the service nine
.
Amos Orput,
149
VETERANS AND NON-VETERANS.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.