USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The story of Camp Chase; a history of the prison and its cemetery, together with other cemeteries where Confederate prisoners are buried, etc > Part 21
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their posts and "All's well!" The officer of the day examined the wall with a lamp to see whether any Rebels had dared to saw or cut out, doubtless deeming it impossible to elude the vigilance of the sentinels on the wall.
A short rest and we started on our long journey, over fences and through fields, toward the west. We observed lights in all the houses we passed, which gave us some uneasiness, as it might be a system of signals to show that our escape had been dis- covered. We concluded, however, that in this cold climate it might be necessary to have fires all night. We had mapped out our course, and when we got to the Port Clinton road we took it. We found it much warmer in the woods. Two hours before day, foot-sore, chilled, and weary, we sought shelter in a straw . stack, but it had been wet and frozen. We went to a farmer's stable, and, groping in the dark, found bridles and two large, fat horses. This last condition was quite a consideration to men who expected to ride rapidly and bareback. While the. honest man slept and slumbered, each of his spirited animals bore away two Rebels. On they sped over the level country, passing farmhouses and woods. When many miles had fled behind us, just as streaks in the east ushered in another gray, cold morning. Captain McConnell stopped his horse and com- plained that he was freezing. Major Winston, who rode behind him, said, "I hope not." After going a little farther, McConnell repeated, "I am freezing," and fell from his horse, groaning like a dying man. Winston tried by chafing to revive him, but to no effect, as he had on too much clothing. We tied the bridles over the horses' necks and turned their heads homeward; from their eyes to the head was white with frozen breath. They were in a trot the last we saw of them. Poor McConnell was straight- ened up and pushed along until his frozen hinges got in working order again. Awhile before sunup we knocked at a door to warm and, if possible, breakfast. Mine host asked us in, and soon had the sheet-iron roaring. We passed ourselves off as land speculators walking over the country prospecting, but our jaded looks, and especially the dilapidated condition of our ap- parel, excited his curiosity. He "guessed" how we were doing this, and that and the other thing and a thousand things about which we were disposed not to be communicative. After such fatigue and exposure to cold, we would go to sleep in spite of ourselves. We gratified our friend's curiosity by' reliefs, as soldiers say. Bread, strong coffee, and fat bacon were soon pre- pared and dispatched. We left the little man standing in the door wondering why land speculators should be too mean to pay for breakfast. Don't, kind reader, indulge the same reflection. for, understand, three little gold dollars were to defray the ex- pense of four men three thousand miles.
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For fear of being overtaken, we shunned the highways. Pain- ful feelings stole over our minds when we reflected on balls and chains and dungeons, and possibly death, in case those irate guards should ever lay eyes on us again. Moreover, though horse-stealing may be punished by a long term in the Ohio peni- tentiary, yet the order of "Judge Lynch" is much more sum- mary. Especially would this be the case with prowling Rebels ; nor, we may presume, would our jurors be very inquisitive as to whether we had stolen the horse or a ride. The frost told badly on our ears, fingers, feet, and noses, though the skin did not peel off till we reached Canada. We heard large-oaks bursting about in the woods, I suppose from the moisture in the trees crystallizing.
In the evening of January 2 we stopped at an Irishman's for rest. His person constituted his family, and he was not disturbed at our tumbling and snoring around his hearth and on the bed. Awhile before sundown we wended our way to a troubled look- ing Dutchman's. We exhausted ourselves in endeavoring to talk his countenance smooth, so we might venture to ask for supper, but apparently to no effect. Finally we asked: "Well, sir, can we get supper?" He replied, "I'll ask my woman," and ad- dressed a question in his knotty idiom to her, who was ironing at the other side of the room. We had observed that her face seemed to be the counterpart of her lord's-his was troubled, hers the troubler. This parody on the gentler sex growled in tones of distant thunder, "Nix!" The poor husband cowed back to the fire, and informed us that it was not possible to get supper that night. We often afterwards thought of the poor Dutch- man in the woods. We left him to the tender companionship of his wife, and pursued our footpath through woods, over marshy country. At ten o'clock we stopped to warm in a village. The people were stirring about, dropping in and going out; we spurred our drooping spirits to appear lively, too. We were not land speculators this time, but wood choppers going to the pineries in Michigan. Our appearance bore out our calling. After sitting and talking awhile, a soldier came in and joined the conversation. We thought our time had come, but tried to betray no uneasiness; but we expected every moment to see a squad of soldiers file in. To our great relief, the soldier proved to be on a furlough. The cold weather was the general topic. We carelessly observed that those Rebs of Johnson's Island must be enjoying the cool lake breeze. From their comments we concluded that they had heard nothing of our escape. We journeyed on, and a little after midnight Captain McConnell stopped at a house to get some soda for the heartburn. Several hours he continued to grow worse; before sunrise he gave out
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and begged to be left at the next house. We placed him on the doorstep and gave him one-fourth of our money, and with much sorrow parted, requesting him not to knock at the door till we were out of sight. Since the war we learn that he recovered in a day or so, and went to the next depot and traded off his watch for a ticket for Detroit. While on the cars he saw a man eying him suspiciously, and determined to leave the train when it stopped again. As he did so the detective patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let's go back to Johnson's Island." Of course he had to comply.
Our party, now reduced to three, stopped for breakfast at a house half a mile beyond the next village. We had traveled twenty-four hours on one breakfast, and would not be hard to satisfy ; but the prospect did look a little discouraging when we saw that the landlord and lady and nine children all slept and ate in one room, "with no visible means of support." However, the brisk woman raised the lid of a box in the corner, and was not long in setting before us corn bread, fat bacon, and gravy. We divided our mites with him-I forget in what proportion, but he seemed satisfied. We followed the railroad all that day, January 3.
Near night we called at a hut where lived an old Irishman and his little grandson. To a request, the old man replied that he could not accommodate us that night with either bed or bread. A view of his surroundings had almost brought us to the same conclusion ; but we were so tired and hungry, and, moreover, it ap- peared to be a safe retreat, so we asked almost against hope for entertainment. At every settlement shelter was sought. The houses were generally occupied by Germans, who from their bad English we thought had been but a short time in this country. They seemed easily frightened. We knocked at the door, where light and human voices gave some hope that rest might at least be found. They became silent. After listening awhile at the pounding on the door, an inmate ventured to inquire, . "Vocht dat?" To our importunity for lodging they sternly replied. "Nix." Some way farther on we sat beside the road to rest in the deep forest. The old oaks, whose giant arms must have defied the storms of centuries, groaned in the cold night winds. We sat and shivered and thought of the loved ones far away in the Sunny South. Extreme exhaustion and feverishness caused shapeless images to flit through our minds. The glands in our groins had swollen nearly to the size of a hen's egg. We had been in motion almost continuously forty-eight hours, and except an hour the first evening, our eyes had not closed in sleep for sixty hours. Toward midnight one of our party asked admit- tance to a house larger than common on the road. To our great
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relief, the door was opened and we were invited to the fire. A few questions convinced us that we were in the hands of a "down-Easter." He seemed to suspect something; asked where we were from. "New Bedford, Mass.," replied Captain Robin- son. "Ah! that's my old home," and he began by naming dif- ferent residents of that old place to try Captain R. But the Captain, who had been many years in the whaling service, and of course had at least visited New Bedford, was posted. He soon lighted us upstairs to bed. All three huddled together. We retired quite uneasy, for might not this man have heard by telegraph of our escape, and early next morning cause our arrest ? After a few hours' sleep we slipped into our clothes and, passing down through his room, gave him to understand that it would be quite agreeable to share his hospitality longer, but we must reach Toledo in time for the up train. We knew he was then not prepared to follow us, and would make arrangements to overhaul us at the depot if he attempted anything. We crossed the river into Toledo about daylight, and were in time to join the early workmen going to their places of labor.
After leaving the city we abandoned the railroad and bore away to the lake shore road. Some long-legged boys were skat- ing down the old canal; the ease, the grace, and the rapidity of their movements appeared to be caused by the wind. We re- marked to each other that if we could adopt that mode of travel as skillfully as those boys we would not fear pursuit. At noon our treasurer, Captain Davis, purchased some cheese and crack- ers at a country store, the first food we had eaten, I think, for thirty hours.
That night, January 4, we passed through Monroe, during a snowstorm. and met people coming from church. We had walked a long day's journey, but it was ten o'clock before we could find a hospitable roof. This was a French-Canadian, who had moved to Michigan a short time previously. We tumbled all three together on a pallet and were very soon asleep; had no supper, and left early next morning before breakfast. After going about a mile Captain Robinson discovered that he had left his pocketbook, probably on the pallet. It contained papers which showed that he was an officer in the Confederate army. Major Winston went back to the house and the good woman handed him the pocketbook, apparently unopened. Davis and Winston had left all their papers in prison, and were provoked that Robinson had not done the same.
We led people to believe that Detroit was our home. We met an officer going to a depot which we had just passed. and we continued the Detroit road until he was out of sight ; we then turned to the right, fifteen miles from that city, and made for
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Trenton, a village on the Detroit River near its entrance into Lake Erie. About noon we stopped at a house for something to eat; the person we saw was a woman, who invited us in to seats. I must stop to remark that we all observed to each other that she wore the sweetest expression we had almost ever seen. She was not pretty, nearly middle-aged, and rather pale; but she had evidently gone through enough of this world's trials in some form to mellow her soul. Her conversation evinced the same. She gave us a piece of light bread half as large as a man's head and a good portion of butter. We sat on a log on the roadside and enjoyed our lunch very much, as we had not eaten anything since the cheese and bread twenty-four hours before.
Two miles from Trenton we stepped into an old man's house, ostensibly to warm, but really to make inquiries concerning the crossing of the river. The old gentleman said eighty winters had passed his head, but he had never seen such a cold snap before. We changed our brogue to the nasal twang of New England ; but not effectually, as he nearly threw us off our guard by asking, "Are you not from the South?" Captain Davis quick- ly gave some Eastern town as our home. He replied: "You talk like Southerners." After eliciting what information we could without raising suspicion, we resumed our weary journey. We were delighted to find on the snow a half biscuit, dropped, as we supposed, by children from Trenton school. This was divided, as our appetites were quite keen. We soon picked up, in this way, quite a little sack. Just at dark we entered Trenton, passed down a street, and jumped on the ice. A man watering his horse through the ice seemed astonished at our haste, but said nothing. The ice at first seemed smooth as glass. Captain Robinson was so stunned by a fall that he scarcely recovered that night. We took it to be one mile across to Fighting Island, and two miles across the channel of the river. Briers and marshes made our progress on the island quite slow. We passed one or two dwellings, but were not disposed to stop, as we felt that our troubles were almost ended.
On the ice again, and now for Canada! After going about a mile the ice became exceedingly troublesome. A storm a day or two before had broken and blown it about in waves. We clam- bered over the broken blocks, slipping and sliding at every pull. Major Winston felt the ice giving away and remarked that we were nearing an air hole, and as he turned one foot broke through. Captain Robinson endeavored to get back, but both feet broke through, and he barely saved himself by leaning over on firm ice. Davis and Winston kneeled over and pulled him out; almost instantly his trousers were frozen stiff. This treacherous hole had well-nigh cut short our earthly pilgrimage.
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Had we gone under, the current would have washed us under the firm ice. The dark water in these places had before marked such contrast with the snow.
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Our situation was a critical one in the extreme. We would not return to the United States side and be captured; a step farther was fate; to remain in the sweeping northern wind equally fatal. Our only chance was to feel our way around this dangerous place. To avoid turning back in our confusion, Davis placed himself about ten feet in advance of the others, and under their direction made toward the north star. Poor Captain Rob- inson was so worn out and stunned by his fall that he threw his arm over Winston's shoulder, who bore him on. When we felt that we could not dispense with our beacon, clouds suddenly shut out every star. Just then a light immediately before us in Canada rekindled our hopes. Davis said: "If we ever get there, I will kiss the ground." Near the shore another airhole obstructed our way. We concluded, after going up and down the beach trying for firm ice till we grew desperate, to run across one at a time; and if one broke in, the others could save him. The ice did not let us in, but cracked. We were safe!
A few steps drew us to the door of a pleasant woman, a Mrs. Warrior, half French and half Indian. She was glad to see us, gave us some pies-all she had cooked-and laid a pallet for us before the fire and near a large stove, both of which were kept roaring all night. The reader can somewhat appreciate our feelings of relief when he recollects that this was ten o'clock of the 5th of January, four days and four nights to an hour since we left the prison. In these four days and four nights we had eaten two regular meals and three snacks, counting the biscuit in the snow. Above all, we were safe under the protection of the British flag.
. We rose the next morning stiff but refreshed. Young War- rior and our party walked on the beach before breakfast. Cap- tain Davis, pointing in the direction of our previous night's path over the broken ice, remarked: "That was a bad place for people to cross." Warrior remarked : "People never cross there.' When we beheld the broken ice and contemplated the ship channel slightly covered with treacherous spray, we shuddered. I suppose that any soldier who spent four years in active service can refer to scenes of thrilling interest, but I am ready to declare that this night's trials on the ice were the severest of my expe- rience. In the battle we are generally in action ; there is enthu- siasm and sometimes exhilaration. But now the warmth of our very nature was chilled. No sight or sound cheered us. dark clouds obscured the stars, and all was deathlike stillness save the whisking of the freezing winds among the sharply broken ice.
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At breakfast we were informed that some refugee Kentuckians resided near Malden, one mile down the river. Captain Robin- son's and Davis's feet being sore from frost, Major Winston visited these people to get some information from them. They occupied a large brick building, and were three or four in num- .ber, strong, hale-looking young men, and apparently men of wealth, but the meanest Union and Confederate soldiers they met on the fields of Chickamauga or Gettysburg were too good to speak to the craven spirits who were forward in proclaiming their love of a country whose liberties they were too cowardly to defend. They were gloomy birds, croaking over the prospects for Confederate people in Canada, and remarked that they would have remained on Johnson's Island. Maj. Winston indignantly returned to his companions. The good widow had two horses . hitched to a sleigh to take us to Windsor, thirteen miles up the river, without charge; and well so, for we had nothing with which to remunerate her. The trip was delightful to wearied pedestrians, gliding over the snow, and a good portion of the way on the river itself. We found Mr. Hiron, to whose hotel we had been recommended, a fat, chuffy Englishman, his appear- ance bearing marks of good living and his countenance of a good man. We honestly told him of our situation ; the Federal armies between us and our homes; we had no money, and the prospects of getting any very gloomy ; but we assured him, under the cir- cumstances, that if he could take us for some days we would work (laborers there earning good wages) and repay him if we failed in getting means otherwise. He seemed to be touched with our story, and made us welcome to his house during our pleasure. We were much surprised and pleased to find the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, then in exile, stopping at the same house. He invited us to his room several times, and drank toasts to our distressed South. He said that he hoped the war might soon end and peace make us all happy again, etc. One of our party went a little fartlier and proposed "General Lee and the success of the Southern arms." He shook his head and put down his glass, saying, "No, no! in that event the Union is gone forever." and in the strains of the most touching eloquence gave his trials in his struggling for the Union as our fathers left it to us. He wanted fraternal feelings restored, but said that war was not calculated to do it. He was afraid of the means; the same sword that conquers the South might subjugate the North as well. "For this cause," he exclaimed, "I am here to-day, an exile from home, family, country." That man a traitor ?
Major Winston wrote to a merchant in New York requesting a check for two hundred dollars. He promptly replied that he did not know or care to know how he got to Canada; he was
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only too glad to serve a kinsman of his old friend in North Carolina, with whom, in former days, he had large dealings. Major Winston received the check in a few days, and went five hundred miles, to Montreal, to solicit means among other friends, refugees and Canadian sympathizers in that city, to bring the rest .. of our party that far on their way to the South. He arrived at the Donegaba House, in Montreal, a little before day, and regis- tered from North Carolina, retired to sleep, but before break- fast received several visitors, and preparations for sending for his comrades were soon made, and they, together with some of General Morgan's scattered command, arrived next morning. We remained in the city about ten days, and probably in all that time did not dine or take tea at our hotel more than twice, being invited out. People were exceedingly kind. When the time for our departure came, ladies and gentlemen went with us to the depot and gave us a purse of thirteen hundred and fifty dollars in gold. On our way down the St. Lawrence we stopped over a day at Point Levi, opposite Quebec, to visit the fortifications of Quebec. They appeared indeed to be the Gibraltar of America. We went one hundred and ninety miles farther down the river, to Riviere du Loup, all the way from Montreal by rail, as the river was frozen. At the Riviere du Loup we started on a long journey around Maine, through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to Halifax-five hundred miles. This part of our trip we traveled on sleighs. We went by Little Grand Falls down the St. John River, many miles on the ice, to St. John's City. In our eagerness to get home we remained in Halifax only long enough to witness the opening of Parliament, and to be honored with a dinner at the rooms of some club. We tock passage on Her Majesty's mail steamer the Alpha to St. George's, Bermuda. As we sailed out of the port the face of the earth was white with the thick covering of snow. A few days and nights, and we were winding our way among the hills and the cliffs into the lrarbor of St. George's. Here early spring greeted us in all her loveliness ; children were picnicking on the greensward, and lambs and calves nibbling about on the grassy hills.
In a day or two the North Carolina blockade runner, the Advance, was signaled. Here, she comes bounding over the bil- lows, bearing aloft the beautiful banner of the South-the white flag of peace, if we could ; but if not, the fiery cross in the corner was for a sign that we were not afraid of war. The steamer made a short stay, and then we were on our journey again. We saw many ships and steamers, but we were quite shy of them until we could see that they were not armed. Indeed, there was but one feeling that detracted from the pleasure of this trip: we felt that we had stolen something. But, fortunately, we did not
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fall in with any of the ironclads till we got in the network of the blockaders; and it was dark then-just before day. Our good and faithful steamer glided slowly among them, tacking this way and that. At one time she stopped and backed out of an en- counter with a grim old warship, apparently asleep, not many waves ahead. Just as the day began to dawn the captain said, "Let her slide!" She moved on up the bay at the rate of ten knots. We were safe. Not vet! We strike on a sand bar with- in the easy range of a blockading squadron. Every effort to get off was unavailing. We signaled distress to Fort Fisher. News was flashed to Wilmington that the Advance must be captured or sunk when it grew a little lighter. The lifeboat began to drop into the water, carrying the escaped prisoners to shore. Just then the steamer floated off and, going around the sand bar, made for Fort Fisher. Now we are safe.
The three points, as speakers say, of my narrative were scaling the walls, crossing the Detroit River, and running the blockade at Wilmington; but the greatest of the three was the crossing of the river.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PLAIN LIVING AT JOHNSON'S ISLAND.
The Story of Lieutenant Cunningham-Eighteen Months a Prisoner at Johnson's Island -- An Interesting Story Cleverly Told-The Lights and Shades of Prison Life-Pierson's Ten Commandments-Nothing in the. Lord's Prayer to Cover the Emergency-Getting Home at Last-A. Hugging Match.
THE following story is told by Lieutenant Cunningham, and ap- peared in the Century Magazine:
In giving my experience as a prisoner of war for eighteen months, sixteen of which were spent in the military prison on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, I shall confine myself strictly to an individual experience, or to such events as came under my immediate observation. As I kept no diary during my impris- onment, I must necessarily trust entirely to my memory, giving such facts as are indelibly impressed there and which are sus- ceptible of proof. When the least doubt as to the correctness of a statement has arisen in my mind. I have omitted it entirely. I shall endeavor to tell my story fairly and truthfully, without comment or criticism, assisted by the feeling that a quarter of a century has removed all vestige of bitterness.
I enlisted from St. Helena Parish, La., in a company com- manded by Capt. James H. Wingfield, which on its arrival in New Orleans was assigned to the Fourth Louisiana Regiment. com- manded by Col. Henry W. Allen, afterwards brigadier general and later Governor of Louisiana. He died self-exiled in the City of Mexico. During the first year of service our regiment was dis- tributed along the Mississippi Sound, and we despaired of active participation, fearing that the war would close Before we could contribute our share toward a successful result : but this idea was dispelled at Shiloli. There were several firmly rooted ideas. rudely shaken up before we got through.
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