USA > Pennsylvania > History of a cavalry company. A complete record of Company "A," 4th Penn'a cavalry, as identified with that regiment in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, during the late civil war > Part 8
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would come up and kick them, and call them by in- sulting names. Such were the diabolical means re- sorted to, seemingly to murder these prisoners, one by one, by the most heart-rending and prolonged tortures. What fearful sacrifices for the preserva- tion of the Union were made ! and how that dear- bought boon should be cherished and prized by all coming generations !
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CHAPTER XIV.
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PLANS OF ESCAPE.
I MYSELF got into a slight difficulty on one oc- casion, which came near to aggravating my suf- ferings. I made a slight remark one day, while some rebel soldiers were standing outside, on the pavement, near the front window. Our rations of meat had been sent in, and were being divided. My piece, as usual, did not amount to much more than the size of a walnut, and even this amount of meat, during my five weeks' imprisonment, I do not think we had four times. On this occasion, while dividing the flesh on the window sill, I held up a piece to a rebel soldier, and asked him what he thought of that for a man's weekly rations. He at once called me a "d-d Yankee s-n of a b-h !" and said, "It is good enough for you!" Growing then a little ashamed, he said still further, "It is as much as we get ourselves !" I told him that I did not be- lieve it, when he asked me if I meant to call him a 1-r. I told him that he could take it just as he pleased, whereupon he picked up a piece of brick, and, dashing it through the window between the bars,
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struck me on the forehead. I was then quickly dragged back by some of my companions. A few moments after, a guard came in, under a corporal, hunting me out. They found me to be wounded, besides the recent contusion from the brick-bat, and the corporal, being rather more humane than any of the other guards that I had met, overlooked my heinous offence, and allowed me to go, with a smart reprimand. My companions dressed my wound, from time to time, tearing the lining out of their jacket sleeves to make bandages for my head. With no other treatment, whatever, but this and the ap- plication of cold water, I grew rapidly convalescent.
Becoming impatient at such horrible durance vile, I naturally, along with others, meditated escape. Many plans were conceived, canvassed on all sides, and finally abandoned as impracticable, after a mature deliberation. The prisoners, who had here- tofore attempted to release themselves, and who were caught in the act, were still more closely con- fined, in such places as Castle Thunder, and the more secure dungeons of similar imprisonment. They were even punished severely in addition. Some in fact suffered death, through actual castigation, for nothing more than endeavoring to release themselves from these prison horrors. Several in our own jail had in various ways attempted to escape, but none had as yet succeeded-every one having been checked in the act, or at any rate re-arrested. One man, in an upper story of our building, had made the attempt during night, and had succeeded in pressing through the
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window, and hanging on by one of the iron bars, just ready to let himself drop to the pavement below, when the guard outside of the prison discovered him and fired, shooting him dead while he hung by his hands.
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We grew accustomed to the night duties of the guard, whose familiar call of the hour, and "all is well !" from post to post, became very common to us. "All is well !" What a sarcasm on hundreds of poor wretches, who were hourly dying, inch by inch, through privation, disease, and untold horrors ! " All is well !" Yes, all was well, but only to those poor souls, who escaped the sufferings and terrors of a living death, by yielding up their lives, and fall- ing calmly asleep in the embrace of a victorious love. "All is well!" Ay! but not in the sense these brutal men intended, but in the sense that for a Union preserved, a nation reclaimed, a liberty re- vived and invigorated, and a freedom forever firmly established, even all these tortures, and groans, and tears, were not too costly a sacrifice. You would hear the cry of "all is well," sounded regularly all along, no sooner having been called afar off, than it seemed to resume the round.
Every plan for escape having been abandoned, as heretofore, only made us the more desperate in our efforts to effect, a deliverance from our sorrows. Every night now, deaths, gradually increasing in numbers, began to occur among our men. We knew, too well, the fate of the bodies. They were dragged to the rebel dead house, stripped entirely
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nakedl, and left there until a cart-load accumulated, when they were carried to Potter's Fields, in the vicinity of the city, and buried, stranger and friend, in one common sepulchre. Obliged to carry our own rations, such as we received, every day to the prison, we occasionally got a fresh breath of the out- side air in the city. A detail of 40 or 50 was gen- erally made from among the prisoners every day, who, with an old piece of blanket, or anything that they could pick up, would proceed under a rebel es- cort to the Bake House or Commissary on 19th Street, where the rations were issued, and where they were thrown into blankets, and conveyed by this detail back again to the prison to be divided. The dead house was adjacent to the Commissary De- partment. Thus, we passed the ghastly charnel of our dead comrades every day, and glanced at it with drooping heads, heavy hearts, and sorrow-laden sighs, in gloomy forebodings of our own imminent doom. We were convinced that ere long our own wretched and cmaciated bodies would be num- bered among its corpses. As regards, my wound, however, beginning to convalesce about this time, I requested to be detailed to go after rations with the others. Heretofore I had not been called upon, on account of my wounds, but as all the prisoners were anxious to be on this detail, and as it was con- sidered a mark of favor if the Sergeant would make the detail, I endeavored to share the honor! I, being naturally a subject for whatever little sympa- thy existed there, when I made the request, it went
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in under favorable auspices. My coveted favor was granted. Every day I was permitted to go on this duty. Luckily for this detail, I now began to en- tertain brighter hopes of effecting my escape. The subject was ever present to my mind, both at night in dreams, and during the day in fertile plans of operation. I discovered by conversing occasionally with a more affable rebel, and especially the corporal in question, who had spared me once before, that the so-called Confederate soldiery, who were encamped in the vicinity of Richmond, did not require any passes in order to visit the city They required no written authority of any description, other than the mere favor of a granted request to be absent from their commands.
In walking by a certain residence on Main street, being a shoemaker's house with a shop adjacent, I frequently noticed what I considered to be sympa- thizing looks from some of the ladies, who generally stood in the door-way, while we passed to and fro. I took a notion to appeal to their sympathies. Ac- cordingly I wrote on a little scrap of paper, an in- quiry, in effect, that as we were passing by, if I could suddenly dart into the house and not be observed by any of the guard, if they would assist me in any way, to try to conceal me until night, and aid me in making my escape. If they consented, a given sig- nal was concluded on. The next day, in pass- ing there, having prepared the note, I threw it into the door-way, and looking round saw it picked up. On my return I watched for the signal, but was dis-
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appointed. It was not honored with favor. They afterwards handed me occasionally a little piece of soap, and other slight gifts, but I could obtain no more favorable demonstrations. The great risk to their own personal safety, was apparently the reason which controlled them. Finding I could not accom- plish anything in this way, I determined to endeavor to effect my escape directly on the street, while in ranks. I proposed my plan to all of my own companions, the whole thirteen members of my particular compa- ny separately, but none of them thought it feasible. They were afraid of the after consequences which might result from a failure. Besides this they were lulled and lured on by continual promises, which were being held out, that we would soon be paroled .or exchanged. Many had faith in these promises. But how cruelly were they disappointed! They al- most all to a man, eventually perished, after twenty months of indescribable suffering and misery. They endured the agonies of the lost in pandemonium, their worst wretchedness having been experienced afterwards at Andersonville, where the most of them yielded one by one to the unbearable burden of grief and pain, and where their remains now repose. Canvassing among the prisoners for some daring and enterprising spirit, I at last struck upon the right man. I did not care to have more than one com- panion in the perilous undertaking, because in such an episode of war, as in matters of love, two are company and more is not. I finally found my man in Corporal Alexander Welton, of whom I spoke
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heretofore as having been severely wounded at Mid- dleburg, by a sabre gash. I found him eager to make the attempt with me, and knowing him to be discreet, and just as brave as prudent, I took him into my confidence at once, and together we matured the plan by which we finally made good our escape. We each succeeded in securing a rebel cap, and I already had an old tattered grey jacket, as had also a great many of our prisoners, some of them having traded off their good clothing for a Confederate jacket or cap, in consideration of a little piece of bread, or something to boot. As a consequence, it was not unusual to see the prisoners, as detailed, going for their rations, looking of the same ilk with their guard. Generally having worn a bandage around my head, I could the more effectually disguise my- self, by removing it and substituting a rebel cap quickly on the street, than by any other means. Having matured our plans at last, and feeling ready to risk the effort, we both got detailed together on one day. Taking our positions about the centre of the column, as it moved out of prison, and up the street in a file of two abreast, we each had a piece of blanket around our shoulders, with our rebel caps under our arms. The column, as it moved out Main street, was protected as follows :- onerebel guard in advance of the column, one in the rear, and the corporal generally somewhere in the centre, but sometimes in advance, which fortunately for us was the case this very day. When we had entered the ranks, and the column had started in motion, we told
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the parties in our rear to immediately close the gap in case we stepped out at any point, and also to quick- ly take the blankets off our hands. The point de- cided on for the venture, we were now rapidly nearing, and our hearts beat with loud, spasmodic pulsations of nervousness. When we reached the corner of Nineteenth street, as the head of the column turned to march up that thoroughfare, we were in stern and desperate readiness.
Just as the centre got round, so that the guard in the rear could not see us, leaving the ranks quickly -the corporal and the other guard still in advance, and not looking round-we suddenly slipped off our blankets, handed them to the prisoners directly in the rear of us, donned our Confederate caps, started directly down Main street again, and passed the rebel guard in the rear very nervously, whistling the Bonnie Blue Flag, and trying to assume rebel airs. The guard luckily did not notice us, but there were numerous soldiers passing along the pavements. What we were principally afraid of, was, that people on the opposite sides of the streets might have wit- nessed the movement. We walked hastily on our way, trembling like aspen leaves, or as if afflicted with a tertian ague. Quickening our pace, so as to turn round a corner, we finally and luckily accom- plished this feat unobserved by any one, or if seen, we were not informed on in time. So much had been already achieved, that we felt like shouting with the sense of such sweet and sudden freedom. But we were still in the Capital of Treason, and in
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the midst of most fearful dangers. The prison, not being far from the corner of the street where we had executed this dexterous and lucky flank move- ment, and no streets intervening, we were compelled to pass its foreboding walls again-under imminent peril of being recognized there by the guards, or of being thoughtlessly hailed by some of our own friends inside, who, not aware of our contemplated attempt, might inadvertently draw attention to us. Fortu- nately, however, we were noticed by no one, and passed on down Main street, turning a corner and proceeding to the river as rapidly as practicable. We soon found ourselves in the vicinity of the navy- yard, at 12 o'clock, on the 16th of November, 1863. Partially secure now, we appreciated the dangers we had passed, and the success thus far achieved. It
was like emerging from darkness into light again ; like an unexpected withdrawal from the jaws of death ; an offer of reprieve to the innocent condemned, whose neck already feels the noose, and whose sink- ing heart momentarily expects the fatal signal. Wc hardly dared trust ourselves to speak to each other. We were distrustful of every body and every thing. The wonder is that our nervous and restless solici- tude did not betray us into the very dreaded re-cap- ture. Having been, however, almost similarly situ- ated heretofore on scouting duty within the enemy's lines, we gradually tempered down from the undue excitement which had agitated us, and felt more con- fleat. I became again, to some extent, at home in these dangers, and soon perfectly regained my
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composure. I was a little sure of being equal to the task of eventually removing ourselves from the enemy's lines, and of re-entering our own. It was necessary first to secure as much information as possi- ble. We skulked around the navy-yard quite a while, and discovered there that two heavy vessels were under way-one of them being plated with railroad iron. Picking up all the intelligence we could, or considered of any possible value, we began to make our way towards the suburbs of the city. All our hunger we now forgot in our desperate endeavors to escape the surrounding dangers. Being posted, as I stated before, on our chances of passing out by as- suming rebel habits, and knowing that no passes or papers were necessary to reach the encampments outside the city, we started for this point confidently,
- and reached it without molestation. We sauntered directly through the rebel camps, saluted officers, and even accosted rebels that we met on the street. Sa- luting and passing the guard on duty, we would make some very common remark, such as " It's about time we were back in camp ! We will get extra duty or the guard-house ! We ought to have been back by noon !" In this way we allayed any possible suspi- cions that might have arisen. We proceeded until we began to emerge from the camps, in the vicinity of the suburbs of the city. We scarcely spoke except as stated, to each other until we struck a little ravine, about five miles from the town limits.
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CHAPTER XV.
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AWAITING DARKNESS.
H ERE we seated, and secluded ourselves behind some piles of cord wood. We then for the first time ventured to open our hearts to each other, and to congratulate ourselves on the success, thus far, of the perilous undertaking. We both came to the conclusion here, that the best thing we could do was, to approach as nearly as possible to the more outside or advanced lines of the city, and remain there until night-fall, running our chances of passing through them after dark. Totally in ig- norance, however, of where the lines were located, we felt loth to proceed any further, and in fact were a little cowardly about again displaying ourselves in public. We finally resolved on making the effort, and effecting progress while we could. We deter- mined to face whatever dangers were in store for us, and so emerged from our secure nook in the wood pile, and proceeded on our way. No one was in view, and no camps were in close proximity to us at the time. On the road, shortly afterwards, we espied a negro coming, with an old horse and a cart-load of
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wood. I proposed to Welton, that we should inter- rogate him with reference to the army lines of the country, and where the road led that we were travel- ing. Ile objected for prudential reasons. I then told him to proceed at his leisure, and that I would risk the consequences myself, of stopping the colored man, and making the necessary inquiries. This I accordingly did. Assuming him to be a rebel in sympathy, I asked him where our lines were. I told him that we had been in Richmond on a spree for the past few days, and did not know now, just where the lines were posted. I made the most presentable excuse possible for asking the questions. I gradually drew him out, and found that we were on the direct route to Harrison's Landing, where the enemy's ad- vanced lines or cavalry outposts were located. After asking a few leading questions, the old colored indi- vidual turned his eyes suddenly down upon me, with a sort of quizzical gaze, and a slight twinkle of humor, saying, with some seriousness, however, "Well, by Golly ! you all is not rebel sojers !" Surprised at his acuteness, I remarked firmly, " Oh, yes ! you are mistaken !" "No !" says he, looking at me with deep earnestness. " You'se either prisoners escaping, or you'se Yankee scouts ! ! " "But," continued he, "if you is, you must not be afraid of dis here darkey, I kin tell you ! I would not tell on you for all dat de city dar of Richmond am worth !" at the same time raising his hand in evilent sincerity, and pointing where the tall, sharp spires were yet gleaming in the sunset. He spoke so honestly, and his voice was
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cadenced by emotions which welled forth so sym- pathetically from his heart that, I at once con- fided in him, and made a clean breast of it, telling him who and what we were, and trusting to his friendliness. Ile gave me all the information he could, and almost all that we could desire-far more than I had expected. He told us that the whole population along the road that we were traveling were leagued together in a sort of detective system, to not only discover escaping prisoners and spies, but their own deserters, and to arrest all persons found loitering or passing in that vicinity, day or night. We were now outside of the free limits. He accord- ingly advised us to secrete ourselves, somewhere, without delay, and to wait until night-fall, proceed- ing then very cautiously, and allowing nobody to take us, soldier or citizen. He advised us to hold no con- versation with any white man, but that we need not be afraid of any of the colored people anywhere, as they were all devoted and reliable friends, and would help us and do anything they could for our benefit. He felt sure that they would aid us, to the utmost extent of their ability, if we could only satisfy them who and what we were. After giving all the infor- mation he could, and promising to maintain the strictest silence, we parted, myself with feelings of gratitude that cannot be described at thus finding, amid deadly foes, a warm and reliable friend. Iwill never forget the occasion, the scene, the incident. Ilere was a bleak and barren stretch of country, a city teeming with treason and sorrow close at hand, a
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dusky twilight tinging the clouds and making objects softly visible about us, and before our peering eyes hundreds of miles, beset with a multitude of dangers. There is no friendship so sweet as that which we find when the heart has been made heavy and desolate by long-continued suffering, when the smile, that once flashed upon the features, has gradu- ally flickered and faded from time to time, until it has disappeared in sodden sternness and grief, seem- ingly forever. The pulsations of pleasure and delight, on such an occasion, are unable to make their way above the steady flow of sorrow, and joy is too apt to sparkle in the hot tear-drops, or the tremulous sigh. We will never forget the simple, touching testimony of sincerity, which the old negro gave, even after we had parted with him, and the old horse was trudging along the dusty road, toward the rebel city. Turning around and raising his hand above his head, with the fingers open, he reassured us of his friendship : " God bress you, massa !" said he, "I would not tell on you, for all dat de city am worth, no, not if dey would cut me to pieces ! ! " The voice was singularly mellow and sympathetic, and I left him without a shadow of mistrust. He knew he had just done an act which, in tendency, redounded to the benefit of his own race, for even the ignorant colored man already knew, that above all the carnage of war, above all the din and turmoil of battle, the sorrows, dangers, toils, and privations it entailed, there shone the form and fea- tures of a mercy and justice, to which they had been as yet strangers, but to which they were, providen-
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tially, being led, with the fetters and shackles broken at their feet, and their faces dried of accustomed yet unavailing tears.
Parting with my colored friend, I proceeded on my way, and soon overtook Welton. We concluded to desist from further risks until night-fall. Accord- ingly, we concealed ourselves in a little underbrush on the road-side, until it became quite dark. The skies had by this time suddenly darkened, the winds had freshened, and a storm began to set in, by sheets of soft and whirling mist at first, and then by torrents of rain. Such a night as that of the 16th of Novem- ber! Such a morning as that of Sabbath, the 17th ! I shall never forget them.
Darkness setting in early, the rain came down at first in cold and misty whirls, the perspective of the landscape disappearing in grey veils of vaporous rain. The winds freshening and the skies blacken- ing, torrents began to pour down from the clouds, dashing against us at the caprices of the sharp, chill breezes, and converting the road into muddy pools, soft mire, and streams of madly rushing water. I never before saw such profuse and steady showers, nor heard such terrific peals of thunder, as even then, in a late, cold November night shook the very heav- ens, and awoke the dismal echoes of the surrounding country. The woods were grappled by fierce storm- gales, which, struggling and groaning together in the sheets of rain, the almost cataracts of water, let fall ever and anon, some mighty branch, or towering pine, to crush and splinter on the aisles below. Oe-
war th
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casionally a solitary crow, disturbed in his perch, flew up, and after making sundry sharp, and sudden gyratory movements in the air, would descend straightway to almost the very limb he had just va- cated. At last all was pitchy darkness, save now and then, when the lurid lightnings zigzagged in the clouds, and cast a bright, transient lustre on the fields and forests.
Onward we sped together, through all this driving storm, impelled by the very love of life itself, and the very dread of a disgraceful death. Welton grasped my wrist, and, both drenched in the rain- torrents, we hurried along with drooping heads, yet with faintly hopeful hearts. O, the doubts that came to depress us, from time to time, but which we dispersed by manly determination! O, the dark despair, that came on the wings of the night-wind, and moaned in our ears, and moaningly called to us again from behind every straggling fence, and soli- tary tree, in the neighboring fields ! O, the swift, far-reaching flights of memory into the past-the delightful past, the happy hours of sunny affections and of calm contents ! O, the dismal forebodings, the rapid canvassing of dangers, the marshalling of chances, the fertile evolution of plan after plan, over which hope would occasionally flash, vividly, like the lightning, but fade as suddenly into darkness and almost despair. Hand in hand we vet sped on, our minds intent on thought, and our tongues speech- less. Not a word even was scarcely exchanged, and in this way the entire night went by, our feet weary
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and sore, having crossed leagues of storm and dark- ness, since the sun last set, and our feelings having traversed as far toward a final faith in security and success. With all its terrors, such a storm, however, was an almost providential necessity to us, for dry roads and bright moonlight, might have revealed us to eyes ever on the watch in this country. A clear, calm, and starry night might have been fatal to our hopes. We were not afraid of the elements-they in their nakedness having been our constant com- panions on the march, and even in our dreams, since the Company had entered active service. Well.know- ing this fact, while trudging along, side by side, through all these weary, dreary miles, we bore both the tempest and the dangers cheerfully. Through the darkness, into the distance, and the future, over the miry road far, far away, the eye of faith and of hope beheld the benignant hand of Providence shift- ing the frowning storm-clouds, guiding the thunders and the fiery lightnings, and so disposing of obsta- cles, as to permit even us, poor wretches as we were, and scarcely daring to expect the boon, to wend the devious course that should terminate in complete safety, beneath the amplest splendor of unclouded skies.
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