Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-07-27


ran for the thicket which near the rail-
road The sentinel then fired at Us but hit
no one Lit. Hodges says he never suffered
such keen mental anguish in the same length
of time as &hile the cars were passing over
us He expected to find Us mangled and torn
corpses, and had determined TO attempt no
flight himself but to give us, if possible, a
decent burial Imagine his JOY, then, at SEE
ing US suddenly spring up and run tor the
woods.
When we awoka it was to find ourselves
wet to the skin and perfectly stiff with cold
The rain, however, which bad wet US had also
rendered our tracks untraceable by oloou
hounds, so we looked upon it as messenger
of good We spent the day as best we could,
and in the evening ate our corn bread anu
dried appIes and started on our way. At
first it rained and was cloudy, but after a lit
tie the clouds broke and the moon again
shone forth at times that We were able to
keep our course pretty well. We had better
travelling than the night before, and made
;. about twelve miles The third night it RAIN
ed a good deal and we got lost among the
creeks and swamps and only made three miles
the entire night. We made Ole effort to get
something to eat, but could not approach the
negro huts on account of their proximity to
the residence of their ma7ter All we OBJ
tanned was some corn, and that was so weeVll
eaten that we could eat bat little of it. W e
suffered good deal in the morning and dur
ing the day from wet and cold. We ate
grapevine and sourwood leaves to satisfy our
hunger. The fourth night hunger and expo
sure began to tell on US and though we had
- -. country IrayeI over, yUu
were able to make only seven miles
| We put up on the 9TH near a large planta-
ton in the hope that We might find some ne
groes at work during the day. Capt Honey
cult went out in the afternoon and found one
| bn tn hpiD bpn
night came, but after waiting till IL o'clock,
| we concluded he was not coming and started
on our way, We now for the first time fol-
| lowed the road, and so reduced were we that
we could not walk over quarter of mile
| without resting. In crossing roads we had
done so backwards Ill order to deceive any
one who might attempt to trace Us. After
travelling a little over mile we came to a
rather shabby looking log house where we
could hear talking inside, but we could not
! tell whether the inhabitants were white or
black. We approached the house cautiously,
and to our great 10y saw through an aperture
| in the old fireplace the negroes seated around
| the fire. After assuring ourselves that there
were no white people about, we entered, told
| them who we were, and that must have
| something to eat. The woman gave US a
small piece of corn bread which she had and
| Immediately went to work baking some more,
| some milk, and we made out the best meal
| we ever ate, without any exception. The
negroes in this section of the Country ork-
vile District, South Carolina-are very igno-
| rant, and these, though they knew there was
| war; did not know what it was about. We
! impressed upon them the idea that we were
| fighting for their liberty, which seemed to
! please them very much. The negro woman
| baked some more corn bread and gave all
| no no had nd
in turn made her present of gold ring
| which had been presented to me by a fellow
| officer in Libby, and which | would not have
parted with under ordinary circumstances
but thought | was justified in it now.
About 2 o'clock we again started and
marched some four Or five miles before day
light. During this day-the 1Sth-we were
| in pretty close quarters some of the time
| An old man and some boys were at work at
fence not over fifty yards from US, but
luckily we were not discovered. The follow
| ing night we were taken across Broad River
| by a negro in canoe a little before midnight
and travelled the road leading from Yorks
| vile to Spartanburg for about ten miles,
when We halted for the day. My boots were
now completely worn out, the soles having
| broken entirely off, and part of the day
was spent in taking the tops and making soles
of them, sowing them fast to the upper
| leather by means of leather strings.
| That evening We took to the woods again.
| Towards morning we struck a road and fol
| lowed it, making a couple of attempts to ap-
proach negro huts, but were unsuccessful
| We were sitting by the roadside, jUst the
dawn was breaking, tired and hungry, with
no prospect of getting anything that morn
| ing, when whom should we see but a negro
| coming along in the road. He had staid with
| his wife during the night and was Just re-
turning home. He told US that his masters
| nearest neighbor was Union man and that
| if we could see him he would assist us. In
the meantime he took US to a good hiding
place and told us he would be back in the
| evening and would endeavor to see this I'm
ion during the day. At night he came
back with the joyful tidings that he had seen
the man and he wanted Us brought TO his
| house. Here We ate a splendid supper, ana
after eonversing while, getting all the IN
| formation we could as to the country, the peo-
pie and the route best for US to travel, and
getting our haversacks filed, resumed our
| Journey about l 1 o'clock
| During the night we met a couple of ne
| groes who went with US couple of miles
where there were great many roads lead
| ing off, and after getting us on the right one
| babe us Godspeed. That and the following
nights we travelled nearly forty miles on the
same road, and Sunday, May 22d, we staid in
the vicinity of the road leading from Green
| VIE, -. -, 10 ASnYllIe, y. 4. w hen
| entered the road at dusk we were not sure
| that it was the right one and were discussing
| whether it would be best to stop at the next
house to inquire, and also get something to
eat, which we had almost determined to do
| when man came up to Us who fortunately
| proved to be black. We then found out that
| there were two soldiers at the house in uues-
ton, sons of the planter, who had been pris-
oners but were now exchanged and home on
| furlough. We stopped by the roadside while
the negro went to the house and obtained
some corn bread and bacon, and then piloted
Us around the house and into the road again.
| That night reached the vicinity of Blue
Ridge, after crossing what we supposed to be
the head waters of Broad River The next
night we had many small streams to pass and
| in one place some boys were fishing so near
that we crossed the portage by the light of
| their torch unobserved
The dogs were very troublesome in this
part of the country, but we passed house
that night where they were particularly so;
and the worst of il was, that after we had
passed it, we found that we had lost the road
| in the windings of the creek which it follow
! ed part of the time. We could do nothing