Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-07-27
Vermont Daily Transcript
ST. ALBANS, VT:
MONDAY, july u, lSGS.
FoI' ne 7rdHsc,iW
HOW Mey Ojt0iHcd the f"if0"0"S'


dclibly impressed upon my memory III
the bitterness of sorrow, when SCI
dom falls to the lot of man in life time.
/ was so unfortunate as to be taken plls-
oner by the half civilized Rebels, with
about one hundred others belonging to
the first Vermont Cavalry, who shared
with me the same fate. Among these
there were three young men belonging
to Company "A.u who will be the sub
iects of of this communication.
The writer enlisted as Il private in the
same Company, and well remembers
the first time he saw George Weber,
afterwards known as the gentleman
from Nova Scotia.n He had been sol
der in one of the Massachusetts, three
months regiments, had returned ana
was in Vermont ona visit to sister VINO
resided in Brandon, when his limited
means reminded him that he should
again be a soldier When | enlisted he
was in the room, and had the appear
ance of being laboring man Ill one oil
the lower occupations of life. His cloth
ing was seedy and very old, and espe-
cially do remember the coat he wore,
which was torn along the rear, from
shoulderto waist. Hewas quite reserved
and talked but little, and at the outse'
but little was expected from him further
than to do the common drudglng OF the
common soldier. But the old truth was
soon again to be made apparent that
all l,x,t l,o Ee nf a frOU
how far he will jump.
After we had gone into camp on the
Fair ground at Burlington, | soon be-
came aware that Company "a" Jared
quite as well as either Company on ac-
count of the number of passes obtained.
No pass was sufficient to allow soldier
outside of the camp, unless granted and
Aligned by Col. Plat or eut.-Col. Kel-
logg. AS general thing these officers
were not very free with their passes, and
were no more so with Company "A"
than with either ofthe other Companies
passes were not known to be laying
around loose in camp. Still, our Com
pany boys received theirs in large num-
bers, and the regiment was confirmed
in the belief that Col. Plat was partcu-
larly partial to us on account of our Cap
tain being his son but this was all a
mistake there was no foundation for the
belief. The boys knew HOU to obtain
their passes and who from. All that
was necessary for any one to Go was TO
obtain verbal leave of absence from the
company officers, and Weber could fur
nish the rest. He was a good, or poor
penman according to his liking, and
after having genuine pass for SAM
pie, he could furnish any quantity, just
as good. No soldier to my knowledge
ever took advantage of these passes to
absent himself beyond the time allowed
by his company officers, and no matter
who was afterwards in command of the
regiment, Webber's passes were always
valid. l do not suppose that it is gener-
ally known outside of the Company to
this day, how Co. "a" succeeded in
obtaining passes so literally, but one
thing is certain, Weber never was
called to an account by his superiors for
an explanation of them. To be sure ev
cry one in the Company was not favored
with "Webber's passes" he had his IA
yorites and those in whom he placed
confidence.
We had passed the summon of 1862 at
Lynchburgh and on Belle Island. The
greater portion of us had succeeded in
living to be paroled and reached An
napolis, Maryland, late in the following
September. So many paroled prisoners
had been gathered at Annapolis, that it
was found to be necessary to distribute
them, and later in the autumn the Yer
mont Cavalry prisoners among others,
were forwarded to Alexandria. There,
we were near the camp of our regiment,
or what remained of them, and although
the rules ofparole camp were quite strict,
our nearness to them furnished good
excuse for absence from our camp, much
to the annoyance of the officers of the
regiment. If hereafter it shall appear
that some of the paroled prisoners were
absent from purole camp considerable
length of time without leave, it is only
reasonable to suppose they were at the
camp of the regiment.
Every prisoner was anxious to obtain
IL Through to reach home ; this was tho
burden of their conversation from morn
ing to night, yet it was utterly impossi
BILE for any one to obtain the first genu'
inc furlough. remembers of going my
self with the lac Senator Foote with
letters from Gov. Holbfook, Hon. Will
liam Clapp,an dillon. GeorgeF. Edmunds
TO obtain furlough, but it could not be
On dOne Secretary Stanton was very