The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-08-01
THE PRESS.
IFor the Press.l
The Big Gopher.
A True Story of a Maine Soldier.
(C0ntinued.)

are going to do with usT he whispe red.
Shoot us, perhaps answered, but we
may as well die like men ss like towards, if
it has got to come
After an examination before crowd of
people, among whom were some ladies, the
commandant told me to follow him.
What are you going to do with us"
asked. sPut you somewhere where you can
not exercise your propensity to dig SO freely
he answered. You may do your worst,
Colonel, but you cannot put me in place so
bad that I'll ever ask any odds of you,' I
said. He laughed. "We'll see if we can't
break your damned Yankee spirit
you can kill me, know, 1 answered, for
I'm in your power; but you can never pre-
vent my wanting to be free, or my trying to
be, so long as can breathe. should be
ashamed to own myself man, if I would
submit to this Imprisonment tamely. What
have done more than you or any other man
would have done in my place?'
"'Perhaps you'll not be so bold the next
time see you,' he said, get together your
traps and follow me-
"The only traps had were my boots, so I
put those on flor had been barefooted) and
we were marched down town under guard to
the Provost Marsharf Office.
81 remember how hot it was that day, and
all the way men, women and children in
suited and hooted at us from the streets and
windows.
"The Provost Marshal was Capt c., and
such man hope never to meet again. He
prided himself, I suppose, on being South
ern gentleman, but if the education of South
ern gentlemen teaches such language as he
used, thank God have never had their ad-
vantages. There can be no terms in the
English tongue vier than those he heaped
upon us.
I do not know how long we stayed there
helpless under this bullying and abuse, before
they took us to the Jail. You remember the
old city Jail at Savannah, Miss D'Orsay, near
the Park? There they led us down stairs to
an underground passage way, with cells on
both sides, where it was so dark could not
see my hand before me without the light of
the guides lantern. Then they opened the
door of cell and put me in. remember
just how the heavy iron door looked and
how it grated on its hinges-it couldn't have
cell was foul and suffocating to person &C
customed so much to living out of doors, and
the blackness seemed almost solid and cold
and damp. Then they slammed the door
behind me; remember just how it sounded.
G. entreated them to put him in there too,
cells away. At first we could hear each
others voices by shouting, but after few
days 1 no longer heard his, and at length 1
was unable to call myself grew so weak.
G.. was an older man than and his strength
gave out sooner.
"At first thought they only meant to keep
us there day or two, but day after day
passed and nobody came near me, and at
length l was afraid we might have been for
gotten"
'Tm not nervous man, nor timid. Now,
really, I think l never knew what it was to
feel downright fear, but my sensations at this
time were not at all pleasant. Once day
there was pushed through hole under the
door an iron basin, full of kind of soup or
porridge-it was the most sickening COM
pound l ever tasted-and the basin was so
old and rusty that when I scraped up the last
mouthful, as half-starved man will do, you
know, my iron spoon caught against the
what that was l ate."
"My cell was unspeakably foul, and the
vermin swarmed SO in it, that was obliged
to take off my clothes and lie naked on the
stone floor, q had no straw here) and the
cockroaches which dropped onto me from the
ceiling seemed as large as mice"
"But my worst suffering of all was from a
consuming thirst. You can have no idea of
IT.; for you see, had no water all this time
Every day when the basin was pushed under
my door fell to eating ravenously what was
in it, ] was so intolerably thirsty and after
got through 1 was thirstier than before.
So thirteen days passed. felt myself grow
ing very weak, and I thought l should proba
bly, die. At length, on the. fourteenth day,
as the jailor passed the door of my cell, 1
could hear another man with him, who
asked, sWho is in here?' "A Yankee officer ,
the jailor said, and he lifted his lantern so
that the light fell on my grating"
81 think it was providential that at that
moment T. bethought myself of masonry.
and succeeded in making myself understood
by the man outside"
"He was quartermaster in the rebel ser
vice, and was going to administer his daily
whipping and sabbath to a negro confined
in one of the cells, in hopes to extort from
him the confession of having stolen a tent.
The poor fellow denied the theft, and could
hear his screams every morning when he un-
derwent his punishment
"On his way back the officer asked leave to
speak to me, and when | told him I was
afraid of being forgotten by the command
ant he advised me to make application to
him, as a brother mason, for my release
This same officer afterwards furnished me
with paper, pencil and light, besides some
fruit and white bread. The milk, too, which
coiored woman several times brought me,
must have come from him.
ST hated to do it, or to ask any favor of the
commandant after our last conversation, but
really felt less boastful than when l was
put into the cell such confinement takes
down mans spirit-and so I wrote my ap-
plication for release, which he answered at
once''
"When he came and the door was swung
open and first saw day light, l was so blinded
that could not open my eyes, and so weak
and exhausted that I could stand only by
holding onto the iron bars.'
Colonel said, sif I must die now, let it
be like Christian in the open air, not here
like dog"
"He said something about my being less
independent than when we met last, a hu-
initiation which l think he might have had
humanity enough to spare me. But owe
him my life; he still lives at the South, and
has sent me very pleasant messages, and it
does not become me to blame him."
81 must have the release of my friend,
too," said, as we were quitting the Jail, L
can't 90 and leave him behind.'n