Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1880-11-27
AN INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES
rom OF OLD "LIBBY PRISON" BY ONE
OF THE GUARDS.

"a, +, sale called to mind the follow
Ing good story to the mind OF captain
Joseph Wingfeld, which occurred "hen
no once stood sentinel over the prisoners
$50 the old prisons sold, is she r nc
soid as he sat down on NAH kes anu
;o;ned :, group seated around the stove
discussing Libby times. There were
several members of the old Richmond
LIGHT Infantry Blues in the group VINO
- tbeir times had been detailed as sem
t;ne,s at Libby, and each had some an
aoaote to relate. Wingheld listened 10
4hon, Al, and then said, "Well, never
mass Libby Prison without iaashins'
when look up at the windows l cant
help thinking of one of the cutest 'rlOhS
those Yankees ever did play-sharp was
rot the word for it. Fact is, gentlemen,
had my musket leveled at crown Oh
those fellows to shoot, but the trek was
80 GOOD that didn't have the he"f' -
fire on 'em."
"How was that !" asked the crowd
0well, you see, l didn't have more
.hon three days guard duty to do down
there but that was enough for me-
Iibby prison had gotten so full that a
room lust across the street was 1''e'
-, for some of the prisoners. ms room
,,s mat over a long room which was
nod Nv the Confederates to store some
o,+;c,es in, About week before was
Stationed there the Confederates ha'
rotten a large supply of sweet POTATOES
from North Carolina. They were resu-
lar vans. and they were in demand IN
those days, l can tell you. We'll ST.
Az, stored those vans for safe keeping
in that room, under the one IN "hlch
the Yankees were confined. inc
Confederate officers who got those vans
eor +be;r own mess noticed that they
were disappearing very fast; in fact
they missed about two or three pushes
day. At first it was thought that The
rats cot them, but little calculation
showed that it would take several NH
lion rats to get away with them IN th'1'
way, aud the officers came to the con
,,ns;,n thai somebody was stealing
Cnor,ls were posted all around th'
hn;,ding with orders to shoot any mar
they saw going into that room lheS
watched three nights, but could not SCI
g, soul 90 in or come out of the room, ant
the strangest part Of the thing was ina
while they were watching the pota''e
were lust melting away. The otncei
were furious, and swore that the senN
reIs were not doing their duty, AM
were allowing the vans to De s'oie
right before their eyes, but in splte
All their talking the yams went like nc
cakes. 1t certainly was mystery nov
those vans got out of that room, an
where they went to. When thethlnS ha
been going on three days the ofhcer
tle guard came to me and said, !, wal
Won to stand guard in that sweet pota'
room He had me put III there a
right and locked me in, l was oraert
to shoot anybody caught stealing. III
room was long, narrow one, and 1 M
lighted candle placed at each en-
Inst rs fast as would get at one emu
the room the rats would cut the cand
down at the other, and when l won
hurry back to light that one the 'ra
would cut out the one | had just le
These rats kept me pretty busy i ca
tell YOU. | Thought they were the INC
deyilish things had ever come aero
twas pretty lonesome III there, ana
seemed to me like hell had been turn
loose in that room, those rats made
much fuss. but for the life OF me
couldn't see any vans disappearll
though | kept my eyes fixed on the p1
knew if any of those potatoes w
missing the next morning would cal
fits. 1t was soon after the streight tt
mel had been dug, and Major Turner |
gotten to be devlish strict Well,
,bout y o'clock that night | heaGo
rumbling, creaking noise, and look
around cooked my gun, but coulo
see anybody began to feel rat
nervous. The noise stopped,
presently I heard it again | loo
toward the pile Of vans and saw Il
coming dowing from the ceiling 1t
a brick tied to it, and came down on
potatoes with slam. By George t
surprised me but when saw TINS II
brick drawn slowly up again to"
the ceiling with about a peck OF P
toes sticking to it, | tell you just
my breath. | crept up nearly under
rome and waited for it to come d