The National tribune., 1883-03-22
\ DASH FOR FREEDOM.
How a Party of Salisbury Prisoners
Effected Their Escape.
To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:

To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:
Ihayenever yet tried to write an account of my
escape from the rebel prison at Salisbury, N. G..
but thinking perhaps the narrative may be in
teresting to some of your readers, viii try to
do so now. Having no memoranda for refer
ence, shall be obliged to depend altogether
on my memory, and my narrative will, OF
course, be somewhat imperfect. will say, by
way OF preface, that / was made a prisoner in
the battle of the Yellow Tavern, near Peters
burg, on August 10Th, 1864, and confined on
Belle Isle until about October 5th when, with
others, was removed to Salisbury. We arrived
there, as [ remember, October 6th 1864. AT
frst, wood was supplied in small quantities by
our guards, the daily allowance for each 100
men being what two of their number could
carry. But some time in November arrange
ments were made for US to perform this labor
ourselves. One morning a rebel sergeant came
to the gate and called for sixteen Yauks to go
out for wood, and CHANGED to be one of the
number. This squad was afterward made
thirty-two, and finally sixty-four men. We
| were taken tunder guard, of courSe,) TO the
depot OF tho Western n. c. Il. w, where a train
OF tour cars was waiting, and went out about
three miles for load; returned, threw it OFF,
| and were taken back to the stockade for the
night. This was repeated for several days,
| whea several Of us. wishing TO secure the
Chance Tor extra ration, air and exercise pre-
| names and call the same ones out each morn
lliS instead OF taking the squad promiscuousy.
mis- was done, ssnd d corporal of number,
! lIialsey Lathrop, of the Ono Hundred and
! Ninety-iirst Pennsylvania was appointed to
| cali our names at the gate each morning. We
Were closely guarded all the time, and each night
| returned TO the stockade. We used to tell our
1 guards I'VE had the same ones all the time)
( that they need not watch us rs We would not
! Try to escape; but we were on the watch for
! chances to do this oil the time of course. We
were all the time posting our comrades inside
| TOO, AS to the points where sentinels were
posted. the distance required to tunnel to the
! raliIoad bank, location and direction of roads
&c. We formed many plans of escape, one of
which was to overpoWer the guards and seize
! the train when we were farthest from the town
and run it as FAR as we could, and then make
our way to the Union lines Our leader in this
! scheme was Michigan man, named Clark, but
/ Tor some reason we never were ready to ex-
ecute 1t. We had an understanding with those
ia the stoekade that ali who escaped from the
! work-sauads or the pen should rendezvous at
! certain crossing about five miles west of Sails
bury. Finally, on the IIth of February, 1866.
/ We had gone farther than nsual for our load,
and IN returning. III a deep cut some six miles
! from Salisbury the foremost car was thrown
/ FROM the track by the ice formed on it, and the
/ train men had to walk 10 town to get Jack
screw to lit it on again. The wind WAS bitter
cold, and the oiticer OF our guard ordered all
1 hands TO Climb the bank procure dry wood
/ and build fires quickly. was one of the first to
/ reach the top, and was some distance in ad-
vance Of the guard. In an instant / saw my
! chance. The ground before me was covered
with stunted pine brush, and as one OF the
! guards cried. . ou uns scatter out thar and
| git some dry brush,' | scattered without
/ any further ceremony. In fact, / quite forgot
/ TO return with my load OF dry brush' / ran,
1 as nearly as | could guess three miles, and
! then came ont Of the woods suddenly into
new clearing with a house Just beyond it.
| creTied into brush pile, where could watch
/ the house, and lay concealed there till dark
| i SAY woman and several children, but WAS
! not discovered by them. AS soon as it WAS
! fairly dark | returned TO the railroad and went
to the crossing before spoken of TO see if any
others had ayailed themselves of this oppor-
tanity to escape and, TO my SURPRISE found
nearly twenty there. Indeed. when ali got in
we mustered twenty-four men, most OF whom,
however, had got away from the gravediggers'
squad and from the pen.
DANGER AHEAD.
By this time the moon was up and the night
was bright. We hastily consulted as to the
best plan OF reaching our lines. Some favored
going toward Wilmington; others toward the
NOUN tains. We believed that orr men held the
mountains and some of US urged that there
would be less danger of recapture If we went
III tha direction, as the region would be likely
TO be sparsciy settled; and finally that route
was adopted. We were to march up the rail
road, across a stream called Third Creek, in a
body, and then go in northwest direction to
the mountains. This creek was about thirteen
miles from Salisbury, and we wood haulers had
frequently crossed it and never saw a guard
there, SO we went boldly to the bridge to
cross, when, to our CONSERVATION, some nine or
rebels aT0-a and y,-qIa nd ON IN
Our surprise was complete but we had no
notion Of going back Each man scenled to act
I on the same thought. On the right was a
fence, incl0sing large meadow, which ex-
tended TO the bank of the creek and over this
we went like frightened deer. just then the
reiels began firing and shouting at a terrible
rate. Several of our party were hit at the first
fire, bat how many l never knew. One man
an isTaeiite from New \ orK named Sadie
who Was running next TO me called out that he
| was shot in the knee and begged me to helm
! him OF, but although he had blanket which
had designed sharing on this march, / wasted
no breath nor time, but remembering the
aiage, Self preservation is the first law of
! nature, went on. | have often tried to remein-
| beT how got over the fence and ran through
| the meadow, 5nt while l can see the whole
scene i caut remember touching rail CT the
! ground either. The first thing / do recall dis
tiEctly vas plunge into the icy water of Third
L
/ waded through, and / craWled up the bank on
! the opposite side more dead than alive How
/ cold 1 Wasl | came across a large churcil-yard
! presently. and being certain, from the din back
1 Ia the meadow, that none Of the rebels intended
/ crossing the creek, sat down on grave To rest
and reflect. One comrade joined me here and
! we held 3 shiyeFing consultations the result of
/ which WAS that we decided to continue our
/ march, but more at our leisure. Soon after, we
Were joined by two Others, and after little we
| overlook another. Our command now con-
sisted of John Brannan, of Philadelphia Pa.
| Clark Stuart, Co. q, Twelfth regiment Maine
! infantry; Charles Palnatier, of a New York
! regiment: Aaron Littiejohn, of an Ohio regi-
ment, and myself What became of the Others
| l never knew. We Travelled as far as we could
! before daylight and then lay down in the
woods to rest. Alter resting and eating the
| remnant of food We possessed we crept along
/ through the woods cautiously till we heard
| two men chopping Waiting till they had quit
for the hight We went up to them and found
! them 20 be negroes. We frankly told them
| who VIC were and asked them for food. which
I they agreed 10 bring 10 US soon as they could
/ go 10 the house and do their chores and re-
| turn
FRIENDS IN NEED.
They had a fire, and told us they would come
! lack aboRt eight o'clock, and told US to stay
! by the fire till they came. After they were
/ gone We thought they might betray us, SO we
/! piled on more wood and retired to safe dis