The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-03-26
A TIGERS ESCAPE.
How One of the lannon's Louisiana
Command Got Ont OF Fort
Delaware.
Swimming for Dear Life---Prison Life
Within Forty Miles OfPhila-
delphia Twenty Years Ago.
From the Philadelphia Times.

from Fort Delaware, This narrative, as
| furnished by Mr. Pilsbury for the WeeldH
Times, is reprinted herewith:
On the I'd of Jnly, 1868, was wounded
in front of Cemetery Heights in the battle
of gettysburg was taken to the rear
to the hospital and remained there until
the 4th, when our army commenced fall
/ ing back. One of my messmates got a
horse for me and l thought l would try
to get back to. Virginia, but at Waterloo,
Nd, my horse broke. down and | was
compelled TO stop. About / or ? O'Clock
in the night, or rather morning, of the 9Th
the Yankee cavalry cut our wagon train
in two. capturing some fifty wagons and
at the same time taking me in "ont of the
wet" | was taken out but a short dis
| lance and was then paroled Being un-
able to travel found shelter in little
school house near by until the next Morn
| ing. when / was told that my parole was
| useless. / was given in charge of an
army surgeon and sent to Waynesboro,
| Pa, where, with : some twenty more
wounded. / remained five or six days.
| During my stay l was treated with great
kindness by the ladies. [ was sent to
| Harrisburg where | remained until my
wound got well. Here, also, | was
treated very kindly: From Harrisburg |
was sent to Fort Delaware. where | Te@
manned until the 2Sth of July, 1864.
PRIvATIoNs OF THE PRISONERS.
| At Fort Delaware I suffered in com
| mon with the rest of the prisoners, hun
ger, thirst, heat and cold. The winter of
| 1868 4 was considered the most severe
that had been felt for a number OF years
The prisoners were slowed in Il barracks
that protected lis from rain, but the wind
wh:stled through crevices as through the
| rigging of a ship and the snow drifted in
everywhere. We were allowed one
blanket and one suit of clothes each, and
one stove. with wheelbarrow load of
coal per day. to about 800 men. Our
daily ratlons consisted of fifteen ounces
| of bread and pie, Or six ounces of meat,
and cup of soup made os beans in the
proportions of five gallons of beans to 1870
gallons of water. As this soup passed
| through the hands of some 200 men be
fore il reached us, beans were rather
scarce in our soup. Several times, for
punishment, the bread ration was reduced
to eight ounces per day One week an
| order would be issued giving them per
mission to write TO friends relatives for
clothing or money, or anything they
needed, and about the time the Things
were on their way an order would be is
sued resembling the first one, so the goods
when they reached the island were con
| fiscated. 1t was the same with letters.
They would he confscated, as we were
told for being too long, bat we always
believed the real object WAS To appropri-
ate the stamps in them. When we were
allowed to receive clothing. we were
| ordered out and searched and relieved of
4
| fancy.
PRISON LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.
The prisoners had many ways for turn
ing an honest penny" Some would get a
plug of tobacco and cut it up and sell it
out by the five cents worth; some would
peddle fruit about the barracks, and
others would get crackers and make what
was called hishey hashey, or ''heH-fired
stew, and which retailed for one dollar
per plate. Some peddled flap-iacks at
dollar apiece saw man eat twenty
four dollars worth at one time--and other
apple dumplings, at the same price-in
confederate money, Of course. Then
there were fish stews. hot coffee and cakes,
pies and milk, ice cream and lemonade
for those who had plenty of confeder-
ate currency But this business was soon
broken up by an order ferbidding fires to
be built for such purposes. All kinds of
game were INDUCED in, such as roulette,
faro, honest John, vingt-un, ''chCck a
luck, rouge ct noir, poker and keno-all
played for confederate money.
TRICKS AND TROUBLES.
- All sorts of tricks were resorted to by
some of the prisoners who had no money
TO obtain articles they wanted. For eX-
ample, a man would start out TO peddle
bucket of milk and would be enticed into
the quarters where he bunked. On arriv-
ing there his comrades would call out to
the boys, who would be on their hunks
waiting aud ready, ''Who wants some
milk2' There would of course be plenty
to respond, Il do" and they were told to
pass down their cups. The cups would
be filed and passed to their owners, I'M
til the bucket was empty, and then when
the milkman began to look for his pay he
would receive a volley of old shoes, bones
or anything that was handy, and would
be glad to escape with his bones whole
Two men would start out to sell an oil
cloth. When No 1 had found pur-
chaser and got the money No. would
step ND and claim the oil-cloth. saying it
was stolen from him. No. had mean
while disappeared. Sometimes tricks of
this kind resulted in fight In summe
we were allowed to go in bathing, a guard
of Is or 20 men being stationed along the
river to keep the prisoners from going out
too far. Thus we had an opportunity to
practice swimming, of which we availed
ourselves every day.
PREPARATIONS FOR ESCAPE.
In the summer of 1864 / concluded I
had been at Fort Delaware long enough,
and thinking ] should never be eX-
changed, I determined to make my escape,
If possible. I had friend of the same way
of thinking and we procured an old cloth
sewing it together into sort OF bag,
making the seams water-tight with thewax.
Leaving an opening in the upper end we
inserted spool, with an air-tight plug;
then fastening a strap tossuspend the bag
upon the neck, leaving it TO hang down
| on the chest, with straps at the lower end
to tie around the back the 'siron-clad,'
as we call it, was complete. sfWhen we
i wished to fill it with air it was only nee
essary to bend the head little, place the
mouth to the spool and blow and the
the thing was soon filed. With this
continuance it was possible to float for
hours. After our preparations were com
plcted, the thing was to get to the
river without being detected. Well. as
good luck would have it, the barracks
next to ours were occupied by the oath
takers, or galvanized, = as We called them,
Il as.4 =