The National tribune., 1884-10-02
A Yankee Trick in Rebel Prison.

10 THE EDITOR: The rebels succeeded IN
landing 1850 OF us unfortunate cusses on
Belle Isle at Richmond on Sept. -, 1868, as
| part of the trophies Of Chickamauga. There
we were cared for two weeks while they We're
/ preparing quarters in the city for our perma-
| nent confinement. The building taken for the
/ purpose was three story and basement brick,
! formerly usel a.; q tobacco warehouse, aud
| known as the PenbertOn building. 1t was
situated directly opposite the famous Libby
Prison, and y4ry soon became as noted for
misery, inhumaI treatment, and deadly results
1 rs its mother he'll across the street. We were
1 turned loose into this building like so many
cattle into field, and tbs preference Of loca-
| tion, If there was any, fell by accident. There
We're eight OF my company boys and one mem
/ Der o! 60. {, whom We adopted Is u messinate
] We selected quarters IN the corner OF the room
on the first floor. The rebels were using the
/ basement at this time as a storeroom for ra-
/ tiohs which had been sent by our Government
TO the prisoners, consisting of bareback, rice,
9~beans sugar, and coffee In addition the rebels
had added q large quantity of sweet potatoes.
i IL happened that we had secured a place where
/ trap-door opened through to the room below.
4 Here was chance ii we could only use it, to
/ supply ourselves with plenty to eat, but the
/ question was how to get it. The sole posses
/ sions of my squad of nine persons, besides the
/ few articles of clothing we had on our bodies,
! was one-half Of a dog tent" This served for
/ bed and cover nights, towel, and broom to
4 clean our allotted space, and further served the
/ purpose of tablespread as well as to receive our
I mashed sweet potatoes or corn mush and rice
! III, as the s|rictest examination wonld have
found US entirely destitute of semblanee of
] plate, cup knife spoon, or dish OF any kind In
/ addition to the uses this Z" faithful friend was
/ put to was that of a ladder, By which / was
1 aided to carry on a clandestine transportation
/ of potatoes, few hard tack, and several hun
dred pounds of sugar. | kept it up until the
! Johnnies discovered the leakage, and a change
/ was made, cutting off our supplies from that
direction for a few days.
The mauner in which we worked was this:
! two of the stoutest boys would hold ON to the
! end of the dog-tent and | would let myself
down by the other. When l had gobbled up
as much as | thought we could secrete or
/ dispose of they would draw me up and
| the door was put in place all OK. 1t was
1 but few days ere the Johnnies forgot their
loss and put large quantity of sweet potatoes
/ directly under our hole" again; but our
/ friendly ladder had been used TO carry one of
4 our boys to the hospital and we Iefr it with
him, as it was all the help we could give him.
1 Here, right under our eyes, was spread a feast,
but how were we 10 partakeI Yankee wit
and ingenuity soon solved the problem. As
| soon as the plan was conceived measures were
/ taken to carry it into execution. With the
aid OF a splinter pulled from the window
/ casing we dug the mortar from around a brick
/ in the wall. With this and our frgers we
lo0sened several nails in the woodwork about
the window Calling into requisitiOn another
brick we succeeded in imbedding few of the
nails IN one of them sufficiently TO hold quite
4 weight. Taking pair Of old drawers rope
was made strong enough to work the ma
/ chine" And work it we did for sall it was
/ worth. Tying the rope around the brick we
! would drop it down upon the pile of potatoes
and each dip was sure to bring up fI9m one to
three. This game was worked without cessa-
/ tion for several nights. At last the big hole in
the pile was noticed and then guard was placed
in the room to catch the thief. He was allowed
| light in the room and our "Iittlf racket y
bade fair TO end forever. few ngits with
I out any startling events suiliced to relax the
vigilance of the guard, and when we found him
mapping We piled our old vocation, but not
with our former success. as it was necessary, in
/ order 10 get good, sure hold ON the 0o+atOes
to drop the brick with little more than
| its own weight would give This c ased too
much noise, even for sleeping guard, so an
| all l-nights pull did not yield much oser half q
bushel. Though small. it beat nothing all to
/ pieces Again we were destined to have even
/ this meager snpplyeut off, 0urconstalIt picking
at the pile had excited the curiosity as well as
1 the determination of the rebels to find out where
and how those potatoes absented themselves. So
one night there was no guard in the pit and we
( chuckied over the prospects of a glorious
haul upon that prolific potato hill before
/ daylight. As soon as all around US were off, in
their minds, pulling plums out of puddiugs,
and licking their chops over the steaming
I goodies in . Gods country" we begar1 the pull
ing process at that real, positive potato heap
Soon nice little pile at our band told we were
getting along finely. When our weary, faint
ing comrades awoke from their dreams, more
weary and faint from the fact that their dreams
were delusions, ourdream would materializeand
our stomachs would present the appearance of
/ bay window in country cottage compared
! TO theirs, poor fellows.
All ola sudden, without any apparent cause,
| our elevator refused to come up at the pull of
/ the rope After each one had taken a turn at
! the lifting process and succeeded no better
| than his predecessor, it became certain that
| there was something possessing more attrae-
| ton than the force of the few potatoes which
attached themselves to the brick could do
Finally, voice from below explained the
mystery, and oGr potato game was played out
/ forever. They had taken the precauti0n of
/ not lighting up that night for the purpose of
catching the spirit power which had baffied all
| their previous vigilance, and they succeeded
but too well for the comfort of ourselves. Al
though there never were any efforts made TO
| my knowledge to find out whe was engineer
ing our end of the rope, the occupants of that
floor were removed on that same day into
! Smiths building in the immediate rear of
Pemberton. There our sufferings for food be-
gan, and ended in dead earnest to many poor
wretch who did not have the grit and consti-
tuition to withstand the kind and quantity of
food. Our rations consisted of small piece of
coarse cornbread not exceeding 10 ounces in
! weight, per day, and | find BY my diary that
/ in 36 days confinement in the two buildings
received meat seven times, rice five times, pea
soup three times, and sweet potatoes p times.
1t must not be forgotten that all issues, except
I weight of rations never exceeded one pound,
I and this given out once day 1t must not be
/ supposed that the potatoes we mugged during
our stay in Pemberton building cut off any in
tended for prison issue. They were stored
there by the city eommissary, and were for
issue to the employees of tho rebel civil and
city governmental. CLAY HARTwELL. De-
troit Mich.
The New IrOnsides.
To THE EDITOR In the very interesting
article in your issue of Sept. Is about The