The National tribune., 1884-09-25
CHICKAMAUGA.
A Father and Son Escape from the Rebels.


To THE EDITOR: At the earnest request of
others, / have concluded to copy few Incl
dents from letter written to my family Oct.
2, 1868. And shall premise, by stating that l
and my son were members of the I'D ILL.,; that
during the memorable battle of Chickamauga
we were both captured, and FOR the time con-
fined at Crawfish Spring, near Gordon's Mill.
The first act of our captors was that of robbing
US of everything of value we possessed. l
dropped my pocketbook, knife, and gold pen
into my bootleg, and hid my canteen and
gum blanket, while they were occupied with
others. My son Stuart F. Hoskinson) would
not do this, and so lost his canteen and
blanket. When they demanded my knife, ]
offered them a case-knife i had found on the
battlefield. At this offer they let me alone.
The rebel officers did not mistreat us in any
way. During this time my SON and several
others were sent to the battlefield, where they
found at least 500 of our dead unburied, and at
least 100 more (variously wounded) lying where
they had fallen. They relieved the wants of
these as best they could, by carrying them
water and such provisions as they could find
in the haversacks of the dead.
On Sept "a Gen. Wheeler sent Capt Reiss to
parole as many of US as he thought necessary
to care for the wounded. i helped write the
paroles. and found to my disappointment, that
j and my son were left out. In the afternoon
Mill. Here regiment of Wheeler's cavalry
stopped to water their horses, and tantalized
us after this fashion: "Guess we whipped you
good this time" Damn you, you came to
free the niggers, did you? Hal" and SO on. /
now determined to make my escape from such
wretched beings l told my son my determi-
nation and requested him to join with me,
which he did So, about 9 o'clock p. m, we
started on our perilous journey. The moon
shone brightly. The leaves and little twigs
seemed to crash fearfully under our feet as we
gtealthily passed the first guards, momentarily
expecting to hear the world "halt!" or feel
the deadly bullet pass through our bodies. We
passed unnoticed. and after much toll and great
fatigue we reached the top of Lookout Noun
tain, about six miles from the place of our cap
tivity. Here we staid in the top of a fallen
hickory the balance of the night. In the
morning we concluded to climb to the top of a
great rock that lowered above US some hum
dred or more feet. We had been here but a
few moments when up came two rebs, who
questioned US closely about how we came there,
etc. / made up story and told them, which
seemed to satisfy them. ] then questioned
them in return. and got the lay of the country
and the distance to Chattanooga, the where
abouis of our army, etc. We then left them
and travelled directly on the top of the noun
tain towards Chattanooga, 16 miles distant.
We camped for the night in hollow chestnut
stump. On the next day Sunday we renewed
our travels amid constant dangers of reeapture,
when, about noon, we came almost into rebel
camp at the end of Lookout Mountain, where
it is cut by the Tennessee River. We slipped
safely past this danger, and came well-nigh
being slain by the 10th Ohio, which was on
picket on the opposite side of the river, they
supposing we were rebels. We made small
raft of rails, sufficient to carry clothes, and
swan the river TO our men and were at last
safe.
We told our story to Gen. Whitaker, in COM
mand at that point who gave US a good supper
and then put us on horses and sent US over
into Chattanooga to Gen. Rosecrans, to whom
we carried the first news he had yet received
respecting the men left ON the battlefield.
Next morning, just eight days after the battle,
ne sent ambulances and brought away those OF
the wounded still living. We were here sent
to tell our story to Gen. Sheridan, who CON-
mended us for our bravery. We were then
permitted TO rejoin our decimated regiment
r. M. HosKINsoS, Com. Serg't, I'D ILL.,, Port
Blakely, Kitsap Co., w. T.