The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-01-20
Barring AND SUFFERING.
A History of the Andrews Railroad
Raid Into Georgia in 1862.
CHAPTER XVII


After a little the East Tennesseeans were
removed from the lower to the upper
room as others of our number were
brought until at last we were oil below
ar5 they were all taken out, so that we
had tho dreadful place TO ourselves.
Buffum, with grim humor, would greet
the new arrivals, saying in his nasal way:
''Well, boys, they took you in out Of the
dewp'
Every one was brought in chained in
some manner, but expected when put
into such o dungeon that these irons
would be removed. In this we were mis-
taken. Either from an excess of precau-
ton or from the wish to punish us the
irons were retained. Some were fastened
together by neck chains and others by
handouts. They economical in the use
of the latter by making one pair serve
for two men, the right hand of the one
and the left of the other being locked to-
gether. Reddick was the first to whom
was strongly attached for some time, but
was afterward glad to exchange him for
Buffum, who had very small hand and
was able by little painful squeezing to
draw it out altogether, leaving me with
simply pair of cuffs dangling from my
left hand
That this terrible place was swarming
with vermin, not only rats and mice, but
other kinds, smaller and worse, will be
understood without further statement, as
well as our helplessness in guarding
against them while in the dark. and in
chains, with not even as much water as
we needed for drinking. One of the
grievances of the jailer was the great
amount of water we drank, or rather
wished to drink, for our persuasions
eIA oil Il, fl,n 4
not induce him to greatly increase the
allowance which he deemed right, but'the
officer of the guard would sometimes
order him to bring us more, which he
would do with great grumbling. Usually
the water buckets would be empty long
before the time at the giving of food
when he judged it proper to replenish
them.
Hunger was also very pressing, and as
one or two of the number had managed
when searched to secrete little money
all the rest had been taken from us-we
resolved to try to buy additional food.
Accordingly Swims was asked if lie would
buy for, us. He asked the guard, and,
finding no objections, said: eyes; you can
buy, ii you have the money" We had u
very earnest consultation as to the form
in which the money would go the fur
thest, and finally settled on wheat bread
and molasses, as the latter was every
cheap. The money was handed up in the
evening, and we made great calculations
on having o royal breakfast next morning
all we could eat The time came, and
we were moce eager than usual for the
lowering of the bucket, but when it was
seized there was only the starving allow
ance Of corn bread and spoiled porkl
Some one called out: "Swims, how about
tho wheat bread and nolasses?' He
leaned over and said, in his slowest and
most provoking tones: "B-o-y-s, 1 lost
that money!" Could we have reached
him, am not sure that he would not
have been lost alsol It is hard to mag
inc how angry starving mon could get
under the circumstances. We called TO
the officer of the guard, who came to the
trapdoor and heard our grievance, but
only laughed at us, saying chat if we
trusted Swims with our money we would
have to take tho consequences. Fortu-
nately we had not put quite al our funds
on this one venture, and the officer tried
his hand with better results; but the
amount purchased was too small to be of
any considerable benefit.
A very erroneous impression would be
given the reader if he imagined that we
spent our time here in nothing but help
lessly bemoaning our misery. There were
times when our situation seemed over
whelming; but usually we kept our minds
busy during waking hours in telling
stories, in speculnsing on the prospects of
the war, or planning escape. We had no
idea that the rebellion would last much
longer; the great armies of Mcclellan and
HalleclS, we thought, would soon crush
their opponents, and Mitchell would be
upon Chattanooga, and thus deliver us
from our horrible confinement. Could we
live but little longer the chances of de-
liverancc were good.
We also talked much of home life and
friends, and thus became really acquainted
for the first time. Hitherto we had known
little of each other; but now this inter-
change of thought and history brought us
close together, and caused the hours to
pass very much more pleasantly. We
talked of future plans when We should be
released from this place. We permitted
no ono to get Gownspirited. Had we been
confined in solitude, the dread and fore
bOding wGuld have been moro terrible.
But we made n league against fear and
fretting.
Every precaution was taken to preserve
our health that we might be able when
there came chance for escape. No one
was allowed to stand so rs to obstruct the
ventilation through tho wall holes; the
exercise possible in such limited space
was taken; and the help and good will of
all was wonderful rclief but we needed
every possible support
When all OF our party were brought
into the prison we carefully reviewed the |
situation and ascertaincd how much the
enemy had learned in regard to us. Most
had already given names and regiments,
and had claimed to be American soldiers.
Nothing could be gnined, therefore, by
denying what we had done. or our true
character. The first could be proved by
those who saw us on the train, by our
captors, or by our own admissions; the
latter, so far from wishing to deny, was |
our only possible defense. We therefore
resolved that we would say, when cx-
amincd that we had been appointed by |
our officers to serve under man whom |
we had never seen, but whom wc sup
posed to he an officer from some other |
regiment or brigade; that the nature Of |
our service was not clearly made known |
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