Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-04-12


GERS, while others Of us equally well born
and bred, remained in the ranks for
months together. Tyack and | were
among the residuum. He glanced at me
curtly and passed on. somehow felt, l
don't know why, that the hour OF his re
yenge could not be far distant.
sat down in my tent that night and
wrote to Elsie. 1t was Elsie who had
wished me to volunteer. l wrote to her
whenever an occasion offered. \ mail
was going out that evening from the
field. | told her all about the expected
battle, but l said never a word about
poor Tyack.
Just as we were turning in for the
night United States mail was distribu-
ted to the detachment. l opened my
letter from Elsie with trembling fingers.
She wrote, as ever, full of tears and
hopes. y little postscript ended the let
ter: Il hear" she said, '.that poor Claude
Tyackis with you in Burnside'S division.
| shall never cease to be sorry for him.
If possible, try and make your quarrel
up before the battle. | couldn't bear to
think he might be killed and you unfor-
given"
l sat long with the letter in my hand.
A battle is very serious thing. If
Tyack had been there in the tent that
evening, l think l should have taken
ElSie's advice and made it all up with
him. And then things would have been
very different.
As sat there muSing with the letter
still in my fingers the drum beat sudden
ly, and we heard the signal for forming
battalion. 1t was the night surprise;
WhelOck and BonSejour were upon us
suddenly. Everybody knows what Chat
tawauga was like. We fought hard,
but the circumstances were against the
Harvard battalion. Though Burnside
held his own in the center to be sure,
the right wing had bad time of it, and
seventy-twO of US Harvard boys were
taken prisoners. lam not writing a his
tory of the war, so | shall only say, with
out attempting to explain it, that we
were marched off at once to BOnSelOurS S
rear and sent off to Richmond. There
we remained for five months, close pris-
oners, without one word from home, and
what to me was ten thousand times
worse, without possibility of cOmmuni-
eating with Elsie. Elsie, no doubt,
would think Twas dead. That thought
alone was perpetual torture to me.
Would Tyack take advantage of my alb
sence? Elsie was mine; knew l could
trust her.
At the end of five months the other
men were released on parole. They of
fered me the same terms, but I refused
to accept them. 1t seemed to me a
question of principle. l had pledged
my word already to fight to the death
for my country, and l couldn't fOrswear
myself by making terms with rebels.
We of old New England stock took a
serious view of the war and its meaning;
we didn't look upon it as vast national
armed picnic party. Even for Elsie's
sake | would not consent to purchase
useless freedom by what regarded as
public treacherv. | could not have low
ed Elsie so much slowed l not honor
more" as the poet Of our common cOun-
try phrases it.
l was left the only prisoner in the old
barracks in Clay street, Richmond, and
of course l was accordingly but little
guarded. A few weeks later an Oppor-
tunity occurred to me to get away. A
wounded soldier from the front, strag-
Cling in by himself from the entrench-
ments, tainted opposite the Clay street
hn hac ta1 in Il
put to bed there, the hospital accommo-
dation in the city being already more
than overcrowded. In the dusk of eve
ming | conveyed his clothes to my own
room, and next day l put them on, a
tattered and bloOdstained Confederate
uniform. Then, having shaved off my
beard with a piece of hoop iron, well
sharpened against hone, [ passed out
boldly before the very eyes of the
lounging sentry and made my way across
the streets of the half f-beleaguered city.
I waited till nightfall in the rotunda of
the Exchange Hotel in Franklin street,
where the men sat and smoked and dis
cussed the news; and when the lamps
began to be lighted around the State
Capitol l skunk off along the riverside,
so as to avoid being hailed and chal-
lenged by the sentrieS, who held all ap-
proaches from the direction of Wash
ington.
In those days, l need hardly say,
strong lines of earthwOrks were drawn
around Richmond city on the North,
East and West, where Lee was defend
ing it; and it was only along the river
southward that any road was left fairly
open into the country. | went by the
river bank, therefore, onward and on
ward, till the city lights faded slowly
one by one into the darkness behind me.
passed few soldiers here and there
on the road, but my Confederate uni
form sufficiently protected HE from any
unfayOrable notice. If any of them hail
ed me with "Hullo, Stranger Where
are you off this time of EVENING"" my
answer was easy, straight from the
front. Sick leave. Just discharged from
hospital in Lees division" Southern
chivalry nodded and passed on without
further parley. l was going in fact in
the wrong direction for many questions
TO be asked me III passing. Everybody
from the South was hurrying up to the
front; a wounded soldier Struggling
homeward attracted then but little at
tention.
1 walked on and on, always along the
bank of the dark river, till had almost
reached the point where the Appomat-
tox falls into the James. I wanted to
reach the Northern lines and to get
them | must somehow cross the river
1t was pitch dark now, moonless night
in early December, and even in Virgin
ia the water of that season was almost
ice cold in the tidal estuary. But
knew must swim it, sooner or later,
and the sooner l tried it the better were
my chances. l had eaten nothing since
leaving the barracks and should prob
ably get nothing to eat until l reached
Burnside's army. Tonight, therefore, |
was comparatively strong; the longer