The Russellville Democrat., 1891-04-30
HOW FIFTY ESCAPED.
coNFEDERATEs WORKED A CLEVER
 SCHEME AT CAMP BUTLER.


 Few at Time Passed the vigiIant
 Guards on Visiting Days.
 A man in prison is like man without hands, whose brain is constantly contriv- ing to overcome physical deficiency. The ingenuity of brain unrelieved by dis traction of employment is capable of schemes which rival fiction. Many thrilling tales are told by prisoners of war about their privations and advent ures while under the espionage of an alert and relentless enemy. An experi- ence worthy of record was told an Amer ican reporter, the other night, by man who now stands high in public life in Tennessee.
 He was once confederate soldier. He had the misfortune to be numbered with the captured at Fort Donelson, and with hundreds of his comrades was hurried across the Ohio and incarcerated in Camp Butler, a spot which will long be remem- bered by those who were so unlucky as to be imprisoned within it's battlements
 After pining for several weary months for an exchange that was never effected these southern patriots set about to ac- complish their own deliverance Vari- ous plans were concocted, but were all successfully thwarted by the vigilance of their custodians Finally the inspira- ton of this story hit upon scheme which for audacity and cleverness is un- precedented, and won for it's originator title and distinction among his com panions which time has not yet obliter- ated.
 Among the prisoners at Camp Butler were number of boys who served the Confectionery in the capacity of powder monkeys" function well known to heavy artillerists.
 IT WAS A CLEVER PLAN
 The duties of these youngsters were to convey powder charges from the magazines to gunners in trenches or to assist in like manner on the floating bat teries which annoyed the federal gum boats in the Mississippi river.
 Two of these little fellows, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, were treated with the dignity due prisoners of war, and consequently found themselves hundreds of miles away from home and mamma and subject to all the heartless discipline of military prison. The manly fortitude of these two juvenile warriors attracted the martial soul of Colonel Morrison, who commanded the post. To make their imprisonment less ardu- ous he made them his office orderlies, and sent them on the hundreds of er- ~o,Jo xx,b;cb o oo,o,,,o pdipor officar fp1o daily necessity in the discharge of his duty
 The little fellows were true patriots, and no persuasion or punishment could dissuade them from the cause of their fathers. It was through them that the hero of this story accomplished his de- signs. The boys had access at all times to the colonel's office, likewise the adju- tants desk. One night they were bidden to steal from the adjutant's desk a lot of blank passports.
 But what good were passports to 8 soldier whose very uniform forbade exit from the inner stockade of the prison, might be asked. Fortunately, however, in the prison there was a sutler who pos sessed all the venality characteristic of his cloth.
 Among the prisoners in Camp Butler there were several confederate soldiers who were the sons of wealthy parents and occasionally received money from home. From this element a general fund was collected and appropriated to the use of the plotters for deliverance. With the sutler, whose loyalty to the American dollar exceeded his fidelity to the Ameri- can Union, it was an easy matter to smuggle in suit of citizens clothes now and then.
 FEW GO AT TIME
 On visiting days hundreds of people from the country around would throng to the post to look at the fiery rebels. They were shown, under the escort of a guard, through every part of the prison, and on several occasions these parties, in some unaccountable way, would number one or two more on coming out than they did on coming in. Each individual, however, displayed his passport to the guard at the gate, and retired unques- toned from the portals of the fort into the loyal prairies of Illinois.
 Had the guards counted their guests upon their arrival and departure some startling surprises would have resulted. On one occasion two confederate officers escaped by the guard with forged passes and had taken seats in carriage which was waiting to serve visitors at the gate of the fort when Colonel Morrison him. self came out and, addressing them, asked if they had seen all they wanted to see.
 "Yes, sir" replied one of the fugitives suavely. "They are a hard looking set, ain't they, colonel?" At the same time he was so alarmed that his tongue al most refused to articulate.
 By this process half a hundred Con- federates were released from custody and returned to their commands in the field. The reader must not imagine that these men were not missed by their guardians, for after every muster the guards wero doubled and many commissioned and non-commissioned officers relieved, it be- ing suspected that they were responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the prisoners.
 So cleyerly did the plan operate under cautious restrictions that the leak through which the human contents of that noto- rious pen escaped was not discovered until the man who created it had been duly exchanged and was fighting under his own flag on the fields of Georgia, where he was known to the army as Colo nel Morrison's adjutant.-Nashville Am erican.
 Begged Johns Pardon.
 At the Old Bailey it was customary to