Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-12-10
A PRISONER OF WAR
The Escape of Two Union Off,
GERS from MiIlen, Ga.
By ALFRED R. CALHOUN Gate Major
o. s. Volunteers.
copyright, 1881, by American Press Associa-
tion.l
CHAPTER XII.

" 'Asssssz1SA vi
So W y <ss4el11a -
YANKEES, cUss your
From July 30 to Aug. Bell and / re-
manned in hiding in the dense woods
/ that cover the Alatoona mountains,
northeast of the pass then held by our
1 troops, though we did not know that
our friends were only five miles away,
with no serious obstacle intervening
This was the pass which a few weeks
afterward the Yankee General Corse
held with u handful Of gallant fellows
4 against the desperate assaults of the
Confederate General French's corps. At
the risk of interfering with my direct
narrative, | will say that the famous
hymn, Hold the Fort, for We are Com
ing" had its origin in this bloody fight
/ When Sherman found that Corse was
being attacked by an overwhelming
force, with the nearest help twenty-five
miles away, he signaled, ''If you can
hold out till night help will be up"
Corse signaled back from the midst Of
his dead and dying. and with the enemy
swarming about him, ''I'll hold out till
hell freezes over" And he did hold out,
though have no reason to believe that
the temperature has changed in the place
referred to.
In our terrible anxiety we forgot our
hunger and did not dare to rest. 1t
rained every night and often in the
course Of the day, owing, no doubt, to
the continuous firing Of the enemy in
the defenses Of Atlanta and the hammer
ing away of Sherman's beseigers. Now
and then, when we came upon clear
ing, it did not tell of human abode near
by, but rather suggested the dwelling
place Of the spirit of desolation On the
\ trees surrounding the fenceless field the
scavenger crows cawed in conventions
that told that they had grown fat and
prosperous. They did not fly away at
our approach, for they had become fear
less OF or Indifferent to living men. On
heavy wing the loathsome buzzards
hoyered over the huge chimneys from
which the wooden houses had been
burned away, or here and there rose
slowly from the carcass of q horse or a
mule, only to return when we had
passed on.
Frequently by the roadside between
Wilton and Acworth we came upon
mounds recently thrown up, sometimes
the width of one man, and again long
enough to hide a score. The soil of that
land is particularly red, but it needed no
activity Of the imagination on this occa-
sion to force on our minds another rea-
son for the sanguinary hue of the earth
The clearings bordering the roads were
pitted by the hoofs of cavalry horses.
I The trees back Of hastily constructed
\ Instructions had mapped on their bullet
I SCARED sides and blistered arms the
story of stubborn assault and desperate
/ defense. The roads were now red and
rutted riffs, strewn with the debris Of
broken wagons. splintered gunstocks
and the fotsam and jetsam that mark
\ the ebb and flow Of the battles tide.
There is a sublimity in the desolation of
the desert, where nature erects her arid
I barriers against mans possession; but
there is a horror indescribable in the
\ desolation Of war when witnessed by one
z WHO Has uttl uO III luG OeSIIuCblDll.
On the afternoon of Aug. 3, and when
nearly starved into insanity, my stout
hearted friend and myself came on an
ash heap in the woods. About the place
were pieces Of broken crOckery, rusty
culinary tins, blankets hastily aban-
! doned, child's hood, a pair of little
/ shoes much worn at the toes and dilap-
idated doll with one red stocking on its
remaining leg Evidently this had been
\ the camp Of a family flying from the
army, and they must have been hurried
from the place. The childs shoes and
the doll told all this and much more.
In our search we found about peck
K of sweet potatoes, q few ears of un-
| husked green corn and about six pounds
of bacon tied up in corn sack. We
4 devoured some of the meat and corn
raw, and it was not till our burning
hunger was partly appeased that Bell
recalled he had a flint and steel, and that
\ this would be an excellent place to camp
for the night
It was now near sunset, and while my
companion was making a fire, which
was to be extinguished as soon as all the
provisions We're cooked, went off to ex-
anime the surroundings.
1t was SO near night when | returned
4 to Bell that could see the glow of the
camp through the trees far in front, yet
this assurance of his safety and where
/ abOuts did not draw me away from a
caution that had become habitual. /
kept in the shadow of the trees in adj
vancing, as # we were pickets Of the OPP
posing armies When within about a
/ hundred yards of the fire heard loud
voices, and. with my heart leaping like
wounded tiger, halted and COM
pressed my lips to get my brain and my
hair under control.
Prepared for fight if the situation
should warrant it, I dropped on my
hands and knees and ''snaked" toward
the fire. Two men in ragged Confeder-
ate uniforms, one with bandage about
his head and the other and younger Of
the two with his arm in sling, were
lying down and looking up at my COM
pani0n, as / had often seen wounded
prisoners LOOK up at their captors. Bell
moved about and kept on talking like a
man who was master Of the situation. /
advanced at once to the fire. assured
that these men were wounded deserters
from Hoods army, and my surmise
proved to be right
When came up Bell introduced me
to the strangers, of whose names / took
no note. They We're Confederate caval-
rymen from Meridian, Miss. They had
recently been wounded by General Gar
rard's troopers in the attack ON Decatur,
and were now trying to make. their way
back to their old homes. The poor fell
lows were thoroughly licked. One of
them, who had been at Center college,
Kentucky, when the war broke out, and
who was o fine Young fellow Of unusual