Morris tribune., 1892-06-01

|
who had charge of the Confederate flag
that fioated from the ridgepole every day
but which did not greatly annoy us, as il
was out of sight.
''Of course in order to give our com
rades who had escaped the night before a
good start, we were eager to throw the
prison officials off the scent; but how tc
do so was question that puzzled us great.
ly. And then we labored under the disad.
vantage of not being able to tell how many
got out, nor had we time to arrange plan
that had in it the promise of success, sc
we determined to wait for Little Ross re.
port.
In counting out the prisoners Ross kept
the familiar form of tally, making four
| strokes and crossing with another stroke
| for every five. But this morning, when he
came to reckon up his fves, he was para
| lyzed and his hair stood on end, for they
were short by twenty y-two-that is, they in
| dicated 10 Yankees missing and unac-
counted for
! ''In the volcanic excitement of the mo-
ment, Ross shot out an oath and shouted:
'Ger-rait Andrew Jacksonl A hundred and
ten Yankees shortp This gave us the cue
which was subsequently followed up in a
most remarkable way.
"Itwould seem that Ross fastened down
to Turner and told him that there were 11O
prisoners missing. Turner seized the tally
sheet and hurriedly glanced it over. He
saw, or imagined he saw, the source of the
error. Why he exclaimed, you've sim
ply lost the slip or forgot to tally twenty.
two times. Can't you see that the missing
amount is divisible by fivep
ROSS saw it as well as Turner, but they
did not rest satisfied with his explanation
Another count was decided on, and once
more the men were driven into the upper
Potomac room.
"By this time we hS4i decided on our
plan. In our rags and pallor any two of
the prisoners of about the same age might
have passed for twins, SO that there was
but little chance of their being detected in
the bold scheme for repeating that was
adopted. One hundred and ten men, after
being counted, were to hurry into the up
per west room, climb up to the roof, crawl
along, drop into the Potomac room and be
counted over again till the missing num-
Der was made up.
"Unfortunately for the perfect success
of this stratagem the counting began be-
fore we had time to complete the detail of
our men, but | know there was a strong
determination on the part Of every man
able to climb to make good the deficiency.
"Well, the count went on. 1t was the
longest count ever made up to date in old
Libby, The fact is the boys were overlo-
ing it, for when Ross came to make up his
tally next time, instead of having 10 men
short there were just 137 men too many.
''If the prison had been suddenly emp
tied Turner could not have been more as
founded For the first time ! saw an un-
usual light in his fishy gray eyes. 1t had
been bis habit to search every prisoner SO
he came in, and SO he Was quite Justified
in the assertion BY -! 10 Yankees
might get out without my knowing it, but
1877 couldn't come in without my being
aware of the factp
'"To make sure, extra guards were called
in; two men were detailed to tally, and
Turner himself remained at the opening
to make sure tlat the work was well done
BY this time the spirit of the occasion
fitted the boys, and they braced themselves
to give the Johnnies a surprise that would
be climax in ats way-and they succeeded.
"The third count showed 241 Yankees
too many, and Turner and the guards
were struck dumb. Other means to ascer-
tain the truth must be at once adopted.