The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-17

soldiers
Soldiers with guns cooked stood at the
door during the whole time and kept their
eyes on me. They even watched me when l
took my bath, and their espionage was by
no means pleasant. / did not grow fat on
my diet Ny breakfast was piece OF meat
and piece Of bread served on a tin plate,
which was none too clean sometimes. For
dinner got a tin cup Of soup with a little
piece OF meat floating in it, and for supper |
had piece Of bread.
II had nothing in the shape Of tea or cot-
fee to drink, and was watched very closely.
/ slept on the floor and was not allowed to
read, write or speak to any one. Still, on
the whole. l was happy. and when one day
/ was led out TO Gen. Snoep and dismissed
without much ceremony the thing seemed
to come as a matter of course, and was
happy in the war being over and myself
still alive"
number of the northern congressman
who served in the union army during the
war underwent all the horrors OF the prison
life Of the south, and their stories Of Libby
and Andersonville are thrilling in the ex-
treme. Two of the stranges5 experiences
are those Of Representative John c. Tars-
ney of Missouri and Representative Irvine
DUNCAN of Ohio.
Both we're imprisoned for months, and
the capture OF and escape of each have the
HatlCb1 hAAQ duNCubuAO VI a uONcl
Representative Tarsney was severely
wounded at the battle of Gettysbrg. was
carried Off the field by the confederates and
taken south to Richmond. Here be was
kept for a time at Belle Island, then
moved to Andersonville, aud finally, in
1864, was taken to Milan, whence he es-
capped.
While he was in Andersonville his prison
was located within eight miles of the home
Of Har Cyricr "A ,a
mer Mr.. Crisp told an audience at Kansas
City that Tarsney was a constituent Of his
and that he had spent one summer at fans
GUS resort within eight miles of his home.
TARsNEY EXPERIENCE.
talked with Representative Tarsney last
night about his prison experience. He said:
prison life is bad in any shape, and the
southern prisons we're terrible. The south
was very poor itself and its soldiers in the
field were almost starving. Thesrations we
received were miserably small and of the
poorest quality, and at Belle Island, Ander-
sonville and Milan we had mighty poor
fare. 1t was terribly cold at Belle Island
during the winter of 1864, and l was one Of
the first Of the men sent from there to An
dersonville, and was in Andersonville when
the stockade was first opened.
1.-THE prisoners were divided up into hum
dreds. and one prisoner, who was appointed,
had charge OF each 100, bringing tnem forth
for roll cali and being to certain extent
responsible for them. Every now and then
we would have new patches of men come
into the prison. and new hundreds would be
formed. During the latter part of my
prison career got in the habit Of getting
near the gate when these new companies
came in, and as they marched up would
fail into line and give fictitious name, and
thus become registered with them. Then
when that 100 was up for roll call and for
distribution of rations / would appear and
answer to his name and get my ration. In
another 100 l answered as John Tarsney and
got a ration there, and continued this until
at last was drawing five different rations.
zone morning after had been called in
No. 500 no order came to disband and
could not get to my other companies. That
day it was discovered that 600 men we're
absent and that 800 more rations were
issued than there were men. he officers Of
the prison then said that they would not
issue more rations until these 600 men we're
accounted for. There were 35, 600 men in
the prison and was not going to let these
thousands of men starve for me, so | told
the officers how had been cheating them.
The result was that they took me to a black
smiths shop and fastened thirty-two pounds
OF iron to my leg by way Of punishment.
logged this around for a while and then one
of the officials, seeing that was but boy,
asked me what was the matter. ] told him
and asked him to have the iron taken off .
promised that would not cheat again if
they would remove the iron. This was
done, out couldn't keep my promise.
"Well, they caught me again and they
now put thirty-two pounds of iron on each
leg. dragged this around for some time,
but at last Massachusetts man, who had
a file, cut the chain 30 that | could take the
balls off and fixed them in such a way that
could fasten them on with string when l
had to go to roll CALL"
DUNGAN's REMARKABLE ESCAPE.
Representative DUNCAN Of Ohio had sew
eral most remarkable escapes during his ca
reer in the military prisons of the SOUTH
west. He went into the war in the Nine
tenth Iowa infantry, was captured at the
battle Of Morganza, near Baton Rouge, and
was confined at first in the prison near Ty-
Ter, Tex. The stockade about this prison
was made of huge, square posts set about
six feet in the earth, one close to another
| forming wall or fence around the inclosure
| Some of these posts were very large. and at
| first there was no guard inside OF the in
closure and no guards on top, as there were
| later on.
Mr. DUNCAN and two OF his companions
! dug the earth out from one of the larger
| posts so that they could pull its bottom in
ward without disturbing the wall, and could
move it back and forth. They then watched
| the guard, and when he had turned on his
way past this spot the three of them slipped
| out and rushed for the woods. They got
into the underbrush and safely away with
| out discovery that night. When it was dis
| covered that they had gone the country was
secured for them, and some days later they
heard the beying of the hounds who were
| on their track They were at this time
near river, and they jumped into this and
swan several miles down it to an island
which was covered with bushes. They
crawled painting in among these and lay
there while the hounds beat up and down
the banks, but failed to locate their trail.
After their pursuers had gone away they
crawled out and made their way north, fol-
lowing the north star, and at last getting
into the Indian Territory.
In Arkansas they were captured by bush-
whaokers, and at last handed over to the
Jail authorities at Washington, Ark, and
crowded with lot of confederates and union
| sympathizers in the second story Of the jail.
They escaped from there. but were captured
after lively run and carried back to
| Tyler.
OTHER PUBLIC MEN IN PRISON.
Congressman Grady of North Carolina
served three months in Camp Butler, about
seven miles from Spring1eln, Ill He was
captured at Arkansas Post by Gen. Sher-
man. After he was through with his prison
| life he was taken south. and an attempt was
made to escape by cutting hole through
| the side of the car, but this was discovered