The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-03-17

on for themselves. need to explain mere tDat
blue overcoats on Confederates around Rich
mond. especially among officers. were very
common at this date Many a night visitor to
| our boxes entered Kerrs Warehouse gray and
came out blue.
There is no sufficient evidence to warrant
the belief that any of the sentinels who saw
| the prisoners pass ont realized Tor one moment
that those vanishing men were Yankees, or
anything else than Oonfederates making raid
| on the Yankees boxes.
Vim. F. Crane or whoever else g Informed
| the Americdns correspondent of Dec. 90, may
| have been guard at Libby, or-some nice gen.
| tleman who was there; but not long, fear.
| For instance such person could never by any
possibility assert that Maj. Thomas P. Turner,
| the military commandant of Libby, who was
| promoted from Captain in 1863 was the famous,
or rather infamous, "Dick" Turner, remem-
bered-oh, yes SO toughly remembcred-by the
surviving Yanks who fell into his hands at
Iibty.
No really informed person could ever mis-
take that worthy for Maj Thomas P. Turner
or any other human being. Nature, indeed,
threw away the mold in which "Dick was
| cast, and. oh, may she never find it again on
this earth is the fervent prayexof the "expe-
1 rienced" P" Yankee Libbyite wh6signs this men,
| DIR. "Dck" was q civilian saOt soldier,
and
HIS UNIQUE iosrT1oN AT L1RBY
was. after much perplexing study by Gen. John
H.Winder, euphoniously described as the In
| spector" in official orders.
| Maj. Thomas P. Turner was the immediate
responsible head of the prison, although he
| gave carte blanche to Dick I" to make it hot
for the prisoners. The Major" a shallow
military fop, who never got bis boots soiled or
| his skin tanned during the war, was too lazy
to take more than a silent part in the villainies
committed in Libby, and, like the poltroon
| that he was, he put upon "Dick the execu-
tion of such atrocities as his feeble brain could
| coin.
| These two Turner'S were not relatives, fact
which both worthless were equally anxious
| should be publicly understood. An informed
| person would not locate the dungeons at the
Dock-street side of Libby, as the American's
| respondent has. They were at the Carey street
| front of the prison. Neither would such q
person, certainly not guard, locate the build
ing at the southwest corner of Twentieth and
Carey streets. 1t stood at the southeast corner
of those streets.
Again, there was no "ancient African"
| called "Uncle Harry" known about Libby,
who ever gave the prisoners information of any
kind at any time.
There were but two colored man who were
ever permitted to enter the quarters of the
prisoners, except when accompanied by guard
or some of the prison officials. One was an old
man known as the General" whose every
morning duty it was to enter each of the
crowded lofts with a pot of burning pitch, a
fumigation as gratefully remembered as the old
darky's unvarying cry of "Yhar's your good
smoke widout money and widout price!"
1t was said he had been servant of Gen.
Scott in Mexico, and doubtless it was in
THIS DISTINGUISHED CONNECTION
with the old Vi-ginian hero that his title Of
General" originated. ~e'aI' - scas
ha 9TH ho,
the prison-roo was stalwart fellow called
Ben," who came in each morning with stack
of the four Richmond dailies: The Enquirer,
Examiner Dispatch, and Sentinel. He possessed
stentorian voice, and his ringing cry of " Great
news in de papers,! Great news from Gin. Lee! !!
Great news from Gin. Grant! Great news
from eberywhar!" will be among the pleasant
things ever remembered of Libby in 1863 and
1864. rssE sts s8s@..s.
The prisoners frequently made Ben the.
medium through which jokes more pointed
than polite were inflicted by theecaptives on
their comrades known to have some weak.
ness" or who had by some act lain themselves
open to the merciless sallies of their tormentors
Thus on one occasion when two Federal gun
boats were quietly boarded in the night by
handful of Confederates on tho Rappahannock.
and surrendered without blow or word,
Ben was given the "tip" and entering the
crowded loft where slept the captured Naval
officers who were responsible for this disgrace
full affair, he yelled in his highest key: "Great
news i'll de papers! Great news from de Rapn
pabannock! Capture Of de Yankee gunbuats
by de cabalry!" .a.g .a -.
The roars of laughter that greeted "Ben,si
cry was a bitter pill for the. victims; and the
din put look of amazement on tho darky's
face such as might be caused by his accidental
explosion of mine Of dynamite, for he had
no suspicion that the innocentlooking words
furnished him were I" loaded"
The Commander was dismissed the service,
and his subaiterns narrowly escaped similar
chastisement. They never speak of the affair
in these days.
The misstatements already noticed of Guard
Crane and Mr.. Libby, of Richmond, are mild
offenses compared with the efrontery of~,at-,
tempting at this late day to induce q public
belief that the meditated slaughter of 1000
Union officers by a powder mine under Libby
in the event Of Col. Dahgren's column of
rescue entering Richmond in February, 1864,
was mere bluff"
If there was any burial of "bogus keg"
under Libby in the presence of Uncle Harry"
as stated by Dir. Geo. w. Libby, We may eAari-
tably conclude that the latter, and not the