St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-29

fez. The general gave us frequent temper
ance lectures, and all his hearers we're ready
to take the pledge pro tenn, and to applaud
his efforts in the cause of sobriety.
There was one remarkable character con-
nected with my prison experience whom I
shall never forget and whose name L am
sorry to say have unfortunately forgotten,
but it was William" something, and he was
an old negro, and sold the Richmond daily
papers. Every morning about daylight the
old man passed the prison, shouting his
wares, and knowing, perhaps, that the papers
were not served regularly to the prisoners,
he tried, as he walked along the Carey street
front, to give us an idea of the news, some
thing after this fashion:
"All Richmond daily papers! Great cav
airy raid along de Potomac! Yankees ad-
vancing on de city! Great battle a gwine to
be fought! Lees army just where twas %
and so on, in a long, vague and lusty descrip-
ton Of events, for all of which he drew on his
own imagination.
Immediately after daylight Little Ross"
Sergeant Dick Turner and guard of from
five to ten men would enter the prison and
assemble the men in the Upper Potomac
room, from which they were counted out, as
before described. This was called ssroll-call."
Rol-call over, the men made wild rush for
the two stoves in the dining-room, which
would have been wholly inadequate for their
wants had there been anything to cook.
Al this time our rations consisted of black
beans and corn bread; the latter, because of
its hardness, and the fact that the cobs ap-
peared to be ground up with the meal, was
lad, Nlao
be made palatable was by reducing it to meal
again and recooking it in the form of slap
jacks on the rusty stove-lid. The mess that
had few tallow candles to grease the stove,
or piece of ham rind, was considered par
ticularly fortunate. H.s.a
The men were divided into messes, not by
the prison authorities, but by themselves,
and one OF heirnumber always drew rations
for the lot The men who suffered most
were those from Kentucky, Tennessee and
Southern Missouri, for, during the time that
supplies were permitted to come through
under a flag of truce from the north, these
men we're unable to communicate with their
friends, owing to the fact that they were out
side our lines or in the hands of the enemy,
and so they had to depend on the prison ra-
tons; but to the credit of their more fortu-
nate comrades, it should be said that nearly
every man who received box from his
friends was quite ready to divide with his
starving comrades. sss &C.,
With ali the difficulties there were some
remarkable single escapes from Libby prison,
two of which I think worth recalling in this
connection. The confederates would not
permit uniforms to be sent through in the
boxes to the prisoners, but so long as the
boxes were received they would accept eiti-
zens' clothes. In this way Lieutenant Kupp,
of Berks county, Pa, received a suit of but
ternut-colored clothes. He was captured at
Gettysburg and after six months of confne-
meut his uniform was worn to rags so that
the garments sent from home were most well
come. Being tall, lank young man, as soon
as he put on the clothes he was transformed
into lean, gawky North Carolinian, and was
joked by his comrades on his resemblance to
a confederate, a fact he was not slow to avail
himself. 1t was not unusual for confederate
officers and citizens to visit the prison with
| the guards. One morning, to the inexpressi-
| Bile amazement of his comrades who saw the
act, Kupp fell in behind the guards after roll
call, and coolly walked down to the Office of
the commandment, Major Turner. He permit