The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-03-06
Shortly before this time the bridges


swept away by a freshet, and 1t was
while awaiting their reconstruction that
we were held at Greenville. The jail
into which we were taken was two
story brick structure standing flush with
the street and having no fence or wall
surrounding it. Each floor was divided
by a transverse hall, and the large,
square room in which our party was
chartered looked down the street through
two barred windows and into the hall
by a square hole in the door cut large
enough for the passage of plate Up
posite to the door was stone fireplace
and in the farther corner stone sink
The jailer had four or five we'll grown
daughters, who seemed to take lively
interest in our arrival, for the door had
hardly closed upon us before they began
to appear on the outside of the peephole
with their autograph albums. On our
approach their blushing faces retired out
of sight, but the books held on for our
signatures. They became better ao-
quainted soon, and as our only visible
jailers knitted us stockings and sup
piled us with many luxuries not includ-
ed in the prison fare, such as wood for
a fire, planks and bee gums for seats
and a we'll thumbed volume of Bulwer.
At the end of week we were Joined
by party of seven enlisted men who
had also been captured while attempting
to get through the mountains. One OF
the new arrivals had case knife in his
haversack and another gun screwdrlv-
or of tempered steel. With these imple-
ments in our hands I saw chance OF
escape On the very evening of the ar
rival of these men, down on the hearth
stone by the light of the fire, / managed
the construction of saw by nicking the
thick edge of the knife with the screw
driver, using bone for mallet.
A pane of glass was missing from the
lower sash of the window by the door,
and piece of carpet had been supplied
to us, which hung outside the CRATE to
protect US from the cold wind. Here
was an excellent cover for our proposed
operations. The upright bars were
square, an inch or more in diameter,
and of cast iron, moving loosely in the
stone mortises above and below, but
steadied by frequent fiat cross plates OF
wrought iron.
Just above the second of these plates
we began our cut, calculating with
tough stick of firewood to separate the
plates after saving should be accom-
plished. 1t was slow process, at first
prosecuted only in the daytime behind
the piece of carpet while one of the par
ty listened at the hole in the door. Aft
or whole hour s hard work only few
feathery filings showed on the cross
plate. We kept the work going, how
ever, at all available opportunities for
two days, and regular hourly reliefs
worked throughout Friday night, by this
means so deepening the cut that the bar
was severed in the early evening of Sat-
urday.
| was at the saw when the supreme
moment of success crowned our efforts,
and prying up the cross plate above the
cut l lifted out the short piece and
rushed to the crowd crouching over the
fireplace and threw it on the hearth. L
was wild with excitement and felt my
self almost again ON foot in the snowy
mountains.
Anticipating this result, we had al
ready resolved ourselves into several
travelling parties and now cast lots to
see which party should have first exit
The fortunate lot fell to the enlisted
men, who all elected to go together. l
was to go with Captain Smith, who had
made friends at Caesar Head in his
last outing and professed to know how
to reach them again. Each man in de-
scending must pass the window Of the
room occupied by the jailer and his
family. The night was extremely cold,
the ground covered with snow whose
top was frozen to crust. Although
there was garrison in the town. there
were no guards about the Jail, its
strength of wall and bar being deemed
amply sufficient to hold its inmates.
We had spliced rope and strip OF
blanket together and made one end OF
this continuance fast to the grating. AT
IL o'clock we judged it would be safe
to try the experiment.
The first man crept through the open
ing without difficulty and perched on
the sill, while we passed him his boots
in haversack. In the cold, dark room
we were crowded about the window.