The National tribune., 1897-08-12

wv ops existence providentialy or |
otherwise preacher of the city,
named Mcdonald Presbyteri-
an. / believe visited us one day. he was
friendly. kind hearted man, and, helleve,
true Christian, although 1 noticed, when we
all kneeled in prayer at ms request, after we
had ioined him in singing hymn, he opened
his PRAYER with the singular petition mat our
lives might be spared If IL scae an accordance
,citk the best interests Of the Confederacy.
This prayer did not suit us exactly, but we
felt that this kind mans voice would, In the
end. have little weight in the scale for OF
against our lives, so far as the Coniederates
were concerned. for they were an ungodiy
set at best If this good man is yet living
he has nv best wishes. as being the only
rebel. besides our old jailer. who ever spoke
n kind. encouraging word to ME during all
NV IMPRISONMENT and fugitive wanderings
in that slave-cursed land. He afterward
loaned us few books, such as "Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress" "Miltons Paradise
LOST ETC., which one of our company would
read aloud, while the rest maintained the
best of order This was great comfort TO
ms and kept our minds from brooding over
our heavy burden of woe. AS each day
would fade into night, aud the long, red rays
of the setting sun gleam through the prison
bars we would wonder if we might ever see
its fading glory again. We remembered
constantly thai each day might be our last
We lad almost ceased 10 even hope to see
our friends again, who lived in what our
bows called Gods country" Our thoughts
would wander away TO them, aud many
time a silent tear might be seen TO cross its
vay unbidden down the cheek of some poor
fellow who had not spoken for an hour.
Our food was so scanty and bad as to keep
us on the verge of starvation and TO crush
ali the spirit and resolution We had. We
wondered as the weeks rolled by. why we
were not executed, why they still kept u.s.
Finally. We conceived the notion to write
20 Jeff Davis himself, the boss traitor and
leading spirit of the wicked rebellion. We
were certain that it could moi make our con-
dition worse. Some OF our party occasionally
would sell a vest or some other garment 10
the rebel guards for little scrip, and in
this way we could get trife>, such as a bit
of tobacco and The like. and suppose it was
in this way We procured paper and material
to write to Davis. Mr.. Pittenger, an inteili-
gent man in our party, acted AS scribe, and
q respectful letter. setting forth our condi-
tion as well as we could was written, sealed.
stamped and directed properly to The rebel
chief at Richmond, and through little
good management by the negro cook, who
took the letter to the postof1ice, have every
reason to believe it reached it's destination.
THOUGHT THEY WERE DEAD.
We never heard anything from it, but we
did hear short time afterward that the
Proyost-Marshal of Atlanta got sharp
letter from the rebel Secretary Of War,
wanting to know why those train thieves
had not been executed" evidently having
been under the impression that We had
all been hung long since The Provost
referred the Secretary 10 the record of pro-
ceedings of the Knoxville court-martial
Whether our letter had anything to do in
the premises We never knew, but We became
aware that there was some pretty pointed
correspondence going on between Col. Lee
the Provost, and the Richmond authorities,
and that we had reason to feel deeply CON
cerned, the reader may infer, from the fac,
that we set about taking desperate measure:
to once more try TO escape.
In order that the reader may more fully
understand that which will be detailed
hereafter will briefly describe the Jail il
which we were confined. The build lng tn,
walls of which were of brick and very
thick, was pretty large ono, inclosed by
high, tight board fence, similar to mos
prison,. In front OF the jail there was
heavy door gate that opened through tn.
fence lDlo the Jam yafd, ana Dy wnicn j
gress and egress to and from the Jail W:
had. This gate was usue.ly locked; be
sides, sentry was kept on duty, and some
times two, at this entrance.
The iali, which was two stories high, ha,
several rooms below, used for the convent
ence of the jailer and his family. Then
was a hall that led clear through the build
ing--lrom the front door 10 door y hic
I'D in;o The back yard. Stairs led "a
from the rghi-hand side of the ball, a fey
PAGES from tire front door, to similar hal
In the second story.
On each side of the second-story bal
were two large rooms. and IN two OF ihes
rooms was q stout iron cage similar TO tina
which Barnum used TO carry the big rhi
nocegos in. TEat they were bull, strong
know from experience, and also thai ther
was no chance 10 get out of cage unles
with assistance from the outside. In III
rear of these cage rooms, and in the bac
part of the building, were two rooms with
out cages. Each oi these rooms had ivy
windows, strongly barred across with irol
Besides the brick walls which surrounde
the four sides of every room, there was