The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-12-08

m1Shlng ana Qld not know now serious
our position was until / saw them fire th'
caissons and cut the wheels of the artil
lery, all of which was destroyed. From
that raid not single wheel was ever car
ried back into the Union lines. When the
caissons began to explode about 1 found
chat my position was not any too comfort
able and / left the hack l was riding in al
what / considered a judicious time and
cot into the woods / had been in the
WOODS but few minutes when I found
two or three struggling Confederates te
whom 1 surrendered. These men took me
out into the road and there l found my
self on the right of Gen. Mahone's
division and 1 was turned over to the
provost guard. They told me to sit down
on a fence while they took of my boots,
a lew pair of Burns ide cavalry boots and
half a dozen of these men tried them on.
At last they passed them back to me with
q look of disgust with this remark oh
God. what feet. So got my boots again
and wore them out. After a time Gen.
Wilson with his entire command OF caval-
nv made retreat Fitzhugh Lee and Wade
Hampton followed them and captured
about 500 prisoners. In short time these
nrisopers were brought back, placed under
guard and all marched to Petersburg.
Here we were put into a tobacco ware
house and kept three days with nothing
to eat but cold water and Indian meal.
At least that is all saw, others may
have had delicaoies, but l got none of
them.
son July 4th we were
TAKEN TO RICHMOND
and as we were marching through the
streets we were asked if this was the adj
vance guard of Grants army. We told
them we thought 1t was, but we didn' t
suppose the others would be more than
ten months behind US. We were taken to
Libby prison and were there taken to our
rooms. Mine was beside post on the
floor without blankets. Our rations con-
sisted of about % ounces Of bread and 30
ounces of meal for one week. We had
something else that they gave us one
wesk. but don't know what the name
of it was and never did know. If did
know what it was / would tell you. We
remained in Libby until August when
we were taken away. We didn't know
where we were bound, but it proved that
we were headed for Macon, Ga. We were
put into box cars, 65 men to the car.
There were no modern conyeniences and
no man was allowed to go out. We We're
confined in these cars two days and a half
before we were allowed to go out, and by
that time we had reached Macon. On the
way to Macon some of the men jumped
out, and hope escaped, but the greater
proportion reached Macon and were put
into stockade and the number we had
with us together with the number there
amounted to 1900 all officers Of the
army.
Major Benson went on to say that the
quarters here were better than they were
at Libby, but some of the prisoners made
up their minds to escape. They proposed
to dig tunnel and though he was not
able to do much digging he was let into
the secret. .sThose who could work
harder than labored night and day at
this tunnel One morning when we fell
in for roll call the prison guard marched
into the stsckade and took up their
position between us and the tunnel. They
then broke it in and destroyed it. 1t was
said that there was an officer among us
who told the prison authorities about this
tunnel and they must have had pilot TO
it, or they never could have found it.
That night one officer in our midst was
taken out of the stockade. Had he not
been taken away It is possible that he
would have gone out in a different way
than he did. We remained at Macon some
time after this and then five orlsix hun
dred Of us were taken to Savannah and
Charleston.
MAJOR Benson said that he was taken
to Savannah. At Savannah they were
quartered in the Marine hospital and We're
we'll cared for, having tents and fairly
good rations. Some of the oftie ers con-
ceived the idea of digging another tunnel.
About twenty five were in this plan and
this number intended to liberate the en-
tire party if we got the chance. The
hospital vault was at one side of the yard
and we thought that if we could get into
this we could take care of the earth as we
removed it from the tunnel.
We made an endless rope of blankets
and at intervals every ten or twelve feet
there were little bags holding about ten
or twelve quarts Of earth. The man
whose duty it was to take the earth from
the pit would take that rope on his arm.
CRAWL INTO THE TUNNEL q
and fill the first bag he came to and two
pulls meant to start it out and one pull
to STOP When the next bag came along
he would fill it and SO on. As soon as the
first bag reached the mouth of the tunnel
there was another party who took the
earth from the bag in bucket and
carried it over the yard, sprinkling it as
carefully as he could. In the morning it
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