The National tribune., 1899-05-04

hut we had regular soldiers to guard u.s.
and were not abused. The Captain and
Second Lieutenant of my company were con-
fined about three miles from this Jail. i got
4 piece of paper and pencil from an officer
and wroie to my Captain, stating my condi-
| ton, and asked him if he could help me in
any way, and asked the Officer Of the Guard
if he would forward it for me, which he did.
and in a couple of days l received n letter
from my Captain. He seIt shirt; my
Lieutenant a pair of drawers. Ten dollars
in Confederate money was also sent by the
two, half of what they had, and promise
of more hep ii possible.
The $40 bought 10 pin!s Of beans, which l
shared with some of my comrades. and which
were = great help 10 Us. l also learned from
my Captains letter that Maj. Forbs, of our
regiment, had been taken prisoner, and was
with them.
As said before, we were shipped in box
cars the next dav after the discovery of the
tunnel. We were heavily guarded, two
guards being placed on top of the car, two al
the doors Oh either side, where they could
lcol out, 4 plank resting Oh boxes made
seat across the car from door TO door, which
WAS tllel with guards half facing one way.
and half the other, IN one guard at each
eni of the car on the inside.
There were about 80 prisoners in each car,
ard five cars. Five of US had mai, up our
minds to escape from our car, if possible, be-
fore reaching Florence, and agreed to keep
together and work together wien i'll the car.
As we entered Our car we discovered at one
end Il small hole in the tioor, ana we all went
to that corner. Int when the guards came
troOpiug i'll after us. we were filled with dis
may. The man having charge of the guards
III our CIR was the one who had discovered
oar tunnel, and had been made La ce
CORPORAL Ia private acting rs 4 Corporal, and
he had given each of his men 4 small flask of
perSimmon brandy as n treat on his stripes.
Whit made it Worse for OR project was
the fact that there was n full moon and
clear sky. We determined, however, to do
our best and trust to circumstances. Along
in the night the Corporal OF the Guari got
drunk Oh his persimmOn brandy. and s,me
of his men were just rs bad, and when 1t
came time TO relieve the guard at the end OF
tine car, he did not know enough t. attend to
his duty, which made the guard sitting next
to me quite savage, and we sympathlzed
with him. He had not drank any yet, but
| suspected that lie hal brandy with him.
Ali at once l was taken with cramps (sham
whisky, or anything hos with him, and
woul: give ME swallow to relieve my pain
He felt ,rry ior me, and offered me his flask
of Lrandy. l drew the cork, pat it to my
mouth, or pretended to, and replacing the
cork and smacking my lips, handed it back.
The pain was all gone and began extoliing
that brandy, and presently he took swallow
or two, and pretty soon some more. He
drank enough to make him drowsy, and
then he fell asleep.
One of the comrades had 4 caseknife made
into a saw. He took this knife and inserted
it into the crack in the floor. Owing to the
noise made by the cars he could saw without
being heard, and in a short time had a hole
throu-h h the iioor Large enough to let a man
through, and at the first stopping-place three
of my five comrades dropped through to the
ground.
The train started on again, and as my
clium and had made up our minds that in
case we made our escape we would make for
East Tennessee, we thought we would ride
rs tar as we dared before dropping through
the hole, as we would have that much less
distance to walk. At next to the lat stop
ping-place before reaching Florence we
dropped through Oh to the track. The plat
form was crowded with people of all ages and
colors to see the Yanks, but no one seemed to
see Us. i started to crawl out between the
wheels on the opposite side from the plat
form, when my canteen struck the rail and
attracted the attention of the guard on the
car ahead. He jumped to the ground, leveled
his musket and ordered US to get into his car,
which we did, and there we found our three
comrades who had gotten ont before Us.
The next day we were landed in the Flor
ence stockade. / made three attempts to es-
cape from this prison: once by tunneling,
which was discovered and caved in once on
a dark, stormy night l attempted t. go over
the stockade, and was fired on and driven