The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-01-02
A CIVIL WAR SCOUT.
MOSS SERVED SHERIDAN AND HAD
MANY NARROW ESCAPES.

! MANY MARROW ESCAPES. r.
A Qaick Answer That Drove Away .
Quartet of Confederate Troopers.
Adventures Of an Escape From Jail
and Death.
Daniel Moss. one Of General Phil Sher-
idan's scouts In the civil war. was born
On Sept. 10, 1924, in Shenandoah coun-
ty, Va. He was miller by trade and
worked in mill untii the latter part Of
1861, when he became a scout in the Ua-
ion army. He was in no regular battle.
His work was to discover where the ene-
my was and in what numbers. Some
times he varied this by leading parties to
capture small detached bodies of the enc
my. OF course he was of en- in peril.
He was ON one occasion sitting by the
roadside when four Confederate soldiers
suddenly rode up. recognized him and
said: Hello! What are you doing here"
He had the presence of mind to reply,
! waiting for the balance Of our men to
come up" There were no men to come
| up, but there was a man blowing in q
field near by, and just at that moment
the heads of his horses appeared over the
hill. The Confederates thought the I'm
ion troops were coming, turned their
horses, and away they went.
He was taken prisoner twice. The first
| time the Confederates kept him about
four days, and then he profted by an op-
pOrtunity to walk off. He had not gone
far when he encountered 800 Confeder-
ate cavalry. He was dressed in Con-
federate uniform; they did not know him,
and so he escaped. He lived at that time
about four miles from Winchester and
had been home but few days when he
was captured the second time. He did
not know there we're any Confederates
about, as the Union forces held Winches-
ter. A squad of Confederates turned up
there about midnight and tooI him to
Harrisburg jail.
There he remained about seven weeks,
with six Confederate deserters. He pro-
posed to them to get out of there. He
found they were willing, and one day he
slipped a knife into his pocket at meal
time. One of his schoolmates. hearing of
his being in jail, came to see him. His
schoolmate was Confederate lieutenant.
Moss asked this man to get him file.
The lieutenant replied that he would do
so on the condition that if the Yankees
ever got him into prison he (Aloss) would
get him out. Moss promised, and the
file was sent to him in plug Of tobacco.
Moss made n saw out of the knife he had
hidden by filing teeth in the back. With
this he sawed off the iron bars of the jail |
windows. The prisoners danced and
sang to drown the noise of saving and |
filing. This provoked tho jailer, and SO |
they were handcuffed and hobbled with |
ball and chain and at last were fastened |
to staples in the floor. Meanwhile Moss |
had found an old wagon spoke, which he
hid under loose board in the floor. This
he used to draw the staples from the
floor. He then replaced the staples in the
floor and the spoke under the board.
This done, the prisoners resumed their
singing and saving, keeping the jailer ig-
porant Of how they got loose. At night
they were secured to the floor again, only
to go through the same operation. and
be loose again.
BY and by they got everything ready
for their escape and were waiting for
night to come. The jailer came in that
evening and informed them that their
sentence of death had been confirmed and
that they would be shot the next day at
3 o'clock. Moss replied, "Thank you,
SIR" The jailer said, III you don't mind,
I'll put guard in with you" Moss re-
piled, "Please sir, you had better put in
two." The iailer withdrew without an
swering. Night came on, and it was
agreed that the largest man was to 60
ont first. Therefore Moss, being the
smallest. was the last one out.
Their escape was effected successfully
and was not discovered till morning.
Then troops went In pursuit of them, sur
rounded the wood they were in and set 1t
on fire. Moss lay still until the fire was
very close, when he and his companions
scratched the leaves from around them,
set them OIL fire, and thus the fire was
made to pass over the woods without the
Confederates finding them. They waited
until dark and then started. They trav-
eled mostly by night and had nothing to
eat for the first two days. The third day
they came to house where Moss got one
pie. They got nothing more to eat for
four days. They were then within ten
miles of Winchester. There they got
some bread and meat Moss often said
it was the best meal he ever ate. They
reported the next day to General Mil
roy's in Winchester.
Moss was sent once from Martinsburg
after a man who was thought to be car !
rying a valuable dispatch. He overlook
him at Bunker hill. not far from Win
chester, and searched him closely. max
ny him even take off his boots and socks
without finding the dispatch Then he
the saddle in vain. He was
ibout to let him go when the man, being
,ut Of humor said, Hang it. you had
better search my horses tall" Moss
gave the knot in the horses tail pull,
md out came the dispatch.
Moss sometimes played tricks on his
brother scouts. He and two other scouts
anne into camp one night cold and hun
Try. The other scouts had got some sau-
age He offered them 81 for enough for !
lis supper. They said. mo; go and steal
t MS we did" He watched his opportu-
Iity. and when they got the sausage fried
le took it.
Moss had horse that could outtravel
nything he had ever seen. II made no
nlt for fence or ditch. He lay out Of
oors many night. and his horse, turned
pose. would not go away. but would
ONE and lie down by his side, and he
vas sometimes afraid it would roll over s
n him.-New York Sun. {