The National tribune., 1901-04-18
in DREARY OLD PEMBERTON.
An Ohio Man Tells Of a Fight at Beverly and
Subsequent Trip to Richmond.

Richmond, Va, and / think some of the
| boys of the Sth Ohio Cav. and 34th Ohio
| will remember very distinctly, Il they read
this In 1865 the Sth Ohio Cav. and 34th
Ohio were in Winter quarters at Beverly,
W. Va. We had no idea of any rebels
within a hundred miles of us, but on the
morning of Jan. II, before daylight, We
| found out quite Il difference. as the rebels
were in our camp, shooting and yelling
| in our midst, and aroused us from our
| slumbers.
/ was on detached service, and belonged
| to the band. We were quartered a short
distance from the main camp. The rebels
| came in on that side and commenced
shooting at our boys, and we were right
| among them. In our mess there were
| four. Henry ROckafield and / bunked to-
| gether on the north side of the door; Syl-
vester Nelson and Philip Harper bunked
on the south side. The first noise of the
rebels my partner jumped out of the door,
without waiting for anything. Two reb-
els yelled Stop" and two shots followed.
! l thought "Old Rocky" was gone. I
never knew any better until / was ex-
! changed. l am glad to hear that he is
doing well. He is proprietor of n hotel
at Springfield. Ohio.
While the shooting was in progress
around our quarters it made our position
exciting, as the bullets from our boys flew
| pretty thick through our shanty. Harper
and Nelson crawled under their bunk, on
the ground, and / told them / would get
on their bunk, and if / got killed would
be close to them. So after a short while.
though it seemed a long while, one of
| the rebels said:
Boys, there has been nobody in these
shanties yet"
So they opened the door, which swung
back toward where we were, and came
poEing in with bayOnet fixed. ] rose on
the bunk and said:
I'VE surrender, gentlemen" That was
the first and last time l ever called them
gentlemen"
"Weil, come right out of there, then"
] asked the Johnny if / could take some
rations along, as we had had no break
fast He said yes So I loaded up my
haversack, and took three blankets. When
we got out of our shanties there were six
more of the band boys.
1t was just getting day at this time.
One rebel gave orders to another to 'tote
'em down there" We marched down in
a hollow, and to our surprise were oil
counted. There We're $50 of us in all.
One of the circumstances l remember
| well. w. w. Sherer had no shoes. /
| gave him blanket. Capt. McAlpin, Co.
g, had no coat l gave him a blanket.
Warren Bartmass, Co. d, had no coat; l
gave him one. But / got little rebel
| saddle -Dlanket ne1OTe nlGnt.
While in this hollow the rebs looted
the town stores. and one of them had
seven pairs of boots fastened to his sad
die j. J. Mitchell. Co. d, Sth Ohio Cav,
stole one pair while the Johnny was on
the saddle, and gave them to w. w.
Sherer, the one who had no shoes. After
awhile there was trouble. The reb missed
his pair of boots, and he came around
hunting the man who had his boots. But
NnnIyc tnn him Wa
kept an eye on him, and always managed
to have a pretty good squad between him
and Sherer.
After we were there awhile we became
almost frozen. They marched us about
four miles from Beverly, where we were
camped for the night, and while we were
there the rebels would take some of our
boys out and take off their shoes. They
kept 1t up awhile until they got into our
company, when our Captain, Frank L.
Mooers, now Mayor of Omaha, Neb.,
stopped it. One Of the rebs came to John
Crawford, of our company, and tried to
force him out Crawford said:
Captain, here's fellow who wants TO
take my Shoes"
Capt. Mooers exclaimed that he would
not have it. He called for Lieutenant,
who responded Immediately. Capt.
Mooers told him that his men had been
taking our shoes, and he wanted it
stopped. That settled it. There were no
more shoes taken that / heard of after
that. But the next day, when we started
on the march. it was a hard matter to tell
which were the Yanks or which the John
MES, as there had been so much trading
done but TO the advantage Of the rebels,
We had their clothes and they had ours.
We marched all that day, but about 3
o'clock in the afternoon we came to q
river, the ford being about two feet deep.
Richard Werts and I thought we would
give them the slip here. We went up the
river some distance, as though we were
looking for a shallow place TO cross, but
a rebel rode after us, and teld us to get
in. We told him it was too deep there; we
would go back to the ford. He said:
Get In right here"
So we got in, and the water took us
up to our necks. We found that the joke
was on us.
river that night. We got for our supper
the small shin-bone of calf for % of
us, which only made US hungry.
The next day we marched without any
| thing to eat until night, and at supper
half-pint of cornmeal was issued to each
| four of US. We had an old coffee-boier,
and we made n gallon and a-half of soup
out OF it; but / tell you it was awful thin,
! although IL filled US up. The next day
we marched over the Allegheny Noun
tains. 1t showed all day, and until about
foot deep. That night we got nothing
to eat.
The next morning the rebs said they ex-
| pected their trains, but they came not
| So we got nothing to eat that dag. Next
| day we were each given a small piece of
meat between biscuit, handed to US by
some ladies as we crossed the creek on
log.
We were marched to the railroad at
| Swoop's Station, and they took six OF us
| into freight cars and searched US for
money. l was In the second squad un.
der tho trying ordeal. They took my
haversack, cup and spoon. AS had start
ed out one Johnny said: "Hold on, young
fellow. will trade caps with you.'
He put his old lousy cap on my head
| Then he administered a kick, saying: 81
will give you little boot in trade, too"
We were put on the cars like hogs, and
! taken to Richmond. l was glad, as | was
| played out on account of the veins of my
right leg being burst from hard march
ing. It was just nine days from the time
we were captured until we reached Rich
mond. l was among the first of our gang
to enter Libby. 1t was so crowded that
some Of US were taken across the street
to tho Pemberton Hotel, second floor
There We experienced terrible days and
nights under the management of Dick
Turner. We hated him worse than a VI
per for his tyranny. We saw him knock
a 34th boy down and trample him under
his feet.
Although we did not see as much hard