The National tribune., 1902-05-01

time. Without looking down at the man.
he stood by the cot and asked the dying
rebel if he belonged to any church. The
man replied, No" ''Then," said the
preacher, there is no hope of salvation
for a man who doesn't belong to the
church and is q rebel too" We did not
call any more preachers. ! took their
places. | did "cuss," and that hard, and
when | prayed for these people | prayed
hard, and meant all | said. If my sue
cess in attending to the sick indicated any
thing, it showed that my work and pray
ers were blessed and answered. My tenn
per got me into trouble sew eral times. but
Providence interfered and got me out.
The guard had man suspended by the
thumbs one cold day. He was suspended
near the entrance TO the barracks. DIR.
Stone saw this, and, walking up to the
man, cut him loose, and advised the guard
not to try that any more, as it was too
brutal, and he would not submit TO seeing
or hearing of n repetition. This ended
that form of torture.
DIR. Stone was a Union man, but like
the Great Lincoln, he was, humane, and
the rebel sick owe him unlasting gratitue.
| The attempt TO retaliate for Anderson
vile was about the only thing which !
saw at Fort Delaware which was out of
the ordinary or which was unexpected.
Otherwise things which happened were
brought about from causes which the Fed
eral authorities could not well control.
MY RETURN TO DIXIE.
The latter part Of October, 1864, an or
der reached the hospital to select go sick,
as they were to be exchanged. / asked
DIR. Stone TO let me 90. He said the order
applied to the sick, and as / was not sick
he could not put me on the list. Besides,
he said that / was doing my cause more
/ ylaV4< Il
do in the field. He said that he intended
to keep me there until the war closed,
and then he was going to take me North
and we would practice medicine together.
lie fenced my arguments as fast as !
made them, and for the nOnce ] dropped
the subject. The afternoon of the day
before these men were to leave n prisoner
was brought into Ward g. DR. Stone
came in with him. 4 guard had stabbed
bathroom and then dressed the wound.
! When the nurses had taken the man out
| got after the Doctor again. / told him
of my desire 10 go where i could hear from
my wife, if | could not see her, as / had
received but one letter from her by flag OF
truce. He said, of course, he could not
| refuse to let man go to see his wife, no
matter how well he liked him; in fact if
| he liked me he would show it to best ad-
vantage by granting my request. He then
promised me that he would get me off in
the morning if possible. He succeeded,
and | left Fort Delaware on a tugboat.
! We went to Point Lookout, where we
spent the night, guarded by negro soldiers
| This rilcd me no little. Next day we
| boarded the side-wheei steamer Herman
! Livingston. and proceeded to Fortress
Monroe. We lay at anchor in Hampton
Roads for a week or so. / was on this
| ship the day Lincoln was reelected Pres,
! idcnt.
From Hampton Roads, in company
with several other steamers, we went to
Port Regal. s. c., and from there to Fort
Pulaski, where we were transferred to
| tugboats, and went on them to Savannah
Thus | was exchanged and back on South
ern soil. Several men died at sea on our
ship, and We're cast overheard
/ have tried to give facts about Fort
| Delaware. The reader can form his own
conclusions as 20 what sort of a place
ii was in 1868 and ga.
! | have used the words Yankee and
rebel, but have done so without any in.
tention of belittling; but merely used
them as we used them during the war
and this article is intended TO represent
the feelings and events of war times. and
not my feelings now. / now have among
my best friends Union soldiers of the civil
war, one of whom was a Regular sta
toned at Fort Delaware.
| (Ihe End)