The National tribune., 1903-06-25

Use to my friend White, and in the gen
eral mix-up of guards and prisoners
could not find him in the dark, so l sim
ply made my way to the fire and punched
it up, putting on more wood. This, OF
course, awoke the guard at the door, and
my chance for that time was lost.
MARCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
The next morning started in cold and
began to rain, which soon turned to sleet.
We were on this day deprived of our
horses and required to march on foot.
This was, however, not so much of a
hardship as one would suppose. as the
cold north winds soon changed the sect
to snow, and it became so cold that most
Of our guards dismounted and led their
horses.
The guards Jared better than we did.
however, because they had our blankets
and Overcoats. while we had none.
By 2 o'clock p. m. the weather had be
come so cold that the guards abandoned
all attempts at guarding the prisoners.
The Lieutenant Informed us that he was
trying to reach a certain place two or
three miles ahead, where we would all be
comfortably housed. He asked me to ride
his horse, which l did. finding in the sad
die holsters n pair of large navy revol-
vers. The guards and prisoners were
scattered along the road for half mile.
l soon became 50 cold and numb that
could not have fired one of those pis-
tolls, if by so doing it would have saved
my life. If l could have ridden away
with that horse and weapons l doubt if
any of the guards could or would have
fired at me.
All of the soldiers in the Western De
partments will remember that cold New
Years Day Of 1864 This was the last
day of the year 1868, and while it was
not as cold as on the following day, still
the soldiers suffered more because of the
fact that most of them were on the
ing became an impOssibility. All were
then huddled around such fires as they
were able to make, to thaw one side while
the other side was freezing.
Well, as all things have to come to an
end. so did this days march end with u.s.
by arriving at plantation, near Conc
Station, about so miles south of Mem
plis.
Guards and prisoners occupied an
empty overseer's building. A fire was
built in the large open fireplace. but as
there were 10 guards and nine prisoners
to gather warmth from one side of a
fire, there was considerable crowding to
secure the desired warm places. The
guards had laid aside their guns and no
attempt was made that night to keep a
guard. Yanks as well as rebs would
wander out whenever they felt like it to
gather up wood and rails with which to
keep the fire going. To attempt to escape
would have been suicidal Had the pris-
oners been clothed in their proper cloth
ing, no doubt an effort would have been
made to reach our lines, but as it was, no
one tried to gain his freedom Mt such
great risk of death and certain suffering
ON PAROLE.
Lieut.. Cherry had taken the two Cap
tains up to the plantation house, where
they got supper, after which they
brought to us lot of cooked meat and
bread for the guards and prisoners alike.
After our supper l became aware that the
three officers had made arrangements to
sleep at the plantation house, and | told
the Lieutenant that if he would permit
my friend and myself to seek quarters
elsewhere for the night, l would give my
word of honor to report to him in the
| morning.
He readily gave us the desired permis-
sion, so White and i went along down the
line of negro quarters, where we found
that the most of the young and able-bod-
led negroes had been sent further south,
or had escaped to the Federal Army.
However, we found one faithful old
nanny, who lived alone in one of the
houses, who had an extra bed, a warm
house and plenty Of firewood on hand
She readily gave us permission to Occu-
py the spare bed, while she sat up the en-
tire night keeping a good fire. l think
there was not five minutes during the
whole night that she was not humming a
negro camp-meeting hymn. White says he
now often dreams of hearing that melody.
At daylight next morning she had pre-
pared for us breakfast OF ham, hoe-cake
and sweet potatoes, which need not say
was well relished by us.
TIE morning was clear, cold and crisp.
l afterward learned that the thermome-
ter at Memphis recorded degrees below
zero. However, it was not so bad for
us as the preceding day. because now
| our clothing was dry and the sun was
| shining.
After our breakfast we gave the old
lady a couple of greenback dollars and
went up to the oyerseer's house, where