The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-29


 enemy had invested Spanish Fort and
 for two weeks had besieged the garrison
 at Blakely, Ala On that morning the
 garrison of Spanish Fort having evac-
 uated that place, was at the landing at
 Blakely on board a steamer ready to
 go off to Mobile and during the night 1t
 was understood that 25OO men who
 watched behind the earthworks and in
 the rifle pits at Blakely were to be re-
 moved to Mobile.
 The signal corps of the enemy, as we
 afterwards learned, from the tops of the
 tall pine trees on the high hill overlook
 ing Sibley mills, had seen the troops of
 General Gibson's division on board ths
 steamer, and had seen them as the steam
 CT turned towards Mobile. Notice was
 sent out to all the federal troops that unless Blakely was captured that day | the garrison would escape. As the sun
 sank low in the west the watching mon 1 behind the earthworks saw very decid-
 ed movement in front. Signal guns were | fired, a line of skirmishers was thrown
 out in front, and long blue line, shout | ing loud "huzzas," at quick step marched 1 to the attack. Two-thirds of our garri- son were in the rife pits and remained
 in the rifle pits until the advancing enemy
 reached them, and then came running
 in front of the federal lines to the earth works For fear that we would kill our own men the few that were along the line refrained in a large part from fir ing The battery next to the right, where | the command of General Thomas was posted, soon ceased to fire and displayed a white flag. The enemy broke over the | works to our left, killing the artillery 1 men who manned the battery. My com | pany was formed perpendicular to the
 earthworks in order to attack the federal 1 troops as they climbed over the earth works and to open vigorous fire upon 1 the assailants
 | The assault was so successful that the 1 resistance of our thin line was almost I nominal and the command to retreat was | given. We had a vain hope that we might l find transportation at the wharf when
 we reached the river. The writer. appre-
 hending the worst as we descended into | a low swamp, preferred not to surrender | his sword, and put the point under | gum root and broke It. Taking the two | pieces in his hand. he ascended to the 1 open along with the men of his command. | and there saw the Yankee troops between | our retreating men and the river. AS soon
 as we were discovered the two pieces of 1 sword were thrown into the woods never 1 to be again seen. We were approached by an officer who demanded our side | arms He was told that we had none. We
 were immediately punched and marched
 back to our old quarters and our lines | of earthworks to the enemy's line, where l the Federal troops had been bivouaced on | a round knoll the highest point of that 1 country. We were gathered together and | laid down to sleep. After a vigil of three 1 weeks we slept as tired men rare sleep. 1 Next morning when the day was some l what advanced we were assembled by | company and regiment and at the head of | the column was turned towards Mobile
 bay As we were marching the negro
 troops were deployed at five or ten places
 on both sides of the line until after we l had crossed Bay Minett. The negro | troops guarded us and watched us as | we sadly and almost silently moved away | towards the prison to which we were as- signed At night be reached the bay
 and laid down to rest. We had ration of
 hard tack given us. The next morning we were moved up to Spanish Fort to the | line of bomb proofs built by the Federals l for protection against our artillery fire. We did not understand the meaning of l this movement. All day we could hear l the slow fire from Battery Huger. 1t was | stated that we were so pa1ced in order | l fire upon the position previously occupied l by the Confederate and Federal troops, while the Federal troops were engaged In l removing ordinance stores from the bat 1 tlefied
 After day two we returned to the | landing just above Shorts, and just be- | low the village, on Mobile bay, and were | there placed aboard a transport to be | taken we then knew not whither Be- l fore the close of the day we passed out
 of Mobile bay and into the Mississippi
 sound. The vessel carrying us had been
 used transport for horses and mules, an~ when night came on we were put in | the hold under matches, where the horses had been kept, and laid down to sleep in taht unclean stable. Next morning we found that during the night we had reached our destination. Ship Island. We soon left the transport and the crowd of | 2500 men marched to the quarters as signed. The island at this point is per
 haps not more than 500 yards wide. The gulf formed our southern line, and a
 line of negro sentineis guarded on three sides.
 As we reached this enclosure we set to work to make ourselves at home, the earth a sand bed beneath us the sky above us, the negro sentinels on three sides and the gulf on the fourth side Most of us made for the beach. We
 
 was acceptable. As soon as we could
 remove our clothing we leaped into the gulf and swan southward. About 100 yards from where we entered was a sand
 bank and the writer made for that point. Then the tide bore him southeastward,
 and as he was swimming heavily, lifting up his head some of the men called out, Captain. that guard is calling to you" Lifting my head the loud voice of the
 negro sentinel came across the water to this effect: White man, white man,
 whar you goin' dar? This balls hot in
 my gun; all 1 kin do to hold him back
 Action was reversed and immediately
 there was an effort made to swim ashore
 Evidently the negro thought we had | started for south America, since other wise there was not the slightest danger of escape.
 As soon as we were again in our clothes
 we set to work to make ourselves as comfortable possible. We spread our blankets upon the sand. and these gave us
 comfortable beds. The weather was warm so we could sleep without covering very
 well. The rations given us were hard tack sometimes pickled beef, sometimes plclSled pork. and sometimes a little rice
 and hard beans were added. We never knew what it was to have a full meal
 and we had only two light meals per day. Indigestion was impossible because there was so little to digest. and to get
 water we dug little holes in the sand
 This water was filtered from the gulf
 and by digging several feet we found it cool and palatabe
 The little federal money that we had
 was taken from us, receipted for. and
 turned over. we supposed to the quar-