The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-06-09

not much of hand at reminiscent
ces, though l had some exciting
times during the war Aside from
my capture, | was exceedingly lucky.
| was in several hard engagements.
including the battles of Fredericks-
burg, Antietam and Gettysburg.
There horses We're shot under mo.
but l never received so much as a
scratch by a bullet.
"EIow was l capured? Well. it
happened this way. In August,
1868, during the peninsular cam
paign, detail of $50 men unde,
Col. Foster was sent to tear up the
railroad entering Petersburg. This
was done for the purpose of cutting
off the supplies OF the Confederate
garrison there, the city being under
siege
Before we started, our general told
us he would station a relief in lit
tie patch of woods half mile to
our rear, SO that If we were pressed
by the Confederate pickets we could
fall back on them
We proceeded to work, piling I'D
ties, placing the rails over them and
setting fire to thepile. The Confed-
crates did not bother US, but near
evening an orderly rode up to Colo
mel Foster and told us the enemy
was on our left and that we would
all be captured. Col Foster told me
to ride back to the woods and see if
our relief was still there.
Rode Into Confederate Lines.
II rode back and had barely en-
tered the woods when l rode into a
Confederate line of battle. / Wheel
ed my horse and started back. The
Confederates popped at me num-
Der of times. My horse was killed
and in falling, pinioned my leg.
Before could release myself /
was captured. Three days later I
arrived at Libby prison, having had
nothing to eat since my capture. Lib
by was not nearly so bad as many
people think. If we had been given
more to eat, we would have had no
complaint to make.
While we We're in Libby we tried
to tunnel out, but were caught.
Other prisoners had been work1na
on the tunnel for months, but it was
completed during my stay. Seven
men had crawled through the tult
mel and into an old shed on the OBJ
poste side of the street from TIL.
prison. Then a fat Dutchman got
stuck in the tunnel and we worked
nearly all night eXtricating him, IN
the meantime the seven men. who
had preceded him. were discovered
and captured and the jig was up.
Tunneling Fails at Savannah.
AFTER that we were moved to Ma
con, Ca, and from there to Savan-
nah, Ga. In Savannah we were
placed in hospital yard, surround
ed by high stone wall and patroll-
ed by guards. Here again we trieo
to tunnel out, but failed. We were
given little tents to sleep in, and it
was in one Of these that we sunk our
shaft and started the tunnel The
ground was SO loose that it caved Ill
as fast as we worked and we deter
mined we must have some lumber
to timble up the hole
SO, the next day, number Of
the boys lay grooming in their tents
with rheumatism, the following day
lot more were affected. We per-
suaded the attending surgeon to give
Us some boards to sleep on, SO we
could set Off the ground.
"He fell into olr trap and gave us
the lumber and some saws. The
boys Degan to get better Immediate
ly, although the lumber was used in
cur tunnel. We dug the tunnel to
within few inches of the surface on
the other side of the stockade III d
few days.
Zone evening COW, driven by
small boy, stepped on the surface
and fell Into our tunnel. We were
discovered. The guards lined US up
and we were compelled to stand in
line all night, while they hunted for
the beginning of our tunnel.
Moved to Charleston,
A few days later the majority Of
US were removed to Charles ION, S.
T., then to Raleigh, N. c., and t.
several other places. We were treat
ed as we'll as could be expected, ex-
cept that our rations were scanty.
Sherman, at that time, was on his