Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-10-15
An lmprovised
Boat
By JOHN TURNLEE

D
today, fifty years after they occurred.
But when one considers the number
of men under arms, then figures the
proportionate number of prisoners and
remembers that one in fifty is not a
large proportion of prisoners who made
attempts to escape, he will see that
quite little army made the venture.
For example. suppose there were 1OO-
600 prisoners taken during the war.
1000 men tried to escape.
Among the curious ventures made
by Union prisoners in the south be-
tween 1861 and 1865 was that Of
Charles Dorrance. a private in the
Union army. Dorrance was wounded
during the operations around Vicks-
burg and taken to a house on a small
plantation. where he was nursed by
young southern girl.
Every one knows how conducive to
love is nursing. Mabel Owen captured
her patient without any trouble, and
he captured her the first time she saw
him. She was country girl, and Char
lie was city boy. with clear, hon
est eye and a pleasant smile. 1t was
not to be wondered that she surren-
dered on sight.
Had the captive Of Cupid rejoined
his command as soon as he was we'll
enough to do so he would probably not
have been made captive of Mars.
He dallied, and troop of Confederate
cavalry came along and took him to the
camp of an infantry brigade on the
bank of the Mississippi river. Mabel,
on seeing her lover taken away from
her, was disconsolate. When he bid
her goodby, moved by the strongest
impulse in humanity, love, he whisper
ed in her ear:
BE on the lookout for me. for I'll
come back to you if l have to come
in my coffin!'
The day Dorrance was taken to the
Confederate camp two deserters were
tried by court martial and sentenced
to be shot. A carpenter was at once
set to work to make the collins. He
was doing the job in sight Of the
I guard tent where Charlie was confined.
! Charlie noticed that he was making
slow progress and heard an officer
berating him, saying that if he didn't
work faster he wouldn't get the job
done in time for the execution, which
was appointed for half an hour after
reveille the next morning. Charlie told
the officer that he knew all about max
ing collins With was faISe-and
would help if permitted. The officer
accepted the offer and Charlie went to
work.
One of the collins was very large
enc and the other Il very small one.
/ Charlie worked on the large one He
did not finish it till long after dark
and was permitted to go on. sentinel
being placed over him to see that he
remained in camp.
1t was about an hour after taps, and
! the command was asleep, all except
the chain of Sentinels surrounding the
camp and so was the guard detailed
to watch the prisoners. There was a
way open to Charlie-the river. I'm
fortunately he couldn't swim and had
no boat But Charlie conceived an
idea. Boring holes in the upper edges
of the coffin, he drove pins in the
holes, then roughly shaped a couple Of
four inch planks into pair of oars
The pins were the right distance
apart for rowlocks. The blades Of the
oars were the right thickness, but the
rest was rather thin.
He was working within a few yards
OF the river. and, putting the oars in
the coffin, he carried it to the water,
launched it, got in, and the friendly
current carried him out into and down
far enough from shore he took up his
oars. thereby steadying his improvised
boat, which was topply.
Charlie had been taken up the river
some distance above the plantation
where he had been nursed and floated
back to it. He kept awake till morn
ing; then, being young and the young
requiring sleep, he lay fiat on his back
and settled to slumber.
Mabel Owen arose early that morn.
ing, got the breakfast for the family
and went out to mourn for her lost
lover. She was sitting on a stump on
the bank of the river when, looking
northward. she saw something like a
boat in the distance AS it approached
it did not show the curved outline of
skiff. 1t was rather a parallelogram
with bulged sides, at an angle. When
it came near enough to be distinguish.
ed she saw that it was a coffin with a
body in it.
Her first thought was that the ever
changing Mississippi had washed into
a graveyard and let out corpse. But
she couldn't understand why it had no
lid. The grewsome boat came on with
the current till it foated directly under
the bank where Mabel sat. A recog.
milton of her lover and remembrance
Of his promise to come back to her if
he had to come in his coffin came to
her simultaneously, and she gave a
shrek sufficient to raise the dead.
1t certainly raised the living. for 1t
wakened Charlie, who opened his eyes
and saw his girl bending over the bank
directly above him. He sat up, grasp
ed the oars, turned his boat to shore
and in a few minutes the lovers were
clasped in each others arms.
Charlie didn't stay long with her.
however He rcjoined his command,
but after the war returned for his
sweetheart.
There Is no record as to how the big
deserter got on without a coffin.