AN ESCAPE.
About the first of August our remaining officers decided that parole or
exchange was very unlikely, and we concluded to attempt an escape.
Captains Miller and Lambert, with Major Hamilton, had already gone. They
had slipped out of the stockade and had finally succeeded in getting
home, but the hardships of the journey caused the death of two and
nearly killed Hamilton. The result, of course, we did not know at the
time, so Captains J. B. Gedney and Thomas M. Fee, Lieutenants Charles
Burnbaum and Walter S. Johnson, Adjutant S. K. Mahon and myself made our
plans to follow their example.
After considerable diplomatic work we finally closed a deal with one of
our guards to secure us an opportunity to get out, for $150 in
Confederate money, and he picked out a couple of his companions to help
him. We watched and studied the methods of guard-mounting, and selected
what seemed to be the most favorable point for our egress. We then
informed our friend the guard of the time and place decided upon and
instructed him how to have himself and friends fall in at guard-mount,
so that they would get the posts which covered our chosen ground.
When the appointed time came we were all nervous and somewhat excited,
for we could not tell whether our guards would prove true to us or not,
but we were determined, and we made our preparations with the utmost
secrecy. We had secured some provisions and an axe, and when we finally
started Captain Gedney led the way as pioneer, carrying the axe. I came
next, with a pail containing our provisions, on top of which was a large
boiled ox heart, and the others followed. As we approached the stockade
our hearts beat quickly, and we were in a state of dreadful suspense
until we saw that the nearest guard was aware of our presence and found
that he was not disposed to see us. We had picked out a spot where the
soil was loose, and, when we found that our guard was sincere, it was
the work of a very short time to work and separate two slabs of the
stockade so that we could squeeze through.
The night was dark and rainy, and fitful flashes of lightning but partly
illuminated the scene, yet caused us to crouch close to the ground to
avoid discovery. I shall never forget the interval of dread, hope and
nervous excitement consequent upon our delay at the fence while forcing
an outlet, although it could not have been more than a very few minutes.
Between the rumblings of thunder we could hear the low sough and moan
of the wind in the trees outside of the stockade, like the suppressed
wail of human beings in pain; then would come a flare of flickering
lightning through the clouds, like the striking of a match that would
not burn, at which we would flatten out against the fence or on the
ground, with our hearts in our mouths; then, with the darkness, would
come the low roar of distant thunder, like the anathemas of a
disappointed match-striker, and we would desperately renew our efforts
for fear the successful match would be struck before we got away, our
fears being heightened by the evident approach of the worst of the
storm. My similes may not be poetic or grand, but it is a fact that it
seemed to us as if each flash of lightning was an attempt to find us and
each roll of thunder the growls of our captors at the failure.
At last we got through the fence, and at once struck a pace for the
woods, which would have carried us to Iowa in short order if we could
have kept it up.
We had scarcely started before there came what seemed to me to be the
greatest flash of lightning that I had ever seen. For an instant you
could have seen to read in the open spot across which we were making all
the speed of which we were capable, and then came a yell from one of the
guards, the roar of a musket and a rattle of thunder that fairly caused
us to become frantic in our efforts to put a proper distance between
ourselves and that stockade. In the darkness which followed the glare I
plunged head over heels into a small ravine, hugging my bucket of food
desperately, but when I arose and hastened on my ox heart had
disappeared. We had no time to bewail the loss, however, for our danger
of recapture was more serious, and we fairly flew along.
Just what efforts were made to overtake us I do not know, but we finally
reached a place where we could hide and take a breathing spell, and no
sounds of pursuit disturbed us.
After a time the storm passed over and the moon began to peep through
the clouds now and then, when we started again on our journey. The
country was what can be best described as an open-timber country, that
is, timbered thinly without much underbrush. We walked all night,
selecting our course as best as we could, having occasional periods of
partial moonlight, then a cloudy spell, and again a thunderstorm. When
daylight at last appeared we sought a ravine and a dense thicket and
stowed ourselves away.
It cleared off with the rising sun, and we spent the day in hiding,
drying our clothes in the sun as best we could. We had no idea where we
were, and could only locate directions in a general way; so we talked
over the situation and decided to travel by night, going as near north
as possible, and to take turns as leader or guide, holding each leader
responsible for keeping our course.
When night came it was decided that it was my lead, and I prepared to
guide the party north in a country of which I knew nothing, my only
support being the consciousness that I knew as much about our
surroundings as the others.
We started, and proceeded in a very satisfactory manner until we struck
what we took for a bayou. There was a path along the bank, so we turned
and followed it for quite a distance, expecting it to lead us to a
crossing, but finally concluded that we should wade the stream. I picked
out a good place and started in. We walked until tired, sometimes up to
our knees in water and again up to our waists, but there seemed to be no
other side, and by the time we concluded that we had a swamp to deal
with instead of a bayou we knew just about as well how to find the spot
we had left as how to reach the other side. After a standing committee
of the whole had discussed--and cussed--the situation, in water up to
our waists, we decided that it was better to go on than to try retracing
our steps, as we would be bound to reach the other side or some side if
we only kept on long enough. So I picked out a northerly direction as
well as I could and we floundered on.
The silence was not oppressive, as the croaking of innumerable frogs,
the buzzing of several million mosquitoes and the splash of the water
did not permit such a thing to exist, while exclamations, some partially
suppressed and some emphatic, frequently silenced the frogs and startled
the mosquitoes, as one or another of the party stepped into a hole or
stumbled over a root. At last we struck a place where the water was
quite deep, the bottom soft and the bullrushes so thick that we could
scarcely wade through them.
When we got where the bullrushes waved over our heads, while the mud was
nearly to our knees and the water up to our armpits, the rest of the
party stopped and mildly remonstrated, one of them suggesting that my
ability as guide was not being displayed in finding the most convenient
way to go north, even while I might be going the most direct way, and
that there was room for an argument as to whether our most material
progress was not toward a place located in another direction.
At this I suggested that as I was their Moses to lead them out of the
wilderness I could scarcely be blamed for a visit to my birthplace while
the opportunity offered.
Captain Gedney was so exhausted that we were compelled to grope around
until we found a place where he could sit down. Before it was found he
was so completely fagged out that we had to support him, and, when at
last we found where he could sit with his mouth and nose just above
water, the situation had become serious.
Then we appointed a committee of one to explore the neighborhood and
find, is possible, a place where we could sit down conveniently.
Lieutenant Johnson, being the tallest, was selected for this delicate
duty, and we rested (!) for a time while he departed on his quest. We
had several reports from him in the next few minutes, but they had no
bearing upon the object of his mission and are omitted, and then his
voice grew fainter and fainter very rapidly. At last we heard him shout
to come on, and we went toward his locality in as good order as
possible. After some worse floundering than any we had yet had we began
to find hard bottom and more shallow water, and in a short time we
joined him on a bare space around the roots of a big tree, where we all
sat down and awaited daylight, after voting thanks to Johnson for his
timely help in the hour of need. We figured out that we must have walked
at least ten miles through that swamp, and even today I can hear those
frogs and the dismal splash of the water when I allow my mind to dwell
upon that night's experience.
Despite our worn-out and exhausted condition, and the drowsy feeling
which came to us as the result, we were unable to sleep soundly. The
myriads of mosquitoes were not slow to discover our half-stupid
condition, and they took a mean advantage of our partial helplessness. I
have never been able to decide how much of our exhaustion on the
following morning was due to our exertions and how much to the loss of
blood which resulted from the attacks of our musical enemies.