THE REBELS FORMALLY PROPOSE TO US TO DESERT TO THEM--CONTUMELIOUS
TREATMENT OF THE PROPOSITION--THEIR RAGE--AN EXCITING TIME--AN OUTBREAK
THREATENED--DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING DESERTION TO THE REBELS.
One day in November, some little time after the occurrences narrated
in the last chapter, orders came in to make out rolls of all those who
were born outside of the United States, and whose terms of service had
expired.
We held a little council among ourselves as to the meaning of this, and
concluded that some partial exchange had been agreed on, and the Rebels
were going to send back the class of boys whom they thought would be
of least value to the Government. Acting on this conclusion the great
majority of us enrolled ourselves as foreigners, and as having served
out our terms. I made out the roll of my hundred, and managed to give
every man a foreign nativity. Those whose names would bear it were
assigned to England, Ireland, Scotland France and Germany, and the
balance were distributed through Canada and the West Indies. After
finishing the roll and sending it out, I did not wonder that the Rebels
believed the battles for the Union were fought by foreign mercenaries.
The other rolls were made out in the same way, and I do not suppose
that they showed five hundred native Americans in the Stockade.
The next day after sending out the rolls, there came an order that all
those whose names appeared thereon should fall in. We did so, promptly,
and as nearly every man in camp was included, we fell in as for other
purposes, by hundreds and thousands. We were then marched outside,
and massed around a stump on which stood a Rebel officer, evidently
waiting to make us a speech. We awaited his remarks with the greatest
impatience, but He did not begin until the last division had marched
out and came to a parade rest close to the stump.
It was the same old story:
“Prisoners, you can no longer have any doubt that your Government has
cruelly abandoned you; it makes no efforts to release you, and refuses
all our offers of exchange. We are anxious to get our men back, and
have made every effort to do so, but it refuses to meet us on any
reasonable grounds. Your Secretary of War has said that the Government
can get along very well without you, and General Halleck has said that
you were nothing but a set of blackberry pickers and coffee boilers
anyhow.
“You’ve already endured much more than it could expect of you; you
served it faithfully during the term you enlisted for, and now, when it
is through with you, it throws you aside to starve and die. You also
can have no doubt that the Southern Confederacy is certain to succeed
in securing its independence. It will do this in a few months. It now
offers you an opportunity to join its service, and if you serve it
faithfully to the end, you will receive the same rewards as the rest of
its soldiers. You will be taken out of here, be well clothed and fed,
given a good bounty, and, at the conclusion of the War receive a land
warrant for a nice farm. If you”--
But we had heard enough. The Sergeant of our division--a man with a
stentorian voice sprang out and shouted:
“Attention, first Division!”
We Sergeants of hundreds repeated the command down the line. Shouted he:
“First Division, about--”
Said we:
“First Hundred, about--”
“Second Hundred, about--”
“Third Hundred, about--”
“Fourth Hundred, about--” etc., etc.
Said he:--
“FACE!!”
Ten Sergeants repeated “Face!” one after the other, and each man in the
hundreds turned on his heel. Then our leader commanded--
“First Division, forward! MARCH!” and we strode back into the Stockade,
followed immediately by all the other divisions, leaving the orator
still standing on the stump.
The Rebels were furious at this curt way of replying. We had scarcely
reached our quarters when they came in with several companies, with
loaded guns and fixed bayonets. They drove us out of our tents and
huts, into one corner, under the pretense of hunting axes and spades,
but in reality to steal our blankets, and whatever else they could find
that they wanted, and to break down and injure our huts, many of which,
costing us days of patient labor, they destroyed in pure wantonness.
We were burning with the bitterest indignation. A tall, slender man
named Lloyd, a member of the Sixty-First Ohio--a rough, uneducated
fellow, but brim full of patriotism and manly common sense, jumped
up on a stump and poured out his soul in rude but fiery eloquence:
“Comrades,” he said, “do not let the blowing of these Rebel whelps
discourage you; pay no attention to the lies they have told you
to-day; you know well that our Government is too honorable and just to
desert any one who serves it; it has not deserted us; their hell-born
Confederacy is not going to succeed. I tell you that as sure as there
is a God who reigns and judges in Israel, before the Spring breezes
stir the tops of these blasted old pines their Confederacy and all the
lousy graybacks who support it will be so deep in hell that nothing
but a search warrant from the throne of God Almighty can ever find it
again. And the glorious old Stars and Stripes--”
Here we began cheering tremendously. A Rebel Captain came running up,
said to the guard, who was leaning on his gun, gazing curiously at
Lloyd:
“What in ---- are you standing gaping there for? Why don’t you shoot
the ---- ---- Yankee son---- --- -----?” and snatching the gun away
from him, cocked and leveled it at Lloyd, but the boys near jerked the
speaker down from the stump and saved his life.
We became fearfully, wrought up. Some of the more excitable shouted
out to charge on the line of guards, snatch they guns away from them,
and force our way through the gate The shouts were taken up by others,
and, as if in obedience to the suggestion, we instinctively formed in
line-of-battle facing the guards. A glance down the line showed me an
array of desperate, tensely drawn faces, such as one sees who looks a
men when they are summoning up all their resolution for some deed of
great peril. The Rebel officers hastily retreated behind the line of
guards, whose faces blanched, but they leveled the muskets and prepared
to receive us.
Captain Bowes, who was overlooking the prison from an elevation
outside, had, however, divined the trouble at the outset, an was
preparing to meet it. The gunners, who had shotted the pieces and
trained them upon us when we came out to listen t the speech, had again
covered us with them, and were ready to sweep the prison with grape
and canister at the instant of command. The long roll was summoning
the infantry regiments back into line, and some of the cooler-headed
among us pointed these facts out and succeeded in getting the line to
dissolve again into groups of muttering, sullen-faced men. When this
was done, the guards marched out, by a cautious indirect maneuver, so
as not to turn their backs to us.
It was believed that we had some among us who would like to avail
themselves of the offer of the Rebels, and that they would try to
inform the Rebels of their desires by going to the gate during
the night and speaking to the Officer-of-the-Guard. A squad armed
themselves with clubs and laid in wait for these. They succeeded in
catching several --snatching some of then back even after they had
told the guard their wishes in a tone so loud that all near could hear
distinctly. The Officer-of-the-Guard rushed in two or three times in a
vain attempt to save the would be deserter from the cruel hands that
clutched him and bore him away to where he had a lesson in loyalty
impressed upon the fleshiest part of his person by a long, flexible
strip of pine wielded by very willing hands.
After this was kept up for several nights different ideas began I to
prevail. It was felt that if a man wanted to join the Rebels, the
best way was to let him go and get rid of him. He was of no benefit
to the Government, and would be of none to the Rebels. After this no
restriction was put upon any one who desired to go outside and take the
oath. But very few did so, however, and these were wholly confined to
the Raider crowd.