VOL. 1. i '-'"^'l^o^l l^^^E^i^"^ ""■• !■ NEW YORK. 
 
 PPICnUPrM.of, DEAD LINE III mSOHVILLE, 
 
 I lllUUIl I Lll I BY MARLINE MANLY. 
 
 Chased through the pwamp hy the rebel guards of Andersonvllle. 
 
THE WA.R LIBRARY. 
 
 PRISON PEN; 
 
 BEAD lilNE AT ANDERSOITVIIiliE. 
 
 Br MARLINE MANLY. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 OFF FOR THE SEAT OF WAR. 
 
 " I haye enlisted, mother!" 
 
 The little woman to whom these words 
 were addressed turned white as with the 
 pallor of death, and then rallying, caught 
 the hands of her tall boy in her own, look- 
 ing into his eyes with a hungry glance that 
 spoke more than words ever could. 
 
 There were unshed tears in that widow's 
 eyes, and the fact was plainly manifest that, 
 although the words of Archie Gordon had 
 not been entirely unexpected, they nerer- 
 theless gave her a terrible shock. 
 
 •• Do not take it so hard, mother. The time 
 has come when I can no lonser liold out 
 against the desire to serve my country. I am 
 going, mother, and you must help me to 
 keep up a stout heart." 
 
 "Father in Heaven, was it not enough 
 that I should lose husband ? Is it fair to rob 
 y fron 
 i cruel 
 cruel!" 
 
 "Mother, you forget that your love for 
 our country in such an hour must rise supe 
 rior to all else. God will watch over me. I 
 firmly believe I shall come back to you 
 again safe and sound when this war is over, 
 and then you will feel iiroud of your soldier 
 boy." 
 
 " As if I had not always been proud of 
 
 £)u, my noble boy," murmured the little 
 dy, with her arms uo\. clinging around his 
 neck, "but my heart grows heavy with ap- 
 prehension when I think of you in the heat 
 of battle, with death hovering near in a 
 thousand shapes. Oh, may the good Father 
 In Heaven save you for me ! Was it not 
 enough that they bereft me of my Edward, 
 the dearest, kindest, noblest husband woman 
 ever had, without robbing me of my boy, 
 too?" 
 
 Archie comforted her, and presently the 
 little mother proved herself possessed of 
 Spartan blood and resolution. 
 
 " I must not let him see how terribly it 
 outs me to the heart to have him go. Sure- 
 ly he has enough to suffer in thus leaving all 
 he loves for duty's sake. I will no longer 
 be a hindrance in his path. God bless him." 
 
 With this noble resolution in view, the 
 little woman, already bereft of husband by 
 the cruel hand of war, closed ner bleeding 
 heart and even smiled when Archie told her 
 enthusiastically how the people had shaken 
 hands with him when he enlisted and called 
 him a chip of the old block ; but, ah, it was a 
 pitiful smile that wrung the young fellow's 
 heart. 
 
 He knew full well that a sad memory had 
 arisen in her mind of the day when his 
 father, the doctor, had come home to bid 
 them all tarewell. 
 
 He had raised a company and become en- 
 rolled in the army. 
 
 At that time it was a popular delusion 
 that the war could only last three or four 
 months at the most, and the parting was 
 supposed to be for only a short time. 
 
 People believed the Northern troops would 
 only have to make a march south, and that 
 matters would soon be satisfactorily set- 
 tled. 
 
 Alas ! this delusion was soon destroyed. 
 
 There came stories of terrible battles, of 
 thousands killed and wounded on both sides, 
 and then many a Northern home was wrap- 
 ped in mourning as the name of a beloved 
 member was seen in the fatal death list. 
 
 In one of those early engagements 
 he fell. When they read his name among 
 the list of " Dead " it was as if a thunderbolt 
 had fallen upon the little Ohio home. Oh, 
 God ! how many, many homes suffered that 
 same dread shock during those four years of 
 bloody war? Are there not thousands and 
 thousands of fathers and mothers, sisters, 
 wives and sweethearts, who look wistfully 
 toward the distant Southland, and think of 
 the magnolia and pine trees that bend over 
 the unmarked graves of those who have 
 been very dear to their hearts f 
 
 It was a long time before Mrs. Gordon re- 
 covered from the shock, but Archie seemed 
 to have, in a great measure, stepped into his 
 father's place, and she soon learned to lean 
 on him. 
 
 He was very like his father, and Archie 
 was often heard to declare that if he could 
 
 only gain the universal respect that had al- 
 ways been granted his dearly beloved parent, 
 he could wish no more. 
 
 The affectionate eyes of his mother had 
 long since noticed his restlessness— how he 
 eagerly read every item of news from the 
 far oft land of Dixie, and with what vigor 
 he entered into all the enterprises connected 
 with the soldier's relief movement. 
 
 Her jealous heart realized the inevitable 
 result, but she put off tlie evil day in her 
 mind until at last the shock came. 
 
 Archie had enlisted ! 
 
 Several days passed along. 
 
 The widow hastily got all things in readi- 
 ness for his departure, and although that 
 was to be fully two weeks from the time of 
 his enlistment, the days seemed to fairly fly 
 to her, as they will to the condemned crim- 
 inal in his cell. 
 
 In the presence of Archie she now kept up 
 a cheerful manner, which did much toward 
 making the parting more bearable to him, 
 though he saw through the action of the 
 noble woman. 
 
 God alone knew how her tears fell upon 
 the socks she darned for him, as the terrible 
 picture presented itself to her of the burial 
 in trenches by moonlight, and among those 
 mutilated forms so hastily put forever out 
 of sight, she could see the noble form of her 
 
 the solitude of her room. 
 
 Archie was young, with buoyant spirits, 
 and eager to be a soldier — eager to luflict 
 some loss upon those who had robbed him of 
 a father. 
 
 True, he suffered, too, at the idea of parting 
 from his dear little mother, but his pain was 
 nothing compared with hers. 
 
 There was one in the little Ohio town 
 whom Archie had loved since they were 
 children together. 
 
 He wondered how Muriel Carter would 
 take the news. 
 
 She was a loyal girl, foremost in all the 
 sanitary fairs that were held, and was en- 
 thusiastic upon all matters pertaining to the 
 war. 
 
 Though Muriel had never hinted to Archie 
 that she thought it his duty to fill the place 
 in the ranks made vacant by the death of 
 his noble father, it was more "than probable 
 that the knowledge of her strong sympathy 
 toward those who went to the front was 
 much of an inducement for him to take the 
 step that enrolled his name among the de- 
 fenders of his country. 
 
 As a widow's only son, he was exempt 
 from the draft, but, somehow, he felt as 
 thought it was half a disgrace to be at home 
 when those who had been his schoolmates 
 were in the war ; and, at last, unable to 
 stand it longer, he had enlisted. 
 
 When he went to see Muriel that night he 
 knew she had heard the news, liecause of 
 her graveness when she looked at him; but 
 during the whole evening not a word was 
 said upon the subject. 
 
 As he was taking his leave of her she look- 
 ed straight into his eyes, while her own were 
 partially dimmed with unshed tears, and 
 said, bravely : 
 
 "You are going, Archie, my love. 
 
 wounded, send for me, and I will come to 
 you, oh, so gladly. If you should never 
 come back," choking down the feeling that 
 threatened to impede her utterance, " I will 
 never forget my soldier boy while I live, and 
 trust to meet you in Heaven." 
 
 " You would not have me stay at home, 
 Muriel?" he asked. 
 
 "No; for I think the time has come when 
 every man is needed at the front. Before, 
 there were enough, without the sons of 
 widows and men over forty, but the war has 
 now l)ecome so terrible that every one capa- 
 ble of bearing arms who loves his country, 
 should be at the front to crush this hydra- 
 headed monster that threatens to tear 
 asunder our beloved Union. No,no; a thou- 
 sand times, no. Much as I love you, Archie, 
 I would rather know of you as being in the 
 heat of battle with danger around you, than 
 in safety at home. Would that I were a 
 man, capable of bearing arms for my 
 country. The time now is, when no im- 
 pediment should be enough to keep back 
 one loyal heart." 
 
 " You will comfort my poor mother when 
 I am gone, sweetheart?" he asked, ten- 
 derly. 
 
 " I love her dearly, Archie, and I will be a 
 daughter to her in time of need. All that 
 a loving child could do for her, that will 
 I do." 
 
 He pressed her in his arms, and kissed her 
 for those dear words. 
 
 She looked up at his manly figure, and a. 
 great sigh forced itself from between her 
 lips. 
 
 pierce her heart when she saw the one to 
 whom her love had gone out, marching off 
 from home in his suit of blue; going, it 
 might be, to death in the laud of war. , 
 
 The time flew by. 
 
 At last came the day when he was to leave 
 them, never, perhaps, to return. 
 
 It was just such a day as had been the one 
 which witnessed the departure of Captain 
 Gordon and his company— the sky fair, the 
 birds warbling, and all nature seemed glad ; 
 yet the widow's heart was heavy as lead, 
 though she kept up to the end in a manner 
 that was simply wonderful. 
 
 There were a score of men from the town 
 in the company, the balance being from ad- 
 jacent places, and every one within a radius 
 of miles— saving a few whose sympathies 
 were the other way— assembled to wlih 
 sembled to wish them God speed. 
 
 How manly Archie Gordon looked in his 
 suit of blue. 
 
 He wore the stripes of a corporal on his 
 sleeves, and a nobler boy never left home to 
 battle for his country. 
 
 The fateful moment drew nearer. 
 
 He had already bidden Muriel good-by in 
 the privacy of her home on the previous 
 evening; for, although their engagement 
 was generally known, still they had no de- 
 sire to make a public spectacle of it. 
 
 Archie had not been without rivals, and 
 the most persistent of these was one Clar. 
 enee Henston, a lieutenant in the very com- 
 pany then about startling out. 
 
 Muriel had induced him to enlist, though 
 it had been somewhat of a task, for he was 
 but a lukewarm lover of the Union, his fa- 
 ther being secretly a sympathizer with the 
 South, though, in such a loyal community, 
 he did not dare to voice his impressions 
 much, for fear of the coat of tar and feath- 
 ers that awaited him from his indignant 
 neighbors; who, while believing every man 
 entitled to his opinion upon such matters, 
 had no desire to hear him bellow it forth on 
 all occasions, and taunt them with every re- 
 pulse of Northern arms. 
 
 Clarence Henston was something of a 
 dandy in his way, and strutted about in his 
 (ifticer's dress as though the eyes of all were 
 upon him, but Archie, beloved of all, was 
 the center of attraction. 
 
 His wonderful figure, handsome face, 
 noble head, so like his father's, curly, close 
 cropped hair, and kind, flashing, yet mag- 
 netic eye, were enough to make up a re- 
 markable young fellow whom any girl 
 might well be proud of as a lover. 
 
 Muriel's eyes followed him as he went 
 aliout among the townspeople shaking 
 hands heartily with all, large and small. 
 
 Her heart was filled with pride to think 
 that this noble young fellow was her own — 
 that during the long weary march in the 
 heat of battle, while in the midst of danger, 
 on the scout through Southern swamps, ly- 
 ing in bivouac under the whispering pines; 
 and, even when suffering the agonies of 
 pain, should Heaven see fit to inflict such 
 upon him— his mind would be filled with 
 thoughts of her. 
 
 Oh, it were better to be the sweetheart of 
 a soldier, in those days, than a queen. 
 
 The gay lieu tenaut bade her adieu ; and yet 
 so preoccupied was she in thoughts of 
 Archie that she barely noticed his gallant 
 speech of dying for her, if need be, and of 
 hoping for reward if he lived to come home 
 with honors, so that Clarence hardly knew 
 whether to be offended or not as he walked 
 away. rjp 
 
 The shrill whistle of the locomotive waixD 
 now heard — the decisive moment was ai 
 hand. 
 
 There were hearty handshakings; 
 then the boys in blue began leaping on the 
 cars that were to convey them to Cincin- 
 nati. 
 
 Archie pressed his mother to his heart, and 
 heard her low " God bless you, my boy, I will 
 pray for you." 
 
 Turning, he almost staggered toward 
 Muriel. 
 
 At this decisive moment all feelings of 
 bashfulness were gone. 
 
 He only knew that he was leaving her ; 
 that perhaps he would never see her again 
 in life, and it was impossible to only press 
 her hand. 
 
 He took her in his arms, reverently kissed 
 her farewell, gave her one look into her fear- 
 
 :k 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 claim her 
 
 II 1 oan prevent it, curse his haudsome 
 face," he muttered. 
 
 Faster it went— still faster, and then the 
 rumble died away. They had gone— alas— to 
 what fate ? 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IBOUGH KENTUCKY IN '61. 
 
 Archie's father had been in the foremost 
 battles for the Union ; and, although those at 
 home had been mourning him for some 
 months when Archie made up his mind to 
 go into the struggle, the war had not yet 
 gone beyond its second year. 
 
 After being delayed in Cincinnati until 
 they were sick with impatience, the com- 
 pany was sent down into Kentucky, which 
 was still debatable ground, the Confederates 
 having apparently the firmer hold upon the 
 country, as the Unionists were compelled to 
 hide in the mountains like wolves. 
 
 The history of the war in Kentucky could 
 never be fully written, for, as a general 
 thing, it was a system of guerrilla warfare, 
 savage and cruel. 
 
 It seemed but just that the side by whom 
 the contest was precipitated should bear the 
 brunt of the burden. 
 
 The North expended vast sums of money, 
 and sacrificed thousands of her noblest sons 
 to crush the rebellion; but the South suffered 
 all this and more, for, from one end to the 
 other, her country was devastated until 
 hardly anything was left by which her in- 
 domitable armies might be fed; and it was 
 only because of this that the Confederate 
 generals Anally surrendered— Lee to Grant, 
 and Johnston to Sherman. Without money 
 or credit, and a hostile army devastating 
 their country, they were certainly driven to 
 the wall. 
 
 Archie Gordon's experience among the 
 guerrillas of Kentucky was brief, but ex- 
 ceedingly thrilling. 
 
 When the orders were finally received for 
 the forward march, they crossed the Ohio 
 on one of the ferries, and proceeded to a ren- 
 ilezvous, where the remainder of the regi- 
 ment was met. 
 
 Then the march was taken up through the 
 great hills to the Lexington pike. 
 
 In those days a more historic field could 
 not have been found than this self -same pike ; 
 for, leading from Covington direct to the 
 heart of (he Blue Grass region, where slavery 
 was at its height, this self-same pike had 
 iilway.'i lieen a highway for escaping slaves, 
 nnd had witnessed many a terrible chase, in 
 which the fierce hounds that had of late 
 years been brought into service occupied no 
 little prominence. 
 
 When Kirby Smith made his famous raid 
 and threatened Cincinnati, as Morgan did 
 also, the cstizens of the city were organized, 
 ind entrenchments thrown up beyond Cov- 
 ington on the Kentucky hills. Covering the 
 Lexington pike was a rude fort, the remains 
 of which are still to be seen. 
 That was a reign of terror that will never 
 
 her seven hills. 
 
 It was expected that the rebel raiders 
 would come along the Lexington pike; and, 
 one morning, just at early dawn, the camp 
 was aroused by the guns of the pickets, and 
 nwoke to the fact that the enemy were upon 
 them. 
 
 There was a tremendous clatter of hoofs 
 ( upon the hard pike, and a great cloud of 
 dust arose. 
 
 All was intense excitement, for most of the 
 
 men in the trenches were raw recruits— gen- 
 
 j tlemen who were exempt from the draft, or 
 
 else had sent a substitute to the front, and 
 
 yet who were ready to defend their homes. 
 
 When the truth broke upon them they felt 
 such a reaction that cheers arose loud enough 
 to make the woods echo with the sound. 
 
 Instead of Kirby Smith and his grizzled 
 men, there came m sight a large drove of 
 mules, on the way to the Cincinnati market. 
 
 It was not many miles away from the spot 
 ivhere this scene occurred that the regiment 
 of which Archie Gordon was a member, on 
 '.ts way through Kentucky to join the Union 
 army further south, came in contact with a 
 force of guerrillas. 
 
 The orders given the colonel commanding 
 
 had been to inflict as much damage upon the 
 rebel inhabitants of Kentucky as was possi- 
 ble, and gain as many recruits as he could. 
 
 Both of these injunctions he carried out to 
 the best of his ability, and men were con- 
 tinually coming into camp from the moun- 
 tain fastnesses,whitherthey had been chased 
 by the relentless foe. 
 
 The Confederate force in Kentucky at this 
 time did not amount to much ; at least they 
 were scattered so far over the State that 
 they were not capable of organizing to meet 
 any number of foes, yet they managed to 
 keep the whole country in a state of terror, 
 and might be said to virtually possess the 
 majority of the commonwealth of Ken- 
 tucky. 
 
 Being misinformed in regard lo the 
 strength of the Union troops, and believing 
 there were only a few companies of them, 
 not counting more than a couple of hundred 
 men at the most, the guerrilla leaders oJthat 
 section had gathered their forces for a little 
 
 work to lie in ambush and gobble up the 
 Federals as they rode along, entirely uncon- 
 scious of the danger that lay before them. 
 
 For this purpose, some three hundred men 
 were assembled, under one Foster, and it 
 was determined to wait until the Union 
 troopers camped for the night, when an as- 
 sault would be made that could not be other- 
 wise than successful. 
 
 Secrecy was the main object, so that their 
 intended victims might not take the alarm ; 
 and hence it was the Confederates, in their 
 effort to keep their mtentions unknown, for 
 fear lest the news should reach the ears of 
 those they expected to surprise, shut them- 
 selves out from all information concerning 
 their foes. 
 
 All this while Archie's colonel was well 
 aware of their Intentions, and when, in the 
 afternoon, they drew near a little village 
 upon the pike, he sentone-fourth of his force 
 forward, with orders to lie on their arms all 
 night. 
 
 This small force camped in the village. 
 
 What it all meant, the men, of course, did 
 not know, but their ofBcers did, and had 
 their men so arranged that, while seemingly 
 off their guard, they were ready for immedi- 
 ate work. 
 
 It was a bright moonlight night. 
 
 Archie had not l)een taken into the coun- 
 sels of his superior, beinganon-commisioned 
 ofBcer, but he suspected the truth and felt 
 
 How he would bear himself he knew not, 
 and yet such a fight as would be likely to 
 ensue would bear no comparison with a gen 
 uine battle, where the roar of cannon shook 
 the earth and shells broke all around with 
 terrible result. 
 
 Sure enough, when the fair queen of night 
 had reached her highest point, and was look- 
 ing calmly down upon the still glowing camp- 
 fires of the Union troops among the few 
 houses which, with a tavern, constituted 
 the village, there suddenly rang out several 
 carbine shots. 
 
 Then the pickets dashed in. 
 
 The enemy was upon them. 
 
 Sure enough, from the trees on either side 
 there came swooping dark masses of men, 
 and upon the night air there rang out the 
 terrible rebel yell that was wont "to strike 
 terror to the heart of many a brave man. 
 
 The Union boys were up and ready, but it 
 was plain to be seen that many things were 
 against them. 
 
 True, they had in part the protection of 
 the few houses, but they were outnumbered 
 two to one, the rebels knew every inch of 
 the ground, and besides, were confident of 
 victory. 
 
 The major in command knew full well the 
 part he and his men were to take in the 
 little game of diamond cut diamond, and he 
 at once massed his men at a central point 
 around their horses and the few stores. 
 
 At this place they could give the most 
 effectual resistance to the foe, though the 
 bushwhackers and guerrillas were coming 
 with such desperate fury that nothing could 
 have fully stopped them. 
 
 For raw recruits the men acted admirably, 
 seeing that they knew nothing of the game 
 their colonel was playing, and believed that 
 they were to face the foe unaided. 
 
 They withheld their fire until the order 
 came, and then poured a disastrous voUev in 
 among their foes who returned a scattering, 
 but bitter fire, as they continued their head- 
 long rush. 
 
 Fierce by nature, and rendered more so by 
 the wild life they had led for the past two 
 
 Where was the colonel and the balance of 
 the regiment? Minutes were precious just 
 then, and no matter how admirable his plans, 
 a short delay might prove disastrous to their 
 hopes. 
 
 Brave though that Union band was, they 
 lacked the fierce energy which experience 
 had imparted to their enemies, and their 
 cause would have been well nigh hopeless 
 had they been left to themselves. 
 
 But the colonel was ready. 
 
 From the coverts where he and the re- 
 mainder of his men had been in hiding he 
 had heard the opening of the affair, and 
 when matters were at this critical juncture, 
 from two sides the mounted Federals came 
 galloping with never a cry, but rushing down, 
 upon the foe like a Nemesis. 
 
 The Confederates had been outwitted. 
 
 They had hoped and expected to take their 
 foes by surprise, but now the boot was on 
 the other leg, and their astonisment almost 
 paralyzed them for the time being. 
 
 Thus they lost valuable time in which it 
 might have been possible for them to hare 
 made their escape, but now it was too late. 
 
 Completely hemmed in by the bluecoats, 
 the Kentucky wildcats could only fight with 
 a valor that, although hopeless, made every 
 man of them a hero, and this they kept up to 
 the end. 
 
 Many were killed, over a hundred taken 
 prisoners, and some seventy escaped, though 
 not without extreme difHculty. 
 
 They were pursued hither and thither by 
 the mounted men, and hunted like foxes. 
 
 It was a reign of terror to the rebel sympa- 
 thizers of the neighborhood, and one they 
 were not likely to soon forget. 
 
 Archie was one of the foremost in pursuing 
 
 and a hasty search resulted in finding them 
 secreted in haymows, barns, and even in the 
 dwellings around. One old curmudgeon 
 refused to allow them to search his bam, 
 declaring that no one was there, and even 
 threatening to shoot the first man who at- 
 tempted to enter. 
 
 He was speedily disarmed, however, and a 
 search of the barn discovered three rebels 
 hidden therein, one of whom was enough 
 like the old man to proclaim him his son, 
 which fact was quite suflicient to explain the 
 man's fierceness. 
 
 I regret to say that in five minutes the 
 bam was in a blaze, but Archie Gordon had 
 nothing to do with the work, and felt indig- 
 nant upon hearing of the ill treatment the 
 old man had received, for he was only stand- 
 ing up for his rights. 
 
 This was Archie's first opportunity for 
 
 of the bullets fired as the rebels dashed for- 
 ward, and he had come within an inch of 
 meeting the same fate himself- an ounce of 
 lead tearing through the top of his cap and 
 even cutting some of his hair away by its 
 passage. 
 
 The prisoners weresentback to Cincinnati, 
 and the force, on the following day, contin- 
 
 ued on to Lexington. 
 
 country througl 
 thej passed— the garden spot of Kentucky 
 
 It was a beautiful country through which 
 
 and Archie believed it must be the most pic- 
 turesque in the world. Hills and valleys, 
 broad grassy level lands, beautiful streams 
 and well cultivated farms— they saw all 
 these in one continuous panorama, and yet 
 the consciousness that every rod took them 
 further south and nearer the scene of cruel 
 war was ever before them. 
 
 During that march, the thoughts of our 
 young soldier were almost wholly with those 
 whom he had left behind him, and he was 
 more determined than ever to win laurels 
 and make his mother and Muriel proud of 
 
 The delusion of the speedy subjection of 
 the rebels had long since been laid aside as a 
 chimera, and the stern reality was now 
 looked upon by every one that only by con- 
 tinued warfare could the South be brought 
 to terms. 
 
 That disastrous and terrible battle of Bull 
 Run had done more to awaken the North to 
 a proper realization of the situation than all 
 other things combined, and during the 
 months that had gone by since then, the 
 policy of the government had been radic^y 
 
 It was no longer believed that the deeiretl 
 end could be accomplished by a few bril- 
 liant victories ; but that in order to reduce 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 the South to submission, they must be taken 
 by the throat and repeatedly shaken with 
 bulldog pertinacity until but little Ufe re- 
 mained , for while they had one leg left to 
 stand upon, the valiant descendants of Ma- 
 rion and Lee, of revolutionary fame, would 
 fight. 
 
 This being the case, it was now the policy 
 of the North to keep the war confined to the 
 South, so that it would gradually feel the 
 iron hand of devastation— to gradually close 
 iu upon their strongest points — to raid 
 through the enem3''s country, severing their 
 supply connections, and leaving a blackened 
 trail behind, and in every way weakening 
 the foe by reducing his supplies and com- 
 forts, as well as meeting him in battle and 
 •decimating his numbers. 
 
 In the end this policy won, as it was bound 
 to do. 
 
 The Federals were seldom lacking any of 
 the necessariss of life, and very often lived 
 iu luxury, while their foes were frequently 
 but illy fed aud clothed; and these things 
 tended to discourage them, though in the 
 days of Washington, even worse privatiens 
 at Valley Forge only nerved the Continen- 
 tals to renewed action. 
 
 Through Kentucky on horseback to-day is 
 a far different thing from the time when 
 Archie Gordon saw it. 
 
 At that time a Union man would never 
 have reached Lexington alive, or gone safely 
 from there to Tennessee, had be been alone, 
 for the mountains abounded with bush- 
 whackers whose vindictive hatred for the 
 Abolitionists was of a nature that had no 
 scruples of conscience. 
 
 A bullet in the back was a very frequent 
 occurrence in those days, and many a man 
 disappeared mysteriously, never to be seen 
 again. 
 
 It was a time for paying off old scores, and 
 no man's life was safe, until, eventually, the 
 battle of Shiloh decided the matter, and 
 Kentucky was handed over virtually to the 
 possession of the Union soldiers. 
 
 This engagement was the only one of 
 consequence that Archie took part iu, until 
 he joined General Grant's command, though 
 several times they were called on to exter- 
 minate little bauds of marauders on the way. 
 One bright afternoon they heard the sound 
 of drums ahead, and presently rode into 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE IRONCLADS AT FORT HENBT. 
 
 At the time when Archie and those with 
 whom he had made themarch through Ken- 
 tucky iu the late fall of '61 and early winter 
 of ' 62 reached the headquarters of General 
 Grant, preparations were in progress by the 
 Federal troops, tending to the immediate re- 
 duction of Forts Henry and Donelson. 
 
 Mainly through slave labor, the rebels had 
 erected these two forts, the first on the bank 
 of the Tennessee River, and commanding the 
 stream, and Donelson performing the same 
 kind office for the picturesque Cumberland. 
 
 They were connected by a dirt road, and it 
 was expected that in case of an assault upon 
 either one, the defenders of the other would 
 go to the rescue. 
 
 Grant was but a brigadier-general at that 
 time, but was already watched by many as 
 a rising light, for he had given evidence of 
 bulldog courage and pertinacity, which, in 
 some cases, is better than the brilliant mind, 
 capable of planning and executing startling 
 maneuvers, like that of Napoleon the Great. 
 
 Grant took with him to Fort Henry a force 
 of some 15,000 men. He was also powerfully 
 assisted by Commodore Foote, with his fleet 
 of seven gunboats, four of which were iron- 
 clads. 
 
 When Archie Gordon and his comrades 
 joined this army, it was not far from Fort 
 Henry. 
 
 Graut left Cairo with his army on steam 
 barges, steamed up the Ohio to the mouth of 
 the Tennessee River, and plunged at once 
 into that stream. 
 
 Some ten or twelve miles below Fort Hen- 
 ry, he stopped his transports, while the com- 
 modore sent his gunboats ahead, shelling the 
 woods, in order to discover any masked bat- 
 teries, at the same time looking for a good 
 place where the troops might be landed. 
 
 Archie Gordon was on oue of the gunboats, 
 having been temporarily chosen to fill a po- 
 sition occupied by a cousin of his, who was 
 taken severely sick. Thus, through mere 
 chance, he was placed in a position where he 
 saw the fighting that was destined to o?cur, 
 and in which the land forces had little part. 
 
 About fourrailes below the fort the troops 
 debarked, and for two days were busied 
 .^with preparations. 
 
 On the second day after that which 
 marked their arrival. Grant was ready for 
 business. 
 
 General McClernand, with the main body 
 of the army, was sent to move across the 
 country, seize the road leadine to Donelson, 
 and then bear down upon the fort, but by 
 an error in calculation he was delayed so 
 long in crossing the marshy, intervening 
 stretch that the troops were cheated out of 
 their expected and anticipated participation 
 in the onslaught. 
 
 However, the battle was decided without 
 their aid, though it would have brought 
 matters to a focus sooner, no doubt. 
 
 General Smith, with his brigade, advanced 
 along the west shore, while the gunboats 
 steamed up the river to attack the fort from 
 the river. 
 
 Archie was on the Cincinnati, which was 
 the flagship, Foote being thereon iu person. 
 
 Together with the EsscX, Carondelet and 
 St. Louis, the Cincinnati steamed toward the 
 fort, and the fun soon began, growing fast 
 and furious with each passing minute. 
 
 The other three gunboats being without 
 even the flimsy armor which protected the 
 ironclads stayed out of gunshot, and sent 
 shell after shell into the fort from the river. 
 
 It was Archie's first real experience, and 
 his blood leaped wildly with excitement as 
 the great guns boomed, and the water flew 
 high in air when the heavy shot from the 
 fort struck close by. 
 
 Slowly but surely the four ironclads drew 
 nearer the fort. 
 
 They dared not send in a broadside, for 
 fear of exposing their almost unprotected 
 sides, so that the flght was for the time whol- 
 
 There were heavy guns in Fort Henry, one 
 having a caliber of sixty pounds and another 
 of one hundred aud twenty-eight, and when 
 shot from these struck there was reason for 
 consternation. 
 
 For an hour the terrible bombardment 
 went on, the guns in the fort replying with 
 vigor, though it was evident that the force 
 was hardly sufScient to properly work 
 them. 
 
 At about this time Archie chanced to be 
 loiking toward the Essex, when he heard an 
 explosion differing from the firing of a can- 
 non, and immediately the ironclad was en- 
 veloped in steam. 
 
 A twenty-four pound soUd shot had torn 
 through her oak planking and penetrated 
 her starboard boiler, filling her with steam, 
 killing both her pilots at their post and 
 severely scalding Captain Porter and two 
 score of his crew. 
 
 The Essex drifted out of the action, and 
 those in the fort believed for the time that the 
 victory was theirs, but the other ironclads 
 kept steadily on until they were within some 
 five hundred yards of the spot where the 
 rebels crouched behind their works en- 
 gaged in firing those of their guns that were 
 yet serviceable. 
 
 The cannonade now became terrible, for 
 the gunboats poured in a perfect hailstorm of 
 shot. 
 
 Nor did the Confederates shrink. 
 
 More than one solid ball struck the flag- 
 ship at a point where it made a mark, and 
 one man was. killed, while many received 
 wounds from the flying splinters. 
 
 A dense smoke hung over river and fort, 
 so that it was hard to tell what damage was 
 done, but the Union gunners could see the 
 rebel flag still above the works, and as long 
 as that remained they knew it was no time 
 for slackening their fire. 
 
 There were now only four of the guns in 
 the fort serviceable, the others having beeu 
 disabled, and even the great twenty-four 
 inch eolumbiad had its vent closed, render- 
 ing it useless. 
 
 Meanwhile, the fire of the fleet grew fiercer 
 as the vessel kept on nearing the fort. 
 
 "uman nature could stand no more. 
 
 against whom they could make no defense 
 whatever ; and, taken altogether, their case 
 was perfectly hopeless. 
 
 The rebels must have known that Fort 
 Henry was bound to fall, for General Tilgh- 
 man in command had sent all of his men, 
 saving one hundred whom he retained to 
 work the guns, to Fort Donelson on the 
 morning of this eventful day, under Colonel 
 Heiman, and had McClernand beeu ordered 
 to start a few hours earlier to occupy the 
 dirt road, he must have inevitably captured 
 them all. 
 
 When the firing was hottest on the part of 
 the fleet, Archie became suddenly aware of 
 the fact that there was now no answer from 
 
 the fort, and a minute later he saw the defiant 
 rebel flag lowered from the proud position 
 it had maintained during the whole of thw 
 conflict. 
 
 Fort Henry had fallen ! 
 
 Then cheers arose from those upon the fleet, 
 and were taken up by the troops upon the 
 shore, yet the land forces felt terribly ag- 
 grieved because they had been cheated by 
 fate out of a share in the work. 
 
 However, it was pretty generally known ' 
 among them that Donelson was to be their 
 next field of work, aud as this was a far - 
 superior fort to the one that had just capitu- 
 lated to Grant's forces, they felt confident - 
 of yet having a chance to try their mettle. 
 
 There were only some seventy rebels cap- 
 tured at Fort Henry with Tilghman, barring 
 the killed, but a hospital ship also fell into 
 Union hands with sixty invalid soldiers, and 
 barracks, tents, ete., sufficient for the whole 
 army of 15,000 men. The Union loss, beside 
 those on the Essex, was one killed and nine 
 wounded on the fiagship. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 rORT DONELSON 
 
 No time was lost by Grant. 
 
 Fort Henry had been taken ; but it was a 
 small matter compared with the strong re- 
 doubt upon the Cumberland. 
 
 There were some 15,000 Confederate troops 
 at Fort Donelson, commanded in person by 
 the ex-secretary of War, John B. Floyd 
 under whom were the well known generals' 
 Pillow and Buckner. 
 
 The defenses of Fort Donelson were of a 
 most remarkable nature. 
 
 It occupied a level plateau, containing a 
 
 Is upon 
 feet in 
 
 eighty or ninety acres, which stands up 
 the steep bluff over one t - - - »- 
 height. 
 
 There were a couple of water batteries at 
 its base, mounting a dozen guns, some of 
 very large caliber, all protected by heavy 
 earthworks, and bearing up the river. 
 
 There were some eight heavy guns in the 
 fort proper, but in addition there were the 
 field batteries belonging to the army that 
 garrisoned the redoubt. 
 
 Most of its defenders were, of course, na- 
 tive Tennesseeans, but there were some 
 regiments from Mississippi, Kentucky, 
 Alabama, Virginia, Arkansas and Texas. 
 
 There weie points inland from whence the 
 fort was commanded, elevations several 
 hundred feet in height, and the land be- 
 tween, being heavily wooded, with deep, 
 rocky ravines, afforded splendid opportuni- 
 ties for defensive warfare. 
 
 On the land side a stout abatis had been 
 formed, which rendered assault at some 
 points a thing entirely out of the question. 
 
 To many men an assault upon such a 
 place would have seemed sheer mad. 
 ness, especially when defended by such an 
 army as that under Floyd— but Grant was 
 the man for the hour. 
 
 It was now nearing the middle of February, 
 1862, and yet the Teiiuessee weather was de- 
 licious, seeming to these men of the cold 
 North like October in their native states. 
 
 Gi ant's forces were being constantly aug- 
 mented, and, he had promise of many more 
 regiments after he had once begun the siege 
 of Fort Donelson; so, without delay, he set 
 out over the dirt road spoken of before, and 
 which connected the two rebel forts. 
 This was on the twelfth of February. 
 His lines were gradually extended so as to 
 invest the rebel stronghold by a line reach- 
 ing almost from the river above to the river 
 below, and, by some, estimated to have been 
 over three miles in length. 
 
 This environing line was only a few hun- 
 dred yards from the Confederate rifle pita 
 and batteries which encircled Fort Donel- 
 son, at a distance of a mile or so from it. 
 
 It was natural that at this time some sharp 
 skirmishing should be engaged in by the 
 riflemen of both sides, the men firing Indian ' 
 fashion from behind trees, and enjoying this 
 method of warfare in the highest degree, '- 
 though they well knew it was but prelimin- | 
 ary work. ' 
 
 Archie was with his company, and had 
 charge of a squad of sharpshooters, who lay 
 behind a bank, and amused themselves by 
 covering a rebel battery, planted behind a 
 breastwork, some three hundred yards dis- 
 tant, and picking off any man they could 
 sight. 
 
 They were replied to by some Arkansas 
 boys, and that these marksmen in gray were 
 experts, they soon realized. 
 
 Archie had his cap pierced, and sent from 
 his head as he peeped out from his place of 
 shelter, and it reminded him very much of 
 his encounter with the Kentucky guerrillas. 
 
 He* 
 
 Ut4\ 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 ?hat damage they had inflicted in return 
 of course, they could not positively say, but 
 more than one Confederate had been made 
 to bite the dust 
 
 On the evening of February 13. Commo- 
 dore Foote arrived with his fleet consisting 
 of four ironclads and two wooden gnuboats 
 I and it was decided that on the following 
 day he should attempt to silence the water 
 I batteries. 
 
 Preparations were made during the night 
 J and the following morning, and at about 
 j half-past two or a little later in the after- 
 [ noon, he made the attack. 
 
 The ironclads advanced to within about 
 I four hundred yards of the water batteries, 
 and poured in their shot, receiving the Are 
 of the twelve heavy guns, and also many 
 from Fort Donelson overhead. 
 
 For an hour this furious cannonade was 
 maintained, and the commodore had almost 
 accomplished the work assigned to him, as 
 most of the gunners had deserted the water 
 batteries, when a series of unfortunate acci- 
 dents occurred, turning the tide of battle 
 completely. The St. Louis was now the 
 flagship, and had done noble work thus far, 
 but at thiseritical junction the wheel was shot 
 away, while the tiller of its consort, the 
 Louisville was also wrecked, rendering both 
 ironclads unmanageable, and causing them 
 to drift out of the action. 
 
 The gunners of the water batteries, seeing 
 the accident, returned to their posts, and 
 poured in a renewed flre, in which they were 
 secondea by at least twenty guns from the 
 heights above, so Commodore Foote, realiz- 
 ing the foolhardiness of trying to annihilate 
 the batteries in his crippled condition, gave 
 up the contest, and steamed down the 
 river. 
 
 This defeat of the Union gunboats served 
 to elate the Confederates. 
 
 It was Floyd's intention to desert Donel- 
 son, as had been done with Fort Henry, see- 
 ing that capture was inevitable, for Grant's 
 forces were being constantly augmented by 
 the arrival of transports from the Ohio, 
 having regiments on board. 
 
 After a counsel of war, it was decided to 
 cut their way through the Union lines, and 
 escape up the river to Nashville. 
 
 Pillow commanded on the rebel left, and 
 Buckuer in the center. 
 
 This was on the morning of the Uf teenth. 
 
 Pillow struck McClemand heavily, and 
 the shock was severe, but the brave boys in 
 blue stood Arm, though outnumbered at this 
 point. 
 
 The contest was fierce and bloody. 
 
 As if imbued with super-human energy, 
 the Confederates pressed for ward in spite of 
 battery and deadly muskets. Nothing could 
 check them long, for they seemed utterly ir- 
 resistible. Well might they be, for their 
 ca"e was desperate--let defeat come and the 
 end was sure— either death or a Yankee 
 prison awaited them. 
 
 For two hours this fearful carnage went 
 on, men fighting at times hand to hand, 
 while the woods were sprinkled thickly with 
 the dead. 
 
 McClemand was overmatched, and al- 
 though contesting every step of ground, had 
 to fall back and send for assistance. 
 
 At this time the way of escape was open 
 to the rebels, and remained so for several 
 hours, yet because of some one's fatal blun- 
 der no advantage was taken of the opportu- 
 nity until it was too late. 
 
 Arr-= 
 
 and 
 
 those Ohio boys bore themselves, and at the 
 end of the contest, one-third of their num- 
 ber was missing, which was good evidence 
 that they had not shirked their duty. 
 
 Under the trees, the blue and the gray 
 fought like demons, and it would be hard to 
 say which showed the more pluck and en- 
 durance, though Pillow and his men, with- 
 out a doubt, did prodigies of valor, and had 
 the best of the contest. 
 
 During the heat of the battle, while the 
 two lines were blazing away at each other, 
 at only forty paces or so, Archie felt him- 
 self struck. 
 
 The wound was only a flesh one in the 
 arm, but the bullet had touched his clothes 
 within an inch or two of his heart. What 
 was singular and significant about it was the 
 fact that although he was facing the foe at 
 the time, at the end of his company, the 
 bullet had undoubtedly come from the rear. 
 
 Either some one was shooting very reck- 
 
 lessly from the Union side, or else with a 
 temble purpose in view ! 
 
 All through the dreadful action the young 
 sergeant had behaved gallantly, and never 
 so much as a sign of fear had come to his 
 heart, but as the conviction entered his 
 mind that he had a foe in the rear as bitter 
 as those in front, he could not repress a mo- 
 mentary chill, though he iid notfaginhis 
 duty to his men. 
 
 General Grant was all this time some miles 
 away, on one of the gunboats, conferring 
 with the commodore in regard to the part 
 that was to be taken by the ironclads in the 
 siege, when they should have repaired the 
 damages inflicted upon them by the rebel 
 guns. 
 
 He was astonished to receive McClernand's 
 call for assistance, and realized the affair 
 was something of more importance than 
 a skirmish or mere braggadocio on the part 
 of the Confederatos. 
 
 Promptly dispatched assistance from Gen- 
 eral Lew Wallace, commanding the Union 
 center, had succeeded in staying the rebel 
 advance in the meantime. 
 
 It was three o'clock when Grant arrived 
 upon the field, and then a general advance 
 was ordered, before which the brave Con- 
 federates were pushed, stubborn to the last, 
 back into the trenches from which they had 
 emerged. 
 
 General Smith, on the left, led the boys in 
 blue over the rebel breastworks, and even 
 held them against all opposition 
 
 gloomy, chilled the blood 
 
 ing cold and keen from the northwest, 
 slight snow had fallen, and the situation 
 was terribly uncomfortable for both parties. 
 
 Most of the Union soldiers were lacking 
 tents, and many of them had no fires, so 
 that they had to crouch all night in the 
 cold, striving to keep warm, by huddling 
 their overcoats about them, or stamping 
 upon the ground, and flapping their arms. 
 
 The rebels, more poorly clothed and desti- 
 tute of flres, must have fared even worse in 
 the trenches, but they stood it bravely. 
 
 It is even said that many of the wounded 
 on both sides, during that day's engagement, 
 left uncared for because of the fierceness of 
 the battle, were frozen to death where they 
 lay. 
 
 Archie Gordon was more fortunate than 
 many of his fellow soldiers, for he had se- 
 cured a portion of a fallen tree, and throw- 
 ing in with half a dozen others had the 
 pleasure of sitting beside a comfortable flre, 
 and also sleeping alongside of it. 
 
 The Confederates, during this night were 
 in a very unenviable state of mind, particu- 
 larly those in command. 
 
 Grant's army had been so constantly in- 
 creased by fresh arrivals sent from Cincin- 
 nati, Cairo and other points along the Ohio 
 that he now had a force of something like 
 35,000 men, and was believed by the Confed- 
 
 further effort to keep the fort, and as their 
 attempt to cut a way out had failed, nothing 
 seemed left but to surrender. 
 
 For over eighty hours their men had en- 
 dured the terrible strain of watching and 
 fighting, besides suffering keenly the while 
 from tlie cold, and many of them were so 
 utterly worn out as to fall asleep in line of 
 battle, wheu actually under fire, which fact 
 is vouched for in history upon authentic 
 grounds. 
 
 Then again, the fact that a portion of the 
 Union array had gained a foothold in the in- 
 trenchments was a severe blow, for it would 
 be a comparatively easy task for them to 
 continue the good work thus begun until all 
 the outer defenses of the fort were taken, 
 and then the end would be near. 
 
 Brave Buckner thought they might still 
 fight their way through with a loss of three- 
 
 ber, but this idea was 
 
 rrender the 
 for 
 
 fourths of their 
 abandoned. 
 
 It was decided therefore to sv 
 post on the morrow. 
 
 Now John B. Floyd had good 
 not wishing to fall into the hands of the 
 Union forces, and he determined to escape 
 in the night. 
 
 So he handed the command of the fort over 
 to General Pillow, who, in turn, intrusted it 
 to Buckner, who was to be made the scape- 
 goat of the occasion. 
 
 Two rebel steamboats having reached the 
 fort during the night from the direction of 
 Nashville, Floyd embarked as many of his 
 men as he could, especially his own brigade, 
 
 and steaming up the river they ingloriotuly 
 left the rest to their fate. 
 
 What bitter feelings must have swelled the 
 hearts of those who were thus deserted by 
 their chiefs and left behind to enter Yankee 
 prisons ? 
 
 No really brave general could ever have 
 deserted the men who had fought so gal- 
 lantly for him through the day just passed, 
 and the thousands left behind had no reason 
 to love the memory of Generals Floyd and 
 Pillow in the future. 
 
 Archie was up at dawn, expecting more 
 hot work on this new-born day. 
 
 Early in the morning. Grant received a 
 proposition from Bucknerj asking foracom- 
 
 The reply of Grant was that of a soldier 
 
 where he could crush them, and would not 
 admit of shilly-shallying. 
 
 That terse reply has gone into history, and 
 substantially reads : 
 
 '* No terms, except unconditional and Immediate sur- 
 render, can be accepted. I propose to move Immedi- 
 ately upon your works. u. s. Grant." 
 
 There was nothing left for Buckner but to 
 accept the fiat, and thus about nine thousand 
 Confederates were held prisoners of war, 
 and both rebel strongholds had fallen before 
 the prowess of General Grant. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHICKAMAUGA. 
 
 After the surrender of Fort Donelson, 
 Archie Gordon saw no more of active war- 
 fare until the middle of the following sum- 
 mer. 
 
 He then found himself under Rosecrans at 
 Murfreesboro. 
 
 During this time he had been upon many 
 raids through portions of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, and had been engaged in several 
 severe skirmishes with the rebels. Along 
 with others he had served his time in guard- 
 ing the bridge along the single line of rail- 
 road over which the Union army received 
 its supplies from Louisville, and while thus 
 engaged had been in almost constant battle 
 with the rebel raiders and sympathizers who 
 would, had they been given thechance, have 
 burned every depot, bridge and trestle, so 
 as to cut the supply off from the army. 
 
 At length the Union army was put in mo- 
 tion, and the fact was apparent to one and 
 all that it would not be long before they 
 would see hot work. 
 
 Much skirmishing ensued, the rebels under 
 Bragg retreating gradually. 
 
 In point of numbers the Federals could 
 count more than their foes, but their position 
 in a hostile country made things more even. 
 
 Thus a hundred thousand men faced each 
 other grimly, only waiting for the decisive 
 time to come when the two great armies 
 would seize each other by the throat. 
 
 All this time there was exciting side play. 
 
 Archie was with Granger when he pushed 
 on to Shelbyville, defeating Wheeler, and 
 taking the place by repeated brilliant dashes, 
 thus capturing some five hundred prisoners. 
 Wheeler, and the balance of his men escaped 
 by swimming Duck River. 
 
 On August 21 Chattanooga was awakened 
 by shells thrown across the river by some of 
 Wilder's mountain brigade, but it was not 
 the intention to strike that rebel stronghold 
 yet. 
 
 For some days maneuvering was done 
 such as crossing the river on pontoons, 
 sending a portion of the army into the bor- 
 der land of Georgia to cut off Bragg's sup- 
 plies and communications. 
 
 Crittenden's corp was to descend the nar- 
 row valley, climb Lookout Mountain by a 
 Eath known as the Niekajack trace, and thus 
 rom that eminence have command of the 
 streets of Chattanooga below, while Thomas 
 and McCook were to push boldly forward 
 across Mission Ridge into the valley which is 
 traversed by the famous Chickamauga Creek, 
 and proceed to the Tennessee, just above 
 Chattanooga. 
 
 Bragg might have held the place, but he 
 saw no good could come of it, and he wisely 
 withdrew his army in time. 
 
 It was now strengthened from all quar- 
 ters, Lee sending Longstreet's heavy corps 
 of veterans from theRapidan, Buckner com- 
 ing from Knoxville, and even Johnson send- 
 ing a strong division under Walker, so that 
 the Confederate army now amounted to not 
 far from a hundred thousand men, and was 
 the strongest ever gathered west of the Alle- 
 ghanies. 
 
 The Union force was some ,55,000 men, and 
 they, believing the rebels still in full retr»»t» 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY 
 
 were rushing on like liounds pursuing a 
 deer, while, truth to tell, Bragg was coneen- 
 trating his immense force, and planning to 
 oapture the whole hostile army, which 
 seemed bent on rushing down to ruin. 
 
 The trap was sprung too soon, and after 
 feeling the tiger's claws sharply, the Union 
 army realized that instead of a keen chase 
 after a flying enemy, they were now threat- 
 ened by a foe far their superior in point of 
 numbers, and that they must now light for 
 their lives. 
 
 Then more maneuvering was required to 
 concentrate the scattered forces before thej' 
 could be cut off entirely, and gradually but 
 surely the great rebel army advanced to 
 crush Rosecrans. 
 
 The battle of Chickamauga was one of the 
 most stubborn and bloody of the whole war, 
 and themen who lived through it will never 
 forget its horrors to their dying day. 
 
 It began in reality on September 19, and 
 continued with hardly any intermission dur- 
 ing the whole of that day and the twentieth, 
 though the hottest work was undoubtedly 
 done on that second day. 
 
 What need is there of a graphic description 
 here. Outnumbered, the boys in blue fought 
 from behind breastworks improvised on the 
 spur of the occasion, and although defeated 
 and forced to retire to Chattanooga with a 
 terrible loss of some 20,000 in killed, wounded 
 and missing, had some satisfaction in know- 
 ing that they had inflicted an equal loss on 
 the impetuous rebels. 
 
 Although Bragg's great army camped that 
 second night as victors upon the bloody field 
 of Chickamauga, where the creek ran red 
 with blood, he dared not follow up his suc- 
 cess and attack Rosecrans in his mtrench- 
 ments at Chattanooga, for the latter stood 
 ready to repeat the fearful lesson he had given 
 Price and Van Dorn under similar circum- 
 stances at Corinth. 
 It was late in the afternoon. 
 The sun was below the western horizon 
 •milion hues upot 
 awful battle raged, 
 he lebel hosts hurling themselves upon 
 oeir grim foes as though determined to 
 jrush and carry all before them. 
 
 There was not a man in the Union army 
 but who saw hot work on that fatal day. 
 
 Archie Gordon was ever in the thickest of 
 the fight, and yet he seemed to bear a 
 charmed life. 
 
 He had received several wounds, but they 
 were as nothing to him then. 
 
 At such times a man loses all individuality 
 and becomes oue of the many. So it was 
 with Archie. His experience on that day 
 was just what almost every man engaged 
 experienced. 
 
 Shot and shell flew around him— men sank 
 beside him, blood was everywhere, and a 
 sulphurous smoke at times hung like a pall 
 over the scene. 
 
 For the time being he was transformed into 
 a man of iron— with close shut teeth and 
 flashing eye he nobly responded to the call 
 of duty. 
 
 Twice were the rebel legions at this point 
 hurled back, and each time they came up 
 fresh and eager to continue the warfare, 
 strongly reinforced, while on every occasion 
 the number of the boys in blue was cut 
 down with no chance of reinforcements. 
 They tried to fall back. 
 Even this was not permitted them, for as 
 their old foes appeared again in front, 
 stronger in number than before, a fresh reg- 
 iment of Confederates showed up iu their 
 rear. 
 They were completely environed. 
 Death was all that remained now, but they 
 had no fear, for they had been too close to 
 the grisly monster all along to dread its 
 coming now. 
 
 The scene that followed was appalling, 
 yet it was but one of the many that Chicka- 
 mauga— well named River of Death— looked 
 upon. 
 
 Hemmed in on all sides, the weary, desper- 
 ate boys in blue fought like so many tigers, 
 bat that their cause was hopeless was evi- 
 denced from the fact that they were out- 
 numbered three to one. 
 
 Every man performed a prodigious amount 
 of work, but none fell without inflicting a 
 double loss on the enemy. 
 
 Before extermination came, there was a 
 Hoarse series of hurrahs from the hill close 
 by, and down came several regiments of 
 Iowa men with a rush. 
 
 They struck before the rebels could form 
 a new line, and the tide of battle was again 
 changed, but in their retreat the rebels car- 
 ried off many prisoners, and the Union troops 
 dared not chase them far for fear of being 
 ' I cut off from the main body by 
 
 some of Bragg's dashing and seemingly in- 
 uumeraljle legions. 
 
 Archie Gordon felt his heart sink when he 
 found himself carried away as with the tide. 
 
 In spite of the most strenuous efforts to free 
 himself, he found it was impossible, for all 
 around him were hundreds of the graycoats, 
 and he was cairied away with the vigorous 
 retreat uutil the pursuit was checked by the 
 recall of the Iowa regiments. 
 
 A few of his comrades had been equally 
 unfortunate, and were now prisoners like 
 himself, but the majority had managed to 
 break away. 
 
 He was speedily conveyed to the rear of 
 the rebel army, and his position was such 
 that he could see General Bragg directing 
 
 er was an object of great interest, and he al- 
 most forgot his own deplorable condition in 
 watching the vigorous actions of the Con- 
 federate general-in-chief, as he sent aids this 
 
 knowledge of the country surrounding Chat- 
 tanooga. 
 
 When night finally closed in, the firing at 
 length ceased, but it was as though the reb- 
 els were loath to give up the action even 
 then. 
 
 By the time day came again the scene was 
 changed. Chickamauga bad been fought 
 and won gloriously by the Confederates, but 
 Rosecrans held the strategic point— Chatta- 
 nooga — which had really been the main ob- 
 ject of his campaign. 
 
 Night upon the battlefield ! 
 
 The stars looked down upon the thousands 
 of dead as if in pity. Blue and gray lay 
 promiscuously about, some still locked in 
 the fierce grasp where a sudden death had 
 found them; others lying prone upon their 
 backs, while now and theu could be found 
 some poor wretch with his hands clasped, as 
 though he had tried to commend his soul to 
 God before giving up the ghost. 
 
 Let us draw a veil upon the hideous spec- 
 tacle. 
 
 With the night crept out those human 
 ghouls, the robbers of the dead, to pursue 
 their nefarious trade, and when seen by 
 those who wore either the blue or gray, they 
 met with scant mercy ; and while the night 
 after the battle wore on, Archie Gordon was 
 a prisoner in the rebel camp. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STEALING A LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 The young Yankee soldier knew from many 
 things that were plainly shown that Bragg 
 had gained the victory. 
 
 How else could it have turned out when 
 the rebel general had been so heavily rein- 
 forced as to swell his numbers to at least 
 half as many more men than Rosecrans pos- 
 sessed, and added to this was the fact that 
 they were fighting upon ground well known 
 to their leaders and thousands of the men 
 themselves, besides being in a country that 
 felt warmly toward them. 
 
 All honor to Rosecrans that he held them 
 at bay so long, quietly retreating into his in- 
 trenchments at Chattanooga when the end 
 was inevitable. All honor to his noble gen- 
 erals, that they performed their share of 
 that bloody day's arduous duties faithfully ; 
 and, above a!l, honor to the brave boys in 
 the ranks, who faced death as though they 
 were going to a feast, and obeyed all orders 
 without a murmur. 
 
 The thousands on both sides who lay there 
 silent in death were mute witnesses of the 
 terrible work done on that fatal twentieth 
 of September, and there would be mourning 
 in many a home, both North and South, 
 when the death-list was read. 
 
 Archie slept that night, unmindful of the 
 fact that he was a prisoner in the hands of 
 the enemy. He was so weary he could have 
 slept anywhere, and hehad no remembrance 
 of dreaming. Complete exhaustion pro- 
 duces a sleep which is the nearest possible 
 semblance to death. 
 
 away. 
 
 They knew what fat« awaited them. 
 
 The rebel prison had not gained an envia- 
 ble reputation in those days, and there were 
 many who had heard so much of the horrors 
 to be experienced there that they would 
 sooner have died than to be carried away to 
 Castle Thunder, Libby Prison, or any of the 
 strongholds where it was customary to put 
 Union soldiers. 
 
 Their journey was far from being a pleas- 
 ant one, as itjconsisted of many miles march- 
 
 ing over rough country before they reached 
 a point where the railroad could be made 
 serviceable in order to be shipped to Rich- 
 mond. 
 
 Archie had not given up all hope of ulti- 
 mate escape. His was a spirit not easily 
 crushed, and while he had hfe he had hope. 
 
 In the terrible time that lay before, him it 
 was this indomitable spirit that carried him 
 through when thousands, who chanced to be 
 more despondent, gave up and died. 
 
 At some town in Georgia they found the 
 railroad intact, and then the work of load- 
 ing the prisoners was begun. 
 
 Every species of car was impressed into the 
 service, and the captives were treated with 
 about the same consideration as though they 
 had been cattle— indeed, with haidly as 
 much, for their lives were a burden to their 
 captors, while fat beeves would have re- 
 ceived marked attention. 
 
 Here was where Archie thought he saw an 
 opportunity to escape from his bondage. 
 
 They had arrived at the Georgia town late 
 in the afternoon, and by the time a number 
 of cars of all descriptions, from the passen- 
 ger to the cattle car, had been impressed 
 into the service, it was growing dusk. 
 
 In the South, twilight is not what we under- 
 stand it to be in the North, for darkness 
 comes very soon after the setting of King 
 
 It was to b« expected, therefore, that all 
 haste would be made by the rebel soldiers 
 who had charge of the many prisoners, so as 
 to get them safely boxed up and on the way 
 ere the hour grew late. 
 
 Owing to several reasons, the prisoners 
 (vere not watched as closely as formeily. 
 
 In the first place, many of their captors 
 were engaged in hunting and preparing cars 
 for their occupancy. Again, both guards 
 and prisoners were weary fiom the many 
 miles' tramp that had been accomplished 
 since morning. As a third reason, why the 
 
 them attempt to escape, they would be shot 
 dead upon the spot. 
 
 This threat, coupled with the fact that they 
 were weary almost to death, was enough to 
 keep the Union men from attempting es- 
 cape. 
 
 They were in a hostile country, the very 
 hotbed of Secessia, and with Bragg's great 
 army overrunning the land between them- 
 selves and the army of Rosecrans, there 
 seemed little or no use of eluding their 
 guards. 
 
 Besides, they were so weary that even the 
 prospect of a rebel prison looming up before 
 them did not just then have power to alarm 
 them, and many actually enjoyed the pros- 
 pect of taking a ride. 
 
 Archie was not one of these. 
 
 He had made up his mind to escape, in 
 spite of all these drawbacks, and his eyts 
 were constantly on the lookout for the ex- 
 pected and desired opportunity. 
 
 It came at last. 
 
 Chance had it that he was stationed clnsc 
 to the engine that had been brought out to 
 convey the train of Yankee prisoners part ol 
 the way on the road to Richmond, and as u 
 brilliant idea entered his brain, he watched 
 the iron monster closely. 
 
 He saw that there was a good head of steaui 
 on, and was fully determined that if given 
 ijut half a chance, he would steal that loco- 
 motive or at least make a bold attempt, no 
 matter what the consequences. 
 
 Somehow or other Archie had gained the 
 good will of the rebel soldiers acting as 
 guards, who had come in contact with the 
 detachment to which he belonged, and this 
 might serve him well in case he was seen be- 
 fore well off, though he did not expect it 
 would save him from being shot at. 
 
 At last the chance he had waited for with 
 so much patience came and he was ready to 
 seize it. 
 
 The engineer had evidently seen some one 
 among those just back of the locomotive 
 with whom he desired to hold a conversation. 
 
 catch his attention, he sprung from the cab 
 and plunged in among the men. 
 
 Perhaps he thought his fireman was in the 
 cab, but in this he was mistaken, as that 
 worthy was oiling some of the portions of 
 the iron steed and standing upon the cow- 
 catcher. 
 
 With a couple of leaps Archie Gordon had 
 gained the side of the locomotive, and up to 
 that time no one had paid any attention to 
 his movements. 
 
 To spring into the cab was but the work of 
 a few seconds. 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 Then his baud was upon the lever, and im- 
 mediately he opened the throttle. 
 
 There was a movement of the great iron 
 steed, which, however, was not noticed par- 
 ticularly, as it was taken for granted that the 
 «ngineer, fireman, or some one in authority 
 was doing the work. 
 
 As Archie opened the throttle still wider, 
 the locomotive began to mo ve rapidly, and it 
 was at this moment the discovery was made 
 that a man wearing the Union blue stood in 
 the cab, and that it was the real engineer, 
 who, dashing out of the crowd ran after the 
 fleeing engine — now rapidly gaining headway 
 — waving his arms frantically and yelling for 
 it to stop. 
 
 The daring soldier realized what would 
 come now, for although the locomotive was 
 going too fast for any man to clamber upon 
 \t, there were rebel guards along the track. 
 
 fie crouched low. 
 
 U was well, for several guns sounded, and 
 th e b II nets tore through the cab. Had he re- 
 gained erect, he would undoubtedly have 
 been pierced through and through by this 
 rebel lead. 
 
 aew nothing whatever of the track 
 before him, and although it was to be pre- 
 sumed that information had been sent along 
 
 at any moment, he might run off an open 
 switch or turn into one where the locomo- 
 tive would be wrecked. 
 
 All of these chances he took. 
 
 It death was to come to him it would be 
 nothing more than he had expected upon 
 the bloody field of Chickamauga, and siu-ely 
 it was much more preferable to die instantly 
 in a blaze of glory than to suffer in a rebel 
 
 All seemed fair before him, and his hopes 
 arose, though they did not overwhelm him. 
 
 It was simply his intention to ruu a few 
 miles from the town, and then leave the 
 locomotive, though he believed it would be 
 proper and just to reverse the lever as he 
 sprung out of the cab, and send the engine 
 back like a rocket whence it came, doing 
 what damage he possibly could to th e cause 
 of the Confederacy. 
 
 This was a neat little plan in theory. 
 
 That he failed to eventually carry it out 
 ■was not the fault of the young soldier. 
 
 When five minutes had gone by since he 
 leaped upon the engine, he believed he had 
 gone far enough. 
 
 The locomotive was rocking from side to 
 side with the swiftness of its flight, and he 
 believed he must be fully five miles from the 
 spot where he had taken French leave of his 
 captors. 
 
 He gradually slackened its pace, and was 
 then able to see that on both sides of the 
 track were dark pine woods. 
 
 This was just as he would have wished had 
 he been granted a request, for it was his in- 
 tention to hide himself among the trees until 
 the rebel soldiers had left the vicinity prey- 
 iug upon neighboring houses for food, and 
 then making his way back to the scene of 
 the late battle, where he hoped to join the 
 Union forces at Chattanooga. 
 
 When the locomotive came to a stop he 
 stood there for a brief period, as if fully de- 
 termining upon his plans before leaving the 
 friendly cab. 
 
 Fatal inaction. 
 
 Even as he stood, a voice, hoarse with 
 malignant triumph, broke in upon him : 
 
 "Reverse that lever, you runaway Yan- 
 kee!" 
 
 light of a lamp used for seeing the steam 
 gauge, Archie saw a revolver brought on a 
 line with his head. 
 
 It was the rebel fireman. 
 
 He had entirely forgotten his existence ; 
 and the fellow, when he learned what was 
 up, had clung to the forepart of the locomo- 
 tive for dear life until the frightful speed 
 was abated in some degree, when he had 
 managed to creep along the side, and thus 
 make his appearance at the inopportune 
 moment. 
 
 He rather enjoyed the situation as the 
 
 frim smile upon his oily face declared, 
 ul you may be sure Archie Gordon did 
 not. 
 
 Seeing there was no help for it, and that 
 he must make a virtue of necessity, the 
 young soldier laughed heartily at the man- 
 ner in which he had been caught. 
 TJiou^h he would have given much to 
 
 have leaped over into the bushes that lined 
 the track, he saw that the burly fireman 
 was not the man to be trifled with, and that 
 the best thing he could do would be to hu- 
 mor him. 
 
 At the least, he had had quite a little dash, 
 and had enjoyed the e.xhilaration. 
 
 What the rebel guards would do about it, 
 he could not, of course, say ; but, as no dam- 
 age had been done, and he was again a cap- 
 tive, they would not be apt to murder 
 him. 
 
 The lever was reversed, and back toward 
 the Georgia town they went. 
 
 Some fifteen minutes after the dash had 
 been made, the rebel leaders, consulting in 
 perple.\ity where they were to obtain another 
 locomotive to take the train away, heard a 
 rumble gradually approaching, followed by 
 several long whistles; and, while they stood 
 there almost unable to believe their eyes, 
 the locomotive that had run away slowed 
 
 lever, and the fireman half through the 
 cab window keeping his revolver on a line 
 with Archie's head. 
 
 The safe return of the engine so pleased 
 the rebels that they condoned Archie's of- 
 fense, though he was distinctly warned that 
 another such prank would surely cost him 
 his life. 
 
 Although the engineer was wrathy, and 
 would have liked much to have pummeled 
 the man who had run off with his iron 
 horse, one look at Archie's well knit figure 
 caused him to think better of it, and he 
 took it out in curses until ordered to his 
 cab. 
 
 Fate is very uncertain, and thus it came to 
 pass that, after all, Archie was one of those 
 Yankee prisoners who started on that train 
 for Richmond. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LIBBY PRISON. 
 
 Over the door of this historic old building 
 in the Confederate capital might well have 
 been inscribed those terrible words : 
 
 " Who enters here leaves hope behind !" 
 
 Many a poor fellow walked into Libby 
 prison never to leave it until he was carried 
 out to the dead wagon, that made its regular 
 rounds, and buried in a trench along with 
 others whom fortune had frowned upon.* 
 
 When Archie Gordon saw the inside of 
 Libby for the first time it can readily be 
 understood by those of the boys in blue who 
 were there that he was not favorably im- 
 pressed with his surroundings. 
 
 The air was nauseating to one who had 
 been used to breathing the pure atmosphere 
 of heaven, and misery surrounded him, 
 squalid, wretched misery. 
 
 At this time the great rebel prisons were 
 overcrowded with the prisoners captured in 
 late victorious encounters. From the West 
 came thousands of hapless boys in blue. 
 Some time before, Bragg made his famous 
 raid into Kentucky and captured large 
 numbers of the Federal forces. 
 
 It was now late in the year '63, and there 
 was soon to be afforded relief to the over- 
 loaded prisons of Richmond and Salisbury. 
 
 There was building at Andersonville, 
 Georgia, the famous prison pen, which has 
 since become a synonym for all that is bar- 
 barous and cruel, and ere long the unfortu- 
 nate denizens of the rebel prisons would 
 have to look upon their former prison life as 
 lu.xury compared to the torments of that 
 hell-hole. 
 
 As the prisoners of the Confederacy were 
 accumulating so fast, and were congregat- 
 ing at and near the center of their military 
 operations at one extremity of the rebel 
 country, exposed to recapture.and requiring 
 the detail of a large force for their safe keep- 
 ing, it was in truth a heavy burden upon 
 the Confederates. 
 
 The greatest disadvantage, however, aris- 
 ing from the concentration of so many pris- 
 oners at the seat of the Confederate govern- 
 ment, was the consumption of provisions 
 destined for their army, and hence in view 
 of possible and probable emergencies it was 
 determinetl upon building a pen at Ander- 
 sonville which would hold ten or twenty 
 thousand. 
 
 Of this we shall have more to say here- 
 after, when the exciting episodes of our 
 story bring us to that place of suffering and 
 death. 
 
 Archie's stay in Libby prison was not 
 marked by any unusual event that happened 
 to himself, but he was witness to several 
 
 •Old Libby is now In the posBesalon of a 
 companj. and the flaKstaff that stood 
 building ts sold to visitors at a dollar 
 
 long above the 
 
 scenes of cruelty whereby rash Federals lost 
 their lives because of disobeying the injunc- 
 tions put upon them, being shot by the 
 tyranical guards for some trifling misde- 
 meanor. 
 
 Early one morning, just*ef ore dawn, they 
 were aroused from slumber by a sudden 
 shufQing noise, the rattle of muskets as they 
 were discharged and the shouts of men. 
 
 At first they knew not what to make of 
 it, but soon the news went round, coming 
 from those who had been in the secret. 
 
 Three daring fellows had determined to 
 risk all in an endeavor to escape. 
 
 They had made a saw out of an old case 
 knife, and for weeks past had been engaged 
 in sawing a hole through the heavy floor 
 into the cellar beneath. 
 
 This had been done so cautiously, one 
 stroke at a time, that even the Federal pris- 
 oners did not know of it though they were 
 all around. 
 
 There were spies and Southern sympathiz- 
 ers among them, so that it would never do 
 to trust a secret far. 
 
 When the square piece was eventually cut 
 through one night, taking advantage of the 
 darkness, two of the daring fellows went 
 below, while the third screened the hole 
 with his blanket upon which he lay. 
 
 All the remainder of the night the two 
 men below worked in the endeavor to tun- 
 nel out, coming up just before dawn. The 
 block was secured firmly in the hole, but 
 one of them managed to be lying at that 
 point at all times during the day, taking 
 turns at this job, so that there was no dis- 
 covery made. 
 
 Night after night this work went on. 
 
 Finally, they knew that a few hours would 
 finish it, and when the whole three of them 
 went down below, a comrade volunteering 
 to shield the hole with his blanket until 
 dawn, they bore with them a dozen messages 
 from their friends. 
 
 It was not far from morning when the end 
 came, and their tunnel was complete. 
 
 Then came the rush upon the guards with- 
 out, and the plunge into the cold waters of 
 the James River. 
 
 Is was a long time afterward that their 
 fate was known to those they left behind 
 them. 
 
 They were chased like foxes far and near, 
 hunted night and day, and finally one of 
 their number was shot, but the other two 
 eventually gained the Union lines, and if 
 alive to-day will recall again the memory 
 of that daring escape while reading the«« 
 
 Archie was given no opportunity to es- 
 cape. 
 
 Some of those who had been guards of tha 
 prisoners taken at Chickamauga were now on 
 duty at the prison, and they, having formed 
 ' ' mng soldier, had 
 
 daring escapade 
 with the locomotive in that Georgia town, 
 so that to tell the truth he was .a marked 
 man. 
 
 Feeling confident that if any attempt at 
 escape was made he would be in it, they 
 watched him like a lynx, hoping in this way 
 to get track of what was going on. 
 
 In this way, Archie, knowing he was a 
 marked man, determined not to join 
 any such league for escape, for fear lest ho 
 should endanger his friends. 
 
 This isolation lasted while he was confined 
 in Libby prison, which was for a period of 
 two months. 
 
 Then he was transferred to Castle Thunder, 
 as Libby was overcrowded. 
 
 Here he met new men, and at the same 
 time several old comrades, whom he waj 
 pleased and, at the same time, sorry to see. 
 
 As his reputation had failed to come witk 
 him, Archie now enjoyed a feeling of liberty, 
 and the fact that he was given no more no- 
 tice than the other members of the prison 
 was a source of much satisfaction to him. 
 
 Thus the winter of '63 and '64 was passed. 
 
 When Archie was captured he had not been 
 immediately searched, and he had taken ad- 
 vantage of this respite to hide all the ready 
 money he possessed where it would not very 
 likely be found. 
 
 The wisdom of this course was now seen, 
 for there were times when he was able to 
 provide himself with some of the necessaries 
 of life, though to the ragged, unkempt men 
 who had been in these prisons ever since the 
 battles of Bull Run and Manassas, they were 
 luxuries that ' had long since been denied 
 them. 
 
 These unfortunates were wfld-looking 
 characters, withgaimtforms, unkempt, wiry 
 hair, dirt^begrimed faces and hollow eyes. 
 
 Their clothing was in shreds, their foot- 
 
THE WAR LIBRA.RV__ 
 
 gear a hollow mockery, and few possessed a 
 a coat or a greasy blanket. 
 
 What little money they may have once had 
 was long since expended, and after that time 
 they had simply existed. Still, their spirits 
 were undaunted. 
 
 Early in February, a selection was made 
 of these veteran prisoners for a detachment 
 that was intended to open the prison pen at 
 Andersouville, in Southwestern Georgia. 
 
 About eight hundred and fifty were sent, 
 and a more deplorable gang of human be- 
 ings the sun never shone upon. 
 
 Of that famous prison pen we shall have 
 more to say hereafter, when our brave sol- 
 dier boy finds himself behind the stockade. 
 
 These veterans shouldered their meager 
 bundles, and marched from the cars to the 
 stockade, unmindful of the derisive shouts 
 and jeers of the insulting rabble that had 
 gathered to see them. 
 
 Among them, the historian tells us, were 
 " two Russians, old war men^ who had faced 
 the storm of battle in the Crimea ; and their 
 bronzed faces looked as though they could 
 face yet other storms, while their stalwart 
 forms endorsed the pledge tlieir countenaneeB 
 gave." 
 
 As the column passed through the gates 
 they halted to survey in surprise their future 
 quarters, aud one, turning to a guard, 
 asked ; 
 
 " Hillo- what's this ?" 
 
 " Your prisiin," replied ue soldier; "and 
 I reckon you'll stay here awhile." 
 
 "Prison," ejaculated the Muscovite, with 
 scorn, " iu my laud they wouldn't put a hog 
 in such a place." 
 
 " You'd better have stayed there, then," 
 rejoined the Confederate. "What did you 
 come here for?" 
 
 " To teach you how to treat a prisoner of 
 war decently," said the Russian, as he proud- 
 ly limped by his rude guardian. 
 
 Of such mettle were thousands of those 
 war-dogs, whom the misfortune of battle 
 had placed in the power of their enemies, 
 and yet whom the tortures of the Inquisition 
 could not have broken in spirit. 
 
 When the Richmond prisons had dis- 
 gorged some of their Inmates, it made it more 
 bearable for those left behind ; and yet no 
 man knew when his name would appear 
 upon the roll, and himself be sent off to that 
 mysterious poison of which they had heard 
 rumors, yet the location of which was utter- 
 ly unknown to them. 
 
 In Castle Thunder Archie fell in with a 
 company of men who had been in prison for 
 nearly two years, and who had firmly re- 
 solved to escape or die in the attempt. 
 
 Several of them had families in the North, 
 who had, perhaps, long since given them up 
 for dead ; and it was the overwhelming de- 
 sire to see those whom they loved, that 
 made desperate these men, who, as a usual 
 thing, were apt to be careful of their lives, 
 though always brave to the backbone. 
 
 It was a hard thing to work without being 
 observed by their guards, but men in such 
 oases often prove as cunning as foxes, and as 
 they only attempted a smiU amount of 
 work each night they kept up hope. 
 
 They were in the lower part of the build- 
 ing, and the only means of escape would be 
 through a tunnel. 
 
 It was found after a time that several of 
 the stones could be reirjoved and replaced 
 wilhout showing the fact, and when dark-; 
 ness lasi ed, these seven men took turns in 
 watching and working. 
 
 There was a plank flooi in the place, and 
 underneath this about two feet of space. 
 
 One of these planks could be lifted enough 
 to deposit all the dirt exhumed in their 
 labor underneath, and when dawn came 
 every particle that would be apt to betray 
 them, was carefully put out of sight. 
 
 Though they were in a terrible state of ex- 
 citement all day long, they did their best to 
 hide it by pretending to sleep ; but it was 
 only the thoughttul and farseelng ones 
 among them who managed to woo the gen- 
 tle goddess of slumber. 
 
 Night came at last. 
 
 Still, hours must pass by ere they dared 
 commence work, for now that the tunnel 
 was so near completion they could not afford 
 to run the risk of failure because of im- 
 patience. 
 
 At length, however, their leader, a griz- 
 zled old war-dog, who had fought in the 
 Mexican war, announce. I that the hour was 
 at hand. 
 
 The blocks of stone were removed, and 
 one after another they entered the tunnel 
 —the work of three months. 
 
 The last man in, replaced the stones with 
 much precision that it would have been 
 
 Night after night the good work went on, 
 and they felt that the d( ' ' '" 
 
 not be far away 
 
 hour could 
 
 Still they retained their usual calmness, 
 and acted as though nothing unusual was in 
 the air, though it might have been noticed 
 that they slept a great deal during the day ; 
 however, men without exercise grow lazy, 
 and many of them ilept two-thirds of the 
 time. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ESCAPE FROM CASTLE THUNDER. 
 
 Every day must have its end, and though 
 suspense may apparently stretch it out in- 
 terminably, still, the night comes at last. 
 
 To the seven Union prisoners, there came 
 just such a day wheu the very minutes seem- 
 ed hours, and time was weighted as if iron- 
 shod. 
 
 Their tu»n»l was so nearly done that a few 
 
 woe, and having burned their ships behind 
 them, could only press forward hoping for 
 the best. 
 
 Tapping the tunnel was an exceedingly 
 risky piece of business, for all their calcula- 
 tions might fall short, and the work be 
 ruined. 
 
 The old veteran had not kept his eyes 
 open and his brain clear for nothing, how- 
 ever, during his long residence in tho Con- 
 federate prison, and, so far as tapping the 
 tunnel successfully was concerned, all went 
 well. 
 
 What little earth i emained to be disposed 
 of was scattered along the tunnel, and bank- 
 ed up against the rocks in the rear, when it 
 was whispered along the line that the open- 
 ing had been tapped and all was well. 
 
 The tunnel emerged outside the prison wall, 
 and in a vacant lot. 
 
 They could plainly hear the tread of the 
 rebel sentry at that point, and once he came 
 so close that his form was outlined against 
 the sky, but he apparently had no huspicioii 
 of what was going on, though his proximity 
 would necessitate renewed caution on the 
 part of the escaping prisoners. 
 
 When the opening was large enough, the 
 veteran watched his opportunity, and when 
 the sentry was at the other end of his beat 
 he crawled out, flattening himself upon the 
 ground with his head in close juxtaposition 
 to the liole, so that he could direct he others 
 in whispers. 
 They had planned well. 
 The night was as dark as Egypt, there be- 
 ing no moon, and one man could not see the 
 outlines of another five feet away, unless he 
 chanced to be crouching, and had the other 
 against a heavenly background. 
 
 The stars twinkled in the blue dome over- 
 head, but they barely gave any light. 
 
 A better night it could not have been for 
 their purpose, even it they had had the 
 making of it, and this auspicious beginning 
 stirred up hope witliiu their breasts. 
 
 Perhaps fate would be kind to them and 
 take them out of the power of (he rebels. 
 
 To escape from Castle Thunder was one 
 thing— to successfully reach the Union lines, 
 when many weary miles of hostile country, 
 and a great hostile army lay between them, 
 was another. 
 
 However, they had known all along, the 
 risk they were running, and that as soon as 
 they left the shelter of the prison, it was 
 virtually taking their lives iu their hands ; 
 but it was firmly believed that in the end, 
 they were fated to die in a rebel prison, un- 
 less some such risk was incurred, so the fact 
 that they were now embarked upon the en- 
 terprise, only gave them one thrill as they 
 left the tunnel. 
 
 One by one they crawled out of the open- 
 ing, and flattened themselves upon the 
 ground beside the old war-dog, who had con- 
 stituted himself a leader. 
 
 To those who had been in prison so long, 
 the mere fact that they were now free, was 
 enough to make the blood leap like molten 
 lava through their veins, and for the time, 
 they gave themselves up to the most deli- 
 cious fancies. 
 
 What mattered it to them that danger and 
 death lurked in their path— that they must 
 be hunted by men and bloodhounds, per- 
 haps, doomed to be torn to pieces ? They 
 were no longer encircled by the hated, damp 
 prison walls, were no longer subject to the 
 insults of the rebel guards, but could breathe 
 Cod's pure air. 
 
 How they took in huge draughts of the 
 smoky atmosphere with keen relish. 
 
 Poor wretches! Perhaps it would have 
 been better for them had they been con- 
 tent to remain where they had been so long, 
 awaiting exchange, or the close of the war, 
 for their escape must soon be discovered, 
 and then the hellhounds of the Confeder- 
 acv, would be unloosed to hunt them down. 
 When all had gained the open air, they 
 only waited until the .sentry once more mov- 
 ed away, and theu they crept off, not daring 
 to arise to their feet until Castle Thunder 
 no longer loomed up against the star-stud- 
 ded sky, a hateful object to their gaze. 
 
 Before them was liberty— behind, all the 
 abhorred accessories of slavery and prison 
 life. 
 
 They would be surrounded by dangers; 
 but with the hope of ultimately reaching 
 the Union Hues, these things would sink into 
 in.signiflcance. Men before them had brav- 
 ed these same dangers, and had gained the 
 goal. Why should not they be as fortu- 
 nate? 
 Not far did they go. 
 
 Under an old shed they came to a halt, 
 and held a low-toned consultation. 
 
 Thev had had no reason to regret having 
 allowed the veteran to be their leader, and 
 now, at this time of parting, it was only fair 
 that he should advise them. 
 
 It had all along been understood that they 
 were to separate into smaller bauds, if for- 
 tune was kind enough to allow' them to 
 reach the outer woild iu safety. 
 There was reason in this. 
 Should they remain together, they could 
 be tracked the more easily, aud if one was 
 captured, the chances were that the others 
 would be bagged at the same time, while if 
 they divided up into small companies, some 
 of them would have a good chance of getting 
 through in safety. 
 
 It was decided that Archie and another 
 were to strike off, in company with old Cor- 
 ney, the veteran, while the others went in 
 couples. 
 
 The veteran explained three routes as well 
 iis he could, aud let (h.m have their choice, 
 which was noble and magnanimous of him, 
 as he might easily have taken the best route 
 for himself, whereas in this way he let 
 chance decide it. 
 Little more could belaid. 
 
 Daylight would be at hand in a few hours, 
 and discovery of their escape might come 
 even before, through the sentry stepping 
 into the hole that had been made when the 
 tunnel was tapped, and hence delay was 
 dangerous to them. 
 
 They disliked parting. 
 
 For months they had cast their fortunes 
 together, had worked in the tunnel, and 
 lain down to sleep side by side, sharing 
 everything, so that it was only to be expect- 
 ed that they would feel attached to each 
 other. 
 
 A few last and hasty directions were 
 given, aud good-by handshakes exchanged. 
 
 Then they went out from the shed, walk- 
 ed to the cross-roads, aud separated, head- 
 ingin different directions. 
 
 Would they ever meet again? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HUNTED YANKEES. 
 
 Having given the others their choice of 
 roads, it was not to be wondered at that old 
 Corney and his two companions had the 
 worst route of llic three, though no one but 
 the veteran knew tliis fact. 
 
 Their course led them due north, and such 
 being the case, they must expect the most 
 vigorous pursuit, for the rebels would natur- 
 ally take it for granted that their pursuit 
 must tend in that direction. 
 
 One of the other couples had gone west, and 
 theotheralmostsouth,it being their intention 
 to gradually veer around, so as to aim for 
 the Potomac after they had left Richmond 
 far in the rear. 
 
 Although they must necessarily meet wiili 
 many adventures, aud run unlimited risk- 
 while in the hostile country, still they would, 
 in all probability, be saved the hot chase in 
 the beginning that would fall to the share ot 
 those who were compelled, by their agrtt- 
 meut, to take the direct road north. 
 
 As has been said before, the night was one 
 of extreme darkness, and though this had 
 been in their favor while making the escape, 
 it was not so later on, for they could ouly 
 with extreme difliculty keep the road. 
 
 Then again, there was much danger of then- 
 running plump into some one coming the 
 other way ; and as sigh t was of no avail, they 
 were compelled to strain their powers ol 
 hearing to an almost incredible extent. 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 Twice within the first fifteen minutes had 
 they been compelled to hastily crouch down 
 among the bushes lining the road. 
 
 On the first occasion the veteran had 
 caught a suspicious murmur of voices, and 
 dragged his comrades down just in time to 
 avoid being run into byseveral negroes, who 
 : might have unwittingly given the alarm, had 
 I they seen our fugitives, and they knew full 
 well the chase would begin soon enough. 
 
 In the second place they had heard the 
 
 ■ heavy trampling of a body of horses, and 
 I were gi^ en ample time to get out of the way 
 I before the squad of mounted Confederates 
 
 rode by. 
 
 ■ Short work would have been made of them 
 I had they been discovered by these fire-eaters, 
 
 and they pressed on, when the danger was 
 passed, with renewed energy. 
 
 The road was a good one, though appar- 
 ently well traveled by the army, as it led 
 straight from the Confederate capital to the 
 rebel army of Virginia. 
 
 Again and again were our friends com- 
 pelled to hide, either because of approach- 
 ing horsemen, or persons on foot— soldiers in 
 gray, who had been off on various expedi- 
 tions, hunting recruits or deserters, or at- 
 tending to the manifold duties which the 
 exigency of the times was apt to render im- 
 perative. 
 
 Thus several hours passed. 
 
 The three meu walked steadily, and had 
 placed qnite a uumlMsr of miles betweeu 
 themselves and Richmond in this space of 
 time. 
 
 They knew full well, however, that when 
 pursuit was made it woula be a vigorous oin , 
 -nd that if their foes could but get u 
 
 When the first streaks of dawn appeared, 
 they would be compelled to leave the road 
 ancf secrete themselves in someplace for the 
 day, trusting to good fortune to supply them 
 with food so as to keep body and soul to- 
 gethr- 
 
 sound of galloping horses once more reached 
 their ears. 
 This time there was more reason for alarm. 
 The sounds came from their rear, and al- 
 though there might not be anything back of 
 this, a cold chill struck the escaped prisoners 
 of war as the idea that their escape had al- 
 ready been discovered and pursuit made 
 flashed into their minds. 
 
 As they hastilysought shelter among the 
 trees, Archie thought he heard a rustling on 
 the opposite side of the road, but paid little 
 attention to the fact, believing that he might 
 be mistaken, or else the noise was made by 
 some bird. 
 
 No sooner had they secreted themselves a 
 dozen yards from the road than they be- 
 came aware of the fact that from the oppo- 
 site direction there also came the sound of 
 horses' hoofs beating upon the hard road. 
 
 At first they fancied this must be an echo, 
 but the longer they listened the more as- 
 sured they became that it was really so. 
 
 The veteran had with his comrades re- 
 moved somewhat further from the road 
 than had heretofore been done, simply be- 
 cause the v" ' ' ' ' 
 
 way to the 
 had suddf 
 of hearin_ 
 
 turning to his comrades he was somewhat 
 astonished to see them plainly outlined so 
 that at a distance of two yards he could dis- 
 tinguish them apart. 
 
 Nearer came the sounds. 
 
 At length they suddenly ceased, words 
 were uttered undoubtedly as a hail, and 
 both bodies of horsemen had come to a halt 
 directly in front of where our friends were 
 lying in concealment. 
 
 They exchanged salutations, by which it 
 was made plain that the respective leaders 
 were a major and a captain, the former 
 having charge of a squad that had recently 
 left the rebel capital. 
 
 "Any news at headquarters?" asked the 
 major, who had evidently been with the 
 army upon the field and was now on his way 
 to Richmond on diplomatic business. 
 
 " Nothing of much moment. By the way, 
 have you seen any stragglers upon the road 
 within the last few hours. Seven Yankees 
 have escaped to-night from Castle Thunder, 
 and the whole country this way, is being 
 scoured for them. That is my present er- 
 rand." 
 
 The three fugitives in the bushes caught 
 
 progress. 
 
 "Indeed!" ejaculated the cavalry 
 on his way to the capital, " how did 
 
 when I left, and the only fact known 
 that seven of the cursed Yanks had tunneled 
 out and were gone. The sentry, in walking 
 his beat chanced to go a little outside of his 
 usual walk and fell into the hole they had 
 made while tapping their infernal tunnel. 
 Of course the alarm was at once given and 
 detachments sent out to hunt them down. 
 It would do my heart good to see them shot 
 like crows. What right have the dogs to 
 disturb the rest of a Virginian officer and 
 gentleman." 
 
 More words were exchanged, and then it 
 seemed that the detachments were about to 
 
 " And who in the fiend's name are you, my 
 fine fellow ?" asked the major, his hand 
 resting on his sword as he bent low in the 
 saddle and endeavored to scrutinize the fel- 
 low's face in the dim light, an uncertain and 
 equally unsatisfactory task at best. 
 
 " I recognize your voice as that of Major 
 
 Thurber of the Maryland regiment. 
 
 Don't you remember Silas Keene, major?" 
 asked the man. 
 
 The major uttered an oath. 
 
 "Pardon my language, my good man, but 
 under the circnmstanees how was I to know 
 but what it was one of those self-same 
 
 thankful for any information you may see 
 fit to give him with respect to those whom 
 he hunts. Am I not right, captain ?" 
 
 " Assuredly, since I recognize the name 
 of this man as belonging to one of the most 
 noted of Confederate scouts. What news, 
 friend?" 
 
 " You mention seven men, but I saw only 
 three. That they were Yankees I knew full 
 well from their dress and words which they 
 let fall, besides, two of them were tattered 
 and torn like men who had seen long im- 
 prisonment, as one had an immeuse long 
 beard which looked to me in the morning 
 
 Right on this spot, hardly five minutes 
 ago, and if I mistake not, they are at this 
 
 part ill such an exciting hunt where the 
 quarry was human. 
 
 The troopers searched well, and their 
 bright sabers were plunged into every dark 
 clump of bushes that defied other investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 Scattered as the rebels were, it would have 
 gone hard with the three fugitives had they 
 remained anywhere near by, for they must 
 have inevitably been captured. 
 
 Old Corney, however, had led them deep 
 into the wood, keeping beyond the line of 
 troopers. 
 
 Which way he was going he knew not, for 
 the trees were too dense overhead to take 
 his bearings by the stars. He only knew 
 that the sounds, of the hunt had gradually 
 died away, and when in the course of time 
 they once more struck a road, as it led 
 north, they determined to follow it some 
 distance until away from this dangerous 
 vicinity. 
 
 Several times, as they advanced, they 
 fancied it looked somewhat familiar, but 
 the truth did not break in upon them until 
 iu turning a bend they saw in the dim morn- 
 ing light a body of almost a score of war- 
 horses, with one man sitting in the saddle 
 
 In pressing forward through the forest, 
 they had unconsciously kept edging to the 
 left, as a man will always do when traveling 
 blindly, unless he guards against thisforging 
 ahead of his stronger side, and in the end 
 had almost completed a circle, striking the 
 wood at a point about half a mile below 
 where they had left it before, so that they 
 had been going over the old ground again. 
 
 There was something of the dare-devil in 
 Corney, and he was well seconded by his two 
 younger comrades. 
 
 The sight of those horses gave him an 
 
 True, it was a hair-brained thought, and 
 one which a discreet man would have never 
 countenanced ; but the veteran believed 
 that dash often accomplished more than 
 strategy, and he was ready for anything. 
 
 Had they been wise, they might have 
 plunged into the brush on the other side of 
 the wood, and then have been able to pro- 
 ceed without much danger of molestation, 
 the search being wholly conducted upon 
 that side where they had formerly been. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 STRATAGEM. 
 
 "Come, it is time we were getting out of 
 this." 
 
 Old Corney, the veteran hoarsely whis- 
 pered these words in the ears of his comrades 
 when the startling declaration of the rebel 
 scout reached them. 
 
 ludeed, it was time they were leaving the 
 quarters which they then occupied, and not 
 a second must be lost, for only the time re- 
 quired for the troopers to throw themselves 
 from their horses and rush in among the 
 trees must lapse before all would be hope- 
 less. 
 
 the latter would have a clew that could not 
 be otherwise than valuable to them and dis- 
 astrous to the Federals. 
 
 The captain gave a hasty order, and the 
 dozen men throwing themselves to the 
 ground, drew their sabers and plunged in 
 among the trees, led by the rebel scout who 
 pointed out the precise spot where he had 
 seen the three fugitives vanish while hidden 
 among the bushes, where he had himself 
 taken refuge upon hearing their approach, 
 being suspicious by nature, and on an er- 
 rand that would not admit of running any 
 risks. 
 
 The major himself became enthused with 
 the idea that a man-hunt might prove di- 
 verting, and not being in any particular 
 hurry to enter Richmond at such an early 
 hour, he gave an order to the four men who 
 were with him. 
 
 Dismounting, they all plunged into the 
 woods after the others, the horses being left in 
 charge of one dragoon who sat with one knee 
 
 formerly been. 
 
 But Corney had allowed this brilliant ide„ 
 to fiash into his brain, and he could think of 
 nothing else. 
 
 He no sooner mentioned it to his comrades 
 than they at once seized upon the plan. 
 
 Nothing remained, therefore, but to carry 
 it into execution, and the sooner they set to 
 work the better it would be for their chances 
 of success. 
 
 Taking the side of the road on which the 
 rebel scout had been secreted when he 
 watched them, they crept cautiously along 
 through the bushes until a point had been 
 reached directly beside the horses. 
 
 The rebel trooper still sat with his face to- 
 ward the other side of the road. His horses 
 had been fastened to a rope which he held 
 in his hand. There was a purpose in this, 
 for otherwise he could not have held the 
 whole of them. 
 
 As his back was toward them, and he 
 seemed totally unsuspicious of danger, the 
 chances were in favor of their scheme work- 
 ing well. 
 
 The vei 
 the wood, had made 1 
 example in arming themselves with stout 
 bludgeons. 
 
 That which he carried was a veritable 
 war-club, and one blow from it would settle 
 a giant's hash. 
 
 With a low word to his companions, the 
 tattered old soldier crept out of his place of 
 concealment, and approached the rebel 
 trooper. 
 
 If he made any sound it aroused no suspic- 
 ion in the mind of the man left to guard the 
 horses, for the animals were continually 
 stamping, as the mosquitoes or flies annoved 
 them. 
 
 The two in the bushes held their breath. 
 
 Discovery might come in more than one 
 way. 
 
 The fellow might turn just at this critical 
 time and give the alarm, or one of the other 
 rebels might step out into the road, return- 
 ing from the hunt, and thus see the men 
 they sought, for it was not far from broa* 
 daylight now. 
 
 When old Corney got within striking dis- 
 
10 
 
 THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 tance, he lost no time in useless prepara- 
 tions. 
 
 An Irishman by birth, he had wielded 
 many a shillalah at Donnybrook Pair, and 
 knew well how to handle the native weapon 
 of the land of his fathers. 
 
 There was a sudden loud crack, like the 
 thump one would give a tree-stump, and 
 over went that rebel trooper, falling like a 
 ninepin struck by the ball. Dead, or not, it 
 was all one to Corney, for he knew little 
 mercy would be shown him by the man's 
 comrades anyway, and he did not believe in 
 tempering his blow so that he might not 
 risk the fellow's life, thereby running a 
 chance of losing the game. 
 
 It seemed as though the gray trooper had 
 hardly vanished on one side of the horse be- 
 fore the ragged Federal, dropping his "bit 
 of a sthick," had leaped into the saddle from 
 the other side. 
 
 No sooner did they see their comrade in 
 the place so lately occupied by the Confed- 
 erate, than Archieand his comrade, realizing 
 that the game was working well, leaped out 
 of the bushes, and each, selecting a horse 
 near that upon which Corney had mounted, 
 sprung into the saddle. 
 
 Tbe veteran had caught up the rope which 
 his predecessor had dropped when he was 
 made the recipient of that terrible blow, for 
 another brilliant idea had flashed iuto his 
 active mind, and this was to carry every 
 horse away with them, thus preventing im- 
 mediate pursuit on the part of the outwit- 
 ted troopers. 
 
 A word and a kick in the ribs served to 
 start the leading horse, and away they start- 
 ed down the road. 
 
 Ere they had gone thirty yards several 
 shouts sounded behind them, some of the 
 troopers, probably the major and his men, 
 having returned, but too late. 
 
 Thtgr sent a volley of bullets after the fly- 
 ing Yankees, but these missiles did no 
 harm. 
 
 Our friends now hastened to arm them- 
 selves, from the holsters of the various sad- 
 dles securing a couple of large revolvers 
 apiece, while there were two more upon 
 each saddle they bestrode. 
 
 Holding one of these latter ready for use, 
 they urged the horses on. 
 
 It was a wild sight to see them dashing 
 madly down the road, looking keenly ahead, 
 as though they half expected opposition. 
 
 In this they were not far wrong. 
 
 Some of the troopers being near the road, 
 a mile or so further on, had heard the shots 
 and heavy trampling, and taking in the 
 situation at aglance, as the cavalcade came 
 rushing on, formed a line across the route, 
 and with miscellaneous drawn weapons 
 waited to check the mad dash of the three 
 escaped prisoners from grim old Castle 
 Thunder. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A MAN HUNT. 
 
 Those Confederate troopers who stood so 
 gallantly in the road could not but have felt 
 shaky as they saw the troop of horse dash- 
 ing down upon them. 
 
 They had more than one danger to con- 
 tend against; for, while they ran the risk of 
 being run down by the charging animals, 
 there was also a peril in the revolvers which 
 they could see in the hands of the Yankees, 
 and when the collision came, death was sure 
 to follow. 
 
 Brave men as they were, the Confederates 
 could not be blamed for looking over their 
 shoulders to see that the way of retreat was 
 open in case the plunging horses pressed 
 tnem too closely. 
 
 A few more leaps, and they were upon 
 them. 
 
 Then the sharp crack of firearms rang 
 out, mingled with loud cries, and the troop- 
 ers sprung back in time to avoid being 
 crushed by the horses 
 
 down under the feet of thi 
 steeds. 
 
 Like a tornado, the little cavalcade swept 
 on, the three men bending low in the saddle 
 to avoid the rush of bullets which they felt 
 sure must follow. 
 
 In this they were right, for several wea- 
 pons sounded; but, owing to their precau- 
 tion no damage was done by this last dis- 
 charge. 
 
 They had not come out unscathed, how- 
 ever, for old Corney had a slight wound on 
 the side of his head, where a rebel bullet 
 had grazed his skull, while Tranter, the 
 third soldier, had a bullet wound in the 
 •eshy part of the arm. 
 
 This was rudely bound up when they were 
 
 : some little distance from the spot 
 
 here the troopers were, and the journey 
 continued. 
 
 Their situation had become both better 
 and worse, if such an anomaly can exist. 
 
 The fact that they were now well armed 
 was something that must cheer them con- 
 siderably. 
 
 At the worst, they could make adesperate 
 fight for liberty, and this was a desideratum 
 not to be despised. 
 
 On the other hand, it was now known just 
 where they were, what their number was, 
 and what the point they were aiming for, 
 so that the rebels could concentrate their 
 forces and hunt them savagely. 
 
 Taking it as a whole, however, they be- 
 lieved their case to have been considerably 
 bettered by the brilliant idea that had flash- 
 ed into the mind of the old vet«i-an. 
 
 They were now beyond their enemies— 
 that is those who were in immediate pursuit 
 of them, and yet they could not expect to 
 keep the horses any length of time ; for, at 
 any moment, they might dash around a 
 bend in the road only to find themselves in 
 the midst of a cavalry company, such as 
 was to be seen on this line between Rich- 
 mond and the front at almost any hour of 
 the day. 
 
 It was the veteran who suggested that the 
 time had come for them to desert the horses 
 and take to the forest again. 
 
 They had no words in opposition, so, dis- 
 mounting, they gave the steeds a start, and 
 sent them on along the road at a wild 
 gallop. 
 
 Care was taken when entering among the 
 trees to leave no traces behind which would 
 show this fact to a keen-sighted foe. 
 
 The day-god came up and illumined the 
 face of nature with his genial rays, but they 
 were most unwelcome to the three men who 
 were yet almost in the shadow of the grim 
 prisou from which they had so recently es- 
 caped, and to whom darkness was the best 
 friend they knew. 
 
 Had they not been sure of a hot chase, and 
 known that before the day was over, those 
 woods must be overrun with rebel soldiers 
 hunting for them, their best policy would 
 have been to have lain low, and by keeping 
 quiet pass the day sleeping and recruiting 
 their powers for the coming night, when the 
 best work could be accomplished. 
 
 As it was, they were compelled to risk all, 
 and push forward in the day time, trusting 
 to chance to keep them from danger, or 
 rather to the power of the Almighty, who 
 had thus far shielded them. 
 
 Up to noon their progress was good. 
 
 They had headed in a line due northwest, 
 hoping in this way to avoid the greater 
 part of their foes who would be going 
 straight north. 
 
 A short time after the sun had passed the 
 meridian, they heard the barking of dogs 
 in their rear, followed by the hoarse shouts 
 of men, which grew in violence until the 
 whole forest seemed to echo with the dis- 
 cordant noise. 
 
 The chase had now begun in earnest. 
 
 Realizing the desperate nature of their 
 position, the three Federals set their teeth, 
 and quickened their pace until they had as- 
 sumed a run ; still their pursuers seemed to 
 gain. 
 
 They were white in the face, but full of 
 grit, and pushed on, determined to make at 
 least a gallant fight before giving In. 
 
 There was no mystery regarding the find- 
 ing of their trail— the bark of the dogs told 
 that, and there was little doubt but that the 
 discomfited troopers were in the van of their 
 pursuers, though it was evident that they 
 must have been heavilj reinforced. 
 
 Louder grew the signs of pursuit, and 
 more desperate their chances. 
 
 The dogs were not bloodhounds, and they 
 had no reason to fear them, but the men 
 were fully as ferocious as hounds could be, 
 and when they came up with the fugitives 
 there would be particular Cain to pay. 
 
 At this inopportune time the three Yan- 
 kees suddenly found themselves upon the 
 bank of a stream, which, though not wide, 
 was evidently deep. 
 
 To go either up or down was beyond all 
 question impossible, for they could hear the 
 hoarse shouts of those who chased them in 
 either direction. 
 
 The only thing left them was to swim 
 across. 
 
 There came a volley at this moment, as 
 some of their eager pursuers burst into view, 
 and a cry broke from poor Tranter as he 
 reeled back, clutched at the empty air and 
 fell upon the green grass that bordered the 
 river. 
 
 Both the others saw that the shot had 
 
 pierced the poor fellow's heart, and that ha 
 was already dead. Had he been only wound- 
 ed, they would have stood at bay over him, 
 and have met death rather than desert him. 
 
 Now there was no need of any such sacri- 
 fice, for he was beyond all earthly hope. 
 
 Life is precious to every man, when he 
 can with honor save it, and as their only 
 hope lay in crossing the river, old Corney 
 and Archie Gordon lost no more time, but 
 sprang into the water. 
 
 They found the current strong, but made 
 little attempt to stem it, preferring rather • 
 to use their whole polver in endeavoring to 
 reach the opposite shore. 
 
 When they were two-thirds of the way 
 across, the Confederates began to appear in 
 large numbers on the other shore, and then 
 
 manner decidedly unpleasant, and splashed 
 in the water, some of them rising again to 
 fall further on with a sullen chug, like a 
 frog leaping off a log into the river. 
 
 All at once, old Corney uttered a cry, 
 threw up his aruis, and vanished from sight 
 under the cold waters of the river, and 
 Archie saw, or fancied he did, which 
 amounted to the same thing— a tinge of red 
 over the spot where his faithful old com- 
 rade had gone down. 
 
 Horrified at the brave fellow's fate, he 
 could ouly keep on, though he now seemed 
 to lose all thought as to what would become 
 of him. With his two comrades killed, his 
 own fate seemed immaterial. 
 
 He did not notice that the firing had bow 
 ceased entirely, for he had gained the shore. 
 
 Looking up, he saw half a dozen men in 
 gray stooping over the bank. 
 
 'Surrender, Yank!" said one, aiming a 
 carbine. 
 
 A second caught him by the nape of the 
 neck, and in this way he was drawn out of 
 the water. 
 
 Poor Archie! He was again in the hands of 
 the Philistines, and destined for a rebel pris- 
 on, but he could only think himself favored 
 by Providence, when he remembered the 
 terrible fate of the two poor fellows who 
 had so lately been full of life and hope, and 
 now lay, one stiff and stark on the bank 
 yonder, the other, at the bottom of the 
 river without doubt. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DEAD LINE AT ANDERSONVILLE. 
 
 Andersonville ! 
 
 What tragic memories cluster around 
 
 the many thousand that were huddled to- 
 
 f ether within the log walls of this most in- 
 amous prison pen ! 
 Andersonville ! 
 
 The name stands to-day, one of the few 
 blots upon the Confederate escutcheon, and 
 the blackest and foulest of them all. 
 
 , or any noted general of the South, 
 who does not have a very unpleasant feeling 
 whenever Andersonville is mentioned in their 
 presence. 
 
 They utterly and wholly repudiate the 
 horrors of that death-pen, and cast the 
 blame upon those who should properly bear 
 it^John H. Winder, a brigadier-general in 
 the Confederate service, who had long made 
 the prisons of Richmond a terror, and Hen- 
 ry Wirz, the jailer. 
 
 That these men were appointed to such a 
 position, and never removed until after the 
 war, was evidence that their diabolical ac- 
 tions were sanctioned by some one high in 
 authority, but in the trial after the war it 
 could not be conclusively proven who should 
 have shared the blame. <i 
 
 Andersonville prison flourished only a few 
 months longer than [a year, when it was ' 
 closed by Lee and Johnson's surrender ; but I 
 during that time over twelve thousand - 
 Union soldiers were murdered within that y 
 stockade, many of them shot down in wan- 
 
 f ul dead line 1 
 
 They died by hundreds in the poor apology 
 of a hospital, reduced to skin and bones. If 
 a man was wounded ever so little, his death 
 warrant was generally sealed, for in that 
 climate gangrene would set in, and even the 
 wound would sometimes be swathed in ban- 
 dages already reeking with poison, having 
 done duty on more than one occasion. 
 
 It was the avowed policy of the provost- 
 general and Captiiiu Wirz, his jailer, to de- 
 crease the numljcr uf prisoners under their 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 :i- 
 
 cihargB by any mauuer of means, and they 
 gloated over ttie rapidly growing dimension 
 of the graveyard. 
 
 Death waa the only way of relieving them 
 «f their hated charges, and no means were 
 left untried in order to carry out this awful 
 
 The ofBter in command was often heard 
 to boast that he himself, with only a scanty 
 appropriation from his government, had 
 been able to kill off more Yankees during a 
 year, by starving and murdering them, than 
 the combined Confederate force in the field 
 had been able to do in fair combat, where 
 they lost an equal number of brave men ; 
 and when that frightful death-roll is con- 
 sulted, it will be seen that he was not much 
 out of the way in his utterance. 
 
 The prison proper was fifteen hundred and 
 forty feet long, by seven hundred ami fifty 
 wide, after the addition had been made to 
 the original structure. 
 
 The pickets were composed of solid trees, 
 twenty-four feet in height, planted close to- 
 gether in a trench five feet deep, with the 
 earth thrown around the base, and the tops 
 roughly pointed with the ax, 
 
 was allowed ; the canopy of the sky was the 
 only covering for the thousands of wretched 
 men. Not a tree or shrub had been left for 
 shelter, and the burning beams of the blaz- 
 ing sun fell full upon ihe red soil of the bare 
 hill or incline upon which a portion of the 
 stockade rested. 
 
 The dead line of Andersonville was the in- 
 vention of the cruel monster Wirz. 
 
 Before his coming the prisoners had been 
 allowed full sway within the stockade, and 
 could converse with those visitors whom 
 curiosity or business brought to the outside. 
 
 To prevent this, Wirz had poles planted 
 some ten feet apart and thirty feet from the 
 stockade, and upon these was fastened a 
 railing. 
 
 Notice was then given that any one trans- 
 gressing upon this ground would be instant- 
 ly shot; and the guards being well instructed 
 seemed to take a fiendish delight in carrying 
 
 death to dip up cooler water from the little 
 stream that ran through the stockade— the 
 reaching under to reach a worthless rag 
 which the breeze had blown from its pro- 
 prietor the partially exposed body of a pris- 
 oner, whom a struggle with his mates had 
 forced beyond the terrible dead line— all 
 these were enough to secure the shot of a 
 sentry and the death of the unfortunate. 
 
 With a malignity never excelled in the tor- 
 tures of the Spanish Inquisition, Wirz had 
 "so placed the railing that a portion of it 
 crossed or intruded upon the little stream, 
 which entered from one side and furnished 
 water for the prisoners, ^nd this point was 
 where the water was deeper and purer than 
 at any other part of its course, and neces- 
 sarily more inviting to the thirsty palates 
 hankering after it. To reach this water the 
 deadline must be obtruded upon. To do 
 this was death!" 
 
 Such cruelty was seldom known, and cer- 
 tainly never before countenanced by a civ- 
 ilized nation. 
 
 "At this fated spot the ghosts of many 
 poor fellows went shrieking their death 
 gasp away over those filthy waters, as their 
 emaciated forms sought a temporary re- 
 freshment nearer to their source." 
 
 In August, 1864, there were held within the 
 confines of this great pen, thirty-three 
 thousand Union soldiers. So crowded was 
 the place that it was almost impossible for 
 them to lie down to sleep, even upon the 
 bare ground. 
 
 Some dug caves to shelter their miserable 
 bodies from the torrid sun and the fever- 
 bearing rains of that country ; others made 
 a pitiable shelter of blankets, but the major- 
 ity were entirely without covering day and 
 night, summer and winter, and alniost with- 
 out clothes; for they had been robbed of 
 every thing worth having by the rebel 
 guards, who scoured outfits by taking shoes 
 from one man, a hat from another, an over- 
 coat in the chilly season from a third, and 
 money and valuables from all. 
 
 Men who went into the prison pen at An- 
 dersonville had about an even chance for 
 life and death. 
 
 Those who came out alive were fortunate; 
 but it would be hard to find a man of those 
 heroes who did not contract disease of some 
 sort while there which would mark him for 
 life. 
 
 It must needs be a constitution of iron that 
 could resist climate, exposure, starvation 
 and the cruelties of Wirz combined. 
 
 The stockade was crowded whenouryoung 
 hero, Archie Gordon, reached it, and the 
 process of murder in its various forms in full 
 sway. 
 
 He was put through the mill as the others 
 had been before him, but as the guards were 
 now well supplied with clothing they did 
 not rob him of his garments. He lost what 
 money he had, but this would have done 
 him no good such as had been the case at 
 Richmond. 
 
 Then he became one of the vast jostling 
 crowd of surging and suffering humanity, 
 running the same terrible risks and joining 
 in with their poor sports gotten up to pass 
 the dread hours away and forget for the 
 time being how close they were to death. 
 
 Archie had not been in the prison ten min- 
 utes before he witnessed a tragedy such as 
 made his very blood run cold, and yet which 
 had grown so common an occurrence that it 
 was almost wholly unnoticed by the general 
 mass of prisoners. 
 
 One poor wretch, driven almost insane by 
 the heat, his parched tongue protruding, and 
 his eyes red as coals, had stood glaring at 
 the cool water beyond the line until unable 
 to stand the torture longer he dashed out, 
 and throwing himself down beside the pool, 
 drank long and eagerly. 
 
 As he arose to his feet, a gun sounded, and 
 with a shriek the poor fellow dropped life- 
 less back to the earth. He had given his life 
 for a drink of water. 
 
 Archie's blood ran cold, and he turned his 
 eyes upon the man who had shot the pris- 
 oner. The guard wa laughing as he reloaded 
 his gun. 
 
 " Heaven help you if you ever fall into my 
 hands!" said Archie to himself, and the 
 man's face was photographed forever on his 
 mind. 
 
 In time he grew accustomed to these scenes 
 of horror, but he never forgot that first 
 murder and the marked guard. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TERRIBLE PEN-PICT0RES. 
 
 Among the many thousand prisoners con- 
 gregatedf at Andersonville, it was of course 
 reasonable to suppose that Archie would 
 know quite a number. He recognized sev- 
 eral who had been comrades in the assault 
 upon the Tennessee forts, and though sorry 
 to see them in such a plight, it was pleasant 
 to meet old friends. 
 
 There was a constant humming noise as 
 the prisoners talked and sang, trying to 
 keep their spirits up. 
 
 Some among them were ready to give up, 
 but the majority showed themselves pos- 
 sessed of grit beyond the usual run. To give 
 in to despondency in that hole was the same 
 as inviting death, for the grim destroyer 
 would swoop down like an eagle, and seize 
 upon the unfortunate. 
 
 Archie, naturally gifted with abundant 
 spirits found a good use for the overflow 
 here, and many a poor wretch had reason to 
 feel glad that he waa there. Congenial com- 
 pany can often do more than medicine, and 
 the most fatal symptom among the prisoners 
 was disease of the mind. 
 
 Surrounded as they were by an unhealthf ul 
 atmosphere, crowded together in their filth 
 like a tremendous herd of cattle, and com- 
 pelled to drink foul water, which in its 
 purest state contained the germs of disease, 
 coming as it did from a swamp, where it 
 oozed out from the midst of decaying vege- 
 table matter— it was no wonder that death 
 stalked in their midst, and as a mind brood- 
 ing over trouble weakeus.the system, so those 
 who were the most moody were the first to 
 be carried to the rough hospital and event- 
 ually to the field of horrors, the grave-yard. 
 
 This latter place will ever be remembered 
 as a disgi-ace to the South. 
 
 Every day the dead cart made its trips, 
 and the poor wretches were piled upon it to 
 be carried away. 
 
 The bodies were placed in a long, shallow 
 trench, some quicklime thrown upon them, 
 and about two or three feet of soil cast over 
 them. 
 
 Heads and limbs protruded here and there, 
 and the atmosphere was simply terrible. 
 
 Flocks of carrion birds hovered above this 
 field of death, awaiting their feast. 
 
 Thousands upon thousands of brave men 
 lay in that place, while their dear ones far 
 away among the hills or on the beautiful 
 prairies of the North were praying for their 
 safety. 
 
 There were days when no rations were 
 served at all— days when the wretched pris- 
 
 oners believed that it was the intention of 
 the fiendish Wirz to starve them all in u 
 body, and thus exterminate an army at one 
 blow. 
 
 It has since been proven that safaoient 
 food was sent to have provided all with tha 
 required sustenance, but owing to the raa- 
 cality of those who had charge of it at the 
 prison, much of it was sold and the money 
 pocketed. 
 
 Every day, one or more men fell beneath 
 the bullets of the guards. 
 
 Wirz murdered more than one man in the 
 presence of his comrades, for some petty 
 cause, such as making a firm, but perftictly 
 respectful answer, when accused of attempt- 
 ing to escape. 
 
 They grew to fear this man as though he 
 were the Evil One himself. 
 
 More than one man in that list would have 
 sacrificed his own life, if by so doing he could 
 have put this fiend in human shape out of 
 the way, but no opportunity was given those 
 who would thus have made martyrs of them- 
 selves for the good of their fellows. 
 
 Orders had been issued that if a dozen of 
 the prisoners made a dash for liberty, the 
 cannon near by were to be fired indiscrimin- 
 
 The same order was to be carried out If 
 Sherman's army came within so many miles 
 of the place. 
 
 Never have the horrors of that place been 
 fully described, and mine shall not be the 
 pen to attempt the task. 
 
 To those of my readers who were there, 
 what need is there of such a picture, when, 
 by shutting the eyes, they can see that which 
 will make a cold shudder sweep over thehr 
 frames, while with those who were not there 
 in that year of terror, it were far better that 
 the worst remained untold. 
 
 The sights that met the eye— the dreadful 
 sounds that greeted the ear, and the misery 
 entailed by acute suffering— these will never 
 leav* the mind while life remains. 
 
 Among the thousands in that great pen, 
 there were many whom Archie probably 
 never saw during the whole of his confine- 
 ment there. 
 
 Every day he looked upon new facet, ,' 
 and not unfrequently came across friends, ' 
 some of them hardly recognizable, because 
 of the haggard faces and tattered garments. 
 
 The rebels were continually on the look- 
 out for tunnels, as this seemed the only way 
 the prisoners could escape directly from tha 
 pen itself, and if any were being dug, the 
 greatest possible care had to be used to pre- 
 vent their detection. 
 
 Escapes were made, of course. 
 
 Few there were, however, who got away. 
 
 Some were brought back, mangled by the 
 fierce bloodhounds kept by Wirz for the 
 purpose of hunting men ; others were never 
 heard of again, and their bones now bleacb 
 in some Southern swamp or wood. They 
 either fought like tigers and were shot down 
 
 their throats so that life slipped out, and 
 there was no use carrying them back. 
 
 This Wirz is the blackest character the 
 history of the four years' war can produce, 
 and his name deserves to be handed down to 
 posterity as that of an inhuman monstw, 
 too vile to live. 
 
 Thank God that he met his just fate at the 
 hands of the government whose loyal sold- 
 iers he had slain without compunction. 
 
 Twenty thousand victims had been sent te 
 that "undiscovered country, from whose 
 bourne no traveler returns," there to be 
 mute witnesses against the monster tyrant. 
 Many times that number lived to curse his 
 name, and bare their heads with grim satia- 
 faction when the news came of his ignomin- 
 ious death. 
 
 He took a keen enjoyment in thia chase for 
 escaped prisoners, and often delayed the 
 
 1^ . ,__i- ve the poor fugitive a 
 
 poor his chance 
 
 with canteen well filled, haversack stuffed 
 with edibles, tobacco pouch dangling from 
 a button, and revolver ready, would mount 
 his pony and hurry away. 
 
 The «ogs strike the scent and away they 
 go on the track of the poor devil. 
 
 Perhaps after a long day's exciting ehaa» 
 the wretched fugitive would be b"ought 
 back, mangled by the hounds, despoadeai 
 over his failure, and compelled to work in 
 the chain gang for his temerity in endeavor- 
 ing to escape from such a fate. 
 
 Sometimes he would be left where he had 
 fallen, with only the leaves for a shroud. 
 Seldom, indeed, that the fugitive got away; 
 
THE WA.E, LIBRARY. 
 
 and even if this were tlie case, tie had a hos- 
 tile country between himself and those who 
 would befriend him. 
 
 Archie's mind was bent upon escape. 
 
 During the weeks he spent at Auderson- 
 ville, there were none of the terrible sights 
 but that he did not look upon. Each day's 
 horrors only made him the more determined 
 to leave this place behind him. 
 
 The sooner the better, for in time even his 
 body must become weakened by the priva- 
 tions he endured, and because of the ex- 
 posure. 
 
 He was singularly fortuuate, however, and 
 by a shrewd trick, managed to receive a sup- 
 ply of food when the others had none. 
 
 This was the game he played. 
 
 Possessed of one coin, he hoarded it until 
 one day when a dear friend seemed dying for 
 want of food , when with the silver he bribed 
 one of the guards to procure him a quantity 
 of victuals, which saved Ward Edwards' 
 life. After that there was nothing Edwards 
 would not have done for him. 
 
 That very night, he saw the guard slip the 
 coin into a small hole near his station, which 
 was evidently his bank. Archie managed to 
 draw the identical piece out with a piece of 
 stick, on the end of which he had placed a 
 lump of gum from a wild cherry tree. 
 
 The following day that silver piece again 
 did duty, and on tUn same iiinht Arrhieoiii-e 
 more drew iioutff Ihenewliankdf theguard, 
 which perhaps rontaiiird no uilier coin. 
 
 Day after day this bit of silver did itsduty, 
 Archie and his friends enjoying the proceeds 
 of his cunning, and the guard fancying all 
 the while he was laying up the nucleus of a 
 small fortune. 
 
 If he ever discovered how he had been 
 hoodwinked, Archie's life would not be 
 worth a picayune, for no inquiries would be 
 instituted if a guard shot a prisoner in the 
 midst of his friends. 
 
 Archie was only receiving what he should 
 have gotten as a matter of course, and his 
 conscience never troubled him because of the 
 deception. 
 
 More than one poor wretch had his life 
 saved during those days of starvation by the 
 generosity of the young soldier. 
 
 As has been said before, Archie was con- 
 tinually on the alert for a chance to escape. 
 
 Twice he had come within an ace of being 
 shot, because of trespassing upon the dead 
 line. 
 
 On the second occasion, he had boldly 
 stepped upon the forbidden ground, and 
 filled his cup at the clear portion of the 
 stream. It was for a comrade who was dy- 
 ing, and had not even been taken through 
 the mockery of being carried to the prison 
 hospital. 
 
 As he turned to retrace his steps, a rifle 
 cracked, and the bullet whistled by, within 
 a few inches of his head, but he rejoined his 
 comrades, perhaps the only man who so 
 boldly crossed the dead line and lived. 
 
 There was only one way to account for this 
 —the guard who had flred was the man with 
 whom Archie had dealings in the provision 
 line, and he did not care to kill the goose that 
 laid the golden eggs. 
 
 There would come a time, perhaps, when 
 he would hanker after that young man's 
 blood more fiercely than any man in the 
 whole Confederate army— that would come 
 when he learned the truth and how he had 
 been deceived. 
 
 Archie did not care to repeat the attempt, 
 for another guard might be on the spot, or 
 else this same fellow believe that it would be 
 bad policy to make two misses, and send his 
 murderous bullet home. 
 
 The man who drank that cup of water, if 
 he has lived to this day, has never swallowed 
 liquid more l:)ravely earned, and he must 
 remember Archie Gordon with a deep affec- 
 tion. 
 
 Archie soon learned how dangerous it was 
 to attempt to tunnel out, and finally resolved 
 to look around, and see if it were not easier 
 to effect escape in some other way. 
 
 Being always obliging, and much more 
 sturdy than most of the prisoners, he was 
 generally selected as one of the party sent 
 out after firewood, and to do various other 
 tasks which would lighten the labor of those 
 who were there for that purpose. 
 
 He had some little knowledge of medicine 
 and surgery, taught him by his father, who 
 had been at one time a doctor, and when 
 this was found out, he was taken to tbe hos- 
 pital. 
 
 Few who ever went there came back ; it 
 was but a halting place between the prison 
 pen and the terrible cemetery; however, 
 Archie was not carried there to be treated, 
 bmt went to lend his assistance. 
 
 Here fresh scenes of horror awaited him. 
 
 Those in charge had grown accustomed to 
 the dreadful sights, and though some 
 might have desired to alleviate the sufferings 
 of the wretched beings, they were restrained 
 by the strictness put upon them by those in 
 authority. 
 
 If Archie had never been confident of the 
 eventual overthrow of the Confederacy be- 
 fore, these sights must have fully convinced 
 him, for he knew that Heaven would never 
 sustain a cause that was backed by such in- 
 human barbarity. 
 
 With every breath he drew he mentally 
 cursed the government that treated its pris- 
 oners ten times worse than dogs, allowing 
 them to die off by thousands, to waste away 
 to mere living skeletons, so that the bones 
 almost burst from the tightly-drawn skin. 
 
 He set to work with a will, but most of the 
 poor fellows were beyond all mortal aid, 
 and besides, the supply of medicines was 
 shamefully stinted. 
 
 As he bent over one poor fellow, who, 
 wasted to skin and bone, was passing away, 
 he found him holding a tress of golden hair 
 and a picture in his nand— the picture of a 
 sweet woman. 
 
 "It is my wife— God bless her!" he whis- 
 pered hoarsely, as Archie sustained him, 
 " tell her I died formy country, and thatmy 
 last thought was of her, but spare her the 
 horrors of this scene. Her address is on the 
 picture. Have the tress buried with me. 
 Oh, God, it is over! " 
 
 Feebly he raised the golden lock of hair, 
 pressed it to his lips, where it lay, as a shud- 
 der passed through his frame, and then all 
 was still. The little woman with the golden 
 hair was a widow of the Republic. 
 
 "Poor fellow, he is dead!" said a voice on 
 the other side of the late sufferer— a voice 
 that sent an electric thrill through Archie's 
 frame. 
 
 He looked up and saw one of the Union 
 prisoners before him, who was evidently a 
 doctor in the hospital— a man with a long, 
 iron-gray beard, and thin, though well knit 
 frame. 
 
 One look he gave, then a wild cry broke 
 from him. 
 
 "Father! Alive! Oh, God, I thank Thee!" 
 
 It was indeed the dead alive. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BKOKEN FETTERS. 
 
 Strange anomaly. 
 
 The dead had come to life in the midst of 
 ne woman had just lost a hus- 
 another a dearly beloved was 
 restored, as it were. 
 
 Archie's arms were around his father's 
 neck, and the latter pressed him to his heart. 
 
 Never again had they expected to meet 
 thus, and ihough they spoke not, their 
 hearts were full almost to bursting. 
 
 Later on the doctor told all his adventures. 
 
 He had been left for dead at a time when 
 the Union troops were in retreat, and was 
 doubtless so regarded by his comrades, but 
 the bullet had only stunned him, and he 
 came to consciousness to find himself a pris- 
 oner. 
 
 All this while he had been employed in 
 the hospitals at Richmond, but had lately 
 been transferred to Andersonville, where 
 his soul was made siik with the miseries he 
 was daily brought in contact with. 
 
 Several times he had sent messages to his 
 wife through men about to be exchanged, 
 but through some reason not one of these 
 ever reached her, as he now learned to his 
 surprise. 
 
 Since coming to Andersonville the doctor 
 had been allowed his liberty, for it was be- 
 lieved that as he fared well, he would never 
 think of attempting escape and thus incur- 
 i-ing deadly dangers. 
 
 Perhaps he might not but for meeting 
 Archie, and this intelligence that his dear 
 wife had so long believed him dead excited 
 him so much that he felt he must go crazy if 
 he did not attempt to reach her. 
 
 After that they were almost continually 
 together, and thus were enabled to discuss 
 plans for escape. 
 
 Captain Gordon had been enabled to pos- 
 sess himself of a revolver and ammunition, 
 which he hid away for the desperate ven- 
 ture, believing that the reason those who 
 had heretofore escaped had failed to get off 
 was the fact they were totally unarmed, 
 and hence unable to beat off the savage 
 hounds that ran them down. 
 
 He had a pass to go and come as he pleased. 
 
 It was his intention to give this to Archie 
 in the proper time. Meanwhile he must 
 make himself so friendly to the sentries that 
 they would not require him to show the 
 paper. 
 
 The pass mentioned no name Im; si>n;;p of 
 the bearer in connection wllU the lipsjiital. 
 
 Every time he went out, ostensibly to 
 search for some weed that grew near by, in 
 order to make a poultice for a sick rebel 
 guard who needed especial attention, the 
 doctor carried with him a small supply of 
 food such as would keep without spoiling, 
 and this was placed in apackage wrapped iii 
 heavy cloth, which in its turn was secreted 
 in a hollow stump against the time when 
 their despei ntc venture was ripe. 
 
 Archie niii'lc liiiiiselt very necessary at the 
 hospital, 1111(1 v.i^i looked upon with favor, 
 for as has lui ii .siiid before, he had a winning 
 way about him. 
 
 He still kept up his trick with the guard, 
 and the solitary silver piece procured many 
 a good meal for the half-starved prisoners 
 with whom he had become particularly ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 The meeting with his father, whom they 
 had mourned as dead these two years, had 
 made him especially light-hearted. 
 
 Perhaps he too was reported dead in the 
 North, and the little mother was bowing her 
 head with grief at the additional burden 
 thrown upon her. 
 
 If they both escaped alive, what a glorious 
 coming home it would be. 
 
 He thrilled at the very thought of it, and 
 prayed that Heaven might see fit to return 
 them to the dear little woman away off in 
 the Ohio home, who was grieving for her 
 dead. 
 
 Day after day the weapons of the guards 
 sounSed, and some poor wretch fell beyond 
 the dead line, a victim to the cruelty of the 
 fiends in charge. 
 
 Day after day the great, high-bodied dead 
 wagon, drawn by four mules, lumbered 
 along, picking up those who awaited its 
 coming, and creaking under its load of 
 wretched morality, made its regular trips to 
 and from the awful cemetery which was 
 fast encroaching upon the precincts of the 
 living. 
 
 In August over two thousand had died 
 and been half buried. What a fearful out- 
 look for those that remained, crowded in 
 the pen to the number of over thirty thou- 
 sand. 
 
 The time was now at hand for their ven- 
 ture. 
 
 They were risking more than most of the 
 prisoners would have done in attempting 
 the same thing, for they were in what might 
 be termed comfortable circumstances when 
 their situation was compared with that of 
 the half starved, illy treated prisoners in the 
 pen. 
 
 True, they endured privations, and both 
 of them were gaunt enough to what they 
 had formerly been, but their strength re- 
 mained, and they carefully husbanded that, 
 knowing how every atom of it would be 
 needed ere they could cross the many miles 
 of hostile country that lay between them- 
 selves and the land of freedom. 
 
 In leaving this comparative comfort, 
 which might have been theirs right along; 
 and, plunging into the deepest danger, they 
 were, therefore, risking more than would 
 have been the case with the poor men who, 
 confronted by death in the most terrible 
 shape, escaped from the pen, and ran no 
 greater chance of losing life in the Georgia 
 wilds, with the savage hounds, and even 
 more inhuman men chasing them than if 
 they had remained in their loathsome quar- 
 ters. 
 
 Their preparations, beyond the collection 
 of food as spoken of before, were few in- 
 deed. 
 
 The doctor secreted some medicines which 
 he knew would be of value to them should 
 one fall sick by the wayside. Besides, he 
 had secured a little compass which would 
 probably be of much value to them in steer- 
 ing their course properly. 
 
 Archie had already made one escape, and 
 knew what a hot chase would follow. He 
 believed it must be all the more severe, be- 
 cause he and his father had made themselves 
 very useful to Wirz and his men, and, there- 
 fore, more regard would be given to their 
 flitting than if they were a c-ouple of the 
 poor inmates of the pen. 
 
 They had many a time seen the jailer start 
 off on his man hunt, and knew just what 
 maneuvers he would so through with. 
 
 This gave them something of an advan- 
 tage over most of those who escaped from 
 Adersonville. 
 
 Besides this knowledge, they could back 
 it up by defending themselves against the 
 hounds used on the occasion, and if it were 
 possible to exterminate the whole pack, 
 ere Wirz eould ride back, and secure 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 13 
 
 another, they could probably make good 
 their escape. 
 
 The fact that they had these two revolv- 
 ers was a potent one and gave them much 
 hope. 
 
 They dared not communicate their inten- 
 tions, but to a very few among the prisoners, 
 for fear of betrayal, for in such a great mass 
 of men it was only to be expected that there 
 were spies, and those of the Judas' type. 
 
 Those whom they did trust with the secret 
 wished them godspeed, and the longing look 
 in their eyes told better than words could 
 have done how fondly they wished it was 
 the favor of Providence that they should 
 be members of the fortunate little party. 
 
 Gladly would they have assumed any risk 
 in order that the ehauce might be given 
 them of once more breathing unpolluted 
 air, and being again in the presence of those 
 they loved. 
 
 for their venture at sundown, it was now 
 the critical hour. 
 
 The doctor was first. 
 
 He had his medicine box in his hand ; and, 
 as he came to the guard, he stopped to in- 
 
 uire as to how some ailment of the Con 
 federate, whom he was treating, was pro- 
 gressing. 
 
 Then with a little light badinage 
 ed on, as the guard supposed, to visit some 
 rebel soldier. 
 
 Archie, though apparently busy, was 
 keenly watching from a window of the hos- 
 pital ; and, when he saw his father pass the 
 guard, he knew that thus far the, scheme 
 had proven successful. 
 
 He had the pass in his possession, and 
 would experience no difaculty in using it, 
 as he had frequently done this before. 
 
 There was no time to be lost, however. 
 
 At dark he was supposed to be among the 
 rest of the prisoners in the pen, and he must 
 not be m the hospital building when the 
 guard came to escort to their miserable 
 quarters those of the prisoners who had 
 been detailed to perform the work in the 
 
 any notice would be taken of it, tor he had 
 prepared for this very thing by going into 
 the pen before the guard arrived on several 
 previous nights. 
 
 He waited some ten minutes. 
 
 They were the longest minutes he ever 
 passed in all his life, and seemed like as 
 many hours. 
 
 He was compelled to possess his soul in 
 patience, and try to think of other things. 
 
 Home came up before his eyes, as it had 
 on battlefield and in bivouac, and he found 
 himself thinking of the dear little mother 
 who would be bowed down with grief when 
 she heard of his death, or capture which al- 
 most meant the same thing. 
 
 Another face came before his mental 
 vision. 
 
 How would Muriel take the news ? 
 
 His heart beat quick and with almost suf- 
 focating force, when he realized that he was 
 now about to take the chance, not only to 
 save his own life for the dear ones at home, 
 but to take with him the father and hus- 
 band, who had been mourned as dead these 
 two years and more. 
 
 Oh, how proud and happy he would be to 
 see the little mother once again, clasped in 
 the arms that were all the world to her. 
 
 His whole frame thrilled with emotion 
 as he thought of it, and for the time being, 
 he almost forgot where he was. 
 
 Then he suddenly became conscious that 
 the sun had reached the prescribed limit, 
 and that the ten minutes he had marked out 
 for his delay, had slipped by. 
 
 Summoning all his self control by remem- 
 bering that everything rested with him, he 
 left his position, and walked leisurely to- 
 ward the guard. 
 
 His pass insured his going on, and as there 
 was nothing in the looks of the young man 
 that betokened in any way his intentions, 
 the man on duty merely glanced at the pa- 
 per, and allowed him exit. 
 
 Had it been necessary, the two men would 
 have forged a pass, such was their deter- 
 mination not to let aught stand in the way 
 of their undertaking, but thanks to good 
 fortune, they had not been compelled to re- 
 sort to this exigency. 
 
 So long as he was in sight of those who 
 weie around the prison and hospital, Archie 
 walked about very leisurely, and finally en- 
 tering a hut which he knew would have no 
 occupants at that hour, he waited for dark- 
 
 and soon after the king of day had vanished 
 from view in the west, darkness crept over 
 thH land. 
 
 When assured that it was gloomy enough 
 for his purpose, Archie left the hut, and 
 made direct around the base of the little 
 hill to the point where he had agreed to 
 meet his father. 
 
 He had no sooner given the signal after 
 
 ed hands over the success that had already 
 attended their effort at escape. 
 
 It was now pitch dark. 
 
 Their next move was to reach the tree, in 
 whose cavity had been placed the provisions 
 they had collected. 
 
 To do this in such utter darkness, they 
 must rely almost wholly on their good judg- 
 ment, yet they seemed singularly fortunate 
 for the doctor announced that he had 
 found the tree they looked for. 
 
 As he put his hands into the cavity, he 
 uttered a low cry of surprise and vexation, 
 for it was empty. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 YANKEES AT BAY. 
 
 At first, a feeling of keen disappointment 
 was what came upon the two men when 
 the discovery was made that the hollow 
 tree did not contain the package of food 
 they had so zealously collected, and hidden 
 away for this emergency. 
 
 They had relied so much upon it, that it 
 was now apt to prove a very serious loss to 
 them. 
 
 All at once, however, the doctor made the 
 startling discovery, that it was all a mistake 
 —he had gone to the wrong tree. 
 
 He realized this from the fact that the 
 hole in this one was on the eastern side 
 while that in which the food was secreted, 
 was due north. 
 
 This cheered them wonderfully, and the 
 next thing in order was to again get their 
 bearings, which was soon done, and in five 
 minutes the precious package was in their 
 possession. 
 
 So far, good. 
 
 The stars were shiuiog brightly by this 
 time, and as long as this was the case, they 
 know there would be iittle or no difiiculty 
 in getting their bearings wlieneverit became 
 necessary. 
 
 How often had their eyes been turned 
 longingly upon that bright north star, while 
 their minds were busy with the thoughts of 
 those whose homes lay under it, as it seemed 
 to them, in their far away Southern prison. 
 That star proved a beacon to many a weary 
 Union soldier, escaped from rebel prisons, 
 for well they knew that if they headed to- 
 ward it, they must at last come to the land 
 of freedom, where loving arms were await- 
 ing them. 
 
 The two men had already mapped out 
 their intended course as far as was practi- 
 cable. 
 
 They headed due north, walked a mile or 
 so in the shelter of the trees, crossed a plan- 
 tation, where the lights in the negro shan- 
 ties were the only signs of life, and then 
 struck a dirt road which seemed to run in 
 the direction they required. 
 
 All this had taken quite a time, though 
 they were still within hearing distance of 
 the prison pen, and the murmur that always 
 marks the presence of a vast multitude wa-s 
 borne to them on the balmy breeze of that 
 September night. 
 
 They suddenly became conscious while 
 standing thus upon the dirt road and listen- 
 ing, that an unusual uproar had sounded. 
 
 Had the prisoners, driven to frenzy, at- 
 tacked the guards in the endeavor to force 
 their way out. 
 
 Knowiug what the orders of the monster, 
 Wirz, were in such an emergency, the two 
 meu shuddered as they continued to listen, 
 expecting to hear the roar of the cannon 
 placed near by which would sound the death 
 knell of thousands. 
 
 >fosuch souud came. 
 
 They knew, therefore, as the clamor grad- 
 ually died away, that some other cause must 
 have been at the foot of it, and that perhaps 
 most of the racket had been made by the 
 guards. 
 
 Was it their escape ? 
 
 This alone could not be the cause, for as a 
 general thing they were very quiet about 
 such matters, and Wirz seldom started in 
 pursuit before morning. 
 
 From far away the baying of hounds came 
 to them, and they could not but start to 
 think that the work had already begun. 
 
 What caused such haste '/ 
 
 Perhaps other prisoners had also escaped. 
 
 ini;;ht l>i* that some ut the men had succeed- 
 ed in getting out. 
 
 The more they numbered, the better 
 chance for some to get away, providing they 
 
 known that the dogs were on another trail 
 than their own; but these two were brave, 
 unselfish heroes, who would have assumed 
 additional risk in order to help any of the 
 poor boys in the prison pen. 
 
 Therefore, when the fact became manifest 
 that the hounds had struck their trail, the 
 doctor shut his teeth hard, and drew his re- 
 volver. 
 
 " They are after us, my boy ; but, thank 
 God, we are prepared ! Better us than after 
 any poor souls who may have escaped to- 
 night. If my hand has not forgotten its cun- 
 ning, that infamous Wirz will have less 
 hounds to hunt men down when we are done 
 with them. Come, Archie, we are too close 
 to the prison. We must makeadash through 
 the wood yonder and then pick out a place 
 to waylay the brutes." 
 
 They lost no more time. 
 
 The hounds were pressing swiftly on, and 
 gaining with every passing minute. 
 
 The moon, but a battel ed hulk of a once 
 proud queen, now arose in the east, and her 
 light, though none of the best, proved very 
 grateful to our friends in their passage 
 through the wood. 
 
 At length, tired of this rapid flight, and, 
 believing that the hounds must now be close 
 upon them, the two men determined to make 
 a stand. 
 
 The moonlight sifted through the leaves, 
 but dimly illuminated the spot, yet it was 
 amply sufficient for their purpose. 
 
 They held their weapons in readiness, 
 and crouched close together behind a fallen 
 log. 
 
 Keenly they watched the space in front 
 for the rush of the hounds, and they had 
 not long to wait before a huge, tawny brute 
 leaped into view. 
 
 He crouched at sight of them, probably 
 for a death-spring ; but the doctor was too 
 quick for the brute, and, just as others of his 
 ilk sprang into view, the leader fell over 
 with a leaden pellet in his brain. 
 
 Then the fun began, and raged fast and 
 furious for a short space of time. 
 
 Archie was no interior shot with the re- 
 volver, and at a time like this, when there 
 was so much at stake he was very apt to do 
 remarkable execution, in spite of the draw- 
 backs attending them. 
 
 If they cried " havoc " when they let loose 
 those dogs of war, then the dogs got the 
 worst of it. 
 
 Only one of the brutes eluded the fire 
 enough to reach the log; and, as he put his 
 paws upon it and glared into the faces of the 
 two men like a demon, his brains were scat- 
 tered by a shot from the doctor who pushed 
 his weapon close up to the dog's eye, as he 
 pulled the trigger. 
 
 Victory I 
 
 The two men could not but feel elated 
 when they realized that the hounds had suc- 
 cumbed to their prowess ; but all was not yet 
 
 From among the trees there suddenly 
 leaped out two men in gray. 
 
 They were guards from Andersonville. 
 
 So sudden was the attack, coming from a 
 quarter where they had not suspected any 
 danger to be, that the two brave men were 
 taken somewhat at a disadvantage, and 
 when the guards hurled themselves upon 
 them, it seemed as though all was lost. 
 
 After that first sinking sensation, their 
 courage revived. They remembered what 
 was at stake, and became nerved with al- 
 most superhuman power. 
 
 The man with whom Archie fought was a 
 perfect devil, and he swore frightfully as he 
 found himself balked in the endeavor to 
 clasp the ex-prisoner's throat in his horny 
 
 They whirled to and fro like giant oaks in 
 the embrace of a tornado, bending and 
 writhing, yet the rebel could not accomplish 
 his desire. 
 
 He finally found himself thrown half a 
 dozen feet away with terrible force. 
 
 Believing him out of the way, Archie 
 turned to assist his father, when a revolver 
 cracked, and the bullet creased his neck. 
 
 Whirling around, he saw his late antagon- 
 ist on his knees, and lin the act of taking a 
 second aim. 
 
 He saw more. 
 
 The moonlight fell full upon the face of 
 the rebel marksman, as he knelt there, and 
 revealed the repulsive features of the very 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 carceration at AndersonTille. 
 
 Heaven had given him the chance to keep 
 hifl vow. 
 
 As the rebel guard flred, Archie dropped. 
 Then raising his own revolver, he sent the 
 last feullet it contained into the brain of the 
 murderous guard in gray, and with his 
 
 against whom they had to contend. 
 
 He would watch the dead line no more for 
 victims. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THROUGH THE SWAMP. 
 
 Believed of his own enemy, Archie now 
 turned with no little anxiety to see how hia 
 father was progressing, but there was no 
 reason for any fear in that direction. 
 
 The doctor had always been a man of un- 
 common caliber, both as regarded mental 
 and bodily strength ; and though being in- 
 carcerated two and a half years ia rebel 
 prisons, was, as a general rule, rather de- 
 moralizing to those unfortunate enough to 
 find themselves there, he had, owing to cir- 
 cumstances, been able to retain a fair share 
 of his energies, having been in the main em- 
 ployed in the hospitals connected with the 
 prisons. 
 
 It had been nip and tuck between himself 
 and the guard for a minute or so. 
 
 To all appearances, it would seem as though 
 they were well matched, and a looker-on 
 must have possessed cunning eyes indeed, to 
 be able to declare which of the two was the 
 most likely to win in the end. 
 
 When, however, the report of the other 
 guard's revolver rang out, a thrill passed 
 through the frame of the Union soldier. 
 
 From his position he could not see the 
 others, and hence, knew not but that his 
 darling boy had been laid low by this cruel 
 shot. 
 
 Uttering a low cry of fury, he hurled him- 
 self on his antagonist with additional vigor, 
 and the affair was speedily decided. 
 
 Then it was the two shots rang out. 
 
 As to the result of these, there could be 
 little doubt, for the wild cry of the stricken 
 guard told that he would hunt escaped pris- 
 oners no more. 
 
 The other fellow, realizing that he was 
 now alone in the fight, and tnat further re- 
 sistance would only be followed by the loss of 
 his life, surrendered at this juncture uncon- 
 ditionally. 
 
 When Archie, relieved of his foe, sprung 
 toward the spot where he knew he snould 
 And the others, he was astonished and none 
 the less pleased to discover his father cover- 
 ing the second rebel with his revolver, the 
 lefiow crouching at his feet. 
 
 Victory was theirs, but they had no time 
 to lose. 
 
 At any moment they might be surprised 
 by others of the Confederates, and all 
 chances of escape taken away from them. 
 
 The gallant tight agaiust dogs and men 
 had gained for them a chance to continue 
 their flight, which must not be thrown 
 away, but there was one duty which must 
 be performed ere they could continue their 
 onward progress. 
 
 The remaining guard was quickly but 
 firmly secured to a tree, where his comrades 
 would find him eventually, when attracted 
 by his shouts they were drawn to the spot. 
 
 Then, what weapons the two men had car- 
 ried were secured, for the desperate Fed- 
 erals knew full well what dangers lay be- 
 fore them, and also, how those dangers 
 would lose half their terror when they were 
 well armed to cope with them. 
 
 Thus arranging matters, they left the 
 scene of their late struggle, and strode on- 
 ward. 
 
 No one could know better than they what 
 terrible dangers they were incurring by this 
 bold adventure, for after slaying the guard 
 and the pet dogs of the fierce jailer, nothing 
 could be expected but death in case of re- 
 capture. Wirz might overlook the death of 
 the man, but he would never forgive the 
 slaying of his dogs. 
 
 Still, animated by the thought of the far- 
 away Northern home, the magnet that 
 raised the drooping spirits of many a man 
 during such times as these, our two heroes 
 were ready to do and dare all things, with 
 the belief that God would carry them 
 through in safety, and that in the end it 
 would be all right. 
 
 The moon rising at such an opportune 
 moment had been of much value to them, 
 and was likely to prove even more so in their 
 further advance, for the route was entirely 
 
 unknown, and they we 
 ger of falling into holes 
 
 One thing they noticed, and this was the 
 fact, that as they advanced, the ground was 
 gradually assuming the nature of a swamp. 
 
 The trees grew more densely and were fes- 
 tooned with trailing creepers and hanging 
 moss. 
 
 Underfoot the walking had become more 
 difficult because of the treacherous nature 
 of the ground, and more than once had they 
 been compelled to retrace their steps in 
 order to find firm footing again 
 
 Once or twice they heard splashing noises 
 to one side of them, and upon the impulse 
 of the moment their hands sought their 
 weapons, but upon second thought the lat- 
 ter were not di-awn. 
 
 The swamp was alive with animated na- 
 ture, and this splashing sound was undoubt- 
 edly caused by alligators, of which reptiles 
 there were plenty to be found in any South- 
 ern swamp. 
 
 Still the sounds were not pleasant to hear, 
 though far preferable to the baying of 
 hounds, which their ears were stretched to 
 catch. 
 
 Though already weary, they could not 
 think of resting while so near the terrible 
 prison pen, but must continue the toilsome 
 march until dawn, when they would find 
 some place of shelter where they could 
 sleep the greater part of the day. 
 
 Unconsciously their minds went back to 
 the prison from which they had so lately es- 
 eaped.and their hearts were full of sympathy 
 for those who were within those rough walls, 
 yet there were probably many there who 
 would rather remain to suffer the tortures 
 of outrageous fortune than by a bold ven- 
 ture start upon the dangerous road to free- 
 dom. 
 
 The time passed slowly on. 
 
 Our friends made good progress, but much 
 time was unavoidal)ly lost because of the 
 swamp. 
 
 In order to follow the vagaries of the path 
 upon which they chanced to alight they 
 were often compelled to go in a direction al- 
 most opposite to that in which they desired 
 to make their way. 
 
 More than this, they frequently missed 
 this peculiar ridge of higher ground, and 
 much valuable time was wasted searching 
 for it, all of which would have been avoid- 
 ed could they have met a friendly darky 
 who would have served as their guide. 
 
 About an hour before dawn they heard 
 loud voices to the right, and believing they 
 were discovered awaited the attack, but as 
 it did not come they advanced cautiously. 
 
 It was then discovered that the voices 
 proceeded from a party of threehunters, en- 
 camped on what would appear to be an 
 island in the morass. 
 
 They were quarreling over some trivial 
 matter, and appeared to be young Georgia 
 
 glanters, though why they were not in the 
 onfederate army at this time was a fact 
 which the two Federals could not make out 
 at first, though presently, from some words 
 pped, they learned that they were home 
 
 these three hot-bloods, Archie and his father 
 crept slowly and cautiously past the island, 
 keeping upon its border and still following 
 the ridge. 
 
 Eventually, they left it behind them, and 
 were once more started on their journey, 
 the excited voices of the hunters gradually 
 dying away. 
 
 The swamp was apparently of no mean 
 dimensions, for when daylight peeped upon 
 them they were still within its confines, and 
 apparently as far from being free from its 
 tortuous windings as ever. 
 
 Their next thought was for the day. 
 
 Rest they must have at all hazards, and 
 both of them were hungry as so many bears. 
 
 Since nightfall they had passed through 
 much that was calculated to try their 
 strength and arouse their appetites which 
 must now be satisfied. 
 
 Half a mile further on the swamp appeared 
 to be broken, for islands like that upon 
 which the three hunters had been encamped 
 became more frequent. 
 
 Upon one of these they determined to 
 spend the day, and were soon busily en- 
 gaged in breaking their fast. When appe- 
 tites had been satiated they sheltered;them- 
 selves in the dense bushes and slept, totally 
 unconscious of the fearful danger that was 
 swooping down upon them, and threatening 
 them with a terrible death. 
 
 Archie opened his eyes. 
 
 It was still daylight, and yet he seemed to 
 comprehend the fact beyond all others that 
 1 the day was far spent, arid that the sun was 
 
 continual dan- I two-thirds of his jovimey down the western 
 
 sky. 
 
 Though this came to him a§ a matter of 
 course, he could not at first determine where 
 he was, nor what had been the cause of his 
 sudden awaking. 
 
 He had been dreaming of home— and was 
 once more a boy among his associates at 
 school ; and so vivid had been the dream, 
 that, upon awaking, he was naturally con- 
 fused. 
 
 Above him were the cypress trees of the 
 south, with their trailing streamers of vines 
 and moss, and between their branches he 
 could here and there catch a glimpse of the 
 intensely blue sky beyond. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HUNTED LIKE BEASTS. 
 
 Then it all came back to him. 
 
 He comprehended that they had slept al- 
 most the whole day, and yet what was it that 
 had aroused him from such a sound sleep ? 
 
 Even as he lay there with his brows knit as 
 though puzzling over the matter, there came 
 through the cypress swamp the sharp, clear 
 notes of a horn. 
 
 Archie shuddered. 
 
 He had heard that horn before, when Wirz, 
 the savage jailer, was ready to start out upon 
 his human hunt, and such was the detesta- 
 tion with which he regarded the man and 
 all that pertained to him, that a blast from 
 that trumpet would almost have been sufh- 
 cient to have aroused him from the dead. 
 
 This, then, was what had awakened him 
 from his sound sleep. 
 
 But for the foolishness of the man who 
 blew the trumpet, evidently to bring his 
 comrades together, they might have come 
 upon the two escaped prisoners still sleeping, 
 and have surrounded them while they re- 
 mained unconscious 0* their deadly peril. 
 
 Not a second was to be lost. 
 
 The pursuers were 3lose at hand, and it 
 would not be surprising if they reached the 
 little island before those whom they sought 
 had left it, being unacquainted with the 
 topography of the swamp. 
 
 From the fact that the bugle notes had 
 come from the direction where they had been 
 when making their way toward the island, it 
 was to be inferred that they were advan<-ing 
 along the same path, and if this were indeed 
 so, theu all hope of escape in that direction 
 was cut off. 
 
 This thing flashed into his mind as he 
 sprung hastily to his feet. 
 
 The doctor lay not flve yards away, sleep- 
 ing heavily. Evidently he had not heard 
 the terrible sound which had so startled the 
 younger man ; yet, no sooner did Archie lay 
 his hand upon him, than the doctor opened 
 his eyes with that quiet self-possessed look 
 that Archie remembered of yore, and seemed 
 to ask what it meant. 
 
 A few words put him in possession of the 
 facts bearing on the case, and then he was on 
 his feet ready for the flight. 
 
 Already could they hear the voices of their 
 pursuers among the trees, and at one point 
 could even see them walking in single file 
 along the ridge with a mulatto in the lead, 
 evidently a guide. 
 
 Their number astonished and disconcerted 
 Archie, for he had confidently hoped and 
 believed that if the worst came they might 
 make a stand and give their foes battle, but 
 these men would outnumber them six to one 
 at least. 
 
 Flight seemed to be their only hope, and 
 there was not much that was encouraging in 
 that. 
 
 what would be their fate? 
 
 Perhaps only the one path led to the 
 island. 
 
 If so, then their case was indeed desper- 
 ate. 
 
 They now saw their stupidity in not seek- 
 ing a means of escape before they went to 
 sleep, and yet they could hardly be blamed 
 for such an error, seeing that they were so 
 weary and wretched at that time. 
 
 The worst had now come, and it was an 
 open question as to whether the Confederates 
 would gobble them up, or be given the slip. 
 
 It was far from inviting. 
 
 The swamp stretched out before them with 
 its trees and hummocks at their bases, but 
 there was no sign of a ridge. 
 
 There was some reason for hope, because of 
 the fact that islands had now appeared in 
 the swamp, and both of them believed they 
 were now near the terminus of the place. It 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 15 
 
 this were so then perhaps the muck would 
 not be 90 deep as it had heretofore been. 
 
 There was no choice left them. 
 
 Already the shouts of their enemies an- 
 nounced that they had reached the firm 
 land, and were scattering OTer it in the hunt 
 for those whom they had every reason to 
 suppose were there. 
 
 Archie took the lead. 
 
 him to assume the greater risk 
 
 He relied much upon his keen eyes to tell 
 him in what direction to go, but keener than 
 they had been deceived by the treacherous 
 aspect of a swamp, and he might be going to 
 his death. 
 
 He soon sunk almost to his knees, and it 
 was difBcult work to proceed with any haste, 
 but when men are in such a desperate pickle 
 they can accomplish wonders. 
 
 The doctor followed behind, closely at 
 first, but gradually losing ground unknown 
 to Archie, who, young and vigorous, pushed 
 ahead with the determination to do or die 
 written upon every line of his brave bronzed 
 face. 
 
 In his hand he grasped one of the large re- 
 volvers that had been secured from the 
 dead guard, and with the proper person this 
 could be made almost as deadly as a repeat- 
 ing rifle. 
 
 Some distance had been gone over when a 
 series of wild shouts rang out in their rear. 
 
 They were discovered. 
 
 The rebels rushed to the edge of the swamp 
 island, and then came a rattling discharge of 
 guns and pistols. 
 
 All that was in favor of the escaping fugi- 
 tives was the fact that a peculiar dusky light 
 deceived the eyes of the marksmen, and they 
 shot wild. 
 
 With (eeth tightly clinched, Archie strode 
 onward, steadily increasing the distance be- 
 tween himself and the men upon the island, 
 but still they continued the wild fusillade, 
 which thus far had proven perfectly harm- 
 less, as it was no easy task taking aim at ob- 
 jects under the branches and interlocked 
 vines where the shadows danced at hide and 
 seek, and continued gloom seemed to hang 
 perpetually, though the rebels themselves, 
 stnnding on the swamp land were thrown 
 out in bold relief. 
 
 All at once Archie failed to hear the steady 
 thump, thump behind him, which proclaimed 
 the fact that his father was following. 
 
 As he turned, filled with wild forebodings 
 of misfortune, it flashed into his mind that 
 his father had been exposed to the fire of the 
 enemy more than himself, being in the rear 
 — a fact that had not struck him before. 
 
 He saw the doctor had taken refuge be- 
 hind the elevated hummock of a tree, and 
 that he was wounded Archie knew at a 
 glance. 
 
 Without a second's hesitation the brave 
 young fellow turned and plunged back over 
 the track he had so lately followed, striding 
 as it were into the very jaws of death for 
 the sake of one who was all the world to 
 him— his father. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A CLOSE SHAVE. 
 
 It was a daring act to thus turn and face 
 those who were now launching their deadly 
 bullets at him, and not only turn but ad- 
 vance toward them— but Archie thought 
 nothing of this. 
 
 With him it was but the workings of na- 
 ture. 
 
 His father was in danger— he whom he 
 
 thoughts of personal safety and natural dis- 
 cretion, such as might possibly have iutruded 
 themselves had it been only a castlHl com- 
 rade who had been with him, flew to the 
 winds when he realized that the doctor had 
 been wounded. 
 
 The noble father had made no sign, had 
 uttered no cry for help. 
 
 He knew Archie's nature too well to be- 
 lieve he would not come back to him if he 
 called, and for that very reason he held his 
 peace. 
 
 Better that one escape from the death that 
 hovered over them than that both go down. 
 
 It chanced, however, that Archie had him- 
 self discovered the fact that his father no 
 longer pursued the same course at his heels, 
 and while the doctor crouched behind the 
 interlocked roots of a cypress tree, screened 
 from the bullets of those upon the little 
 swamp Island, Archie was rushing back as 
 fast as he could to join him. 
 
 As he had been in the advance the rebels 
 had almost wholly lost sight of him in the 
 
 cypress hummock, they turned their atten 
 tion to the other fugitive, firing almost at 
 random in the direction he had gone. 
 
 On the other hand, Archie had a fine view 
 of the Confederates as they stood outlined 
 upon the firm land. 
 
 Seized with a sudden idea he raised his re- 
 volver and sent shot after shot among his 
 foes. 
 
 All things were in his favor. 
 
 The long revolver was almost equal to a 
 musket for its carrying capacities; the 
 rebels were ^ouped together and presented 
 a fair target in the light, and besides, Archie 
 was a remarkable marksman. 
 
 It was little wonder, therefore, that he did 
 good execution among the graycoats with 
 the bullets he rained in among them. 
 
 They were seized with consternation. 
 
 What did this mean ? 
 
 Three of their number down, writhing 
 
 deemed the game fully in their own hands. 
 
 Captain Wirz was the first man 
 his wits and realize the danger that hovered 
 over them all. 
 
 He ordered a hasty retreat to the shelter 
 of the trees and bushes just back of their 
 present exposed position, and the rebels 
 stood not upon the order of their going but 
 leaped wildly away, followed by several 
 shots from Archie's second revolver which 
 he had drawn, determined to give the 
 guards and men hunters all they desired. 
 
 Thus he was enabled to reach the side of 
 his father unmolested. 
 
 When the rebels had gained their shelter 
 and glared out from behind trees and 
 bushes to discover the man who had put 
 them to flight in order that they might vent 
 summary vengeance upon him, the young 
 soldier had vanished. 
 
 They knew full well that the same cypress 
 hummock that sheltered the doctor now per- 
 formed a like service for the other. 
 
 There were ways in which they might 
 have circumvented the two escaped prison- 
 ers by making a detour through the swamp 
 and coming upon them in the rear, when, 
 caught between two fires, they must inevi- 
 tably go down. 
 
 Two things opposed this plan. 
 
 In the first place night was fast closing in 
 and all would be wrapped in darkness ere 
 they could make the circuit, laborious as it 
 must prove, wading through the muck of the 
 swamp. 
 
 Then again they had a healthy respect for 
 the weapons of the man who had already 
 shown himself such a masterhand with the 
 revolver. 
 
 On the whole, although it was possible 
 that some of the Confederates might be dar- 
 ing enough to attempt such an undertaking, 
 they would go about it with exceeding cau- 
 tion. 
 
 When Archie reached his father's side he 
 made immediate and eager inquiries as to 
 the nature of his wound. 
 
 He was greatly cheered to find that it was 
 far from being a serious one. 
 
 The bullet nad given the doctor quite a 
 shock however, from which he was then 
 slowly recovering, and it was this which had 
 made him believe his wound was greater 
 than it really proved. 
 
 They fortunately had made all provision 
 for such an emergency, and without loss of 
 time Archie proceeded to dress the wound. 
 
 In less than ten minutes the doctor de- 
 clared himself like a new man, and both 
 ready and anxious to continue the flight 
 through Dixie toward the Union lines. 
 
 It was deemed wise by Archie, however, 
 to linger in their present place of shelter for 
 half an hour longer, when darkness would 
 have settled upon the swamp, and they 
 would run no gantlet of the enemy's fire as 
 must inevitably be the case if they exposed 
 themselves while daylight lasted, for that 
 the rebels were still hidden behind the trees 
 and bushes they had good evidence. 
 
 All that was needed to prove this latter 
 fact was for Archie to thrust out his cap on 
 the end of a stick and immediately a rifle 
 sounded, the bullet splashing into the water 
 beyond. 
 
 The time passed slowly but at last it was 
 quite dark enough for their purpose. 
 
 Silence hovered over the Southern swamp, 
 only broken now and then by the discordant 
 cry of some night bird or the splash of a 
 moving alligator, of which they had seen 
 more than one during the progress of their 
 march through the swamp. 
 
 Archie once more took the lead, but this 
 
 time he was careful to make sure that his 
 father was close behind him. 
 
 Leaving the cypress hummock they again 
 turned their faces in the direction they had 
 been going when brought to a halt, and 
 slowly pursued their diflicult course through 
 the swamp, making as little noise as possible. 
 
 They were not Jet free from danger. : 
 
 So long as they were in a hostile country, . 
 just so long would they be in hourly peril, , 
 and just so long must their nerves be con- ' 
 tinually wrought up, expecting constant , 
 surprises. 
 
 Through the swamp they went. 
 
 Enemies were behind them they knew full ' 
 well, but whether their retreat had been cut 
 off, or any attempt made in this direction. 
 
 as to be almost beneath notice. 
 
 Archie was a trifle anxious in regard to it, 
 knowing how in such a country very often 
 a scratch may eventually be the death of a 
 mau, but he did not worry. 
 
 Heaven had been very kind to them so 
 far, and, perhaps, all would yet be well. 
 
 Darker grew the swamp as they advanced, 
 and it soon became evident that the end was 
 not yet, though they really believed it could 
 not last much longer. 
 
 It was at this juncture that Archie came 
 to a sudden pause. 
 
 He listened intently for a few seconds; 
 and then, catching his father by the arm, 
 drew him back in the shelter of a tree. 
 
 A splashing sound now reached the ears 
 of the doctor; and, a minute later, he saw a 
 moving flgure. 
 
 This was followed by a second and a third, 
 until flve had come into view. Half bend- 
 ing, they plodded on through the swamp in 
 single file. 
 
 They were heading for the swamp island, 
 the * 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BLACK FKIEN D S. 
 
 It did not need any magician to tell the 
 two fugitives who these flve men were. 
 
 The very fact of their heading in the di- 
 rection of the hummock, behind which the 
 two men had been hiding, was enough to 
 proclaim the fact that they were a portion 
 of the gang Captain Wirz had at his heels 
 when he pursued those who had escaped 
 from Andersonville. 
 
 As a usual thing, he did not take more 
 than a couple of men with him besides the 
 dogs; but, on this occasion, he knew what 
 ablebodied men he had to contend with. 
 
 Besides, he had lately risen from a sick 
 bed, and felt unusually ferocious. 
 
 The general outcry which had followed 
 the escape of Archie and his father had 
 created quite a stir, and the whole neigh- 
 borhood was being searched, so that when a 
 trail was finally struck they fiocked after 
 the dogs, thus making more than a dozen 
 who were on hand at the time when Archie 
 scattered them so effectually with his re- 
 volver. 
 
 These five men had been ordered by Wirz 
 to make the circuit and come up in the rear 
 of the Federals who crouched behind the 
 hummock, keeping a sharp lookout as they 
 passed through the swamp, lest those whom 
 they sought should pass them by in the 
 darkness. 
 
 As the reader has seen, this was just what 
 they had already done. 
 
 Our friends were very careful not to make 
 them realize their mistake, for although it 
 would, perhaps, have been an easy matter 
 to have utterly demoralized the graycoat 
 guards by a few quick shots from their re- 
 volvers, there was really no telling what 
 mighthappen, and, besides, they were averse 
 to shedding human blood when it could just 
 as well be avoided. 
 
 No sooner had the Confederate quintet 
 of guards passed out of sight and hearing, 
 however, than the hunted Unionists were on 
 the move. 
 
 The sooner they left the hated jailer and 
 his cruel minions in the rear, the better it 
 would be for their health and comfort. 
 
 They knew not whether they would be 
 chased beyond the swamp by these fiends, 
 but the chances were inclined to be that 
 wav. 
 
 Their first duty was to reach dry land. 
 
 After plodding on for some ten minutes 
 after having seen the guards pass them by, 
 Archie made a very pleasant discovery. 
 
 " What is it ?" asked the doctor, who had 
 detected the low exclamation he gave vent 
 to.- 
 
 " I think we have struck a piece of luck. 
 
16 
 
 THE WAR LIBRARY 
 
 If I am not mistaken, there is an old cordu- 
 roy road here which will take us out of the 
 swamp." 
 
 Investigation proved the truth of Archie's 
 
 remarks, for there was au old corduroy road 
 
 running across one end of the swamp, and it 
 
 . was this they had now come upon. 
 
 I What a relief it was to stand upon the 
 
 ■ firm logs, after having been so long iu the 
 
 muck of the swamp. 
 . They seemed to feel invigorated by the 
 change, and ready to push on. 
 1 One great danger still threatened them. 
 
 It was to be supposed that Captain Wirz 
 knew of the corduroy road through the 
 end of the swamp, or, if not, the mulatto 
 guide who had brought himself and men 
 along the little ridge, would undoubtedly 
 make him aware of it. 
 
 What then if its terminal points at solid 
 ground were placed under surveillance, so 
 that death could be meted out to the bold 
 fugitives as they attempted to pass by ? 
 
 Under the circumstances, caution was 
 quite as necessary aa it had ever been before, 
 and yet they meant to lose no time. 
 
 With revolvers drawn and ready, they 
 moved on, and finally the swamp was left 
 behind. 
 
 No enemies had aa yet appeared, and they 
 breathed easier when once more in the for- 
 est they could turn their faces toward the 
 north, and press forward, knowing that al- 
 though freedom was far distant, every step 
 took them closer to it. 
 
 The night was dark, like the preceding 
 one, and the moon would not rise until late. 
 
 They only halted a little while to clear off 
 the swamp raire that had clung tenaciously 
 to their garments, and then once more pro- 
 ceeded on their way. 
 
 Eventually a dirt road through the pine 
 forest debouched upon what appeared to be 
 a veiy good pike, and as its general direc- 
 tion was in their favor they stuck to it. 
 
 The danger was greater so far as dis- 
 covery went than in among the trees, but the 
 traveling was much easier, and, besides, 
 they were in no danger of losing themselves, 
 as the stars could always be seen. 
 
 They were careful, however, about push- 
 ing recklessly on, knowing what might await 
 them. 
 
 When they finally came to a house lying to 
 the left of the pike, it was decided that they 
 must have a drink of water, come what 
 might of the venture. 
 
 There were a few negro huts back of the 
 main building, and toward these they made 
 their way 
 
 agani. 
 
 " Who dar?" 
 
 The voice was close to the door, and beyond 
 doubt belonged to a darky of the male sex. 
 
 Archie put his mouth near the rickety 
 door, and said, in a low but perfectly audi- 
 ble voice : 
 
 " Uncle, open the door. We are two Union 
 soldiers escaped from prison." 
 
 Magic words! 
 
 When did they ever fail to work upon the 
 heart of a black man in time of sore distress? 
 Few thereare to-day who, when hunted and 
 
 the risi 
 
 Perhaps there are a few isolated cases 
 where they proved treacherous, but these 
 men were outcasts from the slave ranks, men 
 in the couHdenceof their masters, and whose 
 backs had iii'\ er f il 1 1 he lash, though through 
 information imi aite-d l>v them their fellows 
 had often suffered cruel torture. 
 
 A black face looked out from the opened 
 . door, and the fugitives were drawn within. 
 When the little window had been duly 
 screened, alight was struck, and then they 
 saw their black friend. 
 
 He was evidently a field hand, used to 
 picking cotton, blati as the ace of spades, 
 yet with a broad grin on his face, and a hap- 
 py light in his eye at the prospect of being 
 able to do something for the soldiers of that 
 great manLiukum, who had proclaimed that 
 they should be free men, that the lash should 
 be applied to their backs no more, and that 
 tliey should, in the place of being mere chat- 
 tel property, be known as men and citizens 
 of the Great Republic. 
 
 His good wife was called down quietly, so 
 as not to arouse the pickaninnies, as Black 
 Pete etsplaiued ; and then, from the material 
 at hand, the good negress concocted a 
 meal which, to the fugitives, seemed the best 
 they had ever eaten, although at another 
 time they might look back to that supper, 
 and smile at its simplicity. 
 
 Wonderfully refreshed by this hot meal, 
 they kindly refused the offer of the negro to 
 remaiu iu his hut until the next day. 
 
 Andersonville was still too near at hand to 
 loiter, and the greater the distance they 
 placed between the hated prison and their 
 own persons the better. 
 
 When the darky learned that they could 
 not stay, he offered to pilot them on their 
 way, and take them to such a point that 
 without much difficulty they could reach 
 the cabin of a friend of his before morning, 
 to whom they were to apply for lodging. 
 
 This offer they gladly accepted, and were 
 soon on their way again. 
 
 Clouds had rolled up meanwhile, and 
 there was every evidence of a dreary rain. 
 
 Nothing could deter such brave hearts, 
 though, and, strengthened by the cheer that 
 had so lately been set before them, they 
 truged along the dusty pike in company 
 with their black guide. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CUDJO. 
 
 It was early dawn when the two fugitives 
 reached the. cabin of Cudjo, to whom they 
 had been referred for assistance on their 
 way by Black Ben. 
 
 He had gone with them several miles, and 
 before leaving them had explained the re- 
 mainder of the journey to the friendly cab- 
 in beyond that it really seemed as though no 
 one could mistake the way. 
 
 Owing, however, to the intense darkness, 
 and the chilly, uncomfortable drizzle 
 that had settled down more in the shape of 
 a heavy fog than aught else, they managed 
 to lose their course several times, and then 
 only with thegreatest difficulty regained the 
 proper road. 
 
 When finally they sighted the cabin that 
 had been so minutely described to them, in 
 the early dawn of another day, they were 
 glad, indeed, for, wet and weary, they now 
 had a chance of gaining shelter and receiv- 
 ing comfort. 
 
 Cudjo was a free negro — that is, a 
 former lenient master had allowed him to 
 purchase his freedom years before, having 
 worked in a mill extra hours to produce the 
 money with which he finally bought him- 
 self. 
 
 He lived alone ui)on a little patch of 
 ground, and made money in various ways — 
 with his garden, selling vegetables, and 
 through other ohannels. 
 
 It was well known that he had a wife who 
 was the slave of a neighboring planter, and 
 people understood that for a long time back 
 Cudjo had been saving up, hoping to buy 
 her. 
 
 The proclamation of President Lincoln had 
 reached the cunning darky, and he was 
 holding the two thousand dollars back, with 
 which he had expect«d to purchase Liza, his 
 wife; for, if in a short time the war must 
 end, and she be free, then they would have 
 need of this sum to go North and start well 
 in life. 
 
 They rapped on the door again and again, 
 but there was no answer. 
 
 Cudjo was absent. 
 
 Our forlorn fugitives felt their hearts sink 
 as this fact became apparent, for they had 
 heard so much of his stanch loyalty to the 
 Union, that they had hoped to be cheered 
 with at least a good meal and shelter for the 
 coming day. 
 
 Not to be deterred, they tried the door and 
 found it open to their touch. 
 
 Once inside, the fact was apparent that the 
 black master was away. 
 
 Men in their circumstances could not stand 
 on ceremony. They were ravenous with 
 hunger, chilled through by the drizzly rain 
 and sleepy enough to drop down anywhere. 
 
 A fire was speedily kindled, and while 
 Archie busied himself making some bean 
 coffee, the doctor cut some slices from a 
 piece of bacon and fried them in a pan, 
 together with some potatoes. There was 
 some cold pone in the cupboard, and taken 
 with the other articles they made out a fine 
 meal. 
 
 To men who had been in rebel prisons any 
 length of time, all little fastidious notions in 
 regard to meals and victuals were unknown, 
 and they were ready to eat and enjoy almost 
 anything. 
 
 When the meal was ended, they restored 
 things as nearly as possible to the condition 
 they had been before, though the doctor 
 cast a rueful glance at the hole they had 
 made in the side of bacon, hanging from the 
 rafter, and which, of course, could not be 
 replaced. 
 
 The next thing on the programme was to 
 get some rest. 
 
 It was really dangerous to remain in the 
 cabin of the free negro, for he was known to 
 have, at least, a leaning toward the Union ; 
 though Cudjo had been cunning enough to 
 hide, in a great measure, his rabid love for 
 the boys in blue; but when they surveyed 
 the miserable aspect outside, they had not 
 the heart to leave their shelter. 
 
 In ten minutes both were asleep upon the 
 floor of the cabin. 
 
 At first they had intended that one of them 
 should remain up to keep watch, but this 
 had been finally abandoned, and they hardly 
 knew when they laid down, so qiokly did 
 sleep overpower them. 
 
 How long they slept they knew not. 
 
 They were awakened by heavy footfalls, 
 and opening their eyes, they saw standing 
 
 Upon his face was the most curious combi- 
 nation of astonishment, pleasure and fear, if 
 such a thing were possible. 
 
 Evidently he knew who they were, and 
 although pleased at their coming to him for 
 help, and surprised to see them stretched out 
 upon his floor, he had some reason for the 
 fear which was so plainly written upon his 
 face. 
 
 '• Hi, yi; what dis mean, white folks?" 
 
 Realizing who this must be who had 
 broken iu upon their slumber, the two fugi- 
 tives arose to their feet. 
 
 Cudjo was a negro of giant frame, capable 
 of demoralizing most men in a hand to hand 
 combat, and should an ugly fit come upor 
 him, he might prove himself 
 they could explain matters. 
 
 Archie let his hand fall upon the butt of 
 one of his revolvers. 
 
 "Are you Cudjo?" he asked, looking into 
 the eyes of the negro with his peculiar 
 smile. 
 
 The darkey was won at once. 
 
 "Datam me, young massa; an' I dunno 
 but youse must be dem Linkum boys what 
 hab 'scaped from de prison pen. De whole 
 country am aroused. I 'clar ter goodness 
 youse hab killed de cap'ens best dogs, an' cut 
 his guard down by more'n one man. I lub 
 you foah dat, young massa. Cudjo hate de 
 dogs an' de men, an' when you kill dem in 
 de swamp ebery nigger dat hear de news, he 
 kick his heels together an' sing in his pocket 
 so dat de sojers wouldn't hear. But how 
 youse find Cud jo's hotel?" 
 
 They thereupon explained matters. 
 
 Cudjo's eyes glistened when he heard the 
 stirring recommendation that his black 
 friend had given him, and bringing one 
 clinched flst down into the other open palm 
 he said, earnestly : 
 
 " Dat am true, ebery word of it, massa. 
 Cudjo am all Union, flesh, blood, and bones; 
 but wat am de use of shouting it out an' get- 
 ting a bullet in de brain. I hate de men 
 wat say we are animals, without souls. I 
 hate de land dat hab echoed to de lash an' de 
 cries of de oppressed people, eber since dis 
 republic has been born. I hate de institution 
 dat tar a man away from de wife of his 
 bosom, an' sells 'em away inter Egypt. De 
 good Lord am put a curse on dis country 
 because of dat, an' de day will soon come 
 when de heel of de Norf will be pressed on 
 de proud Souf, and den de Lord will say, 'let 
 my people go.' " 
 
 The negro spoke as if inspired, and there 
 was an eloquence rude but powerful in his 
 rendering of these words that impressed 
 those who heard him. 
 
 It was plain to be seen that he was no or- 
 dinary black man. The same struggling 
 spirit that had caused him to labor for his 
 own freedom first and then work to buy his 
 wife, would ever bring him to the front 
 among his race. 
 
 " Dis am no place foah youse. my massas, 
 foah dey suspect Cudjo already ob aidin' 
 more'n one poor wretch dat 'scape from An- 
 dersonville. You must come wid me at once 
 an' I'll lead you to de place whar dey won't 
 find youse in a hurry." 
 
 Removing all traces of their presence iu 
 the cabin, he told them to follow him ; and 
 they went out into the dreary day. 
 
 The mist was still hanging heavy over the 
 earth, so that it was almost as safe for them 
 to be abroad as at night, especially when 
 under the guidance of one who could avoid 
 dangerous points. 
 
 In less than half an hour Cudjo brought 
 p at quite a large barn ; the house of the 
 lantation being only dimly visible through 
 
 he called upon a friend of the same 
 color as himself, the man who had charge of 
 the horses, and presently the fugitives were 
 admitted to the barn. 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 UNDER THE HAY. 
 
 Hardly had the two dripping fugitives 
 been drawn into the barn than a clatter 
 of horses' hoofs was heard. 
 
 There could be no mistaldug the sound — it 
 meant rebel cavalry. 
 
 Both the darkies understood it, and aftera 
 hasty consultation in low tones, their new- 
 friend, who had been introduced to them by 
 the euphonious name of Bijah, came up to 
 the Federals. 
 
 "I 'spect dat am Massa Coulton back agin. 
 He am a Confederate kurnel ob boss. Den 
 agin it may be some ob dem dat am lookin' 
 foah youse. On de whole we think you had 
 better hide widout delay. Cudjo am gwine 
 afore dey set eyes on bim. He come again 
 to-night an' start you on de right road Norf . ' ' 
 
 not knowing whether they would ever 
 him again, and then followed Bijah up into 
 the loft. 
 
 Although the rebel colonel had hardly a 
 horse left him for home use, the few negroes 
 on the estate had harvested a hay crop, 
 about the only thing that could be garnered 
 without much labor, and the loft was well 
 filled. 
 
 Under this hay it was expected that the 
 fugitives were to hide. 
 
 Archie tunneled in first, and his father fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 When they had entirely vanished from 
 sight, Bijah pulled the hay about so as to 
 effectually screen the opening they had 
 made, and then went below. 
 
 His last surmise was correct, for those who 
 had arrived at the Georgia mansion were 
 men who had been scouring the country all 
 day for the fugitives, and were in no pleas- 
 ant state of mind. 
 
 They were cavalrymen who had no con- 
 nection with the command of the owner of 
 the estate, and they wcie there for business. 
 
 In fact, they had bciii informed by a poor 
 white that he had seen the two fugitives in 
 company with a negio, heading in the direc- 
 tion of the place, anil as theie was no other 
 residence for miles around, it was quite evi- 
 dent to them that there was a good chance 
 of the runaways being found in hiding about 
 the premises. 
 
 They knew full well that the wife of the 
 rebel colonel was a bitter Secesh, and would 
 not think of harboring any one who would 
 prove an enemy ; but in those days of dark- 
 ness in the South it was well known where 
 the sympathy of every slave lay, and they 
 were regarded suspiciously at times when 
 there seemed to be a chance for them to 
 secretly strike a blow at the Confederacy. 
 
 They soon understood that the fugitives 
 could not have hidden themselves m the 
 house by any manner of means, and their at- 
 tention was now cast upon the stable. 
 
 A rush was made lor the barn. 
 
 Through a knothole in the boards Archie 
 saw them coming. He had continued to 
 burrow under the hay until he was finally 
 brought to a halt by reaching the side of 
 the bam and here they would doubtless 
 be safe from the keen search that must in- 
 evitably follow. 
 
 At sight of the Confederates rushing to- 
 ward the place, he could not help shudder- 
 ing, they i)resented such a wild appearance; 
 and he easily recognized them as a portion of 
 that fearless and reckless command known 
 aa the Alabama Wildcats. 
 
 They were representative Alabamians, tall 
 and angular, men who feared neither man 
 nor devil ; who could whip thrice their num- 
 ber in battle ; and as he had met, these fel- 
 lows before he did not relish falling into 
 their hands. 
 
 Since time had elapsed without their 
 noting its passage, it had been past the mid- 
 dle of the afternoon when they left the 
 house of Cudjo, bound for this place. 
 
 Because of the heavy fog and general 
 gloom, night might be expected to close 
 in upon them sooner than usual, and the 
 way things now looked it could not come 
 any too soon. 
 
 When the Alabama fire-eaters reached the 
 barn they put the darky through a syste- 
 matic course of questioning, and yet they 
 were not at all satisfied with the answers he 
 gave. 
 
 Of course he pretended to be totally igno- 
 rant in regard to that of which they inquired; 
 but some of the Confederates professed to 
 see the lie in his face. 
 
 A search was immediately begun, and of a 
 necessity this brought them to the great 
 loft of hay. 
 
 They might have shifted it, but the task 
 
 was more than any of them cared to shoul- 
 der, and consequently other means must be 
 tried in oraer to ascertain whether the 
 Yankees were secreted under its weight. 
 
 The leader of the cavalrymen, a heavy set 
 sergeant, took up his stand in front of the 
 " manded : 
 loody Yanks. 
 We know whar you are and I reckon you'll 
 save yer hides a siugin' by surrendering I 
 Come out!" 
 
 No answer. 
 
 The sergeant uttered a string of oaths and 
 then tried another tack. 
 
 " Boys, get yer guns ready. Ef the Yanks 
 don't make a stir by the time I count ten, 
 let drive. We'll see how long they can 
 stand hot lead." 
 
 Thereupon there was a great clicking of 
 gun locks, every one of the five troopers 
 who had ascended to the loft with the ser- 
 geant feeling it incumbent upon himself to 
 pull back the hammer of his piece at least 
 three times, the effect of course being to 
 impress any one who overheard the work 
 with the idea that there was quite a host 
 present. 
 
 Slowly and methodically the sergeant 
 counted half a score, but when he had fin- 
 ished not a sound broke the silence save the 
 stamping of a horse in a stall below or the 
 laugh of one of the men outside. 
 
 The discomfited sergeant now uttered an- 
 other oath. He had half believed himself 
 that the fugitives were under the hay, but 
 now his ideas had changed considerably, for 
 it would be impossible that they could be 
 within hearing and refuse to discover them- 
 selves at his stern command. 
 
 "Fire!" 
 
 With the order the guns were discharged 
 with a deafening crash, but there was not 
 the slightest commotion in the hay. 
 
 A hundred bullets fired into that heap 
 could have done our friends no harm, for the 
 closely packed hay was almost as effectual a 
 barrier to the passage of lead as sandbags 
 might have been. 
 
 A commotion arose below. 
 
 The horse broke loose and dashed wildly 
 through the stable, scattering the rebels who 
 had remained below. 
 
 They, believing something terrible must 
 have happened above, ran outside, while 
 the sergeant and hia men came tumbling 
 down, believing on their part that an attack 
 of some kind must have been made on those 
 below at the time of their firing. 
 
 It seemed evident to all parties by this 
 time that the Yankees were not there, and 
 so they once more turned toward the house, 
 probably for refreshment, after holding a 
 short confab as to wh at should be their fut- 
 ure coujse with regard to the hunt. 
 
 Half of the distance had been gone over, 
 when, in the midst of a heated discussion, a 
 sharp cry suddenly rang out. 
 
 Thinking of the Yankees who had effected 
 such a daring escape from Andersonville, 
 the troopers grasped their carbines nervous- 
 ly and looked toward that spot from whence 
 the cry seemed to come. 
 
 It was the colonel's wife, and she stood 
 upon the veranda of the mansion pointing 
 either at or over them, while she uttered 
 some bitter denunciation of which they 
 oould only understand the fact that she 
 would see to it that they were given their 
 ts by the colonel when he returned. 
 
 In what way, madam, hav 
 )ng ? We believed the Yank< 
 
 wrong I We believed the Yankees to be in 
 the barn," said the rebel sergeant with 
 either real or mock humility. 
 
 'Rascal, look behind and see your work!" 
 crlec» the irate lady. 
 
 The troopers turned. 
 
 "My stars!" yelled the sergeant, "the 
 barn's all ablaze." 
 
 And the two Yankees lay under the burn- 
 ing hay ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SORELT PRESSED. 
 
 The words of the rebel sergeant were in- 
 deed true. 
 
 How the fire originated was not a very 
 difftcult problem to solve to those of the 
 men who had been up in the loft with the 
 non-commissioned officer. 
 
 After they had discharged their weapons 
 into the hay, they had only time to notice that 
 there was no succeeding commotion, such as 
 would be the natural consequence had the 
 fugitives been beneath the hay and been 
 struck by their balls, when the commotion 
 below drew Iheni thither. 
 
 Such was tlieir haste, half believing there 
 must be a surprise from some of the escaped 
 Yankees, of whom they entertained a secret 
 
 fear since the killing of the bloodhounds in 
 the swamp, and the discomfiture of the pris- 
 on guards under Captain Wirz, that they 
 took no notice of the fact that a wad from 
 one of their guns was smouldering in the 
 
 wonderful quickness upon the surrounding 
 hay in a very short time the loft was a mass 
 of fire. 
 
 Archie's father noticed it first, for Archie 
 himself had his nose pressed against the 
 boards as he peered through the knot hole 
 after the rebels. 
 
 " What is this smoke, Archie?" 
 
 Turning at the words, the young fellow 
 also caught a whiff of the sharp smoke 
 which was already permeating every por- 
 tiou of the loft, having found little outlet as 
 yet, though the roof was on fire inside. 
 
 At the same time there came to their ears 
 a crackling noise, which could have but one 
 explanation— the hay was on fire ! 
 
 ■This was a startling fact. 
 
 Under the hay, as they were, there was no 
 chance of escape, and death stared them in 
 the face. 
 
 It was an awful feeling that came upon 
 them, and yet it seemed useless to make any 
 at escape from their fate. 
 
 ground. 
 
 Were they doomed to be burned alive like 
 rats in a trap after having done so nobly in 
 eluding their pursuers thus far ? 
 
 The doctor groaned at the idea. 
 
 He had at once taken it for granted that 
 nothing could save them from the threaten- 
 ing doom, and his mind had immediately 
 gone back to his Ohio home, and the dear 
 little woman who had mourned for him so 
 long. Alas ! after all, it would have been 
 just as well, perhaps, had he fallen in the 
 battle, where his name had been chronicled 
 among the dead. 
 
 As for Archie, he was of a more hopeful, 
 energetic nature. 
 
 His mind was not yet ready to give up. 
 
 He thought of escape, and how it could be 
 accomplished. 
 
 Better to face the dozen troopers in a 
 pitched battle than submit to the embraces 
 of the fiery monster. 
 
 Was it not possible to push a board off ? 
 
 The barn was old, and he had noticed be- 
 fore this, when he had no thought of making 
 use of the fact, that some of the boards 
 were loose in the middle, only held above 
 and below. 
 
 Perpaps, if the two of them exerted their 
 
 would give them, they might manage to 
 j)ush one of these boards off, and escape out- 
 side through the aperture thus made, though 
 to be sure, they would be compelled to face 
 tlie troopers immediately. 
 
 Archie had almost decided on this plan, 
 when an inspiration came to him ; he could 
 call it by no other name. 
 
 The openings to the stalls were generally 
 on the other side of the loft, but one at least 
 lay ou the side where they crouched under 
 the hay, for he had put his foot down into 
 it, and but for his agility in recovering him. 
 self, might have gone through just before 
 the troopers entered the barn. 
 
 Why not m ake use of this hole now ? 
 
 Brilliant thought. 
 
 It would take them below in safety, and 
 at the same time might give them a chance 
 to escape without being seen by the 
 troopers. 
 
 Just as he hit upon this idea, looking out 
 through the knothole, he saw the troopera 
 brought to a halt by the colonel's wife and 
 their attention drawn to the bam. This told 
 him that the fire had broken through the 
 roof. 
 
 A few words to his father,and the doctor 
 
 rasped the idea, which gave him much re- 
 let. 
 
 fi'_ 
 
 Archie lost not a second, but reaching the 
 spot, he pressed his weight upon the hay, 
 and went through into the stall below, m 
 which act his father followed him. 
 
 Their time was exceedingly limited. 
 
 The rebel troopers had remained trans- 
 fixed for a dozen seconds after realizing that 
 the bam had been fired through their 
 means, for though dare devils one and all, 
 they knew the officer to whom this place be- 
 longed, and feared his anger. 
 
 Thus it was something like consternation 
 seized upon them, and they wasted the sec- 
 onds that were so precious to the fugitives. 
 
 As Archie's father landed beside him on 
 the lower floor of the bam, a wild shout 
 
18 
 
 THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 ringing out from the direction of the house 
 announced the fact that the sergeant and 
 his followers had recovered their wits, and 
 were dashing toward the barn, as if any ef- 
 fort of theirs could stay the mighty power 
 that had been brought into life by a spark. 
 
 What was to be done? 
 
 The barn doors were all shut and could be 
 barred from the inside if necessary, so that 
 before the running rebels could reach them 
 they could easily transform the place into 
 a fort, which could not be taken while they 
 remained well armed, and on the alert. 
 
 Of what use would this be however while 
 the fortress was burning over their heads ? 
 
 This would not be good policy. 
 
 Again Archie was equal to the occasion 
 
 His eyes fell upon a small opening in the 
 rear oC the barn, and toward this he sprang 
 followed by his father. 
 
 The rebels were advancing from the other 
 direction, and if by good luck their atten- 
 tion would be fully taken up with the 
 Are then our friends would have a good 
 chance to escape. 
 
 Once through the opening the danger 
 grew nearer. 
 
 Each of them had a revolver ready, and if 
 discovery came, they intended making use 
 of the weapons. Should they gain a good 
 start, however, they might trust to their 
 legs for escape, as the night would soon close 
 in. 
 
 Away they dashed, side by side, desperate 
 yet determined men, who were ready to do 
 and dare, when there was held before them 
 a hope of ultimate escape and freedom from 
 the power of the Confederacy. 
 
 No shout had as yet attested to the fact 
 that they were discovered, and there was no 
 telling but what they might even gain the 
 shelter of the trees without being seen. 
 
 This would have been too good luck. 
 
 When two-thirds of the way across the 
 open, a sharp report rang out in the rear, 
 aud Archie felt^-yes, actually felt the bullet 
 slug past his head, tipping his left ear in its 
 passage. 
 
 Then came hoarse shouts entirely different 
 from the shrill cries that had announced the 
 surprise of the rebels on discovering the 
 fugitives. 
 
 Telling his father to go on, leaping in a 
 zigzag manner in order to avoid the bullets 
 that must eome, the brave soldier in blue 
 wheeled in his tracks. 
 
 There was a rapid interchange of shots, 
 and while Archie was uninjured he must 
 himself have done considerable damage 
 among his foes, for there was wild commo- 
 tion among them, and they made haste to 
 shelter themselves behind the barn so as to 
 be out of the unerring marksman's range. 
 
 Taking advantage of this temporary re- 
 spite, Archie ran on and gained the shade of 
 the trees. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ALONG THE RAILROAD. 
 
 Once beside his father, Archie breathed 
 more easily, for that danger had been safely 
 passed. 
 
 When he vanished from view, the troopers 
 again made their appearance as though it 
 was their intention to immediately pursue 
 the fugitives. 
 
 hunting so assiduously must have been se- 
 creted under the hay after all. 
 
 They were reminded, however, that the 
 fugitives differed from those wretches who 
 had so often been hunted through this coun- 
 try, and also that discretion is often the 
 better part of valor, by the sharp crack of 
 two revolvers, and hastily they sought their 
 shelter again. 
 
 All that was left to the fugitives now was 
 immediate flight, and as they turned to dash 
 away there arose in front of them a human 
 figure. 
 
 Archie instantly covered the man with his 
 weapon, but seeing the black face, he lower- 
 ed the weapon, fearing no treachery there. 
 
 " It's me, massa — Bijah." 
 
 It was indeed Bijah, who had escaped from 
 the soldiers, and was hiding in the bushes. 
 He had heard the firing in the barn, aud be- 
 lieving the Yankees had been shot, had lain 
 low for fear of the fury of the troopers who 
 must now know that he was complicated in 
 the matter. 
 
 Even when the flames burst from the roof 
 of the barn, he could only sit there and 
 shiver, for he now realized that he had as 
 much to fear from the auger of his master 
 wlien he returned as from thesoldiers them- 
 selves. 
 
 hen he saw the two Yankees safe and 
 sound beside him, his joy knew no bounds. 
 
 "I'se gwine wid youse, massa. Dis ain't 
 no safe place foah Bijah arter dat. Dey'd 
 flay him alibe foah helpin' you'se. Don't 
 say nothin' till we gits outen dis neighbor- 
 hood, an' den I let you'se decide de matter 
 wid me, but I knows it am suah deff foah 
 me heah." 
 
 They had no hesitation to trusting to his 
 guidance, knowing full well that, having 
 been raised in the neighborhood, every rod 
 of ground must be famiUar to him. 
 
 As they hurried along, Archie was think- 
 ing it over, and he saw that they could not 
 well refuse the darky's jjetition. 
 
 He had imperiled his life by hiding them, 
 so that it would be no longer safe for him to 
 remain behind. 
 
 Besides, would he not be useful to them 
 in dealing with the colored people. 
 
 It was decided, therefore, that Bijah was 
 to become one of their number. 
 
 He led them in an intricate manner, and it 
 was evident to both men that without dogs 
 the rebels could not make any headway to- 
 ward pursuit. 
 
 Had they so desired, Bijah would have 
 taken them to a secret glen where they 
 could have hidden with security as long as 
 they desired, but this was not the policy 
 they were just then following. 
 
 The neighborhood wsis becoming so hot 
 that their chief desire was to leave it as 
 quickly as possible. 
 
 If they could by some means get ahead of 
 all who were pursuing them, their journey 
 would be a much easier one; but it was fear- 
 ful work when the whole country was being 
 hourly scoured by footmen and horses, and 
 the bay of the fierce bloodhound was liable 
 to be heard at any minute, following on 
 their trail. 
 
 There was such a short time to elapse be- 
 fore the night fell that it would not have 
 paid them to have stopped to rest. 
 
 Again, with Bijah to guide them through 
 the country with which he was so familiar, 
 it was certainly plausible to believe that he 
 would take unfrequented paths during this 
 remainder of daylight so as to prevent the 
 possibility of their meeting any one. 
 
 Darkness fell — and then the black guide 
 came to a halt to settle his own case before 
 going further. 
 
 It was a moment of suspense to the poor 
 fellow. 
 
 Was he to accompany them to the land of 
 freedom of which he had dreamed so long, 
 or would they decide against him, in which 
 case he had only the most terrible fate to 
 look in the face ? 
 
 His gratitude knew no bouuds when he 
 heard their decision; and, falling on his 
 knees, he actually cried as he kissed their 
 hands. 
 
 Solemnly he promised to be bound by all 
 they wished him to do, to be eternally vigi- 
 lant and keep on the alert for their wel- 
 fare. 
 Then the journey was resumed. 
 The fog was not so bad among the trees, 
 but the air was damp aud chilly, and they 
 would have suffered keenly if it had not 
 been for their constant and energetic move- 
 ments in walking. 
 
 As the route was rough, every muscle of 
 their bodies seemed brought into play with 
 each passing minute. 
 
 The weary march was kept up; but, as 
 the hour grew later, and the chance of 
 meeting any one less, Archie told the black 
 guide to take them to some public highway 
 where they could make better progress 
 than by stumbling along through the dark 
 woods. 
 
 While they were on the way to the road 
 they came upon an open, aud Bijah explain- 
 ed that it.was the railroad. 
 This was a new though. 
 Why not take advantage of it, and make 
 their way north along the rails ? 
 
 True, there was danger of being seen; but, 
 at this remote southern point, the railroads 
 were not watched and guarded by soldiers 
 as was the case near the scene of battle, and 
 their uniforms had received such bad usage 
 that in the night it must be keen eyes in 
 deed that could distinguish their difference 
 from the butternut of the Confederates. 
 
 On the whole it was a good thought, and 
 off they started. 
 The night wore on. 
 
 It was weary work, but they were dog 
 ged in their determination. 
 
 Once Bijah brought them to a halt, and 
 declared it was a good opportunity to secure 
 a mess of provisions for future use. 
 
 They were near a farmyard, and he was 
 well ac<iuiiinted with the place. 
 
 Indeed, from his actions, Archie had a 
 strong suspicion that he had been there be- 
 fore on a similar errand, but he kept all 
 these ideas to himself. 
 
 They were in the enemy's country — and 
 all's fair in war. 
 
 That enemy had dragged them thither, 
 had starved and maltreated them in every 
 conceivable manner, and now anything that 
 fell into their hands must be confiscated. 
 They were reguiarly enlisted soldiers of the 
 government in a rebel country, and all that 
 could be taken was properly their own. 
 
 Hence they had no qualms of conscience 
 in purloining the property of the Confedei^ 
 ates, and Bijah informed them that the 
 er of this place was as rank a rebel as 
 ever drew breath. 
 
 Acting under the darky's orders, the doc- 
 tor secured a dozen or more splendid ears of 
 green com from a field near by, and waited 
 at the rendezvous by the railroad, while hi» 
 companions proceeded to accomplish their 
 share of the labor. 
 
 Archie managed to secure a ham from the 
 smoke house, while the negro made his ap- 
 pearance holding a fat chicken by the neck 
 in each hand. 
 
 No one but a member of the colored race 
 could ever have caught those two fowls 
 from the loost without making a tremendous 
 clatter. 
 
 Thus laden, the trio once more resumed 
 their journey up the track, resolved to walk 
 until near morning. 
 
 Bijah promised to show them an old de- 
 serted cabin, in an almost impenetrable 
 brake, where a runaway negro once lived, 
 and near which he and others of the slaves 
 of the colonel had worked one summer. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE MEN WHO MARCHED THROUGH GEORGIA. 
 
 Bijah had not made a rash promise when 
 he declared that he would lead them to a 
 place where pursuit would never find them, 
 and where they could spend the coming day 
 in peace. 
 
 .Just before dawn, they reached the tang- 
 led undergrowth, aud following the darky 
 closely, commenced the task of pieroingit 
 
 to the center, where, screened by the c 
 thickets, lay the little rude cabin that had 
 once been the home of a runaway slave, and 
 where he had lived for some years, defying 
 capture from all persons. 
 
 ■They were compelled to get on their knees 
 and criwl at times, and once had to lie flat 
 upon their breasts and wriggle along like so 
 many serpents. 
 
 How Bijah could remember this route so 
 well, unless he had had an object in making 
 it familiar, it would be hard to say. 
 
 Archie believed the black had intended 
 running away at some time in the past, and 
 had kept this secret quiet for reasons which 
 were very manifest. 
 
 Be that as it might, it was lucky for them 
 that he knew of the place. 
 
 They passed the most pleasant day of all 
 their pilgrimage there. 
 
 The hut was so wonderfully concealed, 
 that, without a knowledge of the labyrinth- 
 ian route through which Bijah had taken 
 them, and which had been formed by the 
 runaway slave by long labor, it was utterly 
 impossible to get anywhere near the hut, 
 hence they were quite free of apprehensions 
 lest the smoke of their fire should be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 What a great feast they had upon the 
 spoils of their recent foray. 
 
 The green corn roasted was delicious, and 
 Bijah extemporized matters so that both the 
 ham and the chickens were more than pass- 
 able. 
 
 They knew that this day would be to 
 them like a green oasis in a desert, and 
 hence they made the most of it, hoping to 
 recruit strength for future need. 
 
 Most of the time they slept ; but for an 
 hour they discussed their journey, Archie 
 making a rude map of their designs, and 
 learning all he could from Bijah in regard to 
 the topography of the country, for the black 
 
 When evening drew near, they made an- 
 other hearty meal, and after that, there was 
 nothing left to carry with them. 
 
 The night was clear overhead, but very 
 dark, which suited them exactly. 
 
 On they marched, the whole livelong 
 night, keeping to their old friend, the rail- 
 road, and by the time morning came it was 
 
THE WA.R LIBRARY. 
 
 19 
 
 Once they had been cora^jelled to get out 
 of the way of a pajssiug train, going north, 
 which they watched wistfully, as its lights 
 vanished in the distance. 
 
 The next day they spent in a lo^t of an old 
 shed, once used for cattle, and, when night 
 came, pursued their journey without hav- 
 ing had a. mouthful of food tor twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 On this night they came very near being 
 captured, walkiug almost directly into a 
 regiment of Georgians marching down the 
 railroad to take the cars at the station. 
 
 Only the presence ot mind of Bijah saved 
 them, and, crouihiut, in the bushes, they 
 watched the gray soldiers pass by, shivering 
 at the closeness of their escape, and promis- 
 ing themselves to be more careful in the 
 future. 
 
 In the early dawn they reached some ne- 
 gro shanties on the outskirt of a plantation, 
 ■where Bijah soon made friends. 
 
 They were secreted in a cabin, and after a 
 while a negro came to them with a basket of 
 provisions, which had been contributed by 
 the black cook at the house. 
 
 Here they found warm friends. 
 
 for the Union 
 one and all, and hope'dMassa Linkum's boys 
 would soon win in the great fight. 
 
 That night the fugitives once more started 
 .away along the railroad ; but they had been 
 warned by the negroes that it would be dan- 
 gerous keeping to it inmh longer. So, at 
 midnight, having stiiu k a road, and know- 
 ing that it must he the one mentioned by 
 their dusky friencis, which they had been ad- 
 vised to take, they left the rails and took the 
 pike. 
 
 They were now getting in the vicinity of 
 Atlanta, and from what information they 
 could pick up, it was believed Sherman's 
 forces were there. 
 
 If they could but join them, all would be 
 well. 
 
 They must aim therefore for Atlanta, and 
 keep their eyes openfor foes, with which the 
 country abounded. 
 
 They had suffered much, and their fitful 
 slumbers were haunted with the terrors of 
 Andersonville, back to which they would 
 assuredly be taken if recaptured. 
 
 Both soldiers were thin and gaunt, but they 
 had preserved their health in a way that was 
 almost miraculous, and which spoke well for 
 the doctor's drugs. 
 
 A few more nights ot toiling— filled with 
 narrow escapes, suffering, hunger and priva- 
 tion, with scarcely any sleep, such was the 
 extreme danger with which they were sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 How would It all end ? 
 
 They did not feel able to stand much more 
 of this business, and yet the same old spirit 
 of pluck and determination was strong with- 
 in them. 
 
 a loadstone, drawing them ever onward, 
 
 _ ng despair, and 
 gloomy hours. 
 
 bridging despair, and cheering their most 
 
 They had lost all reckoning now, but be- 
 lieved they must be in thevicinity of Atlan- 
 ta, for the country fairly overrun with small 
 detachments of rebels, who had evidently 
 been chased out of the city when Sherman 
 
 were staggering along one night about nine 
 o'clock, never once suspecting danger, as 
 their course lay through the woods, and they 
 knew of no force before them, when suddenly 
 there rang out the hoarse challenge : 
 
 "Halt! Who goes there?" 
 
 This was followed by the sharp, significant 
 click of a gun-hammer, as it was drawn 
 back. 
 
 The fugitives seemed frozen with horror. 
 
 To be caught, after all they had endured, 
 was worse than death, especially when they 
 had now almost gained the Federal army. 
 
 They shut their teeth hard, and grimly re- 
 solved that sooner than submit they would 
 braveauy force of rebels, risk any danger. 
 
 These things flashed through their minds 
 like wildfire, and yet the sentry who had de- 
 manded of them the couutersign was grow- 
 ing impatient. 
 
 Delay in matters like this was enough to 
 engender suspicion, especially at such a 
 time, when the soldiers of both armies were 
 so close. 
 
 "Friends or foes?" came the gruff demand, 
 and they knew that a musket was aiming in 
 their direction. 
 
 It was a fearful moment of suspense. 
 
 Archie, was about to fall to the ground and 
 
 pul! his father after him, when there sud- 
 denly flashed into being a bright light. 
 
 It was as if some one had cast upon a 
 smoldei'iug fire an armful of dead leaves, 
 which had burst into a flame. 
 
 By the aid of this light they saw numan 
 figures, a dozen or so, some reclining, others 
 standing, but all, oh, blessed sight, wearing 
 the beloved blue of Union troops. 
 
 Heaveu be praised, they had struck a por- 
 tion ot Sherman's army in the environs of 
 Atlanta. 
 
 Safe at last ! 
 
 They could only answer the sentry's de- 
 mand, and were soon in the midst of sympa- 
 thetic friends. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The fugitives from Andersonville had come 
 upon a portion of Kilpatrick's command, 
 and they received royal welcome from those 
 heroes who followed the dashing cavalry 
 leader. 
 
 For a few days they were well fed and 
 given good opportunity for sleep, which re- 
 cuperated them immensely, and then were 
 turloughed. 
 
 Bijah at once entered the service of an 
 oflicer as his servant, though he confessed he 
 very much desired to remain with Archie. 
 
 The two meu took advantage ot an engine 
 leaving for Chattanooga to bring down one of 
 the last trains of supplies that Sherman ex- 
 pected to receive before cutting his com- 
 munication, and starting on his march to the 
 sea. 
 
 Thus they found themselves once more in 
 Chattanooga, where frowning Lookout 
 Mouutain looks down upon the Chickainau- 
 ga battlefield, and the historic Tennessee 
 River winds around like a water serpent. 
 
 At that day the famous Cincinnati South- 
 ern railroad was only a dream, so that our 
 friends were compelled to take a roundabout 
 way in order to reach Cincinnati, going to 
 Nashville first and then Louisville, where 
 they embarked on a steamer that eventually 
 landed them on the public water front of 
 the Queen City of the West. 
 
 They had been unable to telegraph, as the 
 few available wires were used for public 
 service, aud they knew full well that the 
 letters writteu in Chattanooga would not 
 reach home until long after they did, but 
 they halted not in Cincinnati only to secure 
 breakfast when they boarded a north bound 
 train, and were soon flying over the fields 
 and along the base of hills, bound for home. 
 
 They were terribly excited. 
 
 Joy struggled with fear. How would they 
 find the home from which they had been 
 gone so long ? 
 
 Reaching the little town snugly ensconsed 
 among the Ohio hills, they stopped the first 
 citizen whom they met and made Inquiries 
 which, thank Heaven, eased their hearts. 
 
 The little mother was alive and well, 
 though she was bowed down with mourning 
 for her lost ones. 
 
 Nearer the cottage they drew. 
 
 The door stood open, the afternoon sun 
 fell upon the carpet, just as Archie remem- 
 bered so well. 
 
 As he stepped into the doorway the little 
 lady looked up. White grew her face. She 
 slowly arose, holding to the table with one 
 trembling hand. 
 
 " Mother, it is your boy, alive and well." 
 
 Archie rushed forward and caught her in 
 his strong arms as he spoke. Theu she hung 
 upon his neck and wept for joy, while her 
 lips uttered short but fervent prayers of 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 Outside a tall man leaned against the wall 
 of the house, while his frame shook with in- 
 tense emotion. Oh ! the seconds were hours 
 fraught with agony to him— the agony of 
 suspense, for he was dying to clasp in his 
 arms that dearly beloved form. 
 
 " Mother," said Archie, when the little 
 woman had become in a measure calm, the 
 violence of her emotion having exhausted 
 itself, and as he spoke he drew back his 
 head so that he could look her in the eves, 
 " are you able to hear news — grand, glorious 
 news ?" 
 
 She looked at him in wonder— then, as if a 
 glimmer ot the truth flashed into her mind, 
 a frightened expression came upon her 
 countenance. 
 
 "Heaven has given you strength to bear 
 sorrow; be brave now to stand great joy. Oh, 
 God has been good to us, little mother!" 
 
 Theu he strode to the door, suspecting that 
 the doctor, who had suffered much more 
 from tho privations ot their escape from the 
 prison pen than himself, would be rendered 
 weak by the excitement and went out to 
 him. 
 
 When he appeared again, supporting with 
 his strong arm another, the little lady gave 
 one glance into that white face, pinched by 
 hunger, but stil! the same to her as of yore, 
 aud then flew to him. 
 
 "My Edward, alive! Oh God, I thank 
 Thee!" 
 
 That was all she said ; but she fainted in 
 his embrace, and they could scarcely unlock 
 her arms from around his neck, so tightly 
 were they clasped. 
 
 Oh ! it was a happy family that gathered 
 around that supper table. The neighbors 
 heard of the news, and came flocking in to 
 shake by the hand their brave fellows. 
 
 One came not— butj Archie, eager and full 
 of joy, put on his cap when the meal was 
 ended 
 
 am going to Muriel, mother," he said. 
 
 ^^L 
 
 eaven bless her, she has been like a 
 daughter to me. You will And her changed, 
 for she has mourned you as dead, but she 
 has been true as steel," said his mother, a 
 proud light in her eyes, as she surveyed the 
 manly young fellow before her. 
 
 Archie found Muriel awaiting him, a glow 
 in her pale cheeks which they had not 
 known for many a day, and between them 
 was the happy peace that comes of true love 
 and devotion. 
 
 Clarence Henston fell at Chattanooga some 
 time after the battle of Chickamauga 
 Creek. Archie never mentioned his suspic- 
 ions to any one, but he was firm in the be- 
 lief that Clarence had tried to murder him 
 on the battlefield, for at the time that shot 
 had come from the rear, and so nearly end- 
 ed his young life, his rival, the lieutenant was 
 behind him. 
 
 Archie only spent a few weeks at home, 
 and then rejoined the army. 
 
 The doctor had leceived a shock to his 
 system from his long imprisonment and the 
 hardships he had been exposed to during his 
 escape, so he remained at home. 
 
 One of the very first men Archie met on 
 his entering camp was the fellow he had 
 been exposed to during his escape, so he re- 
 mained at home. 
 
 The man had played a shrewd game on 
 the Confederates, making believe he was 
 shot, and swimming under water to the 
 shore, where he hid his head among the 
 reeds that lined tho bank. 
 
 Archie and he saw much of each other 
 during the closing months of the war, par- 
 ticipating in the campaign against Lee, 
 — hich ended with his surrender after a gal- 
 
 and to this day is the most faithful hench- 
 man mortal man ever had. 
 
 All of our friends are still living, and in 
 good health. Archie is one of the leading 
 lights of the Ohio bar, and his boys bid fair 
 to be perfect fac-similes of their father. 
 There is a young girl who looks much like 
 the Muriel of former years, but her mother 
 has called her Adele. 
 
 Archie did not forget Cudjo, who had 
 done so much for them during that time of 
 distress, and at present he is one of the best 
 
 eloquent discourse in the Southern cabin. 
 
 [THE END.] 
 
 CRIMSON BARS; 
 
 A. SOLDIEK FOK LOVE. 
 
 Br MON MYRTLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WAR SONG OF THE SUNNY SOUTH. I 
 
 One pleasant summer morning, in the 
 year 1862, two men, mounted upon hand- 
 some, black horses, left the veranda of a 
 charming villa, situated near Corinth, Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 The younger, a dashing and chivalrous 
 specimen ot manhood, was attired in a 
 gray uniform, and a broad-brimmed, felt 
 hat covered his head. 
 
 This was Ned Morton, and no other than 
 your humble servant. 
 
 My companion was dressed in the usual 
 garb of citizen ; he was my uncle, William 
 Morton, a wealthy and influential man, 
 much respected— and he deserved it. 
 
 He was the owner of the mansion from 
 which we had just taken our departure. 
 
 We were at present on our way to Con- 
 federate headquarters: his object being to 
 introduce me to an officer of his acquaint- 
 
20 
 
 THE WAR LIBRARY 
 
 ance, General Van Dom, in order, if possi- 
 ble, to secure for me a position on his 
 staff. 
 
 This, however, was not altogether in ac- 
 cordance with my wishes; for, although I 
 wore the gra3', I had uo desire to cast my 
 lot with the soldiers of the South; on the 
 coutrary, my convictions led me in the op- 
 posite direction, and I was steadfast ou that 
 point ; I had worn the gray suit, which was 
 my dress at West Point, having already 
 speut two years at that institution, from 
 which I had been ordered home by my 
 parents, who were residents of Nashville, 
 Tennessee, as soon as the war commenced. 
 I had, however, declined to go until two 
 weeks previous to the openina; of our story. 
 
 ruse, in the shape of a telegram, 
 
 dying, 
 
 h;id the desired effect, and induced me to leave 
 
 stated that my mother was 
 
 the academy, and hasten home. 
 
 it is not strange that I believed the South to 
 be in the wrong; and that my sympathies, 
 which were at first with the South, were 
 shortly enlisted in behalf of the Union ; and, 
 in fact, 1 was only waiting at West Point to 
 be ordered on active service. 
 After a week spent at home with my pa- 
 
 Nashville, and proceeded to Corinth, for 
 the purpose of visiting my uncle at his villa 
 in its vicinity. 
 
 To proceed with my story : 
 
 When we arrived at Corinth, we found 
 Price's army were quartered nearly five 
 miles from there, awaiting orders to move 
 upon the village, which was then in posses- 
 sion of the Union troops under General 
 Rosecrans. 
 
 Corinth is a strong position, and a most 
 desirable strategtic point, being situated in 
 a range of the Apalachian Mountaius, and 
 upon the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 In 1861, when Beauregard occupied the 
 place, he had constructed earthworks and 
 fortifications, in order to enable him to 
 maintain his stand against the Federal forces 
 under Halleck; butHalleck, iu turn, ou his 
 occupancy of the place, after having driven 
 Beauregard from the position, strengthened 
 it materially. 
 
 General Rosecrans had also added to the 
 strength of the fortifications, aud now oc- 
 cupied it, waiting until the rebels, having 
 concentrated troops enough for the purpose, 
 should attempt to dislodge him. 
 
 We passed within sight of the flag, which 
 waved gracefully over the works, and 
 
 commanding an extended view of the posi 
 tion. 
 
 We saw a few Confederate soldiers in a 
 glade further ou, but avoided them, much 
 to my relief, and shortly reached a sub- 
 urban villa. 
 
 Here we halted and dismounted, my 
 uncle remarking that we would make a call 
 on a friend of his— Mr. Brouton Elden, 
 
 We found him at home, and he received us 
 very cordially. 
 
 After we had exchanged greetings to our 
 satisfaction, Mr. Elden bade my uncle and 
 myself follow; and, entering a pleasant 
 garden which was attached to the premises, 
 we were shown among the choice collection 
 of plants and shrubbery with which it was 
 ornamented ; and, while Mr. Elden and my 
 uncle seemed engrossed in their conversa- 
 tion, I wandered ou aloue, smoking a cigar. 
 I was delighted with the place; and, as I pro- 
 ceeded, could not help admiring the sur- 
 roundings of this pretty Southern villa. I 
 was shortly overtaken by my uncle and Mr. 
 Elden, and we strolled among the bright 
 array of flowers and choice exotics until we 
 came in sight of a rustic trellis, at the further 
 end of which was an arbor, from whence 
 proceeded the sweet, girlish voice of a 
 maiden warbling: "Maryland my Mary- 
 land," and anon singing snatches of "Dixie" 
 the war song of the Sunny South. 
 
 As we drew near, she broke into a fresh 
 peal of melody, interspersing her variety of 
 patriotic songs with a verse iu the follow- 
 ing style: 
 
 " In the sunny climes of Southland 
 Where o'er hill and Klade and grass-land, 
 Flowers of every hue are clustered. 
 Velvet sprays or drrioping cypress, 
 Crimson-nlories, rare and peerless. 
 Stars as white and pure as lilies. 
 Gathered from some woodland lakelet." 
 Her voice was rich and impressive, and I 
 was both thrilled and charmed with the 
 music. 
 
 It seemed to me that I had never heard 
 anything half so inspiring. 
 
 As we entered the arbor, the most beauti- 
 ful girl I had ever seen arose, and, at first, 
 appeared a little startled, for she had evi- 
 dently not anticipated our uncermomous 
 entrance. 
 
 She was a fair young girl, with a face so 
 mild and sweet that any person of ordinary 
 susceptibility could not conceal his admira- 
 tion. 
 
 Hers was, indeed, a countenance of re- 
 markable beauty, and one which combined 
 all the essentials of culture and refine- 
 ment. 
 
 Her dark, brown eyes sparkled with mer- 
 riment, and she was mischievous enough to 
 seem delighted at my apparent embarrass- 
 ment. 
 
 "Elsie," observed my uncle, smiling, "I 
 have brought your cousin; you know I 
 promised to do so sometime since; but here 
 he is at last, what do you think of him 1" 
 
 The girl crimsoned, and confusedly re- 
 plied, girl-like: 
 
 "Why, Mr. Morton, how can you say 
 that?" 
 
 " Mr. Edward Morton— Miss Elsie Vernon ; 
 Miss Vernon— Mr. Morton," said Elden, iu- 
 troduciugus. 
 
 We both nodded, instinctively ; and, fol- 
 lowed by my uncle, he withdrew, leaving us 
 to our own reflections. 
 
 Elsie and myself, however, soon became 
 acquainted. The situation was to me— a 
 bashful young man— rather awkward at first, 
 but, observing that she managed to main- 
 tain au admirable degree of composure, my 
 coufldence soon returned, and we shortly be- 
 gun to chat pleasantly. 
 
 She informed me that she was the daugh- 
 ter of Elden's wife's sister, and her parents 
 having died, she had for a number of years 
 resided with the Eldens. 
 
 Her former home had been at New Or- 
 leans ; and after I had conversed with her 
 for a short time, I had a great desire to visit 
 the Crescent City, which she described so 
 charmingly. 
 
 We then talked about the garden, until, 
 happening to glance toward a chair opposite 
 where we were sitting, I perceived a copy 
 of the Corinth Courier. 
 
 " Ah ! Miss Vernon, 1 
 ed in the war, are you not 
 
 " Oh, yes, I like to read of the gallant 
 achievements of our brave boys of the Sunny 
 South." 
 
 " Then you are a " 
 
 " I was about to remark that she was a 
 rebel, but thought better of it, and added, 
 iustead : 
 
 "A true woman !" 
 
 " You must not begin our acquaintance by 
 flattery," shereplied, demurely. 
 
 "Not for the world." 
 
 "Yes,' she sighed, "I like to read the 
 papers at all times, and especially this morn- 
 ing, for there is an account of the battle of 
 Manassas, in which Arthur's regiment took 
 part, and if not an absolute victory, it was 
 at least an advantage for our cause." 
 
 " I am glad to hear it," I replied— T fear I 
 told a fib — " but who is Arthur ?" I ventured 
 to ask, vague fears of a rival for the affec 
 tions of this charming creature, with whom 
 I was already enthralled, arising before my 
 mind. 
 
 She either anticipated my query, or my 
 eagerness betrayed my emotion, but she 
 gave me an evasive answer. 
 
 " A gentleman friend," was all she said. 
 
 Was he a lover, betrothed, an acquaint- 
 ance, relative, or what ? were the questions 
 which I tried to solve in my inmost mind, 
 and which quite baffled me. 
 
 Elsie changed the subject. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BATTLE OP COKINTH. 
 
 My pleasant associations with this peerless 
 Southern beauty were destined, however, to 
 be brief. 
 
 We enjoyed a few pleasant walks about 
 the vicinity of the place during the two 
 days that my uncle and myself remained at 
 Mr. Elden's as his guests; and it is needless 
 to say that Elsie and myself became very 
 much attached. 
 
 At length, on the morning of the third 
 day, at the breakfast table, my uncle an- 
 nounced that he had secured for me a lieu- 
 tenant's commission in the Confederate 
 service, and that I was to be attached to 
 General Price's staff. 
 
 He also observed that the orders were for 
 me to proceed at once to headquarters and 
 report myself ready for duty. 
 
 For several minutes I remained silent, like 
 one in a stupor, so crushing was this appall- 
 ing declaration to me. 
 
 Recovering my self-possession, however, I 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " You have made a mistake, sir. I am a 
 Union man. Do I not wear the uniform of 
 the Federal military academy ?" 
 
 "Union man!" sneered my uncle; "a 
 nephew of mine turn his back upon his own 
 people ! and at that in the hour of dire neces- 
 sity! Oh! how contemptuous!— traitor! 
 traitor!" 
 
 " No, sir, not a traitor, if you please. I am 
 standing up for the whole, undivided Union 
 —North, South, East and West ; while you 
 believe only in the South," I replied, with 
 energy. 
 
 As I spoke, I produced from my pocket a 
 small silk American flag, and waved it over 
 the table defiantly. 
 
 Elsie instantly snatched it from my grasp, 
 and thrust it into her pocket, at the same 
 time observing: 
 
 " Stand up like a man, Ned, and fight for 
 the people who love you !" 
 
 "If I thought you loved me," I replied, 
 keenly scrutinizing her fair face, " I would 
 consider it." 
 
 "Youwould?" laughed my uncle- "That's 
 right, Elsie, my dear; you will maKe a Con- 
 federate soldier of him in spite of his ad- 
 verse inclinations. 
 
 " Well, yes, I admit 1 have surrendered to 
 her when uo three men would have broken 
 my determination," I observed, in a moment 
 of weakness, a proceeding which I afterward 
 upon mature reflection, had ample cause to 
 regret. 
 
 Elsie clapped her hands in girlish glee, 
 plucked a fragrant moss-rose from her hair, 
 and fastened it in the lapel of my coat ; after 
 which she proceeded to sew on the epaulettes 
 of a lieutenant, and finished by fastening a 
 dainty pink ribbon, with her monogram 
 tastefully embroidered thereon in gold thread 
 upon my left breast with a gold pm, remark- 
 ing that it was an amulet that she hoped 
 would preserve my life. 
 
 She tlien bade me adieu, as my uncle was 
 
 the doorway, surrounded by a profusion of 
 sweet honeysuckle which arched the en- 
 trance, waving her handkerchief. 
 
 In my inmost heart I wished I had never 
 seen her, for she alone was the cause of my 
 becoming a traitor to my country. 
 
 But, was I a traitor? 
 
 We shall see. 
 
 In due time we reached General Van 
 Dorn's headquarters ; my uncle introduced 
 me, and .Van Dom called one of his aides 
 and ordered him to conduct me to General 
 Price's quarters at the other end of the line 
 —the extreme right. 
 
 This was readily accomplished and 1 was 
 soou duly installed. 
 
 We spent at least two weeks resting on our 
 arms before a forward movement was or- 
 dered. I earnestly hoped that we would 
 fight a hotly contested battle, and made up 
 my mind if it were possible to do so, to fall 
 in with and join the Union army. 
 
 This was my determination. 
 
 Elsie would not know but what I was cap- 
 tured and confined a prisoner of war, while 
 I would be engaged in fighting the battles of 
 
 General Rogers, commander of the Texan 
 brigade, who afterward proved one of the 
 bravest of the brave. 
 
 General Rosecrans, in command of the 
 Federals, must have been advised in some 
 manner of our contemplated attack, for he 
 began erecting an additional line of earth- 
 works in anticipation of it. 
 
 On the morning of September 30, 1862 we 
 broke camp and pushed forward, shortly en- 
 countering the command of Ogleby, thrown 
 forward as skirmishers by Rosecrans, in 
 order to draw us under the heavy fire of the 
 batteries of Corinth. 
 
 Ogleby gave us a pretty hard resistance, 
 and when at length he was obliged to fall 
 back, stoutly disputing every inch of the 
 ground, Geneials Me Arthur and Davis were 
 ordered to his support. 
 
 The results were heavy skirmishing on 
 both sides for a couple of days, both parties 
 being well covered by the \roods and thus 
 sheltered from the withering fire prevailing. 
 
 Ou October 3, these skirmishes culminated 
 in Van Dom, backed by half our force fall- 
 ing heavily upon the Union commands, and 
 pushing them back. 
 
 In this spirited fray which was really the 
 beginning of the battle, the "enemy" lost 
 General Hackelman killed, and Ogleby >e- 
 verely wounded. 
 
 Price, VanDom and Lovcll imv- i. : •■ 
 trated their forces for the pfr'c'i. 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 21 
 
 Jorward with the iutention of cutting off 
 Roseorans' communications, and annihilat- 
 ing his small force ere re-eutorcements could 
 arrive. 
 
 Our entire army numbered fully forty 
 thousand men ; and, well armed and 
 1 formed a formidable force with 
 
 equippe 
 which t 
 
 charge of one of the guns of a battery whose 
 captain had fallen in the skirmish of the 
 previous day. I thus had a good view of the 
 Union woiks ere they were obscured by the 
 clouds of sulphuroui smoke which were so 
 soon to ingulf them. 
 
 Four redoubts covered the approaches to 
 Corinth, while several heavy batteries we 
 olaced in position, in such a manner as to 
 ^weep the entire space in front of their 
 
 We advanced up the Chewalla road, and 
 ■ iKOuntered three regiments of infantry 
 .vho had been sent out to meet us. 
 
 The fight commenced at about half-past 
 leveu in the morning, and lasted until nearly 
 two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Shells, from the earthworks, and also 
 Toundshot crushed though our ranks, spread- 
 ing death and desolation in their wake. 
 
 The fire of the infantry was terrific on 
 both sides. 
 
 During the afternoon, skirmishing and 
 more or less fighting prevailed, the Federals 
 falling back to take position behind their 
 earthworks. 
 
 During the ensuing night I assisted, reluc- 
 tantly, in placing a rebel battery in front of 
 the Union redoubts at a short distance from 
 Port Robinett— their center. 
 
 The battle was resumed shortly after three 
 o'clock in the morning by this battery, but 
 we elicited no reply from the Union troops 
 until daybreak. 
 
 Then, such a perfect tornado of shells did 
 they pour in upon us, a most terrific bom- 
 bardment, which it seemed as though 
 nothing human could withstand. 
 
 We fired a few rounds, lost five gunners 
 and had one gun dismounted and wrecked ; 
 a fort on a commanding height which I 
 afterward learned was Fort Williams, was 
 armed with twenty-pound parrot guns. 
 
 These were trained upou our battery which 
 was soon silenced, abandoned, and subse- 
 quently captured. 
 
 The fire of the batteries on both sides was 
 now terrific. The air was full of bursting 
 shells, rattling cannister and whistling bul- 
 lets. I went back and reported to Price. 
 
 I found his command forming behind the 
 shelter of the woods for a bayonet charge. 
 Zt was a stirring sight, their grim 
 iks surmounted by glei 
 saluted the general 
 orders. 
 
 "Mount," said he, " and lead the Second 
 Texas regiment in the charge ; they are 
 without a commander." 
 
 I took my place and made up my mind 
 
 that I would leave my bones to bleach on 
 
 that field. 
 
 A charge seemed madness. Nothing could 
 
 " " batteries. 
 
 i not just 
 
 to my liking. 
 
 I would much prefer to be a " live coward 
 than a dead hero;" but, there was no help 
 for it, I was there and I must make the best 
 of it. 
 
 Steadily and with invincible courage our 
 serried columns emerged from the woods, 
 crossed the railroad and moved up the Boli- 
 var road toward the Federal batteries in 
 column of divisions— Van Dorn holding the 
 right and Price the left. Our brigade on the 
 left swung out, and the one ou the right was 
 slowly obscured by the smoke. 
 
 Bullets were singing in close proximity to 
 our heads, and shells were scattering their 
 deadly contents in our very faces, but still 
 we pressed on, undaunted. 
 
 A terrific avalanche of shot out and tore 
 our ranks, ploughing great lanes through 
 them ; but, with a loud shout the gaps were 
 filled up aud still on — on! stumbling over 
 mangled corpses and slipping in gore as we 
 stalked along to what seemed certain 
 destruction. 
 With desperate determination the Confed- 
 
 coped with Davies division, poured in a ter- 
 rible volley of musketry and forced them to 
 retire in disorder. 
 
 Our dead and dying were falling about us 
 thick and fast; men were stepped on or 
 leaped over as they fell upon the grass with 
 
 Dorn, he having been unable to advance, 
 owing to diffloulties encountered in the way. 
 With a hoarse shout our host rushed upon 
 the batteries. There were flashes which rent 
 the smoke clouds, we were enveloped in a 
 sheet of flame from the batteries, and our 
 columns almost annihilated. 
 
 The attack had been intended to be simul- 
 taneous with that of Van Dorn, but did not 
 reach us in time, and Price pushed on alone 
 aud bravely breasted the full fury of the 
 batteries. 
 
 We formed a second time and threw our- 
 selves upon the guns in the very madness of 
 despair, but were hurled back, crushed, but 
 not defeated. A third time we rushed up to 
 certain destruction. 
 
 We gained the top of the redoubt, poured 
 in a volley upon the enemy, killing Gfeneral 
 Richardson, and struggling over the guns. 
 
 The guns were discharged upon theadvane- 
 ing masses of men, who were pressing up 
 close to their muzzles. 
 
 Muskets were clubbed, bayonets and 
 sabers clashed ; still we desperately cut our 
 way inch by inch and were soon leaping over 
 the ramparts. 
 
 At this critical juncture, however, an Il- 
 linois regiment sprang from a ravine close 
 by, delivered a close volley and charged us 
 impetuously, putting us to rout and recov- 
 ering the lost ground. 
 
 The rest of the terrible battle was to me a 
 blank. 
 
 As the Illinois regiment delivered its fire, 
 I happening to be in a conspicuous place, re- 
 ceived a bullet through my body, aud fell 
 unconscious. 
 
 I learned, however, when ajprisoner in the 
 hands of the Union men, that the rest of the 
 battle was terrible, even more so than the 
 first portion. Van Dorn and Price had joint- 
 ly attacked the largest of the forts and been 
 repulsed with dreadful slaughter. 
 
 General Rogers was killed while planting 
 the rebel colors on the crest of Fort Williams 
 at the head of the Fourth Mississippi aud 
 Second Texas regiments. Over six thousand 
 Confederates had fallen, and about two 
 thousand Federals, on this frightful field of 
 slaughter. 
 
 The Union troops claimed to have captured 
 two thousand two hundred and forty -eight 
 prisoners. 
 
 The rebels were completely repulsed, and 
 Tennessee was now fully in the hands of the 
 Federal government. The prisoners were 
 shipped north to Johnson's Island opposite 
 Sandusky, Ohio, and I found myself with 
 the wounded Union soldiers at Cairo, 111., 
 where we were shipped as soon as practica- 
 ble. 
 
 I was not dangerously wounded, though it 
 was fully six or eight weeks before I was 
 able to be about. 
 
 I was then sent to Johnson's Island, and 
 remained there a prisoner of war one month 
 ere I was exchanged. 
 
 I should, before submitting to imprison- 
 ment, have signified my wish to join the 
 Federal army, and thus have escaped it, and 
 at the same time have fulfilled my earnest 
 desire; but, I got the idea that it would be 
 better for me to suffer awhile longer, and be 
 sure of Elsie, than at once make the change 
 I heartily wished to effect. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 lEKKINQ 
 
 I wrote Miss Elden that I had been woun- 
 but had now entirely recovered, and 
 prisoner of war 
 
 although detained as 
 
 hoped to get back to her some time. I still 
 wore her ribbon badge, and it was spotted 
 with blood from the field of Corinth— my 
 own blood, shed in a cause against which in 
 principle I was opposed. 
 
 She replied to my letter promptly, so at 
 least the date thereon attested, though it 
 passed through so many official hands, and 
 was perused by so many prying, curious 
 people, that it was delayed a week m trans- 
 mission, and bore the marks of not over 
 scrupulously clean fingers. 
 
 I answered her welcome epistle, but heard 
 no more from her, and supposed my note 
 miscarried. 
 
 On the day of my exchange, I asked per- 
 mission of the colonel of the Second Tennes- 
 see regiment to which I was immediately 
 assigned, to pay a short visit to the Eldens, 
 as well as for a brief furlough, in order that 
 I might have a chance to recruit my ener- 
 gies; feeling somewhat unnerved from the 
 effect of my wound and confinement. But 
 I was deprived the privilege. The colonel, 
 who was a very rigid disciplinarian, stating 
 that there was no time for fooling, as we 
 
 had to march at once for Murfreesboro to 
 repel Rosecrans' advance on that city. 
 
 I wrote her that I was back in the ranks 
 and in good spirits, but uuable to go and 
 see her. Alas, however, the postal facilities 
 were so uncertain that she never received it: 
 or, at least she afterward told me so, and I 
 had no reason to doubt her word. '. 
 
 About this time a previous suitor of hers — . 
 Arthur Vancleve— returned from the army j 
 of Virginia on a furlough. | 
 
 She told him plainly of our engagement, i 
 and the subject was dropped and not resumed ■ 
 for several days, when one morning Arthur, 
 handed her a copy of the Corinth Courier in" 
 which there was an account of a skirmish in 
 front of Shelby ville, Kentucky, with my 
 name in the death list. 
 
 She nearly swooned at first, and then gave 
 way to a copious flood of tears, moaning and 
 almost becoming hysterical. 
 
 In those days, deaths were too sudden and 
 common to cause more than an ordinary 
 amount of grief, and in a short time Edward 
 Morton passed from her mind, and 
 as Vancleve was a son of very wealthy paf- 
 ents and could exalt her from her humble 
 position, Elsie began to encourage his ad- 
 vances, and in about six weeks after my sup- 
 posed death they were married. 
 
 It was now Vancleve's Intention to pro- 
 cure a release from the army, and remove 
 with his charming wife to California, or 
 some such agreeable climate, away from the 
 hideousness of grim visaged war. 
 
 Meanwhile, I with my regiment partici- 
 pated in the defense of Murfreesboro, Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 Although in the thickest of that flght^and 
 it was a pretty rugged one, I had the good 
 fortune to escape capture or injury. 
 
 This occurred December 31, 1862, and June 
 3, 1863, I was sent out with a company of my 
 regiment, of which I had been commissioned 
 captain, to assist G eneral Cheatham's army 
 in its struggle with Rosecrans, who was con- 
 centrating his forces upon Murfreesboro, 
 determined to crush the Confederates out of 
 existence. 
 
 Five thousand men were detached from 
 Price's army, as a reserve, and among these 
 was my company, every one of them brave 
 men, and veterans of many a desperate bat- 
 tle. 
 
 Previous to this, however, I had been 
 allowed a short furlough, aud had hastened 
 to Corinth. 
 
 Judge of my dismay, however, on learning 
 that Elsie had married Vancleve, and had 
 gone with him nobody knew whither— or if 
 they did know— were not inclined to impart 
 any information. 
 
 Her uncle was glad to see me, but never 
 had the slightest idea that I was interested 
 so much in his niece. 
 
 He told me of the wedding, and said he 
 supposed she would shortly return. 
 
 In despair, mortification, and jealous rage 
 I returned to the ranks, and when ordered to 
 Murfreesboro, proceeded there with alac- 
 rity, and actually hoped to get killed in the 
 battle. 
 
 When the struggle commenced, I plunged 
 into the thick of the fight, and later, when 
 our color-sergeant fell, pierced by a dozen 
 bullets, I seized the flag myself, and bore 
 it aloft in one hand and my sword in the 
 other. 
 
 Thus in the terrible battle of Stone River, 
 regardless of my life, and reckless to a fault, 
 I carried the "crimson bars" through its 
 baptism of fire, amid the avalanche of shells 
 and bullets, miraculously escaping the hun- 
 dreds which were doubtlessly directed at 
 me. 
 
 Finally, I rushed headlong into the Union 
 ranks, as they were driving our men before 
 their furious advance, and was immediately 
 disarmed and made a prisoner. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 UNDER THE OLD TLAG. 
 
 The thought that I had lost her. whom I 
 had entered the Confederate ranks to please, 
 was maddening and humiliating in the ex- 
 How I wished that I could have ended my 
 life in its dishonor there where I stood. 
 
 But my captors were not inclined to put 
 me to death, and thus release me from my 
 misery. 
 
 Oh, no, they wanted me to spend a while 
 in prison, and then count "one" in ex- 
 change for one of their noble boys. 
 
 While I was oblivious of what was passing 
 on about me, so deep and gloomy was my 
 reverie, I was suddenly aroused by hearing 
 my name called in a cheerful tone of mingled 
 surprise and pleasure. 
 
22 
 
 THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 "Ned Morton, by all that's wonderful!" 
 cried a handsome, dashing young ofBccr, at- 
 tired in a blue uniform, and with a lieuten- 
 ant's bars upon his shoulder-straps. 
 
 I looked up and beheld my old chum of the 
 nappy days at West Point, Elmer Fenworth. 
 
 " Elmer ! " I exclaimed, rising from my re- 
 , tjumbent position, and shaking hands with 
 nim, "you here?" 
 1 "Yes; I have joined our gallant boys in 
 blue," was his reply. 
 1 "And I," I murmured sadly, "havejoinea 
 our gallant boys in gray, less fortunate but 
 equally braye." 
 
 He looked at rae reproachfully. 
 
 "Oh, Ned," he exclaimed, feelingly, "to 
 think that you and I who were always like 
 brothers together at West Point, should have 
 
 been striv;' 
 
 rible fight 
 fondly. 
 
 " Such," I replied, " is of too common oc- 
 currence in this fratricidal war— brother 
 against brother, son against father." 
 
 1 then explained to him how I had hap- 
 pened to cast my lot with the South, and 
 concluded there and then to join the Union 
 forces. 
 
 I explained that I had two brothers in 
 Lee's arucy of Northern Virginia, and pre- 
 ferred 20'- to go where I would be likely to 
 encounter them, for fear that I might have 
 the misfortune of killing them. 
 
 I observed, however, as he introduced me 
 to the olficer who was to muster me in, that 
 I wanted to go where the fighting was heavy, 
 in order to make amends for my past con- 
 duct. 
 
 "You had better remain with us, then," 
 observed the officer, " for, if I mistake not, 
 we are going to have fighting enough before 
 we are through in this part of the country." 
 
 I was accordingly made corporal of the 
 Eleventh Indiana Light Battery, which was 
 subsequently detached from the Army of 
 Tennessee, and ordered to join Grant in his 
 expedition against Vicksburg. 
 
 Elmer was at the same time commissioned 
 major of the regiment, being transferred 
 from General Rosecrans' staff for the pur- 
 pose, and the former commander, Major E. 
 N. Raymond, promoted to colonel, while 
 Baxter Belding, a young merchant of In- 
 dianapolis, was made lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 He and Raymond had been officers in the 
 battery since the first battle of Bull Run, 
 and it was but right that they should hold 
 exalted rank. 
 
 Its organizer. Colonel Robert Gilmore, had 
 fallen at Ball's Bluff, and his successor. Col- 
 onel Graham, at Antietam. 
 
 mined that my efforts for the " stars and 
 stripes" would be much more vigorous if 
 possible than they had been for the " crim- 
 son bars." 
 
 As we had nothing in particular to do at 
 present, Elmer invited me to accompany 
 him to his home at Detroit, and having kind- 
 ly secured a six weeks' furlough for me as 
 well as one of the same length for himself, 
 I could not refuse him. 
 
 I told him, however, that I felt somewhat 
 
 Bdeut aboi 
 of the North 
 ly fighting against. 
 
 " Don't give yourself any uneasiness on 
 that score," he replied. "Who will know 
 it?" 
 
 "That is not the question ; it is the inward 
 consciousness of acting what I am not, that 
 troubles me." 
 
 " But you are going to make it all right. 
 Why, Ned, my boy, you wiU yet be an hon- 
 ored Federal officer." 
 
 "I hope so." 
 
 We reached Detroit four days later. El- 
 mer's family was in comfortable circum- 
 stances, and resided on one of the grand 
 avenues of the city in a spacious house. 
 
 I desired to stop at the Brunswick, but he 
 would not hear of it, so together we pro- 
 ceeded to his father's residence. 
 
 Such a greeting as my friend received! 
 He had not been home for over a year, and 
 his family was delighted. 
 
 Elmsr took me in, introduced me as one 
 of his best friends, and I was soon entirely 
 at ease. 
 
 A handsome young lady shortly entered 
 the room and ran up to Elmer to welcome 
 him, embracing him warmly. He introduced 
 her to me as his sister Alice. 
 
 She was tall, fair and shapely, with deep 
 blue eyes, and dark brown hair ; cheeks like 
 damask roses, a small mouth with coral lips, 
 which, when parted iu a smile which gave 
 a sweetness to her expression, displayed a 
 set of small teeth, white as pearls. In short, 
 
 she was a brunette, sparkling and vivacious, 
 and hi r beauty was enhanced by a becoming 
 dress of fleecy white muslin, adorned with 
 cherry colored ribbons. 
 
 She could not have been over nineteen, 
 and certainly did not look even that age. 
 
 I immediately felt deeply impressed with 
 her attractive face and winsome manners. 
 Alice and I were soon the greatest of friends; 
 not that I could forget Elsie so soon, but as 
 she had married, I had no further claim on 
 her, and I was more and more drawn toward 
 Alice every day. 
 
 I escorted her to the parties, socisils, op- 
 era's, etc., and the time passed very pleas- 
 antly. How rapidly the six weeks seemed 
 to fly ! 
 
 Elmer announced one morning that we 
 would have to return the first of the week 
 to the front. I, however, made the best of 
 my time with Alice, and determined not to 
 lose her as I had Elsie, first so confided in her 
 all my past history, and left it optional with 
 her to accept or reject me. 
 
 She felt for me tenderly, and I went back 
 to the army a happy man, leaving her a 
 brilliant diamond rmg as a pledge of our be- 
 trothal. 
 
 really decided the campaign, as it effectual- 
 ly squelched all hope of Johnston effecting a 
 junction with Pemberton. 
 
 At Big Black River, the following day, 
 while with McClemand in pursuit of the re- 
 treating rebels, we came upon them sudden- 
 ly, and as the ground was favorable, they 
 made a stand, determined to dispute our 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOT WOKK. 
 
 I felt now as though I should like to live; 
 yet, I did not shrink from following the for- 
 tunes of war. 
 
 We reached camp on the tenth of April. 
 
 We found that our battery had already 
 joined Grant, who, iu conjunction with 
 Sherman, had been operating against Vicks- 
 burg since January or February. 
 
 Accordingly, we proceeded to Cairo, and 
 took transport for the scene of hostilities, 
 reaching the army about April 20, and at 
 once rejoining our battery. 
 
 We missed most of the perils and hard- 
 ships of the campaign, but were in time to 
 participate iu the spirited engagement at 
 Port Gibson, Misssissippi, which resulted in 
 a Union victory, occurring on May 1, 1863. 
 
 At two o'clock on that morning, while we 
 were marching through a wild, tropical 
 country, overgrown with luxuriant foliage 
 and flowers, from which a rare fragrance 
 emanated— having on the afternoon of the 
 thirtieth of April, under McClemand, laud- 
 ed at Bruinsburg— we encountered a rebel 
 battery, and were brought to an abrupt 
 halt. We found that the battery was strong- 
 ly posted on the brink of a commanding 
 eminence before us. 
 
 We af lerward learned that the rebel Gen- 
 eral Bower had sallied forth from his iu- 
 trenehments at Grand Gulf, and had planted 
 his batteries on these heights. 
 
 Our battery was ordered to the left, which 
 was commanded by General Osterhaus, and 
 as soon as morning broke, we opened a brisk 
 fire upon the enemy. 
 
 The battle was a hotly contest-ed one, and 
 lasted most of the day. 
 
 We lost over eight hundred men, killed, 
 wounded and missing, among whom were 
 eighteen from our battery, including Lieut- 
 tenant Colonel Belding, who was killed by 
 a shell. 
 
 During the night, the rebels retreated, 
 leaving the two roads to Port Gibson open, 
 and fiying across the Big Black River, 
 abandonding Grand Gulf, their depot for 
 stores and ammunition, which fell into our 
 hands, and afterwards became a very im- 
 portant base for General Grant's supplies. 
 They destroyed their ammunition and spik- 
 ed their guns, however, before leaving. 
 
 On the twelfth of May, under General Lo- 
 gan, we encountered rebels near the town of 
 
 Raymond, strongly posted in the woods, and 
 drove them with diffii 
 their rifle pits. 
 
 drove tliem with difficulty to the shelter of 
 
 After a hard but impetuouo struggle we 
 drove them again, and hurled them back 
 routed. 
 
 Raymond then fell into our hands. 
 
 During the afternoon of the fourteenth 
 we were with General Crocker, and partici- 
 pated in an artillery duel with the enemy 
 quite near Jackson, the state capital. 
 
 As before, the rebel batteries frowned from 
 the top of a hill, and we were obliged to 
 send the infantry forward to storm them, 
 which, under Crocker's personal supervision 
 they did in magnificent style, dispersing the 
 foe, though with dreadful slaughter, and cap- 
 turing Jackson. 
 
 On the sixteenth, we met General Pember- 
 ton, who had pushed out from Vicksburg 
 with the intention of attacking Grant in the 
 rear, and fought his forces at Champion 
 Hills, which was the most decisive of Grant's 
 battles, in his advance on Vicksburg, and 
 
 They posted eighteen guns on the brlpk of 
 an eminence opposite a bayou twenty feet 
 wide and three or four "feet deep, over 
 which we would be obliged to pass in at- 
 tacking them. 
 
 Then in addition, on a bluff which 
 fringed the other side, just beyond the first 
 battery, we perceived an array of guns and 
 ambushed Confederates nicely ensconsed. 
 
 To storm their position it would be neces- 
 sary to debouch out upon an open plain and 
 cross both the bayou and the river in the 
 face of the rebel batteries. 
 
 General McClernand viewed the position, 
 and immediately ordered an artillery attack 
 upon the enemy's works. 
 
 We took a fair position, unlimbered our 
 guns, and were soon hurling shell and can- 
 ister among the rebels. 
 
 They replied with vigor, wounding and dis- 
 abling General JOsterhans in the opening of 
 the fusillade. 
 
 While we kept up a rattling fire in the 
 center, thus commanding the attention of 
 the enemy. General Lawler, contrived to 
 approach the rebel works on the right, 
 quite unobserved. 
 
 Reaching a favorable position his troops 
 divested themselves of their knapsacks and 
 blankets, fixed bayonets.and emerging from 
 their concealment traversed the open field 
 and plunged into the stagnant water of the 
 bayou. 
 
 A terrific fire of shot and shell was in- 
 stantly turned upon them, reddening the 
 bi-ackish water with their blood. 
 
 The very rashness and impetuosity of the 
 assault, however, being so sudden and un- 
 
 Accordingly, the bayou was successfully 
 crossed, and the works taken at the point of 
 the bayonet without much further resis- 
 tance. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 CAPTURE ( 
 
 As the rebels were now driven from the 
 Big Black River,General McClernand bridged 
 the stream and our victorious forces pushed 
 forward toward Vicksburg, swinging around 
 to the south as we approached that city. 
 
 On May 19 the doomed city was completely 
 besieged, our lines extending from the 
 Yazoo above to Warrenton on the Mississip- 
 pi below Vicksburg. 
 
 The rebel army was then hemmed in on 
 all sides without the possibility of escape. 
 
 We will not dwell here upon the memora- 
 ble events of the siege which lasted two 
 months, until, finally, on July 4, General 
 Peniberton surrendered to Grant. 
 1 had lasted nearly t 
 ederals fully nine thousand 
 men ; and no wonder it was a great relief to 
 us when, on that memorable and ever glor- 
 ious fourth of July, the rebels capitulated. 
 
 While these last events wera transpiring, 
 the theater of war had been transferred by 
 Lee and Longstreet into Pennsylvania, and 
 we were just receiving news of the great 
 battle of Gettysburg. 
 
 After the capture of Vicksburg we were 
 sent to join General Thomas, and with him 
 participated in the battle of Chickamauga, 
 Septembxr 19 and 20. Then, in November, 
 while with Sherman and Hooker, we took 
 part in the battles of Lookout Mountain and 
 Missionary Ridge, Tennessee. 
 
 At Christmas Elmer and I secured brief 
 furloughs, and hastened to Detroit. While 
 there Alice and I were the principals in a 
 pleasant bridal party. 
 
 In March, 1864, our time of enlistment 
 having expired, we spent nearly a month in 
 Detroit again ; and, finally, being offered 
 positions — Elmer, as colonel, and I, as major 
 
 of the Michigan regiment — we accepted, 
 
 and went into Virginia, just in time to take 
 
 led our regiment in the terrible battles of the 
 Wildernes.s, and Spottsylvania, and, on the 
 fifteenth, in the battle of New Mark3t,where 
 we were repulsed. 
 
 After the victory in April, 1865, at Big 
 Five Forks, we joined in the assault on 
 Petersburg. 
 
 On this series of battles I will dwell briefly, 
 as some of my best friends fell during that 
 
THE WAR LIBRARY. 
 
 23 
 
 camiTal of death, and Elmer lost au arm. 
 
 On the second of April our regiment was 
 among them in the brigade ordered to the 
 assault upon the rebel rifle pits. 
 
 As the bugle sounded the charge, Elmer 
 and I having dismounted, placed ourselves 
 in position and pushed forward on foot. 
 How they did plant the shot and shell, grape 
 and canister into our redoubtable phalanx ! 
 
 The explosions were actually deafening, 
 and it seemed as if at each successive dis- 
 charge we could feel the flame from the 
 guns scorching our faces. 
 
 While we pushed on, I suddenly felt my- 
 self whirled around and thrown violently 
 upon the ground, and as I looked behind 
 me, saw a great gap plowed through the 
 ranks, and caught the flash of the exploding 
 shell, tlirough the cloud of smoke. 
 
 Those near me were not injured, nor was 
 I myself, though the force of concussion, as 
 the shell passed in such close proximity, had 
 prostrated us. 
 
 We paused, fired, fixed bayonets, and 
 charged the outer line of rebel rifle pits, 
 driving the enemy before us to seek shelter 
 in their intrenohments, and stumbling over 
 mangled forms as we pushed forward. 
 
 At this juncture, our regiment was order- 
 ed to hold the captured pits, and we imme- 
 diately jumped into them and proceeded to 
 do so. 
 
 When the rebels perceived our intention, 
 they advanced a light battery, determined 
 to dislodge us ; unhmbering their guns and 
 opening fire. 
 
 'What a din the shrieking and exploding 
 shell.tand whizzing solid shot made over our 
 heads, as ever and anon they scattered tlie 
 earth into our faces or struck down some of 
 our men. 
 
 With hoarse cheers, however, we defled 
 them, and keeping possession of the excava- 
 tions, were soon engaged in coolly picking 
 off those of the rebels within range of our 
 deadly rifles. 
 
 The enemy possessing heavy siege guns, 
 which were in a flxed position in front of 
 the city, began throwing fuse shells among 
 us, and we found the pits soon too hot to 
 hold us, as we were threatened with com- 
 plete annihilation. 
 
 While we were subjected to this tremend- 
 ous Are, however, a battery had been order- 
 ed to our support, and it wheeled into posi- 
 tion as quickly as possible, delivering its 
 fire over our heads. 
 
 Elmer raised his sword, and spoke en- 
 couragingly to our men, when, suddenly, 
 with a shriek, a heavy shell bounded directly 
 into the pit between us. 
 
 As it bowled over the earthworks it struck 
 Lieutenant-colonel Harris, who stood near 
 me, taking his head directly off, and, explod- 
 ing, blew Elmer's right arm off just at the 
 elbow, and killed a private named Johnson. 
 As we could not have Elmer's wound at- 
 tended to then, I bound my handkerchief 
 tightly around the mangled stump to stop 
 the flow of blood. 
 
 Rouudshot, bullets and shell, still con- 
 tinued to iilow through our position, and a 
 fragment of the latter knocked my cap off 
 whue I was attending to Elmer's wounds. I 
 made him lie down in the trench upon my 
 coat and his own, and, seizing a musket, 
 commenced to bang away in my shirt sleeves 
 at the enemy. 
 
 An hour passed — an hour of dire destruc- 
 tion of human life and limb. 
 
 I turned to assist a wounded comrade, 
 when I received a minie-ball in the right 
 breast, which traversed my body, penetrated 
 my lungs, missed my heart by a couple of 
 inches, and came out through my left arm, 
 fracturing the bone, but, fortunately, not 
 shattering it. 
 
 Down I jumped, and knew no more until 
 the engagement was over. 
 
 CHAPTER Til. 
 
 CONCLnSION. 
 
 Petersburg was taken, Richmond fell; 
 Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and the ri^ 
 bellion collapsed. 
 
 Still I lay m the hospital, at Portsmouth, 
 Va., alongside my brother-in-law, Colonel 
 Elmer Fenworth; and my wife and her 
 mother, who had come down from Detroit, 
 paid every attention to us. 
 
 Penworth's arm had been amputated near 
 the shoulder, but he was rapidly convalesc- 
 ing. 1 was, however, burning up with fever, 
 and mv life despaired of. 
 
 Alice always endeavored to appear hheer- 
 ful when in my presence, but I overheard 
 her saying to her mother, in accents of dis- 
 tress : 
 
 " Only to think, mother, that he should 
 die, now that the war is over, after going 
 through so much," and her eyes filled with 
 tears. 
 
 "Don't weep, Alice dear, I think he will 
 
 01 
 
 will,' 
 
 But the doctors gave not a ray of hope. 
 How horrible was existence in that hospital, 
 where poor, mangled and diseased forms 
 were huddled together in a putrid atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 Quite a number were released from their 
 sufferings by death every day, and some 
 pool- fellows, that were instinctively aware 
 that they could not recover, awaited death 
 with stolid indifference. 
 
 Before fever bereft me of my senses, and 
 previous to the two weeks that all was a 
 blank to me and I raved continually, I no- 
 ticed one poor boy, who knew his time had 
 come, endeavoring to persuade a comrade 
 who sat by his bedside fanning him, to assist 
 him to walk to the dead house as he was 
 pretty near gone, and did not wish to 
 trouble anybody to remove his corpse after 
 life was extinct. He was a true hero. 
 
 Well, to make a long story short, I reached 
 the climax which would decide my fate, 
 that is, whether I would recover or not; 
 passed it safely, and began to convalesce 
 very rapidly once the fever left me. 
 
 To the great joy of my wife and friends, I 
 was able ra about six weeks to travel slowly 
 toward Detroit. 
 
 When Elmer and I had both fully re- 
 covered we formed a copartnership and 
 went into business as lumber merchants at 
 Grand Rapids. 
 
 During the fall of the year 18G7 my wife's 
 health began to fail, and physicians ordered 
 her to travel South, and there remain for 
 her health. 
 
 I accompanied her and we made my 
 father's mansion our home, where we were 
 warmly welcomed. My sisters had married, 
 and lived in the city of Nashrville, and one of 
 my brothers was in business with my father 
 —the other brother, William, fell at Gettys- 
 burg. I made it my business to go down to 
 Connth for the purpose of seeing Elsie, now 
 Mrs. Vancleve. 
 
 Disappointment, however, again awaited 
 me. 
 
 Mr. Elden was dead, and nobody knew 
 where his niece and her husband were lo- 
 cated. 
 
 Nashville did not seem to afford Alice any 
 beneficial result, and accordingly we went 
 to Millview, Florida. Here for a time she 
 appeared quite well, but in the summer of 
 1869 she began to fail rapidly and died. 
 
 Elmer, and his wife and mother, came 
 down to the funeral, and we buried her be- 
 neath a spreading orange tree in the ceme- 
 tery at St. Augustine. 
 
 After the funeral, I decided to remain 
 where 1 was, as I had become quite attached 
 to Florida, and my two children accompan- 
 
 ied Elmer North, where they were sent to 
 school. 
 
 I engaged extensively in orange culture, 
 and so>.">, that is, in a very few years, found 
 myself a moderately rich man. I gave my 
 whole attention to my business and as a re- 
 sult grew more and more wealthy. 
 
 In the Centennial year, I had the dis- 
 tinguished honor to be considered one of 
 the wealthiest men in Florida. 
 
 In 1878 I had occasion to go to Memphis on 
 
 One day, while there, I strolled out in the 
 neighborhood of Elmwood Cemetery, and 
 entered. 
 
 As I saimtered among the graves, my at- 
 tention was suddenly attracted by a young 
 woman in mourning, who was bending 
 over a grave, and engaged in tenderly em- 
 bellishing it with flowers. 
 
 There was something in the sweet, pale, 
 girlish face, which seemed intuitively to draw 
 
 e towards it as it glowed with tenderdevo- 
 
 my eyes upon the inscription on the monu- 
 ment. 
 
 J udge of my utter consternation when the 
 following met my gaze: 
 
 "Capt. Arthur Vancleve, C. S.A., killed at 
 Chattanoofia, May 9, 1864. A(ied, 28." 
 
 I looked at the lady; scanned every linea- 
 ment of her features attentively, and al- 
 though time had wrought some changes, felt 
 convmced that it was really my Elsie that 
 stood before me; and she appeared more 
 lovely than ever. I approached, looked into 
 her tace and smiled pleasantly, while I ex- 
 tended my hand. She looked up, gave a 
 little shriek, and almost fainted. She thought 
 she beheld an apparition of Ned Morton ; and 
 in that ghostly place it was no wonder she 
 thought me a supernatural being. 
 
 " Why— no ; can it be possible that you are 
 Ned Morton? Ned fell at Shelby ville, did ho 
 not?" 
 
 " No ; that is, I rather guess not. I am Ned 
 Morton!" 
 
 And, to further convince her, I produced 
 
 fingers she had fastened to my coat on that 
 memorable summer dayiu 1862. 
 
 I had carried it about me in an inside 
 pocket ever since, carefully wrapped in oil 
 silk, as a memento, and, although withal 
 sadly faded, she instantly recognized it. 
 
 She grasped my hands, and shook them 
 delightedly, trembling with excitement and 
 pleasure. 
 
 I allowed her to continue her exclamations 
 and demonstrations of surprise and joy for a 
 few minutes, then asked an explantion of 
 her presence. 
 
 She then informed me that since Arthur's 
 death she had resided with his mother in 
 Memphis, not having married again— prefer- 
 ring to remain a charming young widow. 
 
 I made it a point to remain at Memphis 
 somewhat longer than my original business 
 in that city demanded, and it is needless to 
 observe that Elsie soon set aside her notion 
 of remaining a widow, and accepted ray 
 proposal of marriage. 
 
 I narrated to her all my experience, and 
 she seemed much interested ; listening very 
 attentively, while tears ever and anon filled 
 her eyes, as I recounted the many scenes of 
 
 Eeril. She said she was glad that after all I 
 ad subsequently fought on the side to 
 which my convictions naturally led me, and 
 remarked that I was "a traitor lo neither 
 side "—but a friend and soldier of both. 
 
 After our quiet wedding, Elsie accom- 
 panied me to the beautiful orange groves 
 near St. Augustine, where peace, tranquility 
 and bliss have since prevailed. 
 
 [THS EKB.I 
 
24 
 
 THE WAK LIBRAEY. 
 
 THE WAE LIBEARY 
 
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 ture, love, intrigue and patriotism- 
 
 Original, full of life, daring adven- 
 
 The Unwritten History of the War. 
 
 Historically true, as to dates and occurrences; graphically true as regards possibilities, these tales will interest as well 
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 I-MAJOR HOTSPUR; or, Kilpat- 
 rick's Dashing Rider. By Marline 
 
 Manly. A rmisinjf story of Sherman's March 
 to the Sea. 
 2-BLUEORCRAY; or, Hunted Spy 
 of the Chickahominy. By ward 
 
 Edwards, " lliwli Private," U.S. V. 
 3-CAVALRY SAM; or, The Raiders 
 of the Shenandoah. ByCapt. Mark 
 Wilton. A thrilling tale of Sheridan and his 
 
 4-ON TO RICHMOND; or,Scout and 
 Spy of the Grand Army. By Major 
 
 A. F. Grant. 
 
 S-VICKSBURC; or, The Dashing 
 Yankee Middy of the Cunboat 
 Flotilia. By Corporal Morris Hoyue. A 
 etorj' of the Great Siege, 
 
 6-SHILOH ; or. Only a Private. By 
 
 Ward Edwards, U. S. V. A stirring romance 
 of a Kentuckian's Cainpaigrn. 
 7-BULLET AND BAYONET: or 
 Guerrillas of the Ozark. By Captain 
 
 .Mark Wilton. A tale of the Missouri battle- 
 fields. 
 8 SHARPSHOOTER DICK; or. The 
 Hero of Bull Run. By Major A. F. 
 
 15-FIGHTINC PAT;or, The Boys of 
 
 the Irish Brigade. By Bernard Wayde. 
 16-UNDER TWO FLAGS; or. The 
 
 Field of Stone River. Uy Morris Red- 
 wing. 
 
 17-STARSAND STRIPES; or. The 
 Siege of Fort Pulaski. By Major 
 
 Hugh Warren. 
 
 18-BATTLE ECHOES; or, Baudin's 
 Boys at Chantilly. By Major waiter 
 Brisbane. 
 
 19-CANNONEER BOB; or. The 
 Blockade Runner. A story of the 
 
 I>ati- War Attoat and Ashore. By Major A. 
 F. Grant. 
 
 20-BATTLE BEN; or. The Fortunes 
 
 of War. A story of Chickamauga. By 
 Morris Redwing. 
 21-SHOULDER-STRAPS; or. In the 
 
 Nick of Time. A stirring Romance of 
 Getl> sliurg. Uy .Major Walter Wilmot. 
 
 22 SEVEN PINES; or, Shot, Shell 
 
 and Minle. Hy Warren Walters. 
 23~SABER AND SPUR, or. Fated to 
 
 be Foes. By Mon Myrtle. 
 
 24-FIGHTINC FOR FAME; or. The 
 
 Confederate Raider. A story of 
 
 South Mountain. By Morris Redwing. 
 25-DASHING O'DONOHOE; or. The 
 Hero of the Irish Brigade. A Story 
 of the Seven Days' Battles. By Lieutenant 
 
 9 PRISON PEN; or, Dead Line at 
 
 Andersonville. By Marline Manly. 
 I O -BIVOUAC AND BATTLE ; or. The 
 
 Rivals in Blue. By Corporal Morris 
 Hoyne. A Romance of Sherman's North 
 Carolina Campaign. 
 
 II-BEFORE DONELSON; or, The 
 Troopers of the Cumberland. By 
 
 Edgar L. Vincent. A Stirring Romance of 
 Grant's Tennessee Campaign. 
 12-SOLD FOR A SOLDIER; or. The 
 Life of His Regiment. By Ward 
 
 Edwards, " High Private," U. 8. V. A story 
 of the Arnry of the Potomac. 
 13-TRUE BLUE;or,TheUnionScout I 29-CUNBOAT DAVE; or, A Whirl- 
 Of Tennessee. By Major a. F. Grant, wind of Fire. A Rousing story of the 
 
 A Rousing Tale of Hood's Last Campaign. Red River Campaign. By Morris Redwing. 
 
 14-CROSSED SWORDS; or. The | SO RIVAL CAPTAINS; or. The Hero 
 Last Charge at Antietam. By of the Pontoon Bridge, a story of 
 
 Corporal Morris Hoyne. Fredericksburg 
 
 27 THE FATAL CARBINE; or, A 
 Harvest of Death, a story of Cedar 
 Mountain. By Major Walter Wilmot. 
 
 28-MALVERN HILL; or. The Union 
 
 Spy of Richmond. By Corporal Morris 
 
 ■ Colonel Oram Etlor. 
 
 3 (-HARD-TACK ; or. The Old War 
 Horse of Winchester. By Major 
 Walter Brisbane. 
 
 32-YANKEE STEVE ; or. The Scout 
 of the Rappahannock, a Romance 
 of the Army Under Burnside. By Morris 
 Redwing. 
 
 33-FARRACUT'S SPY; or. The Hero 
 of Mobile Bay. A story of the Great 
 Bombardment. By Major A. F. Grant. 
 
 34-MISSION RIDGE ; or. Into the 
 Jaws of Death. A Story of the Most 
 
 Desperate Battle on Record. By Major Wal- 
 ter Wilmot. 
 
 35-CHAIN-SHOT; or, Mosby and His 
 Men. A Tale of the Death Struggle at 
 Chancellorsville. By Colonel Oram Eflor. 
 
 36 FIVE FORKS; or. The Loyal 
 Hearts of Richmond. A story of the 
 
 Last Days of the Confederacy. By Corporal 
 Morris Hoyne. 
 37-CAPTAIN IRONWRIST; or, The 
 Soldier of Fortune. By Major Walter 
 
 Wilmot. 
 
 38-THE LOST CAUSE ; or. The Fall 
 
 of Atlanta, a Thrilling Tale of Sher- 
 man and his men. By Morris Redwing. 
 
 3e~CAMP FIRES; or. Marching 
 Through Georgia. By Wan-en Wal- 
 
 41-BETWEEN THE LINES; or. Fort- 
 unes of a Young Marine. A Story 
 of the Bombardment of Island Number Ten, 
 By Morris Redwing. 
 
 42-THE CAVALRY GUIDE: or, in the 
 Saddle and Bivouac, a Thrilling 
 Romance of the Great South-side Raid. By 
 John W. Southard. 
 
 43-HARPER'S FERRY, or. From the 
 Chevron to Shoulder-Straps. By 
 
 Major Walter Wilmot. 
 
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