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Letter #1
Nashville February 3rd 1864
Dear Charlie [Charles Adulphos Jewell],
I arrived in town last nite from Louisville on my way to my regt.
I was captured on the 4th of Nov. taken to Atlanta Ga, from
there to Richmond, from Richmond to Danville Pn, 140 miles S.W.
from Richmond. I remained in prison until the 27th of December
when I escaped by cutting the bars off the window and running
through the guard lines, two sentinels fired at me, one ball hit
me in the right shoulder, cutting a hole about two inches in
length and about the size of the ball, and passed out through my
coat on the left shoulder, it was only a slight wound, and did
not prevent my running. I was 25 days getting through to our
lines. I got to our lines on the 21st of Jan at South
Washington, at the mouth of the Tar river in North Carolina on
Palmics Sound, there I got transportation to New Berne at which
place I wrote to you directing the letter to Nashville but
Chatfield says the letter has not got here yet.
I went from Newbern to Fort Monroe, from there to Baltimore from
there to Cincinnati, from there to Louisville and from there to
Nashville. I shall take the 3 Oclock train this evening for
Chattanooga.
I am disappointed at not seeing you but am glad you are at home.
I should like to have gone home, the boy who escaped with me
went home to stay a while before reporting to his regt, but I
thot it my duty to go to my regt as soon as I could.
I wrote to my Co. and Regimental commanders as soon as I got
into our lines telling them that I had escaped and was on my way
to the regt. Chatfield has let me have five dollars which if you
will pay him I will send you as soon as I get paid. I wanted to
get some things to take to the regt which I cannot get there,
such as tobacco, emery paper, coffee pot etc.
Andrew Jewell tells me there is a commission here for you as 1st
Lt in Co. I which I am glad to hear, give my love to all the
folks, and all write to me. I am anxious to hear from home. I
suppose you would like to know how I traveled thru the
Confederacy without getting caught but I haven’t time to write
much. I traveled by night and laid in the woods by day, stole
chickens and sweet potatoes and cooked them in the woods.
Crossed streams where the bridges were guarded by making rafts
of rails etc. You must write to me as soon as you get this and
tell me of your prospects.
H. [Horace] B. Jewell
P.S. Direct to Chattanooga
Letter #2
Camp Chickamauga February 22nd, 1864
Dear brother,
I received your long and welcome letter last night, and fearing
that we might leave tomorrow, I leave a dirty gun in the stach
to answer it. In accordance with your request I will give you a
brief account of my escape from the rebel prison at Danville,
Va. There were 3000 of us taken from Castle Pemberton in
Richmond to Danville, 140 miles SW from the former place and
confined in four prisons, old tobacco factories four stories
high, on the windows of which the rebs had put bars at outside
of the glass. The guards were stationed about 15 or 20 ft
outside of the prison and 20 ft distant from each other facing
the prison, with positive orders to hold no communication with,
or even speak to a prisoner. I had resolved from the first to
improve the first opportunity to escape, and the first two weeks
of my stay was devoted to forming the acquaintance of my
companions who looked as though they would be desirable
companions for such an undertaking. I knew we had 280 miles of
the enemy’s country to go through before we could reach our
lines; it required men who had the courage and perseverance to
endure cold, hunger and fatigue for an indefinite period of
time, and at the same time the presence of mind to meet and
conquer any unlooked for danger that we should always be liable
to encounter. I found plenty of men who would talk escape, oh
yes, they would like a chance to go; but when I pointed out the
only way which we could escape from the prison, some would not
incur the risk. Others when I had got their courage screwed up
to that and pointed out one danger after another we should be
likely to encounter after we had got out, before we arrived at
our lines, and asked their opinion as to the best method of
surmounting them, I found none of them such men as I wanted
except one orderly and two duty sergeants belonging to the 18th
Pa Calvary. I proposed to cut the bars of a window myself and
let them know when I was ready, then the first dark rainy night
we would go. Well, I got the bars cut so that a mere splinter
held them in their place and the cracks carefully stopped with
charcoal and tallow. One well directed blow would knock them
off. We waited several days for rain and at last it came. I told
them we would go that night, showed them the bars I had cut, and
pointed out the lane we should go through and the direction we
should take when we reached the street beyond. But said one that
lane leads past the guard quarters, not 10 yards distant, we
can’t go past that it is brightly lit up all night. If the
guards see and fire at us, it will alarm the corporal and guard
who will rush out and we shall be in a trap. I replied, you are
correct in everything but the trap. The guards must see and hear
us break the bars off, they will fire at us, but the close
proximity of the guard-quarters will give us time to pass it
before thy can get out. We can’t sneak out of this like a thief
out of jail, where there are no guards, but must make a bold
dash for liberty and take our chance.
What then is the use of a dark rainy night, said another. “To
keep the guards guns under their coat capes and their eyes full
of water, so that they will not have time to deliberate aim
until we get past them, and they will fire in a hurry and miss
us. Then it will help us about passing the picket lines, for we
can sneak through them.” Well, said another, if Old Abe don’t
want me bad enough to exchange me, I don’t feel called upon to
run so much risk as one chance out of ten for escape, nor do I,
said the other two. Very well, said I, I thought you were brave
men, but I see you are cowards. I don’t want you. When I thought
it time to go, I went to the window. I could plainly see by the
light which shone from the windows of the guard house (a 3 story
brick, built unfurnished by a union man who had to flee his
country) every one of which was lit up by the light of pine
knots burnt by the guards, that the two sentinels between which
I had to pass were standing with their muskets under their
blankets and their heads bent towards the rain, apparently half
frozen. I carefully removed the glass from the window and then
thinking I would give every man a chance to follow me I woke up
about 40 and told them they could leave Dixie if they wished.
They crowded around the window, but when they saw what the
chance was they “turned back”. I called them all a set of
cowards, and dared anyone in the room to follow me. A boy of 16
yrs from the 41st O.R.I. Ohio answered, “It is a scaly chance,
but I am tired of this. I’ll follow you or die trying.” “Come
on, then.” Said I, and I kicked out the bars and jumped out,
turned around and took him by the hand and pulled him out, set
him on his feet and said “now run like the devil.” We started,
“halt.” “halt”! “halt!” bang, bang. Corporal of the guard No 7
to No 8 and we were away. I felt a ball spat against my shoulder
but it inflicted only a slight wound and didn’t hinder my
running. It took us all night to get past the pickets, when we
got news where we thought they out to be we crawled on our hands
and knees, stopping every few feet to listen. Just before
daylight we found them and succeeded in getting through
unobserved, we were then clear of the town, and traveled about
two miles when we found an old tobacco barn on the backend of a
plantation filled with corn fodder. We crawled in amongst this
and laid during the day, and when night came we set out. We knew
that the ____ of N.C. was within 300 miles of us, took the Stars
for our guide, traveled by night and laid in the woods by day,
lived on chickens and sweet potatoes which we captured from rebs
and cooked in the woods. We had yet many difficulties to contend
with. The bridges and ferries are all guarded to catch their
soldiers who desert and go home by hundreds. So that we had to
feel our way, when we had a stream to cross we went below the
bridge or ferry and made rafts of rails, old logs or anything we
could find. Sometimes our rafts came to pieces in the middle of
the stream and we had to gather as many rails as we could under
our arms and swim with the other.
Submitted by Kevin Flick |