Andersonville, vol 4 | Page 8

to make them do so. I was passed.
The next day the orders for removal were more stringent than had yet
been issued, stating that all who could stand it to be removed on

stretchers must go. I concluded at once that I was gone, so as soon as I
learned how matters were, I got out from under my dirty blanket, stood
up and found I was able to walk, to my great astonishment, of course.
An officer came early in the morning to muster us into ranks
preparatory for removal. I fell in with the rest. We were marched out
and around to the gate of the prison.
Now, it so happened that just as we neared the gate of the prison, the
prisoners were being marched from the Stockade. The officer in charge
of us--we numbering possibly about ten--undertook to place us at the
head of the column coming out, but the guard in charge of that squad
refused to let him do so. We were then ordered to stand at one side with
no guard over us but the officer who had brought us from the Hospital.
Taking this in at a glance, I concluded that now was my chance to make
my second attempt to escape. I stepped behind the gate office (a small
frame building with only one room), which was not more than six feet
from me, and as luck (or Providence) would have it, the negro man
whose duty it was, as I knew, to wait on and take care of this office,
and who had taken quite a liking for me, was standing at the back door.
I winked at him and threw him my blanket and the cup, at the same
time telling him in a whisper to hide them away for me until he heard
from me again. With a grin and a nod, he accepted the trust, and I
started down along the walls of the Stockade alone. In order to make
this more plain, and to show what a risk I was running at the time, I
will state that between the Stockade and a brick wall, fully as high as
the Stockade fence that was parallel with it, throughout its entire length
on that side, there was a space of not more than thirty feet. On the
outside of this Stockade was a platform, built for the guards to walk on,
sufficiently clear the top to allow them to look inside with ease, and on
this side, on the platform, were three guards. I had traveled about fifty
feet only, from the gate office, when I heard the command to "Halt!" I
did so, of course.
"Where are you going, you d---d Yank?" said the guard.
"Going after my clothes, that are over there in the wash," pointing to a
small cabin just beyond the Stockade, where I happened to know that
the officers had their washing done.
"Oh, yes," said he; "you are one of the Yank's that's been on, parole, are
you?"

"Yes."
"Well, hurry up, or you will get left."
The other guards heard this conversation and thinking it all right I was
allowed to pass without further trouble. I went to the cabin in
question--for I saw the last guard on the line watching me, and boldly
entered. I made a clear statement to the woman in charge of it about
how I had made my escape, and asked her to secrete me in the house
until night. I was soon convinced, however, from what she told me, as
well as from my own knowledge of how things were managed in the
Confederacy, that it would not be right for me to stay there, for if the
house was searched and I found in it, it would be the worse for her.
Therefore, not wishing to entail misery upon another, I begged her to
give me something to eat, and going to the swamp near by, succeeded
in getting well without detection.
I lay there all day, and during the time had a very severe chill and
afterwards a burning fever, so that when night came, knowing I could
not travel, I resolved to return to the cabin and spend the night, and
give myself up the next morning. There was no trouble in returning. I
learned that my fears of the morning had not been groundless, for the
guards had actually searched the house for me. The woman told them
that I had got my clothes and left the house shortly after my entrance
(which was the truth except the part about the clothes), I thanked her
very kindly and begged to be allowed to stay in the cabin till morning,
when I would present myself at Captain H.'s office and suffer the