Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/177

Rh my resolve not to be disheartened, and the supports which came from an unshaken trust in the overruling providence of God, I have often paced up and down through the long night, along the narrow beat allotted to us outside the barracks, with an eye as sleepless and a step as ceaseless as that of the sentinel whose eye was upon me and whose bayonet flashed in the moonlight as he watched me from the "dead line," only a few paces away.

Many, of course, were the efforts made to escape—some of them ingeniously planned, but all by one contingency and another brought to nought. One method of escape was always open to us—that of bribing the guards, there being very few sentinels over us whose virtue commanded a higher price than a five dollar greenback for each person desiring to escape. To this method most of us were conscientiously opposed. I would have remained there to the close of the war before I would have placed such a temptation in the way of an enemy. Others were not of such tender conscience; and at length, worn by long imprisonment and wearied by long delay, four chaplains and six or eight surgeons bribed the guard and made their escape. It cost me a great struggle not to join them, but I was thankful afterwards that I did not, for within a very days and before they had made their way through great hardships to Dixie, the order came for our release, and we were safely landed on Southern soil.

Their departure, however, led to a denouement in connection with our release, to which I must, in closing, refer. As the roll-call had for some time been dispensed with, the escape of the prisoners had not been detected, but now, as the chaplains were to be released, the roll would, of course, be called, and the escape of the four would be detected. This would lead to a roll-call of the surgeons (the order for whose release had not been been received), and when it was found that six or eight surgeons had escaped, the remainder would be subjected to closer confinement and more stringent discipline. To avoid this, four surgeons determined to play the role of the missing chaplains. It was a very hazardous experiment, as most of the chaplains were personally known to the officers of the fort, and a detection of the ruse would probably lead to the retention of the whole body of chaplains in prison. But bold as the expedient was, it was immediately put into execution. An old razor was brought into requisition. The largest coats in the party were put at the disposal of the adventurous four. A very grave and reverend air was assumed, and they took their places in