Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/76

64 influence of liquor, who lay down in Charlie's block while the cart was being filled. Charlie succeeded in securing his overcoat and cap. Quick as thought, he jumped upon the driver's seat, seized the reins, drove out the cart, passed the sentinels at the gate, who opened it for his egress, and got beyond the parapet, imagining himself at last free. But the condition of the soldier being discovered by the prison guard, a hue and cry was raised, the ruse detected, and a squad sent in pursuit of the fugitive, who was soon overtaken, and the intrepid Charlie was brought back to his prison quarters.

This daring attempt led to increased vigilance on the part of the sentinels, and rendered our hero an object to be watched and dreaded. But his darling object was not to be abandoned, and his third attempt exceeded the previous ones in strategy and execution.

With a chosen few, he conceived the project of scaling the parapet, attacking the sentinels with rocks, and breaking for the Canadian shore, the lake being frozen over.

Scaling ladders were made as secretly as possible, and a bright moonlight night selected for the attempt. There was only one pistol obtainable, and this fell, by lot, to the possession of Lieutenant Wheeler, of Morgan's cavalry. The others armed themselves with rocks. Lieutenants Pierce, Wheeler and J. B. Bowles, of Louisville, Kentucky, were the first to get their ladders in position and attempt the ascent. Our hero, however, was the only one who gained the parapet. A rock in his hand was as true as a rifle ball, thanks to his base-ball experience. With it he felled the sentinel. His cousin, Lieutenant Bowles was shot on the ladder, and his body fell inside. His dying words to Charlie were to push on, and leave him to his fate. Lieutenant Wheeler and the sentinel in front of him fired at each other simultaneously, and singularly both missed, when the Lieutenant slid down to avoid a second shot, he having no other means of defence. Lieutenant Pierce speedily pursued his way over the natural bridge of ice on the lake, under a constant fire from the sentinels, until he got beyond the range of their guns. At the same time the guns of the fort opened with solid shot, for the purpose of breaking the ice, while the signal guns could be heard for miles around booming on the still air. Unheeding the cold, for his heart beat high at the prospect of once more being with his comrades in the field, and proving with his sword the faith that was in him, he gained the strip of land twelve miles distant, and pursued his way through the woods until daylight,