Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/194

 188 Southern Historical Society Papers.

mounted and coolly entered the St. Nicholas. They found General Kelly in bed and Kuykendall, who was known to General Kelly, having been captured previously, recognized him at once and demanded his surrender. The General desired to know whom he was surrendering to, and Kuykendall emphatically informed him that it was to him, Kuykendall, and him only, and told him further that there was no time for ceremony. The General accepted the position and promptly obeyed.

Vandiver in the meantime had repaired to the Revere House, cap- tured the sentinel in charge by pretending to be a dispatch-bearer to General Crook, and finally succeeded in reaching his bed-room. He announced himself to the astonished General as General Rosser, of the Confederate army, informed him that he was a prisoner of war, and told him that he had two minutes to dress. The General hesi- tating, Vandiver told him that his clothes were there, and that he could either put them on or be taken as he was.

It is needless to say that the General dressed, and dressed quickly. They took him to the street, Vandiver mounted his horse, and the General was placed on the horse behind him. They rode down and were joined by the party who had taken General Kelly from his bed at the St. Nicholas, and in a little while they were out beyond the confines of Cumberland. The countersign, "Bull's Gap/' now stood them in hand, and they got a start before the alarm was spread.

They reached Romney without any trouble, except an exchange of shots with a handful of cavalry that had got together and pursued them.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, August 2, 1891.]

ANDERSONVILLE PRISON.

LINES BY REV. JOSHUA PETERKIN, D. D.

The following poem from the pen of Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D. D., appeared in the Hartford (Conn.) Courier in 1865, and, now that the horrors of Andersonville are again being paraded in Northern magazines, it will no doubt be read with interest by many. The quotations are from lines which a short while before had been pub- lished in a Philadelphia (Pa.) paper.

G. E. T. L.