Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/233

   Prewitt, then myself. When we had all gotten below, Captain Chambers could not, he said, get through the trap door, so we left him. Poor Lieut. Billy Funk cried and pleaded to be taken with us, but the poor fellow was unable to get out of the bunk, practically dead with scurvy. We chose the night of February 28th to make the move to escape, first, because the tunnel in the walls was finished; second, because General Mollineux, 157th N. Y. Vols., came this night with his command, to relieve the 127th New York and, in the confusion of transfer, we thought our chances would be better for success. The night was dark, and a drizzling rain was falling. All went well with us through the tunnel until we reached the trapdoor in the casemate at the end of our tunnel, which we were to ascend through to the casemate above. When we attempted to remove the door we found, to our consternation, that it was weighted down by some very heavy weight. It was a dilemma we had not