Part 7

Mr. Lowery told me when I came back by the way of Baltimore and completed the tale of my escape that he would give me five hundred dollars in gold. Now when I started from Washington and got on the train I found an old man who had been at the Howard hospital at Washington, and who had buried a son and had just started for home. I told him where I lived when at home, and found that he lived about thirty miles from Waterford, Erie county, Pennsylvania. This old man took care of me until I reached home.

When I got to Harrisburg I was so sick that I did not know what was going on around me, and when I arrived at the station at Waterford it was along about the last days of January. The snow was about two feet deep and drifted for a distance of some two miles from the station to a depth of ten feet. I got into a box car and remained in my old friend’s care some two hours, while an old lady went two miles over some terribly deep drifts to notify the stage driver of the condition I was in.

During this time the good old man had tried to get me into some Irish shanties near the station, but without any success. I still remained in this cold car until my feet were badly frozen, and when the stage did come there came with it a man by the name of Clifford Stafford, a distant relative, if any, who had been discharged on account of wounds received in the Battle of Gainsey’s Mill or Hall’s Hill. Now when I got home I never knew my own folks for five long weeks, and when I did bring myself through I did not have a spear of hair on my head, nor did I have hardly any soles on my feet, so badly were they frozen while escaping and being exposed to so much snow and frost.

This tale may not be so interesting to many on account of its being so long since the close of the war, but nevertheless it is a true story.

Oh, how sad is the memory of the past! If my faith was all I had in this world I should consider myself most miserable, but I thank God that while I still continue to suffer, my faith is in Him.

When I got well I learned that my folks had made ready to have funeral services for me, as Comrade Ledierer had sent word to them that I was killed way back there at the negro shanty, at which place we were separated from each other.

Now the time had come for me to return to Washington. General Lee’s army had surrendered, and my time of service had nearly expired and my furlough also.

At last the day came when I bid my kind old mother and friends good bye and once more started to join the army.

My desire now was to continue the tale of my escape from prison to the Senator from Pennsylvania, and get the gold he had promised to give me, but when I got to Harrisburg, I found that he had been taken ill and had been sent to an insane asylum, and while there had died, at least that was the report at that time.

Soon after I got to Washington we were all mustered out of service and sent home.

While I was on my way to Washington, and while in Baltimore waiting for a train to go to Washington, there was a guard who attempted to arrest me. I had been home three months, under a doctor’s care, and of course my furlough of thirty-five days had expired, but I had a sworn certificate from the doctor and a pass from the provost marshal of the place where I lived, but this did not suit the guard, who was bent on taking me for desertion.

After twenty-five years had expired I got my ransom money from Uncle Sam on account of that guard at Baltimore keeping my furlough.

Now this ends the tale of my escape from rebel prisons, and since all of this prison suffering I have lived in Oceana county, Michigan, and have reared up a family of five children, one boy dying at the age of thirteen years. I have had both shoulders broken, my right shoulder blade, right arm and left hip misplaced and broken, and also my left leg below the knee, and am now left almost a total cripple.

This ends the short tale of suffering, but suffering not ended until this life is closed.

Transcriber’s Note:

The following changes have been made to the original publication:

Page 6 rebels had very strong foritfications _changed to_ rebels had very strong fortifications

Page 52 crevises of the rocks _changed to_ crevices of the rocks

Page 72 on small abuttments _changed to_ on small abutments

Page 77 through the crevises _changed to_ through the crevices

Page 85 to thank God for His deliverence _changed to_ to thank God for His deliverance

End of Project Gutenberg's In Defense of the Flag, by David W. Stafford