The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

226 THE MAINE BUGLE.
be captured from them soon. The war must be pretty near
over, boys. They are pretty hard up, you can see that, and
they are dodging us around to keep us from being recaptured.
So we consoled ourselves as well as we could. The sun set
clear and the night was cold. We sped along as fast as they
could drive till daylight the next morning. I curled down on
the bottom of the car and three or four men lay across me. It
hurt some but I soon got used to it, and if I had not lain under
those men I guess I should have died of cold, and many were
unable to get off without help when we dismounted at Black-
shear Station. A great many men had only one garment, with-
out, hat, cap or shoes, only a pair of old cotton flannel drawers.
Can you imagine that they suffered? Faintly, I think. If we
had not been drenched and roasted in the box cars it would not
have been half so bad.
We marched out into a pine barren and camped. I believe
we got fair rations; certainly we had good water, and sweet,
fresh air to breathe. As near as I can recollect we stayed at
Hlackshear Station about a week. The second day of our stay
some prisoners were paroled and sent into our lines. Sergeant
Mcl'^lroy of the Sixteenth Connecticut was among the number.
We were told that we were all to be paroletl there, but this we
found to be another lie to keep us from trying to escape. I
give you an incident or two which happened there :
One day some uneasy Yanks saw a rebel officer outside the
guard line and hailed him, and he called them out to see what
tin)' wanted. They told him with a great air of secrecy that
they had discovered a tree containing a swarm of bees, and
asked his permission to go out and cut it down and get the
honey. Now the idea of a taste of honey was pretty rich after
living on the dry rations even the best Confederates could fur-
nish, and this officer was a mean one, so he got the boys to
show him the tree to prove they were not planning to escape
and then he told them peremptoril)' that the}' could not have it
and ordered them back into the prison camp. Then he summoned
his friends and a negro with an axe and they went at