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

PRISON LIFE AND ESCAPE. 323
ber, 1864. Then commenced my experience life as a fugitive
slave for I lived with them and fared the same as they did.
When I found myself clear from the rebels and was satisfied
they had not missed me, I thought I would take a westward
course as near as I could tell or guess, and did so. The first I
brought up against was a picket fence. I stopped a minute
and discovered a light away in the distance which I took for a
light in a negro hut outside of the city. Then I decided to
climb every obstacle, fence or what not, and go straight to that
light ; accordingly I climbed the picket fence and walked eight
or ten feet and came to another picket fence at about right
angles with the first. I climbed that also and soon found myself
in a "wood pasture" as it was called in Southern dialect. Four
months later I came back and saw the city of Albany, Ga.,
under the old flag and looked up my escape route and found I
had climbed over the corner of a man's front yard when by
deviating a little from my course I might have gone around it
in half the time it took me to do the climbing, but I still think
I did right in keeping my course. I soon found myself outside
of the city and could hear the roosters crowing and another
sound that I paid more attention to, the yelping of hounds !
I
struggled along as fast as my feeble condition would allow till I
came to a fence. I followed the fence till I found a tree I
thought I could climb and then sat down on the fence and
waited for the hounds and hunters, for I certainly thought they
wcie after me. After a short time I concluded they were only
the dogs in the city having a concert, and as the sounds did not
conic nearer to me I started on towards the light. After I got
over the fence I found myself in a newly ploughed field, and it
was muddy and oh, so hard for me to make any progress, and
yet I was cold all through. I did not have enough blood to
keep me warm. What little clothing I had was all drenched
through. For clothing I had an unlined blouse of blue flannel
for a shirt with a big hole on each shoulder and a similar outlet
for the elbows ; the wrists of the sleeves were worn and ragged
half way to the elbows too, with only one button left, but I