church, on Shenandoah street, and I have been a little shy of Presbyterian churches ever since. If it was Heaven above, it was surely hell below. I appreciated that night General Charles Lee's solemn request not to be buried "in any Presbyterian church-yard, or within one mile of any Anabaptist meeting-house, as he had been forced to keep so much bad company during life that he wished to avoid it in death."

The lieutenant advised me if I had any money or valuables to place them in the hands of the officer of the guard, as my fellow-prisoners were a disreputable set, and might rob me. The advice was taken and my gold watch and $20 were handed over with a vague suspicion I would never see them again. In this miserable den I found comrades Manning and Coleman and a crowd of Yankee deserters. I was much pleased to see my friends, for misery loves company. Sleep failed to weigh our eyelids down that night. Our couch was mud and dirt and our associates the vilest of the vile, fiends and devils incarnate.

Morning was welcomed, our names were called, and as we passed out my watch and money were handed me, much to my surprise and gratification. A guard then marched us to the Baltimore and Ohio station, where we boarded the cars for Baltimore, arrived there about noon, and were taken. to General Schenck's headquarters.

The Federal account of our little raid is found in the report of General Schenck to General Halleck:

BALTIMORE, MD., February 13, 1863. I have received the following dispatch from BrigadierGeneral Kelly:

HARPER'S FERRY, VA., February 13, 1863. Yesterday about 1 P M. a squad of Baylor's rebel cavalry attacked a small party of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry from Kearneysville, near Smithfield, killing four, wounding two, and capturing six men and several horses. About 4 P. M. my scouts here fell in with the same party a few miles

south of Charlestown, and after a running fight of several miles, recaptured our men and horses, and captured Lieutenant Baylor and two of his men and several horses.

B. F. KELLY,
Major-General Commanding.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

ROBERT C. SCHENCK, Major-General Commanding.

After being interrogated by General Schenck as to my whereabouts when he chased Jackson up the Valley, and politely informing him I was at Cross Keys and Port Republic, we were ordered to be taken to the Provost Marshal's office. My comrades and myself being more of the stature of David than of Saul, and very boyish in appearance, were pointed out on the streets of Baltimore as living evidence of the fact that Jeff. Davis was robbing the cradle for soldiers, if not the grave.

While in the Provost's office a little orange girl, seeing we were prisoners, looked on us with kindness and affection, and her little heart burning with sympathy and compassion, quietly approached us, while the guard's attention was turned, and from her scanty store, gathered by work, privation, and suffering, handed each of us an orange, and when offered pay, refused to accept. How much good there is in the world we wot not of. Her little act was more than a sermon. This little waif of the street had taught us the kinship of all men.

CHAPTER VII.

Three were in a dungeon cast,

Of whom this wretch is left the last.

Byron.

After several hours in the Provost's office, an officer appeared (I learned he was the Provost Marshal, Colonel Fish,), who, seeing us sitting there, said, in an insolent and contemptuous manner, “What are you doing here? Get out of here! Guard, take these rebels to the guard-house." I longed then to have a chance to repay that scoundrel his gratuitous insult. But as he is now receiving the just reward of his actions, I can only wish the penitentiary may reform him.

Just here, I cannot refrain from giving an extract from my father's diary, of date January 25, 1864, when he was a prisoner at Fort McHenry. He says:

"My paper was put into my tent, as usual, and I learned from it that the former Provost Marshal, Colonel Fish, was confined a prisoner in his own negro jail, where he had ruthlessly confined so many of his fellow-men. Retribution is Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' Although I have reasons for believing Colonel Fish has been very vindictive towards me, I feel for him in his suffering and degradation. It cannot benefit me to have him punished, and if he has a family my sympathies are with them."

sure.

The station-house was a dirty, filthy place, an unfit habitation for human beings. Shortly after our incarceration there, two drunken women were placed in an adjoining cell, separated from us by an iron-grated door, and Coleman, who had never seen a drunken woman before, seemed to enjoy their alternating extremes of piety and wickedness.

About 6 P. M. our cell was unlocked and a squad of soldiers appeared, who conducted us to Fort McHenry and put us in an old stable there, used then as a military prison, where we met some thirty Confederates, among the number Strother Davis, brother of ex-Sheriff Davis. This building was full of vermin, and I roosted on a roof-brace, preferring to risk my neck at this altitude rather than sleep in the infected quarters below. Our fare here was exceedingly hard. Black water, called coffee, and hard-tack, for breakfast and supper, and bean soup for dinner. No meat was cooked with the beans, and none was necessary, for the worms in the beans furnished the requisite grease. The coffee was made in the same camp-kettle as the soup, without rinsing, and appeared with a greasy scum on top. Is Moro Castle worse than this? On the second day after our installation in this stable, most of the privates, including Manning and Coleman, were taken to City Point for exchange, but in a few hours others took their places.

Imprisonment in this foul hole soon became unbearable, and I determined to attempt an escape. Preparatory thereto, my jacket was stripped of all insignia of office, and dirt rubbed in where the braid was torn off, to make it appear old and shabby as the rest. My intention was confided to a few of our men, who I felt could be implicitly trusted, and who promised all help possible. In a few days another exchange boat appeared at the wharf to take off prisoners for exchange, and, as their names were being called and they were passing out by the guard, I answered to one of the names and passed the sentinel unchallenged. We were marched to the boat and embarked for the trip. But an evil genius presided over my destiny that day.

I had been on the boat about half an hour, when I was startled by a call for me, and, looking up, I saw it proceeded from a Federal officer. It unfortunately happened that a couple of ladies from Baltimore came to the fort and asked for permission to see me, which was granted, and the officer

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