BOOK ' II HOW I FLED FROM HER. CHAPTER IX.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 394, 17 August 1889, Page 6

BOOK ' II HOW I FLED FROM HER. CHAPTER IX.

TJIJL NKliiT ATTACK. T had hardly reached the prison again,, when Bee came to see' me, and said : ' You are very foolish in this matter. Bryant. Change your mind, and even at this moment I will try to make your fato a better one. There is some strong influence working against you, otherwise you would probably have been meroly imprisoned here ; but unless you consent to the terms oilored you, there is no doubt that in a day or two you will be working on some of those sand batteries down the bay along with a gang of negroes. They talk of the yellow fever coming hero this summer. You will lead the life of a slave. Unaccustomed -as you aro to hardship, 1 hardly think, old boy, that you will ever see your sweotheait again. For God's sako, take my advice ; I mean ib for your good.' l 'No,' l replied, for I had grown dogged ' in this matter. 'Under no. circumstances will I take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate Government !' ' Very well,' he said ; ' you have made your bed, and it is a hard one.' Ho wrung my hand and left me. That evening i discovered, by the change in my treatment, what was to be my fate. , I was again removed to the fourth floor of the building, which, even at this season of the year, was growing very hot and unpleasant. Despite my my clothes v were removed, my money taken rrom me, and I was clad in the stripes of a convict. My rations were cut down to simple cornmeal, and I began to experience the bitterness and hopelessness of my fate. The next morning I was hurried off with two or three more Confederate prisoners. — tho very scum ,o£ ,tho prison, who had been sentenced for dastardly crimes against • sacial law — not the military ofl'enco3 of soldiers — and sent to join a gang of negroes who were working upon the .fortifications i being hastily erected on tho sandy island' named Morris, defended and dominated at, that timo by the Confederate Battery Wagnor. As we were marched ignominiously down to the tugboat, some of the more desperate of us being ironed, , the contemptuous glances of the people in the streets of Charleston showed mo that 1 now was regarded 'as a. criminal. Tho treatment of the guard as they hustled- us into the little tug-boat indicated that they regarded me as one of the class among whom I was placed ; not a soldier, not even a civilian, but simply a convict. I was very glad when, a few moments after, the tug left her dock and took me away from the people who, attracted by (furiosity, gazed "at us. It is very difficult to feel like a hero in the dress of a felon. I was becoming ashamed. We ran down the harbour, passing the old-fashioned, ineffective Castle Pickney to the left, then Battery Ripley, and, gliding along the south shore near Fort Johnston, passed between Battei'y ("Jreigand the grim walls of Fort Sumter, which still frowned defiance, though somewhat shattered by the bombardment of 'Union monitors. A few moments alter, rounding Cummings' Point, we ran down the shore of Morris Island, and landed at Fort Warner. Here the Confederates needed not only rifles, but .shovels. We were to work the shovels. This island is about three miles in length, and runs from Battery Greig on the north to a creek or estuary on the south which separates it from Folly Island. This inlet is of sufficient size and depth to be impassable to an attacking 5 party, unless in boats and protected by armed vessels. Morris Island has a varying width of from several hundred yards to perhaps a mile, but toward the west runs into a mass of creeks and marshes impracticable for the movement of troops. The ocean side of the island is composed of numbers of sandhills or dunes of varying size, some of them forty, pr fifty feet in height, perhaps more. These are all white, glistening, flinty, burning sand, except where covered by scrubby trees. The topography of Folly Island, at that time occupied by the Federal forces, is of the samo general character. On landing, we were marched, or rather driven, to the southern end of the island, whoro we were placed at work upon some light batteries that were being prepared hurriedly for Confederate guns. Here, under a brilliant southern sun, the glistening sand became during the day hot as the fiiirfaco of a wintor stovo. The nights, fortunately, in this latter part of April, were cooler, and cave us sotno relief. . But as summer came on, even these grew hot. From the timo we landed, our lives became a fearful drudgery which was ne\ er suffored to relax ; during the day, filling sand bags and throwing up embankments ; by night, fighting sand fleas for rest, slumber and forgetfulness. Our rations — corn meal and rancid bacon — were such that had I not been absolutely driven to ib by starvation, I could not have eaten a mouthful. As day after day passed, all this became a frightful, driving monotony. The Confederate officers, forced to haste in the erection of their batteries by the. evident preparations that were being made on Folly Island to attack them, drove us harder and harder in our labour. These men did not sparo their own muscles and their own blood ; then why should they spare us convicts and slaves ? The summer advanced. Tho nights and days became hotter and hotter, the labour more ciuel and unremitting, our rations smaller and more nauseating. Morris Island was now a purgatory. Then came the Federal attack, and thus purgatory became a hell. We were shot at from the Union batteries upon Folly Island. The little blood left in our poor, half-naked bodies by the swarms of voracious mosquitoes was drained from us by bursting Federal shells. When first upon the island, in the day there was only time for labour, but at night I used to think of the woman I . loved. Afterward, the dull monotony of passive . misory seemed to take possession of me. I thought of nothing but of keeping alive till I escaped. I began to look longingly at the United States flag floating scarcely a mile from me, but what a mile ! — a few hundred yards of white. sand, a deep inlet a . quarter of a mile wide, and more uncovered sand to that Federal flag. A thousand to ' I one I would bo shot before I reached even | the inlet. Notwithstanding the desperate

nature of the enterprise 1 believe, I should have attempted ib at night, -had not about this time the increased rapidity with which we were worked drivenall else but the desire for rest from my mind when permitted respite from a toil that now became utterly, 'exhaustive. The activity on Folly Island indicated that the Confederates were right in hurrying their preparations for defence. One night — I cannot be exactly sure as to the exact time, because [ had failed in my misery to count the days or take record of the months — one burning hot night we heard the sound of the chopping of a thousand axes on Folly Island. In spite of the shelling of the Confederate batteries, this Eound continued all night, and the next morning it seemed as though a magician's wand had waved. The woods in our front across the inlet were all cut down, uncovering to us a long line of Federal batteries, crowned with artillery and 1 heavily manned. Between these and the Confederates an immedialo cannonade began, which continued at intervals for nearly a week. r At the end of this time four low, blacklooking vessels^ each ,one Bearing upon its ' deck a single black turret, appeared off the bar. 1 had never betove seen any ships i like them, but i knew they were monitors. The fortifications were now as nearly com- ! plete as they could bo made under the heavy fire of the Federal troops, andwe of the shovel were all marched up the island to give place to those who used the' musket, in the form of grey Confederate infantry. As we entered the bombproofs of Fort Wagner, I could see the monitors steaming in over the bar and taking up a position north of the southern ' portion of Morris Island. The next moment a tremendous bombardment began. Long lines of barges, towed by steam launches or propelled by oars, shot out from Folly Island, carrying some thousands of troops. Despite the' Confederate fire, which cut lanes in their blue ranks, these wore landed and formed upon the sandy beach. This cannonade continued while we were driven aloncr tho island to Fort Greig, then into boats, and ferried over like cattle to grim old Sumter, to work on its fortifications, now beginning to disintegrate under the Union guns. As we entered the fort, I gazed at Morris Island. The flag of the United States was Hying at its southern end, over the batteries upon which I had been working the day before. The Federal forces had now to accomplish the most difficult portion of their work, that was the capture ' of Fort Wagner. Their ironclads steamed in, and for thirty days and nights rained the largest projectiles in uso at that time upon both Sam tor and this sand battery that barred their passage to Charleston. During this time, in Sumter, the same grinding toil fell upon us. We laboured like cattle, dismounting 1 and removing guna, filling up rents and fissures in the fort's granite walls with their very debris knocked about us by Federal cannon — all *this under a fire that was simply infernal. , Like the galley slaves of old, we toiled and died without the reward of soldiers' gallantry or the honour of soldiers' deaths. Wo had ten times the discomforts and twice the danger of the trbops in the garrison, If there was a scarcity of provisions, whose rations were cut>. , down ? The convicts'. Were the bombproofs full, for whom was there no shelter" from • Federal shot and shell ? The negroes and criminals. By this time, misery had made me scarcely human. This continued for some thirty or forty days, when one morning I saw the Confederate flag was not flying upon Wagner which, lay in full view from Sumter across', the channel. Half an hour afterward the stripes and stars were hoisted upon it, and I knew the southerners had evacuated Morris Island. All this I looked upon with listless interest, until I chanced to hear a conversation between two Confederate officers^ One said : ' Since the Yankee army, has got Wagner, I reckon the Yankee fleet will try to get us. ' 'Then,' replied the other, 'if they are fools enough for that, we'll get them ! How do you imagine they'll try it ?' ' Boat 3, of course V muttered the other ; and then he cried : ' Look out ! That was a nasty one !' as a shell from one of the monitors knocked over a ton of granite from the crumbling wall upon a working party on the fort. Under this lump of stone, as they walked away, I could see two or three writhing bodies. words had set my brain going again. Lf the Federal boats made an at-* tack, even if driven off, I mighb climb out of one of the casemates, and perhaps escape with them — if they captured Sumter, I was free any way. I began tb look round mo and see what the chances of success were. The preparations made for the defence again&tsuch an attempt made me know it could not succeed. The fort had been battered into crumbling ruins. No heavy guns upon its battlements were in condition to be fired ; but in these were bombproofs impregnable to either bombardment or assault. The crumbling walls could still support light field-pieces. These, loaded with grape and canister, were so placed as to sweep with a cross-fire the various faces of the fort. Hand-grenades were piled about in convenient places. The fow companies of artillery that had garrisoned the fort during its bombardment had been replaced by some of Colquitt'.s Georgia infantry. Muskets, not cannons, were co be the weapons now used in Fort Sumter. I continued my observations, and as tho officers appeared to regard me more as a machine than a man, discovered from their conversation that upon a signal the batteries of Johnston, Moultrie, and Sullivan's Island had all been trained to sweep the faces of Port Sumter, the direction and elevation of their guns marked and noted so that they could fire with the same accuracy of range at night as by day. In this fire no boat attack could succeed. I therefore made my arrangements to join the Federal launches in their inevitable retreat. For this purpose I selected a brokendown embrasure, the rubbish from which ran in a gradual slope to the water. Ib was easy of ascent as well as "descent, and would be sure to tempt some of the officers of the attacking party to try a landing. I noted that no gun could easily be trained upon it. Through this embrasure I would join the Union boats. This being settled, I fell to waiting for the night that I hoped would give me liberty. Notwithstanding the desperate fatigue and labour of the day, I lay awako, all the night after I had heard this conversation, looking for the Union boats ; but nothing came 3ave an occasional shot from their monitors. The next day I could see something was expected to take place. The hurried manner in which we were worked, filling hand-grenades and placing bags of sand about many of the embrasures of the fort, in order to prevent musket-balls or grape shot from the Federal launches entering them, all told this. As the evening drew on, the night became dark. Th^n the hail from boats coming down Charleston harbour was heard, and a reinforcement of some hundred more of Colquitt's Georgians came

into the forb accompanied ■ by officers who had volunteered for this'mght's particular service. Among them, I thought I heard the voice of .my frie'nd'Bee', -but was unabld to communicate wifch'himyt as immediately after bhis we convicts, .-together with such negroes as were in the tort, were marched under fguard t>O;» dis T tanb portion of the works. •>,■ „ " }-,'.' All this told me that .some^'meSSns"' General Beauregard, who .commanded tho' fortifications of Charleston, wap a,ware th'ab^ this night had been , selected for the: boat'"' attack. , , , , Sneaking past the guard, who was now, <» intent only upon noises coming from -the" sea, I crawled to the embrasure I , had . selected, and looked out over the surface-of , the water. Nothing was to be seen save a few sparks of fire ascending lazily jlnto the . air some miles out to sea from the smokestack of one of the Federal vessels, and the low, black hull of a Confederate, jron-,clad that moved slowly past me to*take apoaitionVsome half-mile away, where her guns qcmld * cover one of the angles of „the fortification/ "* Despite my fatigue, the excitemenfr* v lcepb, my eyes from closing. ( \ waited «and" watched, for all of three fyours, irab^abQufcf : this time, overcome by lack of Ssleep, ,my/,~ eyes closed, and I fell into- ai: .-uneasy . slumber. ' • ' i.Uw ]"S From this anoise that seemed t^,sbatte.r my oars awakened me. ' ,The lighfyguns tol* the fort had been discharged, and a rolling" fire of musketry was pelting bullets |hrQ£»gh . 'the darkness into the water ,for a hundredyards or more from the base of th,Wfort. Suddenly a single rocket went into th'e^alf.... The next instant the faces and angles 1 of the;, fort were swept by every projectile kno\yn to modern.'waifare. , The Confederate-.guns lon' Sullivan's Island had opened o$ us,', followed immediately by Ripley, Johnston and the Confederate iron-clads. Cinder our bombproofs the garrison was safe. " Heaven defend the Union boats outside I The water for several hundred yards about became a mass of foam under -the burst shells and solid shot that ploughed it up. Then, by the light of an exploding bomb, for the first time I discovered the Federal boats dashing towards us in several divisions. As they entered the fire, someof the barges sank, the screams of their drowning crews, arising over the babel of sound. Pelted by # mueketry, ploughed ujp by cannon shot,, detachments, otfchese boats with a cheer pulled for the. attack. One division headed by a young officer came straight for - the embrasure froni which I was looking, favouring the sand-" bags that protected me with a "volley. - j As they approached, hand-grenades were •_ thrown upon them from the fort. The Federal officer cried : ' That casemate is our best chance. Give way, men !' They forced their -boasts up on, the scrap and debris at the foot of lhy embrasure. As they leaped on shore a solid shot from Moultrie crashed through one barge and a bursting hand-grenade tore up the bottom , of another. I sprang out to join, them, ' and, -as I did so, a bullet from the officer's revolver grayed my hand. The .r\ext instant the boats that were.,'fqllowing him, were either destroyed or else.r.etre.a.ted oub to sea. .'. ', 'V •'.- ' A dropping- musketry fire from bhe'bafftleinenbs above struck -dpvra; seyeral 1 -of ( the sailors .and marines^ abaUt him..- "!Thelaunches- bhat were following retreated s jrn.to,' the darkness. The young officer lQokedafc his sinking boats, . aud saw that • there was no chance for success. J -wa6 aboat^o. beg him to retreat, and to tell him I wou£d join him, when to my horror and astonishment, he handed me his sword and cried : t / Tell your men to cease firing ! I am here unsupported.' To save my men, I surrender to you. 5 '" ;: * Stunned by, disappointment, I ldoked'ajP the white tianclker chief , one of the "sailors was waving, and saw the boats; iti .which 1 the Federals had come #nk into deep rwater by tKe. scarp of 1 * the >fort. . The;or,der to. cease firing was given , above,;, a^- detach-?' ment of Confederate infantry appeared, abV the e,Ea erasure," headed by my friend. Bee." He criJed out : ' The only way save our prisoners' lives is to take the'iii into the fort !' For the shot from 'Moultrie and- the Confederate batteries /around the harbour still hailed upoa "the outside of Sumter,' I came up first. As the Federal lieutenant was dragged into the embrasure with hismen, he said "do Bee : l I cannot give you my. sword, as J have already, surrendered ib to one of your men, av ery gallant fellow who attacked us single : h.anded j.butjf-lhad . had support froni the' rest" "of thejaoafcs— ' curse 'em !—l'd! — I'd have fought : my, way into, that embrasure •"* "'' The next instant Bee in the darkness' * 'dragged me along to the commanding officer to receive a reward- for Iny gallantry." Almost the first thing I recollect this was standing>in a circle" of Confederates* and hearing Bee say : ' This is the man who, single-handed, attacked. the Federal' 1 boat's crew !' /•.;•' Then an astonished laugh, cam.c.to my ears, the commanding officer sayipg^: 'By the Lord ! it's a convicb tjbat has done all this ! Gallantry's contagious. Some of our slaves will soon be capturing a Yankee regiment !' Though Bee took a good look at me upon this speech, still he did nob reqognise me. I said : ' Colonel Bee, lam a .convict, but, you know, nob a criminal, though compelled to labour here as one.' Then I turned and walked sullonly away, and joined the gang of slaves and convicts ; for the crue"! disappointment of the night had almost maddened me. I hated everyone who wore the Confederate uniform. • - Half an hour afterward one of the guard s touched me on the shoulder, and , said • ' Colonel Bee wishes to speak" to you.' I followed him, and foUnd'bhe gallani Georgian about to re-embark in one of the boats bhat were taking back a portion!' "of the troops to Charleston. 1 He took me aside, and said : , ' Did you really attack the Federal sailors ? Do you now intend to join us ? If so, I can report this to the conarnandihg officer, and, I think, under the circumstances, have your sentence revoked.' ' Does this imply my taking tlid oath of allegiance, and joining the Confederate army?' . " ' ' Certainly. ' 4 Then I must refused • You had better reconsider. Your lob here is a hard one, for, Heaven knows ! I would hardly recognise you — you are so terribly changed V 1 You need not take any trouble on my account,' 1 said. 'I do nob intend to join you. I did not attack the United States sailors. I went to join them, and to attack, you, but to my disappointment, they surrendered to me.' * Very well,' 3aid Bee, curtly, after a little laugh.^ 'If you won't help yourself, I can do nothing more for you !' He turned and walked to the "boat, never looking back. I could see that my sullen manner had irritated the man who had. tried, to be my friend as far as circumstances permitted him. Then the guard took me again to the wretched hole in which we convicts and slaves were herded. I lay down, brokon in mind, broken in body, broken in heart.. The chance [ had longed for, and planned for, had failed me. I was still a prisoner, doomed to slave in a Confederate forb. ( To be continued. ) o •