up, as did those who were posted; but as I was ill at the
time, my appetite was feeble.

Wilcox and I hurried to the kitchen, where we found several hundred men
struggling to be first at the opening in the fireplace. We took our
places behind them, and soon two hundred more closed us tightly in the
mass. The room was pitch-dark, and the sentinel could be seen through
the door-cracks, within a dozen feet of us. The fight for precedence was
savage, though no one spoke; but now and then fainting men begged to be
released. They begged in vain: certainly some of them must have been
permanently injured. For my own part, when I neared the stove I was
nearly suffocated; but I took heart when I saw but three more men
between me and the hole. At this moment a sound as of tramping feet was
heard, and some idiot on the outer edge of the mob startled us with the
cry, "The guards the guards!" A fearful panic ensued, and the entire
crowd bounded toward the stairway leading up to their sleeping-quarters.
The stairway was unbanistered, and some of the men were forced off the
edge and fell on those beneath. I was among the lightest in that crowd;
and when it broke and expanded I was taken off my feet, dashed to the
floor senseless, my head and one of my hands bruised and cut, and my
shoulder painfully injured by the boots of the men who rushed over me.
When I gathered my swimming wits I was lying in a pool of water. The
room seemed darker than before; and, to my grateful surprise, I was
alone. I was now convinced that it was a false alarm, and quickly
resolved to avail myself of the advantage of having the whole place to
myself. I entered the cavity feet first, but found it necessary to
remove my overcoat and push it through the opening, and it fell in the
darkness below.

I had now no comrade, having lost Wilcox in the stampede. Rose and his
party, being the first out, were several hours on their journey; and I
burned to be away, knowing well that my salvation depended on my passage
beyond the city defenses before the pursuing guards were on our trail,
when the inevitable discovery should come at roll-call. The fact that I
was alone I regretted; but I had served with McClellan in the Peninsula
campaign of 1862, I knew the country well from my frequent inspection of
war maps, and the friendly north star gave me my bearings. The
rope-ladder had either become broken or disarranged, but it afforded me
a short hold at the top; so I balanced