to
Sandusky, whence he wended his stealthy flight. Colonel B. L. Farinholt,
of Virginia, got away in a very artful manner, an account of which has
been published. In January, 1865, when the thermometer registered 15 deg.
below zero and an arctic northwest wind was blowing furiously Captain
Stakes took me aside and told me in whispers that he and five others
were going out that night, and that they had agreed that I might go with
them. I answered that if the Yankees were to throw open all the gates
and grant permission, I would not in my feeble health and with clothes
so insufficient, depart in such bitter weather. When the hour came those
six men rushed to the wall, and setting up against it a bench, on which
rungs had been nailed, climbed over. They were not shot at, perhaps
because the sentries, not expecting such an attempt, had taken refuge
from the cold in their boxes. On the thick ice that begirt the island
they crossed over on the north side and gained the mainland. Captain
Robinson, of Westmoreland, and three others with him, hiding in the
daytime and traveling at night, after enduring many hardships arrived in
Canada, where they were clothed and fed and supplied with money. Taking
shipping at Halifax, they ran the blockade and landed in Wilmington,
North Carolina. One of the six men was recaptured by a detective on a
train in New York. My friend Stakes was overtaken the next morning and
brought back so badly frostbitten that it became necessary to amputate
parts of some of his fingers.

By some means, I know not how, information was received in the prison
that certain agents of the Confederate government in Canada would come
to the island in steamboats captured on Lake Erie to release the
prisoners. It was agreed that when they approached and blew a horn the
prisoners would storm the walls and overpower the guards. We, therefore,
organized ourselves into companies and regiments and waited anxiously
for the sight of the boats and the sound of the horn. Though we had no
arms, except such as the rage of the moment might supply, and did not
doubt that some of us would be killed, we were ready to fulfil our part
of the desperate contract; and we felt no doubt of success, for the
Hoffman Battalion that composed our guard had never been in battle nor
heard the rebel yell. The expected rescuers never came. There must have
been some real foundation for the proposed movement, for very soon the
guard was reinforced by a v