ollowed us ten miles. They said
that until they found that authorization paper upon me they did not
believe that we were Yankees, but supposed we were deserters from the
Confederate army, who were trying to make our escape into the Tennessee
border.

CHAPTER XXI.

PLACED IN AN IRON CAGE--BREAKING OUT AND ATTEMPTING TO DIG THROUGH A BRICK
WALL--AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE.

The next morning, we were all marched into a room on the opposite side of
the hall, and to the south side of the jail, and were placed in an iron
cage, made of flat bars two inches wide, and half an inch thick, firmly
riveted together, and as I told the Sergeant, although we could not wear
diamonds, we could look through them. We were packed into this cage like
sardines in a box, scarcely having room to move. There were iron benches
along the sides for us to sit upon, but lying down was quite out of the
question.

When all was quiet that night, we thought as we could not sleep we would
try and get out.

The door was fastened with a round iron prop that fitted into a socket in
the floor, and was fastened to the door by a padlock. This prop we
wrenched from its fastenings by reaching out through the diamond in the
door, and then with it broke the lock, and the iron door swung back,
giving us free egress to the room. The cage was about twenty feet long
and eight feet wide, with a partition in the centre. This cage set in the
middle of the room, and was about six feet from the walls of the room on
all sides. With the bar thus wrenched off, we at once attacked the brick
wall, and while some detached the brick, others held a blanket underneath
to prevent the falling brick and mortar from falling to the floor, as they
would make a noise that would attract the attention of those beneath us.
We had made an opening nearly halfway through the outer wall, which was
large enough for a good sized man to pass out, when most unexpectedly two
more prisoners were brought in, and our operations were discovered, and
the attempt to escape was again frustrated.

A guard was then placed in the room, and as we could not sleep, we spent
the night in singing "Rally 'Round the Flag," and other Union songs, and
chaffing with the guard, who were nearly all, more or less, tinctured with
Union sentiments, and only kept us from escaping, for fear of the
consequence to themselves. Morning came and with it an order to get ready
to go to Danville, Va.

I told the officer th