Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1912 — CAMP FIRE STORIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAMP FIRE STORIES

SLEEPER TELLS OF RELEASE BomrtambuHst Foretells Removal of Many Union Prisoners From Prieon at Cahabs. Release of a large number of prisoners ficpm the cotton warehouse prison at Cfthaba, Ala., was foretold by a sleeping northerner in the bearing of several of his fellow prisoners, according to L. Q. Jeffries, who received his freedom twp weeks before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Mr. Jeffriea account of the weird happening is giv--Wtr'jpre as he himself has-written it; after telling of earlier experience* at Cahaba.; “The Alabama river overflowed and the water became of the average depth of one foot in the prison, and in one end it was waist deep. We stayed! in this water for eight days, because all available boats were used in transporting Confederate troops to rlinforee. Mobile. “Sevep[ of us formed a mess. We were known as the hymn-singing mess, and a few times we were aroused by a guard from our sleep on the ground: in the corner where the water became the deepest to sing to him. This we did to the annoyance of others thereby awakened, who told us to shut up.“Harrison of our mess was in a way a somnambulist, because of our surroundings, and he kept us awake almost nightly by imagining he commanded a battery- He would square; himself around and at his command, ‘Fire-T would kick ns in the back. We: had tor sleep 'spoon fashion' so that; one gray blanket might cover ns ail, but when Harrison 'walked’ he had; -the 1 -—=• “One day a black-ringed dove gained an entrance through the roof ventilator end perched itself on the: beams. One of the guards said he

was going to shoot it. Some of the prisoners threatened to hurt him if be did, and so the next day all loose stones were picked up and taken away. That night Harrison had another ‘walk,’ bn*, be waa decent about it that time. He got us all awake. I lay next to him and got a bard kick in the back. Quieting down, he began to mutter and then to talk, saying, ‘Pretty birdie! Got a letter—and for me?’ His hands moved as if receiving and opeidng a letter. ‘Written to blood! In six days you wBl he out of bondage/ He sighed, turned over and was soon asleep, and so were we. “Ten days afterward we were out of that prison and on our way to God'e country to Union lines. We were taken by boats to the barracks at Selma, from there by train and boats to Jackson, Mias., and on foot through Black Riven swamp in a heavy rain and heavy thunderstorm, wading deep water for live miles across Black river on a pontoon bridge, then by train to Camp Flake, 16 miles from Vicksbnrg, where were 5,000 paroled Union prisoners guarded by United States colotdd troops. “Several years ago in tbe west I told this dove story to an audience at a state encampment of the Grand Army. A few weeks tstor I received s postal card from a comrade who had . beard me toll it, saying, *Say, that’s a good dove story, all right/ Fa a pretty good liar myself and I can’t beat It' I was there. I saw toe dove with toe black ring around its neck, aw the sleeper and heard his words and was on mr way to freedom ton days later. lCsrdh 21, 1865.”

“We Were Known as the Hymn-Sing-ing Mess."