Show DIGGING fell experience or of a confederate fris oner in camp douglas in 1861 A correspondent 1 wr writing itilia his experiences peril perien acor ces of prison 1 life i to in in the war says 1 I 1 made mada my entry into camp douglas near chicago on the 3rd ard day ot january 1861 and I 1 may be pardoned for or the remark t that hat it t was a 4 cold day for me in in more senses than one two weeks previous to my debut in in chi chicago cago society I 1 was wai in arkansas uniformed in in the hop bop hazard fashion of the confederates of that period and when I 1 came to be rail u up p north borth and found the thermometer mome ter d down own to nine degrees below zero I 1 could hardly hold my teeth in in my Y head thero there were about COW prisoners iera in the stockade i which was wa simply a board fence twella feet bf high and they were provided with rough shanties shant iea and stoves A north orn ern man would havo have kept comfor comfortably tab ly warm in in the quarters qu artera but it was hard work for the prisoners t to 0 ke keep ii nn pers and toes away from jack J a I 1 k frost ir st indeed ibero were many of actual sulT suffering ering though t the he federal government made cudo the best be t arrange metals men Is possible the fhe brou trou trouble bl 9 wag a at the camp instead of at t washington a certain hour of f the evening all lights must be out and everybody in in bed slid and when the stoves grow grew col cold d the frost and wind drove into tile the shanties at a hundred there were only six of ua ila in the chanty to which I 1 was some soma held eight bight ton ten and twelve wo we were within seven feet of tho the fence and as we were all men from ono one regiment and all captured at the same timeto felt that we could trust ab other the edua of nu an escape cap was broached in february bu but t it w was the tha icah of april when the first re real a I 1 move was made the tha only sh show ow W waa to tunnel under the fence benca and an d come C out tit by night The agaard a guard 6 stationed on eleva elevated tej platforms platform i about the inclosure by day and at 13 light ight a chain of sentinels Bont inels walked regular regal ar beats outside the felice fe tice we calculated on a tunnel n not ot loss liess than thirty feet fee t long and it w was as begun be gun by b y taking up of the flooring in the back end of our oar shanty visits visita of in spec clion tion were field h eld twice per week but there was not A a day in which some official i was waa not liable to come poking abou arou around d the floor floorn of our sleepers clear el 0 ar 0 of the tha ground wo we managed to scatter beatter a quantity aro around und our house housa without exciting suspicion a and d the rest had bad to be accumulated during the n night ight and carried out in 01 our ir lockete poc keta kete it was slow work when WO we re reached ached that point and on two or three different lerent dif occasions occasion we came very near being exposed by officials dropping in on us there were several be V rainy dys days about the ii limo in we wore were under the forice fonca and for a week our tunnel was full of water W hen that soaked a away w s y we went at our work again and a n don on be albe morning morn i ng of the be of may the last man to era craw w fish out of the hole reported that our tunnel was well beyond the sentinels gont inela beat and ready for the breaking of the crust if we bod bad had the making of the weather we could not have planned for a better night it was dark and misty with every chance in our fa vor during the afternoon we drow drew lots I 1 to 0 seo see who should go first and it foil fell to me we had bad nothing to pack up and the whole six of us had only eighty cents centa in money between us it was planned that we should separate ac as soon as clear claar of the hole bole and each was to take care of a as best lo 10 could that was a long afternoon I 1 can tell you and even when w hen it wore away aud and night came wo we bad to wait many hours yet some wore for going at eleven and others at ono one but bat we finally moved tit nt 1115 1116 wo ye fastened the door ot of the shanty and crept into tho the tunnel ono one after the other and I 1 was VS soon tit nt the far end of it and digging di U upward 7 fird I 1 was hard at this ago 1 work y t when on I 1 felt the ground break ahr through 0 agh behind m me 0 some anna one uttered a yell y 0 ily and then came the cry corporal of tho the guard post no this was repeated several times find and pretty soon the corporal and a couple of guards from tho the relief relie far ar rived the ilo sentinel on oil the beat was a big bi heavy beavy marhad broken through into our tunnel and in in the fall bad broken his log leg while I 1 was held prisoner in in the bole the others crawled back knowing that the jig was up it did not take the corporal many to 9 discover the true state ot affairs and then I 1 was hauled out by the neck meek and mado made the butt of f ridicule when escorted back to the shanty slant y the five men were found fast asleep e p 11 but wera vera turn turned g a out and sent to the guard house to keep trio me company we were redu reduced q to halt half rations for thirty days teich but no further punishment was meted out to us its |