In the fall of 1862, while camped at Nashville, Tenn., Company C went out on a scouting expedition, with Lieut. Shaw in command. John Houston, Giles Hodge, Frank Fuller, and George W. Westgate were advance guard. They were traveling on a piked road, covered with a gray dust, and their uniforms became covered with it. So much so, that on approaching two Confederates, who were on outpost picket, they allowed our boys to ride very near to them, thinking they were their own men; and the two Confederates were made prisoners, and were left with the company.
The boys again advanced, across to another pike which led back toward Nashville. They saw ten Confederates in front of them, pursued them and captured one, and left him in charge of Houston. They followed the other nine men until they were cornered in a pasture, surrounded by a high board fence. Hodge was left at the gate, while Fuller and Westgate with excited horses, uncontrollable, advanced into the pasture in close proximity to the Confederates, who were busily engaged in tearing down the fence, in order to make their escape. Westgate was unable to stop or guide his horse, which was carrying him in the direction of the enemy. To save himself from becoming a prisoner or being killed, he jumped from his horse, throwing all his weight on the left rein, which caused the horse to whirl half way around. Just at that moment one of the enemy fired at Westgate, two buckshot striking him in the hip. His horse ran to the gate, where Hodge caught it. In the meantime Fuller opened fire with his carbine. It seems that the buckshot riled Westgate’s temper; because, after his horse left him he retreated backwards, loading and firing his carbine as fast as possible at the enemy, until they got the fence down and escaped. What undoubtedly saved the boys from capture was that the Confederates momentarily expected Westgate, Fuller, and Hodge to be reinforced by the company.
When camped near Memphis, Tenn., in 1864, a portion of our regiment went out on a scouting expedition and was out all night. In the morning, Albert Scudder, Rube Lewis, Daniel Towner, and George W. Westgate, received permission to take a little scout of their own to get a square meal. They were only partly successful. Each got a ham and decided to go back to camp. As they were riding on a pike across some bottom land, at the edge of which was a large bridge between them and camp, Scudder and Lewis being about ten rods in advance of Westgate and Towner, without warning eight or ten Confederates rose up out of the brush with their guns pointed at Scudder and Lewis, and within a few yards of them, demanding their surrender, to which they reluctantly assented. Westgate and Towner immediately realized their critical situation and started for the bridge; but when nearing the Confeds, and seeing almost certain death staring them in the face, they wheeled so quickly that they imagined they could hear their horses’ tails snap like a whip, and retreated with such tremendous speed, that they were almost unable to distinguish objects along the wayside. They were obliged to retreat through a country infested with bushwhackers, encountering several squads of them before reaching camp. They finally reached camp, themselves and horses thoroughly exhausted, and I believe that the report came that the boys through all their narrow escapes, clung to the hams which they had purchased, until they arrived safely in camp. It was also reported that they intimated their willingness to avoid looking after square meals in the enemy’s country for some time to come. Scudder and Lewis were taken to the prison pen, poor fellows. Scudder returned from prison with health ruined, did not enjoy a day’s good health afterward, and died in the winter of 1905. Lewis returned with broken health also.
At the Battle of Stone River.
On the morning of Dec. 31, 1862, Lieut. Simmons, of Gen. Palmer’s staff, and George W. Westgate, of Company C, were sent on an errand by the General, and when they returned and reported, the enemy’s sharpshooters opened on them, and Westgate was shot through the right arm, which laid him up during several months. He was ordered to the hospital. Soon after this Lieut. Simmons was wounded by a piece of shell, breaking several of his ribs. A few days later Simmons and Westgate received permission to go to their homes in Illinois. They started down the Cumberland River on a steamer, and after passing some distance down stream, the boat was captured by the Confederate General Wheeler’s cavalry. Simmons and Westgate, with others, were ordered by the Confederates to leave the boat and it was destroyed by fire. The wounded, including Simmons and Westgate, were then transferred to another boat loaded with wounded on their way north. Westgate remained at home until his wound healed, then returned to his company, which was escort for Gen. Palmer. Westgate afterward participated with us in the battle of Chickamauga, and other engagements.
CHAPTER XVII.
The following is a letter written by the Ohio boy who occupied a small tent with William Herrick, and the author of this narrative, in the convalescent camp at Danville Prison:
Columbus, Ohio, August 26, 1864.
My Friend Eby:—
I was very glad to receive a letter from you, for I had come to the conclusion that you must be in rebeldom yet, as I could hear nothing from you, but here it is at last. As I know how liberty feels by this time, I can heartily congratulate you upon your relief from rebel tyranny.
Since you request me to give a history of my escape, I am obliged to use a foolscap sheet, and after it is full the half is not told. I was sick for two or three weeks after you left; recovering very slowly, and was quite weak when I attempted to execute your plan of informal exchange. I started in company with another Ohio boy, with whom I became acquainted while convalescent together, from Danville smallpox hospital, on the night of the 15th of February, for the Yankee lines. We received five days’ rations from the steward, and consequently had plenty to eat without calling on rebs, until we had got quite out of reach of Danville guards. We traveled southward, toward Newburn, N. C., thinking that route more unguarded than the course you took. We passed within five miles of Raleigh; flanked Goldsboro and Kingston, and succeeded in getting down within six miles of our lines at Newburn, when we were captured by rebel cavalry pickets while trying to get something to eat at a darkey hut.
We doubtless would have got through, if we had not unfortunately gone inside a terrible swamp, to get outside of which we were compelled to beat a retreat. We were in the swamp two days and one night, and came near starving. We afterward learned that it was ten miles wide, by twenty long, and was a rendezvous for wild beasts. We were treated very kindly by the guards, but unmercifully by the officers. We were sent to Wilmington, N. C., where we were ensconced in an old speculator’s slave dungeon two days, and were then sent to Salisbury, N. C., and thrown into a prison where were about a thousand men, consisting of rebel conscripts who would not fight, Yankee hostages, and Union citizens who had been taken by Lee in Maryland and Pennsylvania. While at Salisbury I became acquainted with two young men, belonging to the Potomac army, who had also endeavored to make their escape, but were recaptured after a tedious march of 150 miles somewhere in the region of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We hitched teams at once, and commenced digging tunnels, but all to no purpose—for after digging three tunnels from eight to twenty rods in length, we were obliged to abandon the idea of ever getting out in that way, as they began to make daily searches for tunnels.
We had been at Salisbury about two months when they notified the regular prisoners of war that they must be ready for transportation to Georgia at any moment. We immediately provided ourselves with a caseknife, filed teeth in the back of it, and prepared to make our escape while en route for Georgia. We were put on the train about 6 o’clock, the 27th of May, in box or freight cars as usual, with four guards in each car. The car we were in luckily had windows, or holes for them, near the ends, and so saved us the trouble of sawing out. We jumped out of the window in quick succession as soon as it was cleverly dark, not far from Charlotte, without either of us receiving any serious injury. The cars were running at the rate of about twenty miles an hour—in fact that was about the only time we could jump without being seen by the guards. I jumped last, and the cars were running on a grade of twelve or fifteen feet in height which caused me to make several revolutions before I came to solid earth. I soon gathered up my loose property, comprising blanket, haversack, and walking stick, but the other two boys were on hand—and after a jolly laugh over the whole affair, and a consultation as to the route to take, we set out for the land of the living again—resolved to fight to the bitter end, rather than be captured again. We traveled by starlight altogether, and slept by sunlight. We usually called at a house between dark and bedtime for something to eat. We succeeded very well in imposing upon the credulity of secesh, and passed for rebel prisoners who had been in the Yankee lines so long that they had given us clothes to cover our nudity. We stole some, begged some, and traded everything away for eatables, and finally came into our lines at Strawberry Plains, Tenn., after traveling in eighteen days over 320 miles.
I tell you, Henry, it was an eventful era to us, replete with amusing incidents, hairbreadth escapes, and dangerous expedients. I should like to see you and give you a verbal relation of some funny things. We were all very much worn out when we came into our lines—but we found a home and thanked Providence for his goodness.
The boys were from the State of Michigan and one of them found his brother in the 10th Michigan Cavalry, then at that place. We of course stopped to visit with him. The other, and myself, reported at Knoxville, and were sent to Chattanooga, where I received a furlough from Gen. Thomas and came home, he getting transportation for Detroit City. I have had a good time at home since I got able to enjoy myself. After my furlough expired I reported at this hospital, where I am on duty in the dispensary. I do not know whether I shall go to the regiment or not, probably not. My health is good, and I am fat. This is not rebel treatment—Oh, Henry, I am obliged to you for those eatables you left me. I think I should not have recovered so soon without them. You have the thanks of our whole family. If you should hear from Dr. Davis, please let me know, and give me his address, and give him my regards. I had a gay time with the girls, as you may suppose. (Aside) I came very near being eat up. I have just read a memorial from the prisoners, to the President, setting forth their sufferings. They are analogous to those we endured at Richmond, etc. Please favor me with another letter, and oblige,
Yours respectfully,
Calvin W. Hudson, Co. D, 65th Ohio.Address Seminary Hospital, Ward 4, Columbus, Ohio.
H. H. Eby, Esq.
