“Near the foot of this tower,” said General S——, “was a small mountain of offal,—fragments of food, old bones, and the like, thrown out from the prison; a horrible heap,—all a moving mass of maggots,—left to engender disease. Luckily for us, the men on guard were made sick by it, and it was finally removed.
“The officer who had control of the prison has been appointed United States Marshal for the State of South Carolina, for his kindness to us,” he continued. “It is strange I never heard of his kindness when I was here. We were not whipped like the negroes; but in other respects our treatment was no better than they received. Out of curiosity I once measured my rations for ten days, and counted just fifty-five spoonfuls,—five and a half spoonfuls a day!
“I believe the prisoners at the Roper Hospital were treated very well. They had the run of the garden, and the privilege of trading with the negroes through the fence. But those who went there took an oath not to try to get away. I could have gone there, if I would have consented to take such an oath. But I wouldn’t sell the hope of escaping at any price.
“I hadn’t been here a week before we had three schemes on foot for getting out. One was to cut through a board in the yard fence; but we found we were watched too closely for that. Another was to make a tunnel to the sewer in the street in front of the prison, as I will show you.”
Descending the tower, he took me to an iron grating that covered a dark cavity in the ground under one of the prison passages.
“Here is a large cistern, which we had exhausted of its contents. One day I pulled up this grate, dropped down into the hole, lighted a candle which I had in my pocket, and made an exploration. On coming out I gave a favorable report, and that night we went to digging. We tunnelled first through the cistern wall, then through the foundation wall of the prison, and got into the sand under the street. We half filled the old cistern with the stones and dirt we dug out with sticks, old bones, and any bits of iron we could lay our hands on. We worked like rats. Two or three of us were constantly in the tunnel, while others kept watch above. A friend outside had given us information with regard to the position of the sewer; we had already struck it, and the next night we should have got into it, and into the street beyond the prison guard, when once more we were betrayed by the same Kentuckian who exposed our scheme at Macon. This time we found him out, and he had to be removed from the prison to save his life.
“We had our third and great plan in reserve.
“There were at that time six hundred prisoners in the Work-House, three hundred in the City Jail adjoining, and one thousand in the Roper and Marine Hospitals, within an arrow’s shot. These were officers. At the Race-Course prison, on the outskirts of the town, there were four thousand enlisted men. Our guard, here at the Work-House, consisted of three reliefs of thirty-three men each. They were mere militia, that had never seen service. Old soldiers like us were not afraid of such fellows; and we knew that if we made a demonstration they would be afraid of us. Our plan was, for two prisoners, at a given signal, to leap on the back of each one of the guard in the prison, and disarm him. Possibly some of us might get hurt, but we were pretty sure of success. Then, with the arms thus secured, we could easily capture the second relief guard as it marched in. Then we were to rush out immediately and seize the third relief. This would give us ninety-nine guns. With these we were to march directly upon the arsenal, capture it, and provide ourselves with all the arms and ammunition we needed. Then to release the thirteen hundred officers at the jail and hospitals, and the four thousand privates at the Race-Course, would have been easy; and we should have had a force of near six thousand men. With these, the city would have been in our power.
“Our plan then was, to set fires clear across it, from river to river, to make a barricade of burning buildings against the Rebel artillery that would have been coming down to look after us. Of course the panic and confusion of the citizens would have been extreme, and the military would hardly have known what we were about; while our plans were laid with mathematical precision. Our friend outside had smuggled in to us, done up in balls of bread, a map of Charleston, with complete explanations of every point about which we needed information; and through him we had communicated with our friends on Morris Island. We were to seize the shipping, capture the water-batteries, and hold the lower part of the town until our friends, under cover of a furious bombardment, could come to our assistance. My whole heart was in this scheme, and the time was set for its execution. The very day before the day appointed, I was exchanged, together with the principal leaders in it. To be let out just on the eve of what promised to be such a brilliant exploit, was almost a disappointment.”
“I am still interested to know-one thing,” I said. “Have you ever heard from the Rebel who gave you the citizen’s dress?”