One by one the Confederates advanced and deposited their arms as commanded. This being concluded, Captain Abbey was ordered to form the enemy into columns of fours and march them to the highway beyond the swamp. The second company took charge of the horses, of which there proved to be forty-seven all told. Four were found to be in a pitiable condition, and these the major ordered shot, to put them out of their misery.
"Well, Major, we have made a fine capture truly," remarked Captain Blenks, of the second company, after reporting that at least thirty of the horses were thoroughbreds. "Those animals alone are worth twelve or fifteen thousand dollars."
"Where are the three prisoners the Confederates were holding?"
"I haven't heard of them."
Without delay Deck summoned the leader of the captured crowd before him.
"I want to know something about the three prisoners you had with you," he said.
"They got away from us last night."
"You are telling me the truth?"
"Yes, Major. We had a traitor among us—a lad from Kentucky named Feswell. He untied 'em, and the hull four skipped in the darkness."
Unwilling to believe the fellow, who looked the rascal in his face, Deck waited until daylight, and then sent a detail to search the swamp from end to end. The men were under the command of Sandy Lyon, and in less than an hour they returned with the three prisoners, who had been tied to trees and gagged. One of the poor fellows, the captain of an Illinois company, was in distress from a bullet-wound in his arm, and all three were suffering from hunger and thirst.