About midmorning a man, who must be Captain Senn, and a fat, dull-eyed corporal walked with Lieutenant Davis to the middle of the lot. Senn was a humorless man who wore his immaculate uniform awkwardly. He sported a blue forage cap and white gloves tucked into the crimson-edged belt that was looped around his slightly oversized blouse. He carried no pistol, but a long sword bumped against his side. His stiffness contrasted with the easy manner of Lieutenant Davis.
The lieutenant asked the Yankee officers to step forward. “This is Captain Senn,” he said, “Commandant of the Post Guard.”
Senn cleared his throat and faced the five. “You will be in my charge,” he said, looking at Dawson. “You will be imprisoned on the second floor of the jail. If you try to escape—and you don’t get shot—I’ll give you a spell of solitary confinement.” He tapped his foot, fingered the tassel that hung from the handle of his sword, and smiled frostily. “And where would you go?”
Senn nodded to the fat corporal, who had a large ring of keys dangling from his belt. “This is Corporal Addison. He will show you to your quarters.”
Addison’s heavy-lidded eyes moved dully from one Yankee face to the next. He stuck out his lower lip, motioned with his head, and shouldered his rifle. The five Yankee officers understood that they were to march at the corporal’s side.
Richland Jail in Columbia, S. C., 1863
Showing Jailyard and Second Floor
They crossed the street, walked through a grove of trees and approached the back of the jail. There was a stout wooden enclosure around the jailyard. Addison pounded on a solid wooden gate at the back of the yard. “Addison with prisoners,” he shouted.
After a sliding of wooden bars the gate was opened. The courtyard had an earthen floor. Close to the jail building and against the right-hand fence stood a small one-story brick building with two doorways facing the courtyard. At the near end of the small building was a rudely built woodshed, its back wall formed by the courtyard fence, its far side adjoining the small building. The other two walls were of thin, weathered planks that bulged outward near the bottom.