I told him I hadn’t any idea of receiving such treatment from a U. S. Gen. Just then one of his aids said to me to come with him and he took me down the river a little ways, where about 20 more of our men were who had been captured this same day, March 17.
As we went down the river the aid apologized for the General’s conduct; said he was drunk and would never have acted that way when sober. The aid was an American, while Duffe and the majority of his men were French.
The man who captured me was from the 1st R. I. regiment and I told him about the man and fine horse from that regiment that I’d captured just a month before, and he said the man was from his Company.
Just then I was ordered to fall into line with the other prisoners, but I took time to thank the two men for their kindness to me before falling in.
There was a company of cavalry on either side of us when we started across the river, marching in columns of four.
We halted a little when we got to the water’s edge, but were soon ordered to “forward march,” and we knew that meant we must go through that water if it was full of mush-ice and deep fording. As I was a small man I was ordered to get between two large men, and we held to each other and marched through. A Mr. Powell and Mr. Shepperson, from near Charlotte C. H. marched on either side of me.
Matt Linkenhoker and I had made such an effort to escape being captured and to get to our horses that we were about as hot as a “ginger mill in August.” But strange to say, wading that river didn’t make us sick in the least. The water was just over our shoulders. I remember how the mush-ice and water ran down my coat collar. You can imagine how pleasant that would be, in March and zero weather.
It looked hard but some of our men had made the Yankees wade the river about a month before; but it wasn’t more than knee-deep where they waded. I guess they thought it no more than right to retaliate. All is said to be fair in love and war.
As soon as we crossed, one company went back to join the command and the other company took us about four miles to a hotel where Gen. Ryles had been ordered to hold the Yankee prisoners about a month before. We remained here a few hours awaiting future orders. Our clothing had dried while we were marching. We stopped and poured the water from our boots soon after crossing the river, so we were very comfortable by this time.
The lady of the house and her three pretty daughters came out to look at the prisoners, as they had a month before, and one of them recognized me. She came to me and asked me if the Yankees got my pretty gray horse, too. I told her she had escaped and how I came to be captured.