The Lost Army

by Thomas Wallace Knox

CHAPTER XXXI. JACK'S EXPERIENCES AS A PRISONER—REBEL SOLDIERS OPINIONS.

To judge by the number of times I had to get off and walk,” continued Jack, “it was up-hill pretty nearly all the way to Fayetteville. A wounded major of the rebel army was put in the ambulance alongside of Colonel Herron, and when we got to Fayetteville I had to give up my place to a rebel captain who had been shot in the arm. Of course I couldn't complain at this, and thought myself lucky to have been allowed to ride so far as I did ride. I had to walk the rest of the way, and though I was young and strong, it was impossible for me to keep up with the ambulance when they had a good road. But as most of the road was bad and a good deal blocked by wagons, I managed to be along with the ambulance every night and two or three times generally during the day. It was lucky for me that the ambulance horses were pretty well tired out with overwork and poor feed, and at one time the driver was afraid he would n't be able to get them through to Van Buren, where we had been ordered to go.

“There were six men on horseback who rode along with the ambulance, to make sure that we did n't get away. Our captors were evidently mindful of the old motto, 'Fast bind, fast find,' and they had us not only on our parole, but under guard. When it was found that I had to walk I was put with half-a-dozen other prisoners in charge of two of the mounted men. They were rather surly at first, but after a while we got on good terms with them by helping them to pick up forage for their horses, of which they were in great need. There was n't much to be picked up, as the country had been pretty thoroughly cleaned out by the army in its advance to attack us, and in the previous retreat when we first came into the state.

“The road over the Boston mountains is a rough one, and the wagons could n't get along there any faster than men on foot; they had to go slow to avoid breaking axles and smashing wheels, and all along the road there were dozens of wagons that had broken down and been abandoned. Soon after we left Fayetteville the news came that the army had been defeated and was falling back, but this was treated as a rumor at first, and our rebel guards laughed at it as absurd. A few hours later some mounted men came along carrying dispatches to Fort Smith, and then we heard positively that our side had won and the rebels were really falling back.

“I wanted to raise a cheer, but thought it would not be wise to do so, as our guards might make it harder for us if we made any sort of a demonstration. I passed the word among the rest, and we agreed to pretend that it could n't be so, as our army was so much smaller than theirs and we had used up nearly all our ammunition at the time we were captured. We consoled ourselves with the reflection that we should probably be exchanged before long, as we ought to have prisoners enough in our hands to make an even trade.

“We camped as soon as night came on, and I had no trouble in finding the colonel's ambulance and giving him all the help and comfort that I could. His wounded leg pained him a good deal, and the rebel surgeon said it would be better if it could be bathed in cold water.

“I went at work at once and bathed the swollen part so that it visibly went down, and the pain was much less. I was at it for a full hour, and then the colonel made me lie down and sleep, as he would n't hear of my being up all night. I slept as sound as a log, but was up before daylight to give the leg another bath before we started. My friend, the rebel captain, came around while I was at work and said I seemed so handy that he reckoned they would keep me as a hospital attendant, and not send me back in exchange if they made any. I told him I did n't want to go back until the colonel did, and I was perfectly willing to be a hospital attendant as long as I could be with him.

“All along the road there was great curiosity to look at the Yankee prisoners and see what they were like. By the way some of the people stared at us, they must have expected to see some horrid monsters, and were really surprised to find that we were human beings. Some of them abused us, and others looked on in silence, as they might have looked at an elephant or a five-legged calf. At one house, where we stopped to get a drink of water, a woman came out and lashed her tongue in a fit of rage at the 'Yankee cut-throats,' as she called us. She hoped we would all be hanged as soon as we got to Fort Smith, and if she had her way we should be strung up then and there.

“Poor creature! I did not blame her so much, as she had been told the most awful stories of what the Yankees did wherever they got possession of the country. All the atrocities ever committed by savages were attributed to us, together with some that no savages ever thought of. One of our guards told us that he had heard of our putting fifty prisoners in a log-house, having bound them hand and foot, and piled them up as though they had been so many sticks of wood. Then we piled shavings and straw on them till the house was filled with it, and after this was done we set the straw on fire. The house and all the prisoners were consumed, as a matter of course. In another case we tied prisoners to trees and used them as targets for our infantry soldiers to practice upon when learning how to handle fire-arms.