| ENGINE-STEALERS. | |
| M. J. Hawkins, | W. Reddick, |
| J. Parrott, | D. A. Dorsey, |
| W. Bensinger, | J. K. Porter, |
| A. Wilson, | M. Wood, |
| E. H. Mason, | W. W. Brown, |
| W. Knight, | R. Bufman, |
| W. Pettinger, | David Fry, |
| J. J. Barker. | |
| BRIDGE-BURNERS. | |
| T. McCoy, | P. Pierce, |
| B. Powers, | Jno. Walls, |
| Jno. Green, | R. White, |
| H. Mills, | J. Tompkins, |
| G. D. Barlow, | Jno. Wollam." |
The next day Provost-Marshal Lee wrote again as follows:
"Headquarters, Atlanta, Ga.,
"September 17, 1862."Hon. G. W. Randolph, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.
"Sir,—I respectfully forward to you hereby all that I have been enabled to obtain from my predecessor, Captain Foreacre.
"The documents relating to the cases, so far as I know anything about them, were forwarded to you on yesterday.
"I am, sir, very respectfully,
"Your obedient servant,
"G. W. Lee,
"Commanding Post, and Provost-Marshal."
The following letter, inclosed from Captain Foreacre, is wrong in saying that some of the party had been tried but not sentenced. Yet this was the obvious belief of the Confederate authorities:
"Atlanta, Ga., September 16, 1862.
"Hon. G. W. Randolph, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.
"Dear Sir,—Your letter of September 11, 1862, to Major Lee, provost-marshal, has been shown me by him, and, as far as I am acquainted with the matter, General Smith only sent from Knoxville instructions and orders to have seven of them hung, which was promptly attended to by myself.
"The remaining fourteen were reported to this office only for safe-keeping,—some having been tried, but not sentenced, and others not tried. The only office which can properly answer your inquiry is that of Major-General E. K. Smith.
"I have the honor to remain,
"Your obedient servant,
"G. I. Foreacre."
No record of any further inquiry remains. Whether the matter was there dropped, or orders issued for opening the whole question by a court-martial, remains uncertain. But these documents make it almost certain that all the party, or at least the twelve who were sent to Knoxville, were destined to be tried and condemned; that at the abrupt breaking up of the court, no record was put on file of the cause of the interruption; and that the authorities at Atlanta and Richmond expected the court at Knoxville, which they assumed to have finished its work, to give orders for our disposal. That court never reconvened. Its members were dispersed all over the South. The commanding general, E. Kirby Smith, was transferred to a distant department. We were forgotten, and thus the strange respite we enjoyed is explained. But would it continue?
Some of the Confederate officers had formed a theory of their own to account for the death of seven of our number and the sparing of the remainder. They assumed that those put to death were volunteers, while the others were detailed by their officers. But there were no grounds for such a supposition.
While this correspondence was in progress, Colonel Lee came to our door one day, and had a long talk with us about our expedition and prison experiences. He finally told us of receiving a letter from the Secretary of War at Richmond asking why we had not all been executed! He asked us the reason, and one of the party, who had not totally forgotten his experience of duplicity in the early part of our enterprise, said that it had been thought that there were some mitigating circumstances in our case. The marshal said that he could give no reason, but had referred the Secretary to the court-martial at Knoxville, and that he was now awaiting orders concerning us. On our request he promised to visit us again when he should receive an answer from Richmond. We told him of the manner in which our comrades had been put to death without warning. He admitted the wrong, but disclaimed responsibility for it, as it occurred before he came into command.
We waited anxiously for his return for several days, but waited in vain. It was urged that we had heard enough already, and that now, if ever, we ought to strike for life. But I was of another opinion. The enterprise of escaping was of enormous difficulty, and success, at the best, doubtful. I did not think that, in our enfeebled condition, after six months of terrible hardship and partial starvation, we were the men we had been. It was my judgment that nothing but the certainty of death on the one hand could give the necessary vigor, spring, and desperation to command success on the other. Despair might nerve us to throw ourselves with resistless fury on the bayonets of the guards, but this fury would come only when the last hope was dead. My reasoning prevailed, and we waited a little longer.