Chapter II: Preface

War has a secret as well as a public story. Marches and battles are open to the popular gaze; but enterprises of another class are in their very nature secret, and these are scarcely less important and often much more interesting than the former. The work of spies and scouts, the enterprises that reach beyond the lines of an army for the purpose of surprise, the councils of officers, the intrigues by means of which great results often flow from apparently insignificant causes, and all the experiences of hospitals and prisons,--these usually fill but a small place on the historian's page, though they are often of romantic interest, and not unfrequently decide the course and fate of armies. The enterprise described in these pages possesses all the unity of a drama, from the first plunge of the actors into the heart of the enemy's country, through all their adventures and changing fortunes, until the few survivors stood once more under the old flag! No single story of the war combines so many of the hidden, underground elements of the contest against rebellion as this. Disguise and secrecy, the perils of a forlorn hope, the exultation of almost miraculous success, the sufferings of prisoners, and the gloom of despair are all mingled in a varied and instructive war-picture.

In telling the story all fictitious embellishments have been rejected. No pains have been spared to ascertain the exact truth, and the reader will find names, dates, and localities so fully given that it will be easy to verify the prominent features of the account.

In narrating those events which fell under his own eye, the writer has waived all scruples of delicacy, and used the first personal pronoun. This is far more simple and direct, while an opposite course would have savored of affectation.

This is not a revision or new edition of the little volume published by the present writer during the rebellion. DARING AND SUFFERING, like a number of similar sketches published in newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets, was a hasty narrative of personal adventure, and made no pretence of completeness. CAPTURING A LOCOMOTIVE is broader and more historic; a large amount of valuable material is now employed for the first time; and the story is approached in an entirely different manner. No paragraph of the old book is copied into the new.

WOODBURY, NEW JERSEY January, 1882.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
I.--A SECRET MILITARY EXPEDITION 9
II.--MIDNIGHT CONSULTATION 27
III.--COMPANIONS AND INCIDENTS 36
IV.--A LOCOMOTIVE AND TRAIN CAPTURED 65
V.--UNFORESEEN HINDRANCES 75
VI.--A TERRIBLE RAILROAD CHASE 93
VII.--A NIGHT IN THE WOODS 120
VIII.--IN THE ENEMY'S POWER 136
IX.--OTHER CAPTURES 153
X.--A HORRIBLE PRISON 170
XI.--LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF PRISON 182
XII.--THE FIRST TRAGEDY 197
XIII.--A CONFEDERATE COURT-MARTIAL 205
XIV.--THE CROWNING HORROR 221
XV.--PRISON RELIGION 228
XVI.--LIBERTY OR DEATH? 244
XVII.--ROMANTIC ESCAPES 262
XVIII.--FROM ATLANTA TO THE GULF 274
XIX.--FROM ATLANTA TO RICHMOND 293
XX.--LIBBY AND CASTLE THUNDER 308
XXI.--SICKNESS AND LIBERTY 326