Chapter I: Preface

A celebrated author thus writes: "Posterity is under no obligations to a man who is not a parent, who has never planted a tree, built a house, nor written a book." Having fulfilled all these requisites to insure the remembrance of posterity, it remains to be seen whether the author's name shall escape oblivion.

It may be that a few years will obliterate the name affixed to this Preface from the memory of man. This thought is the cause of no concern. I shall have accomplished my purpose if I can in some degree be humbly instrumental in serving my country and my generation, by promoting the well-being of my fellow-men, and advancing the declarative glory of Almighty God.

This work was written while suffering intensely from maladies induced by the rigours of the Iron Furnace of Secession, whose sevenfold heat is reserved for the loyal citizens of the South. Let this fact be a palliation for whatever imperfections the reader may meet with in its perusal.

There are many loyal men in the southern States, who to avoid martyrdom, conceal their opinions. They are to be pitied--not severely censured. All those southern ministers and professors of religion who were eminent for piety, opposed secession till the States passed the secession ordinance. They then advocated reconstruction as long as it comported with their safety. They then, in the face of danger and death, became quiescent--not acquiescent, by any means--and they now "bide their time," in prayerful trust that God will, in his own good time, subvert rebellion, and overthrow anarchy, by a restoration of the supremacy of constitutional law. By these, and their name is legion, my book will be warmly approved. My fellow-prisoners in the dungeon at Tupelo, who may have survived its horrors, and my fellow-sufferers in the Union cause throughout the South, will read in my narrative a transcript of their own sufferings. The loyal citizens of the whole country will be interested in learning the views of one who has been conversant with the rise and progress of secession, from its incipiency to its culmination in rebellion and treason. It will also doubtless be of general interest to learn something of the workings of the "peculiar institution," and the various phases which it assumes in different sections of the slave States.

Compelled to leave Dixie in haste, I had no time to collect materials for my work. I was therefore under the necessity of writing without those aids which would have secured greater accuracy. I have done the best that I could under the circumstances; and any errors that may have crept into my statements of facts, or reports of addresses, will be cheerfully rectified as soon as ascertained.

That I might not compromise the safety of my Union friends who rendered me assistance, and who are still within the rebel lines, I was compelled to omit their names, and for the same reason to describe rather indefinitely some localities, especially the portions of Ittawamba, Chickasaw, Pontotoc, Tippah, and Tishomingo counties, through which I travelled while escaping to the Federal lines. This I hope to be able to correct in future editions.

Narratives require a liberal use of the first personal pronoun, which I would have gladly avoided, had it been possible without tedious circumlocution, as its frequent repetition has the appearance of egotism.

I return sincere thanks to my fellow-prisoners who imperilled their own lives to save mine, and also to those Mississippi Unionists who so generously aided a panting fugitive on his way from chains and death to life and liberty. My thanks are also due to Rev. William P. Breed, for assistance in preparing my work for the press.

I am also under obligations to Rev. Francis J. Collier, of Philadelphia; to Rev. A. D. Smith, D. D., and Rev. J. R. W. Sloane, of New York, and to Rev. F. B. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie, New York.

May the Triune God bless our country, and preserve its integrity!

JOHN HILL AUGHEY.

FEBRUARY 1, 1863.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

SECESSION.

Speech of Colonel Drane--Submission Denounced--Northern
Aggression--No more Slave States--Northern _isms_--Yankees'
Servants--Yankee inferiority--Breckinridge, or immediate,
complete, and eternal Separation--A Day of Rejoicing--Abraham
Lincoln, President elect--A Union Speech--A Southerner's
Reasons for opposing Secession--Address by a Radical
Secessionist--Cursing and Bitterness--A Prayer--Sermon
against Secession--List of Grievances--Causes which led to
Secession 13--49

CHAPTER II.

VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND COURT-MARTIAL.

The election of Delegates to determine the status of
Mississippi--The Vigilance Committee--Description of its
members--Charges--Phonography--No formal verdict--Danger of
Assassination--Passports--Escape to Rienzi--Union sentiment--
The Conscript Law--Summons to attend Court-Martial--
Evacuation of Corinth--Destruction of Cotton--Suffering
poor--Relieved by General Halleck 50--69

CHAPTER III.

ARREST, ESCAPE, AND RECAPTURE.

High price of Provisions--Holland Lindsay's Family--The
arrest--Captain Hill--Appearance before Colonel Bradfute at
Fulton--Arrest of Benjamin Clarke--Bradfute's Insolence--
General Chalmers--The clerical Spy--General Pfeifer--Under
guard--Priceville--General Gordon--Bound for Tupelo--The
Prisoners entering the Dungeon--Captain Bruce--Lieutenant
Richard Malone--Prison Fare and Treatment--Menial Service--
Resolve to escape--Plan of escape--Federal Prisoners--
Co-operation of the Prisoners--Declaration of Independence--
The Escape--The Separation--Concealment--Travel on the
Underground Railroad--Pursuit by Cavalry and Bloodhounds--The
Arrest--Dan Barnes, the Mail-robber--Perfidy--Heavily
ironed--Return to Tupelo 70--112

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE IN A DUNGEON.

Parson Aughey as Chaplain--Description of the Prisoners--
Colonel Walter, the Judge Advocate--Charges and
Specifications against Parson Aughey, a Citizen of the
Confederate States--Execution of two Tennesseeans--Enlistment
of Union Prisoners--Colonel Walter's second visit--Day of
Execution specified--Farewell Letter to my Wife--Parson
Aughey's Obituary penned by himself--Address to his Soul--The
Soul's Reply--Farewell Letter to his Parents--The Union
Prisoners' Petition to Hon. W. H. Seward--The two Prisoners
and the Oath of Allegiance--Irish Stories 113--142

CHAPTER V.

EXECUTION OF UNION PRISONERS.

Resolved to Escape--Mode of Executing Prisoners--Removal of
Chain--Addition to our Numbers--Two Prisoners become Insane--
Plan of Escape--Proves a Failure--Fetters Inspected--
Additional Fetters--Handcuffs--A Spy in the Disguise of a
Prisoner--Special Police Guard on Duty--A Prisoner's
Discovery--Divine Services--The General Judgment--The Judge--
The Laws--The Witnesses--The Concourse--The Sentence 143--167

CHAPTER VI.

SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE.

The Second Plan of Escape--Under the Jail--Egress--Among the
Guards--In the Swamp--Travelling on the Underground
Railroad--The Fare--Green Corn eaten Raw--Blackberries and
Stagnant Water--The Bloodhounds--Tantalizing Dreams--The
Pickets--The Cows--Become Sick--Fons Beatus--Find Friends--
Union Friend No. Two--The night in the Barn--Death of Newman
by Scalding--Union Friend No. Three--Bound for the Union
Lines--Rebel Soldiers--Black Ox--Pied Ox--Reach Headquarters
in Safety--Emotions on again beholding the Old Flag--Kindness
while Sick--Meeting with his Family--Richard Malone again--
The Serenade--Leave Dixie--Northward bound 168--211

CHAPTER VII.

SOUTHERN CLASSES--CRUELTY TO SLAVES.

Sandhillers--Dirt-eating--Dipping--Their Mode of Living--
Patois--Rain-book--Wife-trade--Coming in to see the Cars--
Superstition--Marriage of Kinsfolks--Hardshell Sermon--Causes
which lead to the Degradation of this Class--Efforts to
Reconcile the Poor Whites to the Peculiar Institution--The
Slaveholding Class--The Middle Class--Northern _isms_--
Incident at a Methodist Minister's House--Question asked a
Candidate for Licensure--Reason of Southern Hatred toward the
North--Letter to Mr. Jackman--Barbarities and Cruelties of
Slavery--Mulattoes--Old Cole--Child Born at Whipping-post--
Advertisement of a Keeper of Bloodhounds--Getting Rid of Free
Blacks--The Doom of Slavery--Methodist Church South 212--248

CHAPTER VIII.

NOTORIOUS REBELS.--UNION OFFICERS.

Colonel Jefferson Davis--His Speech at Holly Springs,
Mississippi--His Opposition to Yankee Teachers and
Ministers--A bid for the Presidency--His Ambition--Burr,
Arnold, Davis--General Beauregard--Headquarters at Rienzi--
Colonel Elliott's Raid--Beauregard's Consternation--Personal
description--His illness--Popularity waning.--Rev. Dr. Palmer
of New Orleans--His influence--The Cincinnati Letter--His
Personal Appearance--His Denunciations of General Butler--His
Radicalism.--Rev. Dr. Waddell of La Grange, Tennessee--His
Prejudices against the North--President of Memphis Synodical
College--His Talents prostituted.--Union Officers--General
Nelson--General Sherman 249--263

CHAPTER IX.

CONDITION OF THE SOUTH.

Cause of the Rebellion--Prevalence of Union Sentiment in the
South--Why not Developed--Stevenson's Views--Why Incorrect--
Cavalry Raids upon Union Citizens--How the Rebels employ
Slaves--Slaves Whipped and sent out of the Federal Lines--
Resisting the Conscript Law--Kansas Jayhawkers--Guarding
Rebel Property--Perfidy of Secessionists--Plea for
Emancipation--The South Exhausted--Failure of Crops--Southern
Merchants Ruined--Bragg Prohibits the Manufacture and Vending
of Intoxicating Liquors--Its Salutary Effect 264--281

CHAPTER X.

BATTLES OF LEESBURG, BELMONT, AND SHILOH.

Rebel Cruelty to Prisoners--The Fratricide--Grant Defeated--
Saved by Gunboats--Buell's Advance--Railroad Disaster--The
South Despondent--General Rosecrans--Secession will become
Odious even in the South--Poem 282--296

THE IRON FURNACE; OR SLAVERY AND SECESSION.