Chapter Twenty

It took them five days to reach Fort Briscoe. Daniel took his time about choosing a spot for Jack’s campsite. He eventually found a canyon with a water spring and adequate grass for the six horses and the pony. The canyon could be easily fenced off to retain the horses.

Daniel and Jack spent a few days cutting the poles and building the fences before Daniel changed into Union uniform and covered it with a cotton dust-coat, then leaving all his weapons in Jack’s cart rode Star with Jack clinging to his back until just outside the fort. Here he left Jack to walk Star back to the campsite and approached the fort on foot.

The guard at the gate saw nothing strange about a dustcoated man asking to see the Colonel and he was conducted up to the Colonel’s office by an armed guard.

Colonel Armitage had received his orders from his former commander. He had been wounded at Chancellorsville and was posted to command Fort Briscoe because he could no longer ride for extended periods. He revered Lee and would never question his orders.

“Captain, I understand that I am to take you in as one of my prisoners and to facilitate your escape with a few of the existing inmates once you are ready.”

“That is correct, Colonel. I should be obliged if you would make it a habit to call me in to see you at least once a week so that I may apprise you of progress and plans. Apart from that I would prefer that no-one apart from you should know my status.”

“That goes without saying, Captain. I have men in my unit that I know do favors for the prisoners in exchange for money, rings and other valuables. I cannot trust anyone to keep your secret from them. I understand that I must put out that you were taken last year by Quantrill’s raiders and have been held captive by General Lee until now.”

Daniel removed his dustcoat and the sergeant in charge of the prisoners was summoned to collect him.

“Sergeant Harland this officer is Captain Daniels. General Robert E Lee has sent him to me and requires that he be treated as a gentleman should be. Kindly take him into the general population and see that he gets a good cell in the officer’s quarters.”

“Sir!” Said the sergeant smartly and he escorted Daniel from the office.

The sergeant walked easily alongside Daniel.

“Now see heah Yankee, Ah ain’t much taken with all th’ Cunnel’s talk about treatin’ Yankee enemies like gennelmen. You-all wanna get along wi’ me theah is onny one way: cash! You-all wanna good cell: ten dollars. You-all want terbacka you-all pay fer it with a dollar fer my trouble. You-all git the message?”

“Sure thing, sergeant. Let’s start off good right away. Here is fifty dollars that says you treat me really special and there’s more where that came from.”

“Hah! At last a Yankee that unnerstands how th’ world works! Right on, Captain sir! You-all jes’ call fer Harland and ah c’n git you-all any-damn-thing you-all want: liquor, wimmen or fancy grub.”

“Good idea, sergeant, let’s start with a really good cell.”

“Ah got me a spare room inna guards quarters. Gonna costs you-all ten dollars a month but it gonna take a day er two tew git rid o’ th’ Yankee cunnel as cain’t afford it no moah.”

“That’ll do, Sergeant, just give me the cell that the colonel will get when he is ejected from your prime real estate.”

The Sergeant led him to a cell built to house two but containing only one bunk.

“We ain’t inclined ter lock the cells at night; only the gate to the block. So you-alls free ter play poker er talk as long as you-alls wanna. Onny things is, lamps gotta be bought and kerosene gotta be bought. Longer you-all use yer lamps the more money fer me, unnerstand? In yer case captain the lamp’s paid fer but kerosene is a dollar ev’ytime lamp needs fillin’”

“Fine with me sergeant here’s my first dollar.”

Before Daniel was taken out to the yard where the prisoners were idling in the sunshine, he was issued with a good civilian blanket and towel in exchange for another dollar.

The prisoners divided into groups. The officers sat together with backs to the wall in the sunshine and for the main part the men sat grouped according to their units since most were taken prisoner in battle. There were some scattered small groups which Daniel was to discover were comprised of individuals arrested after their units were lost or destroyed.

The senior officer present was an artillery lieutenant colonel from Boston by the name of Flaherty. He had been wounded in the leg and now walked with a cane. He welcomed Daniel and asked when he had been listed as a captain. Daniel gave the date of his promotion as Captain Daniels and discovered to his surprise that made him the senior officer after Flaherty.

“I see that you are surprised Captain but many of the officers brought in are wounded and medical facilities are light here at Fort Briscoe. We lost two officers this last month, both of them majors. How did you come to be captured?”

“Quite by surprise, sir, I assure you. I was returning from dining with a lady, having had a good few glasses of wine and I found myself confronted by some of Quantrill’s raiders. I was very lucky that they did not gun me down but they wanted details of Colonel Bridges forces so they tied me up and left me without food or water for a few days. I doubled up all the figures and gave them over while begging for water. I think they would have shot me except they bumped into Robert E Lee’s army and so they handed me over. Quantrill’s men do not normally take prisoners.”

“I heard.” Flaherty said drily. “The man is a butcher. You seem to be endowed with good luck captain. I hope you can bring some of it to us here.”

“I hardly think that being captured consists of good luck sir although I guess it beats being killed. What are the chances of escaping from here, sir?”

“Security is not too tight but the place is properly guarded. Some of the men have paid for a visit to the local whorehouse and although a guard goes with them, I guess that would be the best opportunity to escape, if you have the money since the mercenary Sergeant Harland insists on payment in advance.”

It occurred to Daniel that this escape might be easier than he thought especially since he knew that Colonel Armitage would not be sending out a search party for him.

There was one other captain among the prisoners, a young man by the name of Brad Younger who was listed three months later than Captain Daniels had been. He was a friendly person and an engineer not a fighting soldier. He immediately showed his willingness to work under Daniel and offered to take him around and introduce him to the men.

“Have any of you men served under Colonel Bridges?”

Three men claimed to have done so, two of them were corporals that had been captured as individuals when bringing in supplies for the regiment.

Daniel told these men that he wanted them to be part of his personal ‘unit’. They were delighted to be chosen since they felt excluded by the other units in the prison.

There was another man that Daniel decided to take in. He was a Sergeant Major that had been found alive after a particularly heavy barrage followed by a cavalry charge that wiped out his entire unit. Sergeant Major Macpherson had been wounded four times but despite the lack of proper care he had survived and was now the third most senior non-commissioned officer in the prison.

That evening the officers gathered in Lieutenant Colonel Flaherty’s quarters. Daniel noted that they were comfortable quarters with a wide bed and a closet for clothing. It appeared that this gathering was permitted because it generally ended with a poker game which even some of the guards would sometimes join in.

Sergeant Harland made a point of joining the game that first evening because he knew that Daniel had money and he hoped to get more of it for himself.

The cards were well used and Daniel soon began to identify cards by the dirt spots on the back of each. It did not take him long to get into the game because he did not have to rely on remembering only those cards that were exposed.

Sergeant Harland was by far the most aggressive player around the bed which served as the table in the scantily furnished room and he often won the hand by pushing up the bidding beyond the ability of the prisoners to respond. Daniel played very conservatively until his turn to deal came around. He quickly dealt a royal straight to Flaherty and the three remaining aces and two kings to Harland. He folded early and sat back to watch Harland’s greed undo him. Flaherty was a competent player and he had been reserving his funds for the one big one so he rode the bidding to the top as Harland, who had convinced himself that he could not lose, tried to maximize the pot.

When the ax fell, Harland was stunned as Flaherty gathered all the money to himself.

“Hell, talk about the luck of the Irish! Who was the dealer here?” Harland demanded to know.

“I guess that I was.” Daniel admitted quietly. “Don’t you men think that it is about time that we got in a new pack?”

“Sure enough, but who has the money to buy one?” Brad Younger asked.

“Why I do. How much for a new pack?” Daniel asked Harland.

“A dollar and a dollar.” Harland snapped, still irritated by his loss of all the money he had received from Daniel so far.

Daniel handed over the two dollars from his modest winnings.

On the following morning Flaherty made a point of coming over to Daniel.

“Thank you for last night. I don’t know how you did it but that was the most satisfying win of my life.”

“Good morning sir. I fail to get your meaning, sir.”

“We both know what I mean, captain. I have enough now for me to pay rent for my quarters until the end of this year.”

Daniel was happy that Sergeant Harland was feeling the lack of money. He wanted the man in a truly greedy frame of mind.

“Sergeant,” Daniel said to Harland as soon as he appeared. “I would like to take my men for a treat.”

“Men? What men, captain?” Harland asked sarcastically.

“I’ve gathered a team of men together and I want to bond them together. I hear that you allow a visit to the local whorehouse to those who can pay. How much for myself and five men?”

“Six men? That sure is a lot! Theah is onny three gals at the who’house. Six hunnerd dollars is the cost.”

“A hundred dollars a man? That’s expensive!”

“For six men, ah’m gonna haveta send two guards an’ that kinda cuts into mah profit.”

Harland was afraid that he might lose the deal so he said quickly: “For you-all captain, Ah’ll do it for five hundred but only this heah time. Next time it’s gonna be at mah goin’ rate.”

Daniel gathered his chosen men together.

“Men, we are all leaving this place tonight. Dress in whatever clothing you want to keep and fill your pockets with anything you would like to take along.”

“Sir,” one of the corporals asked doggedly. “Where are we going?”

“We are all going to a whorehouse.”

“Sir,” the other corporal said. “I am a Christian and I cain’t be goin’ to no whorehouse.”

“Soldier, you do not understand. We are going to escape this place. Our excuse to get outside the walls is that we are going to a whorehouse for which pleasure I have already paid. Once outside the walls we only have two guns to deal with, those of our two guards. If we six men cannot deal with two armed men, we do not deserve to be called soldiers. Now are you coming with me or are you not?”

“Oh, yes sir! I see sir.” The Christian soldier said. “To git away from this hellhole I will enter a whorehouse, most surely.”

“Right we all meet here after dark. We don’t do anything to our two guards until I give the word. We have to be far enough from the prison before we try anything. I’ll say ‘Good heavens what on earth is that?’ When the guards look where I am pointing you all tackle them and take their weapons. Any questions?”

Daniel held up a hand. “Oh yes, and one more thing. Not a word about this to anyone else. You never know which man in this place will sell us to the guards for a few privileges. Do you all understand?”

There was a chorus of ‘yessirs’ as the group went off to sort through their few possessions.

Lieutenant Colonel Flaherty limped over.

“What’s going on here Captain?”

“Just organizing an outing, Colonel, I thought I would try out the local whorehouse.”

“Captain, I would not have imagined that you were that sort of man. You must have plenty of girls back where you come from.”

“I certainly do, Colonel, but I haven’t seen them in over a year. It is not so much the swiving. I just miss some feminine company.”

“Well, watch out for the diseases they can give you. The girl might be clean but most of her customers will not have bathed in a year or more.”

“I take your point, sir but I do not think I will be risking too much.”

Flaherty shrugged and walked away. He had just lost a lot of respect for Captain Daniels.