Pike-Lamar County GaArchives News.....A Thrilling Experience February 17 1910
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Lynn Cunningham http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002535 November 14, 2004, 1:07 pm

The Barnesville News-Gazette
A Thrilling Experience
(By Capt. E.B. Darden, Milner)

I ran away from home and went to the front when the civil war broke out between 
the States. Saw hard service in the army of the Potomac, suffering a thrilling 
experience, from being shot as a prisoner of war at the barracks of Fortress 
Monroe in the Spring of 1865. Charges were preferred against me, as being 
either a bush-whacker or a rebel spy. But I was not either, I was only an 
escaped prisoner, but was captured in the rear of the Federal lines the second 
time trying to get back to my command. A heavy fog at the time caused my 
defeat. They had no evidence in support of such a charge. They only wanted to 
get up some pretext to have me shot for knocking an old impudent negro cook 
down a flight of stairs for his abuse of Mr. Isaac Tubman, who was also a 
prisoner and a very sick man with the colic and had asked the cook for a cup of 
hot coffee. He was a corporal and belonged to the Mount Vernon Guards, the same 
company that Mr. George Summers of Barnesville served in. I guess he remembers 
him. After Gen. Lee’s army surrendered I heard nothing more from it and my 
liberty was allowed to witness the arrival of the steamer Tappahanock from 
Washington City with our president aboard and some of the humiliation that 
followed from the boat landing to the western side of the Fortress. It was a 
scene long to be remembered.

After Mrs. Davis gave the matter of his treatment an airing in congress some 
years back I disabused my mind of any further doubt that the disgraceful 
treatment that was accorded him by Gen. Nelson A. Miles was all done through 
bigotry on his part and not through any malice or instruction on the part of 
the U.S. Government. At least he was not able to show anything to the contrary 
when he was given a hearing before the members of congress.

Well I did not arrive home until the 12th day of July ‘65, a poorer but wiser 
young man, I went to work with renewed energy and regained some of my lost 
fortune. As our much esteemed Daughters of the Confederacy ask us all to 
[unreadable] something of our war [unreadable] send you this for publication

[Transcribed 11/13/04 Lynn Cunningham]

Additional Comments:
From copy obtained at Old Jail Museum and Archives, Barnesville, Georgia. 
Compiled by Shanna English.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/pike/newspapers/nw1699athrilli.txt

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