GILES COUNTY, TN - MILITARY - James M. Vance, Jr. Civil War Story

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Oral Family History by James Vance Cowan (1907- 1984)



This is a story my Grandfather, William Thomas Cowan, the husband of Mary Ann

"Mollie" Vance Cowan, told to me. Mary Ann "MoIlie" Vance Cowan was the first

cousin of James M. Vance, (Jr.).



James M. Vance was captured by the Union Army, I believe it was at the Battle

of Murfreesboro (Stone River) between 1862-63. James was an artillery man in

his early twenties at the time of his capture. He was in charge of an

artillery gun and was being overrun by the Union soldiers. The mule used for

removing the gun had been wounded and he was trying to cut the mule loose from

the harness to save the gun when in the process he was kicked in the head and

knocked unconscious, consequently he was captured by the Union soldiers.



He was shipped north to Lake Michigan and placed in a prison camp there with

two other fellows that were from the same neighborhood in Tennessee as he. The

prison was a terrible place according to the story they brought back. The

Confederate soldiers were dying like flies; the weather was getting rough and

winter was approaching and they assumed none of them would live through the

winter by the treatment they were getting.



They devised a plan to escape. There were two by twelve planks buried three

feet deep around the prison in more or less loose sand; however these planks

were below and outside the prison stockade. They thought they could with

spoons or knives dig out the planks and loosen them one from another and use

them in the water to reach shore. During the nights they were able to dig

under the stockade and reach the boards. This took several weeks.



The first dark night without a moon their plan was realized. However, before

leaving the three shook hands and promised that no matter what happened if one

of them got in trouble the other two would keep on going and they wouldn't

help each other. Each was on his own. This island prison on Lake Michigan was

approximately three to six miles off shore. It was a little more stormy than

they thought it was going to be and they had a rough time getting across. No

sooner had they left the island shore than one of the fellow's boards was

washed out from under him. He was in front of Vance and Vance was near by so

he paddled over and held the end of the board so that his friend could get

back on it and paddle. All this time the fellow was begging him to keep on

going, to remember that they had shook hands; they wouldn't help each other;

that it was too important to get away from the prison as quickly as possible

for fear they would be caught. Soon afterwards. Vance's board was washed out

from under him and this same fellow held the end of his board for him to get

back on. After paddling all night in the stormy weather, they, nearly frozen

to death, made it to the shore. They had lost all their clothes during this

storm, I believe they had them tied to their boards and the clothes had washed

away. At any rate all three of them were without any clothes.



They were freezing, they walked a short distance away from the shore, when

they saw a barn. They dried themselves off as best they could with the hay in

the barn and about that time it began to be daylight, while hidden in the loft

full of hay they observed the farmer, who had come to milk his cows. After a

rest, one morning, they picked up the pitch fork and what other tools they

could use for weapons and met the farmer soon after he entered the barn

telling him that they were escaped Confederate soldiers but if he would do

what they said, there would be no harm to him or to any of his people. He, of

course, wanted to know what it was they wanted him to do. "Well, we want your

clothes and we want you to yell up to your wife at the house to give us two

sets of clothing and two sets of shoes and some food". The one who took the

farmers clothes went up to the house and the wife gave him two sets of clothes

and shoes, or boots or some sort of foot wear with some food. Then he went

back to the barn with the provisions for his friends and they told the farmer

to stay there for a certain time and they took off traveling most of that day

as fast as they could through the woods.



After that day they only traveled at night. After a few weeks of walking west

and then south to avoid the Union lines, they thought they were in Western

Nebraska. There young Vance came down with measles and died and his two

companions buried him in the sand. The other two made it back to Fayetteville,

Tennessee or that area and brought back the story how they had escaped and

what had happened to young Vance.

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This was the story I heard many times as I was growing up from my grandfather,

John Coleman Cowan, the son of Mary Ann "Mollie" Vance Cowan, my father, James

Vance Cowan and my Uncle Howard Hamilton Cowan, who died January 5, 1996.  The

Will of James M. Vance was obtained by my Uncle Howard Hamilton Cowan in Giles

County, Tennessee.  I recorded my father telling the story about 1976 and

typed it as is above with a few corrections.



I believe the prison island was Mackinac Island, off the coast of Mackinac

County, Michigan where a Union prison camp once existed.



Corinne Cowan Staacke  March 2001

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For more information on this Vance family email Corinne Staacke at <cstaacke@aol.com>