CHAPTER XXVII.

The hounds, and the difficulties they put in the way of escape —­the whole south patrolled by them.

Those who succeeded, one way or another, in passing the Stockade limits, found still more difficulties lying between them and freedom than would discourage ordinarily resolute men.  The first was to get away from the immediate vicinity of the prison.  All around were Rebel patrols, pickets and guards, watching every avenue of egress.  Several packs of hounds formed efficient coadjutors of these, and were more dreaded by possible “escapes,” than any other means at the command of our jailors.  Guards and patrols could be evaded, or circumvented, but the hounds could not.  Nearly every man brought back from a futile attempt at escape told the same story:  he had been able to escape the human Rebels, but not their canine colleagues.  Three of our detachment—­members of the Twentieth Indiana—­had an experience of this kind that will serve to illustrate hundreds of others.  They had been taken outside to do some work upon the cook-house that was being built.  A guard was sent with the three a little distance into the woods to get a piece of timber.  The boys sauntered, along carelessly with the guard, and managed to get pretty near him.  As soon as they were fairly out of sight of the rest, the strongest of them—­Tom Williams—­snatched the Rebel’s gun away from him, and the other two springing upon him as swift as wild cats, throttled him, so that he could not give the alarm.  Still keeping a hand on his throat, they led him off some distance, and tied him to a sapling with strings made by tearing up one of their blouses.  He was also securely gagged, and the boys, bidding him a hasty, but not specially tender, farewell, struck out, as they fondly hoped, for freedom.  It was not long until they were missed, and the parties sent in search found and released the guard, who gave all the information he possessed as to what had become of his charges.  All the packs of hounds, the squads of cavalry, and the foot patrols were sent out to scour the adjacent country.  The Yankees kept in the swamps and creeks, and no trace of them was found that afternoon or evening.  By this time they were ten or fifteen miles away, and thought that they could safely leave the creeks for better walking on the solid ground.  They had gone but a few miles, when the pack of hounds Captain Wirz was with took their trail, and came after them in full cry.  The boys tried to ran, but, exhausted as they were, they could make no headway.  Two of them were soon caught, but Tom Williams, who was so desperate that he preferred death to recapture, jumped into a mill-pond near by.  When he came up, it was in a lot of saw logs and drift wood that hid him from being seen from the shore.  The dogs