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    Table of Contents added by the transcriber:

    Introductory                               7
    War Memories                               9
    Appendix: How and Where I Was Captured    58
    Addenda                                   59
    List of Captured                          60




ESCAPE

FROM THE

CONFEDERACY

OVERPOWERING THE GUARDS--MIDNIGHT LEAP FROM
  A MOVING TRAIN--THROUGH SWAMPS
    AND FOREST--BLOOD HOUNDS--
      THRILLING EVENTS.

  B. F. HASSON,
  Late Lieut. Ringgold Battalion (22d. Pa. Vol. Cav.)


Entered according to Act of Congress.

_Sept 26, 1900_




    _To the comrades of the Ringgold Cavalry and the relatives and
    friends of the boys who suffered and died at Richmond and
    Andersonville, this booklet is dedicated._

    _"Across the years, full rounded to many score,
      Since advancing peace, with her olive wand,
    Returns the sunshine to our desolate land,
      Come thronging back memories of the war.
    Again the drum's beat and the cannon's roar,
      And patriot fires by every breeze are fanned,
    And pulses quicken with a purpose grand,
      As manhood's forces swell to larger store.
    Again the camp, the field, the march, the strife,
      The joy of victory, the bitter pain
    Of wounds or sore defeat; the anguish rife,
      And tears that fall for the unnumbered slain,
    And homes, where darkened is the light of life,
      All these the echoing bugle brings again."_




_INTRODUCTORY._


I have been so often urged by old army comrades, as well as other
friends, to publish the facts contained in the following pages in a
convenient shape for preservation, that I have concluded to comply
with their wishes, and now present them in this form. Many of the less
important details have been omitted, as well with a view of preventing
the story from becoming tiresome as of getting it within the limits of
space it was intended it should occupy. While the experience was
attended with trials and suffering, I wish to assure the reader that
it was nothing more than was endured by hundreds of other boys who saw
service in the War of the Great Rebellion. I would not go through it
again for all the world, and yet I would not like to lose the
satisfaction I enjoy in the knowledge of my success in overcoming so
many seemingly insurmountable difficulties. It is a plain narration of
facts, and is written without any effort to overdraw or embellish. I
hand it over to the friends and comrades who have been urging me to
publish it, in the hope that it will help to fill up an idle moment.

      B. F. HASSON.

[Illustration: F. C. ORMSBY WASH. D.C.]




War Memories

"Flank out Frank, and go with us to-morrow."


We were squatted on the sandy ground--vermin-ladened sand--inside the
prison stockade on Belle Island, discussing the probable destination
of the prisoners then being daily removed from that place. Joseph
Morton and Peter Deems of my own regiment and myself were of the party
and the above remark was made by Morton and addressed to me. It was
early in the month of March, 1864, and just after that famous raid to
the vicinity of Richmond by Gen. Kilpatrick and Col. Ulrich Dahlgren.
The daring troopers had even penetrated the defences of the city and
thoroughly alarmed the Rebel authorities. Immediately steps were taken
to remove the prisoners from Richmond to Andersonville, Ga., and other
remote points in the South out of the reach of rescue by Federal
raiders.

The prisoners on the Island were divided off into hundreds. The first
hundred was composed of those first put into the stockade; and then,
as new or fresh prisoners arrived the second and other hundreds were
added. One member of each hundred was chosen to see to the welfare of
the men in securing rations, etc. The hundreds were subdivided into
messes of twenty-five each, and a man was selected from among them
whose duty it was to cut up the loaves of corn-bread into twenty-five
equal sized pieces, and see that they were impartially issued to the
men. This was done by placing a man with his back to the pieces of
bread, and the sergeant pointing to one piece at a time and asking,
"Whose is this?" The answer would be, "That goes to No. 1," and so on
through the list of twenty-five. The men were called by number instead
of name. This was made necessary by reason of frequent changes on
account of deaths.

This rather full explanation is given here because it answers