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Rowe Descendant Tree Index of Names George Henry Clay Rowe

Journal of George Henry Clay Rowe
Table of Contents

 
Fredericksburg, August 13, 1862
A single man only was sent with me, from whom my escape would have been easy, as he very soon got drunk from a bottle of whiskey I placed before him, but I had given him my parole that, if he would permit me to walk about the house and garden without following me, I would not attempt to escape, and therefore I did not entertain the thought. After spending two or three hours at home, and bidding my wife and children adieu, I returned with my drunken companion of the guard to Col Kingsbury's Headquarters where I was conducted to an upstairs room to sleep. On opening the door, my eyes were greeted with such a sight of compound and concentrated misery as I never before beheld, and comical it was too. The ten gentlemen I have previously named (together with Mr John F Scott, who had been brought in during my absence) were lying on the floor, in every conceivable position, and with countenance indicating every shade of wretchedness. All trying their utmost to sleep, but not one meeting with the least success. A single candle dimly illuminated the scene. Now, I felt pretty gloomy myself under the recent parting from my family and the fact that I neither knew the accusation upon which I had been arrested, nor the fate which awaited me, but I could not stand the sight of that room. I felt that if my sorrows were added to that heap, the condition of things would be insufferable. Besides having taken some brandy and water before leaving home, as a precaution against the night air, I determined at once that it was better to laugh than to cry. Having no blanket myself, I hauled half of Slaughter's from under him, and seating myself on the floor (there were no chairs) commenced an onslaught of fun on each one present, individually, and on all collectively, and in a very short time had the whole party wide awake and roaring with laughter. Singularly, I fell asleep unceremoniously in about fifteen minutes, and slumbered soundly until waked by the rising of my fellow prisoners who scolded me well for having destroyed their nights rest. A single basin, a single towel, and a single pitcher of water constituted the whole toilet accommodations for all twelve of us. Some kind friends sent us a breakfast, and soon thereafter we were permitted to pass down stairs into a reception room where we met quite a number of friends and relations assembled to bid us goodbye, and after a speech from the colonel to the assembled families (mainly ladies) wherein they were informed that being now subjugated they must act accordingly, we were marched over the temporary wire bridge built by the Federal army to Chatham, the H'd Quar's of Maj General Burnside's commanding the division of the U. S. Army encamped on the lower line of the Rappahannock.

Next, Under Maj General Ambrose Burnside's rule




 

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