[Andersonville<br> Volume 2 by John McElroy]@TWC D-Link book
Andersonville
Volume 2

CHAPTER XXXVII
10/18

Jim's right hand held an enormous bowie-knife, and as he raised it above Delaney he hissed out: "If you dare move another step, I'll open you -- -- -- -- -- --, I'll open you from one end to the other.
Delaney stopped.

This checked the others till our lines reformed.
When Wirz saw the commotion he was panic-stricken with fear that the long-dreaded assault on the Stockade had begun.

He ran down from the headquarter steps to the Captain of the battery, shrieking: "Fire! fire! fire!" The Captain, not being a fool, could see that the rush was not towards the Stockade, but away from it, and he refrained from giving the order.
But the spectators who had gotten before the guns, heard Wirz's excited yell, and remembering the consequences to themselves should the artillery be discharged, became frenzied with fear, and screamed, and fell down over and trampled upon each other in endeavoring to get away.

The guards on that side of the Stockade ran down in a panic, and the ten thousand prisoners immediately around us, expecting no less than that the next instant we would be swept with grape and canister, stampeded tumultuously.

There were quite a number of wells right around us, and all of these were filled full of men that fell into them as the crowd rushed away.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books