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Lot 321
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Escaped Several Confed Prisons, Thru Tunnel, Aided By Slaves Riveting 104 p. Memoir of Soldier Captured in Early Stages of Gettysburg Campaign
Escaped Several Confed Prisons, Thru Tunnel, Aided By Slaves Riveting 104 p. Memoir of Soldier Captured in Early Stages of Gettysburg Campaign
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Description:

Escaped Several Confed Prisons, Thru Tunnel, Aided By Slaves Riveting 104 p. Memoir of Soldier Captured in Early Stages of Gettysburg Campaign

This fascinating story of one cavalryman's experiences in Confederate captivity is filled with drama and poignant details of prisoner-of-war experiences during the Civil War. Lieutenant Fales begins his narrative in June 1863 with his capture in the disastrous Battle of Middleburg, a cavalry battle between the forces of Confederate Major General J. E. B. Stuart and those of Union Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Although the results of the overall battle were inconclusive, the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry lost nearly 90 percent of its force, most as prisoners. Fales was one of those prisoners, and he offers a vivid account of life in Libby Prison in Richmond. His narrative includes a gripping description of the escape of 109 officers through a tunnel in February 1864, his later escape from a prison train en route to Charleston, South Carolina, and a subsequent escape from a prison camp in northern South Carolina. Escaping three times and being recaptured three times, Fales spent a great deal of time on the run from Confederate pickets and patrols in the South with the aid of enslaved African Americans and Unionist whites.

[CIVIL WAR.] James M. Fales, Manuscript Document, "The Story of the Capture and Prison Life of First Lieutenant James Martin Fales of Company G, First R. I. Cavalry Volunteers," ca. 1881, n.p. 104 pp., 5.25" x 8". Pages sleeved in pairs; very good.

Excerpts
"About dark on the evening of June 17th 1863 at Middleburg [Virginia,] I was in command of Company F. of the 1st R. I. Cavalry. The regiment numbering at that time about three hundred men had charged into Middleburg and driven the enemy out about three hours before and at this time a heavy force, two regiments as stated by General Stuart in his official report, were advancing against us, our pickets had been forced back upon the reserve and a sharp combat was inevitable unless we retreated. Companies G. and F. were dismounted and ranged behind a stone wall which adjoined the road on which the enemy was advancing. By this time it was so dark that the enemy could not see us at the distance they were, and as they charged up the road in column of fours and the first notice they had of our location was the discharge of about sixty carbines when every man o four force had four rebels within six feet of the muzzle of his gun. The slaughter was fearful horses and men went down in wild confusion while our men drawing their six shooters opened a deadly fire. The enemy or as many of them as had escaped from the fire retreated in great disorder and we could hear their officers rallying them for another charge. A second time they charged down the road and were met by the same destructive fire and again fell back and then we heard their officers saying ‘now boys form once more, we'll give em hell this time, we will sweep every yankee from the face of the earth' and again they charged but only to meet the same deadly repulse. Then Major Farrington sent me to report to Col [Alfred N.] Duffie for orders as he expected the next time the enemy would deploy in the fields and attack his right flank and rear instead of making another stupid charge down the road." (p1-4)

"I waited in the road until all the rest of the regiment had gone into the wheat field and then as my horse was jumping over the wall my saddle slipped off over his tail and left me on the ground and the horse followed the regiment at a gallop. I jumped up and started on the run after the regiment but six of the enemy followed me on horse back and soon overtaking me I was summoned to surrender with the usual formula (surrender you d—d yankee son of a bitch)." (p6-7)

"We reached Richmond in the morning of June 23 were marched through the streets to Libby Prison where we were formed in line and our names and regiments written down by the Clerk.... At that time there were about four hundred prisoners in the building all commissioned officers. The rations were hardly sufficient to sustain life, but we found we could write North and have our friends send us provisions in boxes...." (p11-12)

"At dark we again travelled making a North East course by the guiding help of the North star and met with no obstacle except from our old friends the briars and brush and at daylight found a serene retreat in a thicket of briars and brush on the South side of a hill." (p39)

"I had not gone far before I was startled by the command to halt and discovered a dismounted rebel cavalryman standing behind a tree not five feet from me with his carbine covering me. The following conversation ensued. Reb. Who comes there Yank A friend Reb Advance friend and give the countersign. Yank I have no countersign Reb. Who are you Yank I am a citizen and belong up to the Court House. Reb. Its no use I know you Yank Who am I Reb. You are one of the Yankees that escaped from Libby Prison Yank How do you know I am a Yankee Reb I know you by the way you talk. I saw the hunt was up and the sentinel called the Lieutenant of the Guard who was in a hut near by and a soldier was detailed to take me down to camp." (p45)

"In the morning the two soldiers that came with the Lieutenant saddled their horses and started with me on the return to Libby, some fifty miles away." (p47)

"Of the one hundred and nine officers that passed out through the tunnel sixty five made good their escape into the lines held by the Union forces and forty four were recaptured and returned to Libby." (p51)

"We remained at Danville about ten days and were then again put into cattle cars and taken to Macon Ga, where we were kept in a stockade with a fence about eight feet high enclosing about three acres." (p56)

"About the middle of June 1864 after having been in this stockade at Macon two months six hundred out of the fifteen hundred commissioned officers present were selected for the purpose of being put under the fire of the Union guns at Charleston a measure which the Confederates hoped would stop the steady rain of shot and shell on that doomed city." (p61-62)

"I was standing right behind the guard sitting down in the open door of one car when a Lieutenant of the 6th U. S. Cavalry whose name I do not now remember said ‘Jim if you will jump out there I will follow you' I jumped at once.... We knew that we were in South Carolina and not far from the coast held by the Union troops…and determined to leave the rail road and go due East marking our course by the North star and we travelled thus until day break when we went to sleep under a large oak tree." (p62, 65-66)

"We travelled about three hours with the dogs gaining on us all the time and then decided that we could not escape and climbing into a live oak waited for the dogs to come up.... at four oclock that afternoon we rejoined the rest of our party in the Charleston Jail yard." (p67-68)

"After we had been in Charleston about six weeks yellow fever made its appearance and some eight or ten officers were taken to the hospital sick with the disease several cases proving fatal. The enemy fearing the disease would spread over the city put us into box cars and sent us to Columbia." (p71)

"At sunrise we went into the woods made a little fire, cooked some sweet potatoes our negro friends had given us, and then laid down and slept until sunset. Thus we travelled on nights and slept days." (p78)

"One of these negro women asked us where our horns were, she said her massa said the Yankees had horns. Our visitors brought us milk, corn bread and bacon and we had all we wanted to eat. But for the negroes we must have starved to death, but they always received us kindly and did all they could for us, giving us food guides and all the assistance in their power." (p79-80)

"The distance across the mountains into East Tennessee was seventy five miles through dense thickets and forests with nothing but Indian trails for a path. We found a white man who had been across to Knoxville several times and he agreed to guide us to that point and on our safe arrival we were to pay him five hundred dollars in greenbacks." (p85)

"We afterwards found that as we laid asleep in the morning around the fire on top of the mountain two indians who had come out to hunt had discovered us and returning to the very house we were aiming for had told the white man living there about Yankees being on the mountain and he had gone about four miles away to a rebel picket and was returning with a white sergeant and about twenty indian soldiers and we met at the house and were surrounded by the enemy before we discovered them." (p91)

"We were marched from here some ninety miles to Ashville a rail road station.... There were four members of the masonic fraternity among our number who were furnished with a complete outfit of new clothing and all the food they needed by their brethren in Ashville. Not being one of the fortunate ones I received no such aid and comfort. We were put on a train here and taken to Salisbury where we remained on night and then went to Danville which we reached about Christmas. We were recaptured Dec. 7 after having been twenty eight days en route for the Union lines and all our hardship and suffering had been lost for want of only two hours more of endurance." (p94-95)

"My treatment at Danville injured my health more than all my other hardships as a prisoner and from its effects I have not and never expect to fully recover. February 16 1865 all the prisoners at Danville about three hundred, two hundred having been forwarded a few days before, were put in box cars and taken to Richmond and put in our old quarters at Libby. On the morning of February 22 we were taken out marched a short distance and placed on board a rebel steamer and started down the river under a flag of truce. About noon we were landed near Butler's Dutch Gap Canal and marching a short distance came in sight of our flag of truce steamer with the grand old flag streaming in the breeze."

Historical Background
At the Battle of Kelly's Ford in March 1863, Lieutenant Fales captured Major Cary Breckinridge (1839-1918), cousin of John C. Breckinridge, the former Vice President of the United States and 1860 presidential candidate.

James Martin Fales (1835-1893) was born in Rhode Island. He joined the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry as a private and rose to the rank of second lieutenant. He was taken prisoner on June 18, 1863. He escaped from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, in February 1864 but was recaptured and remained in captivity until exchanged in February 1865 and mustered out the following month. He married Mary Ella Fales (1845-1921) of Michigan, with whom he had at least one child. In 1870, they lived in Ashland, Nebraska, where he was a dry goods and groceries merchant. He later returned to Bristol County, Rhode Island, where he died.

1st Rhode Island Cavalry Regiment (1862-1865) was organized between December 1861 and March 1862 at Pawtucket as the 1st New England Cavalry. Although a part of several reorganizations of the Union Cavalry, the regiment spent most of its time with the Army of the Potomac. The regiment served in the Valley Campaign, the Second Bull Run Campaign, at Fredericksburg, and in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg Campaigns of 1863. While on a scouting mission deep in Confederate territory, it lost nearly 240 of its remaining 280 men at the Battle of Middleburg in June 1863. The regiment was strengthened with fresh recruits and continued to perform scouting and outpost duty in Virginia before rejoining the Army of the Potomac in September 1863 for the Bristoe Campaign and the Mine Run Campaign. In 1864, the regiment helped in the defense of Washington, D.C., before joining General Philip H. Sheridan's forces in the Shenandoah Valley. Because of its heavy losses, it was consolidated to a battalion in January 1865 and was mustered out at Baltimore on August 3, 1865. More than 2,100 different men served in the regiment throughout the war, though its field strength was normally fewer than 500 troopers.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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