The eyes of the fugitives looked wistfully and anxiously
towards them. Thank Heaven! they wore the Union blue! Those
guidons which rose high in the air bore the Union colors!
They were United States cavalry! Safety was assured!
In a minute more the rattling hoofs were close at hand, the
band of rescuers were around them; eager questions, glad
answers, heartfelt congratulations filled the air. In a very
few minutes the fugitives were mounted and riding gladly
back in the midst of their new friends, to be banqueted,
feasted, and f[^e]ted, until every vestige of their hardships
had been worn away by human kindness.
As to their feelings at this happy termination of their
heroic struggle for freedom, words cannot express them. The
weary days, the bitter disappointments, the harsh treatment
of prison life; the days and nights of cold, hunger, and
peril, wanderings through swamps and thorny thickets, hopes
and despairs of flight; all were at an end, and now only
friends surrounded them, only congratulating and
commiserating voices met their ears. It was a feast of joy
never to be forgotten.
A few words will finish. One hundred and nine men had
escaped. Of these, fifty-five reached the Union lines.
Fifty-four were captured and taken back to prison. Some of
the escaped officers, more swift in motion or fortunate in
route than the others, reached the Union lines on their
third day from Richmond.
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