The Iron Furnace; or, Slavery and Secession

As in our courts there are witnesses, so also there will be at the bar of God. Our pious relatives and friends will bear this testimony, that they have prayed with us and for us; that they had a deep concern for our souls, and that we who are found on the left hand of the Judge, refused all their counsel, and despised their admonitions. Ministers of the gospel will testify that they came as ambassadors from the King of kings, and beseeching you, in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God, pointing to the coming wrath, and warning you from that wrath to flee; and yet their labour of love ye despised, and scorned the message from on high. The Bible will be a witness against you. Its teachings are able to make wise unto salvation. It is the chart which is given to guide us through this wilderness-world, to fairer worlds on high. It tells of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. It is truth without any mixture of error, and yet you have despised this necessary revelation, and chosen to perish, with the Word of Life open before you. God, the Father, will be a swift witness against you. In the greatness of his love for you, in the counsels of eternity, he devised the plan of salvation, and sent his only begotten Son to suffer and die, that you might live, and yet you have despised that love, and rejected that Saviour. God, the Son, will bear this testimony, that he came from the shining abodes of glory, where seraphim and cherubim fell prostrate at his feet, in humble adoration, and emptying himself of his glory, bore all the ills of life – the persecutions of wicked men, and the accursed death of the cross, that salvation might be yours, and yet ye refused it, and trod the blood of the Son of God under foot, and put him to an open shame. The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the adorable Trinity, will bear witness that he often knocked at the door of your hearts for admittance; that he wooed you to embrace his love, offering to abide with you for ever, and yet you rejected the offer, and did despite to the Spirit of grace, till, in sorrow, he took his everlasting flight.

The devil is now going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and sometimes transforming himself into an angel of light. He is tempting you to sin, by presenting before your minds the superior charms of the riches and pleasures of earth, to things that are unseen and eternal. He has no power to compel you to sin. His evil suggestions are whispered in your oft too willing ears, and then it remains with you to accept or reject. He has no power of compulsion. Your sin must be an act of your own will, or it is not sin. When you consent to the wiles of this arch enemy, and sin against God, remember that with eager desire and base ingratitude he will fiercely accuse in the great day of God Almighty, and urge these very sins of his suggestion as a reason why he should have you to torment you for ever in the bottomless pit.

That internal monitor, that light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world – the moral sense, or conscience – will be a swift witness against you. By it you have been enlightened and warned; and in the case of many who have denied a future state of punishment, the goadings of remorse have convinced them that there is a hell, the kindlings of whose fires they have felt in their own bosoms. Conscience will compel you to confess that your doom is just, though for ever debarred from the joys and happiness of heaven. O! my fellow-prisoners and travellers to the bar of God, listen to her warning voice to-day, before it be too late, and you are compelled mournfully to exclaim, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved!” The conscience of the sinner will be compelled to admit the truth of the testimony. In earthly courts, oftentimes witnesses are suborned, and their testimony false. Not so at the grand assize. Not a scrap of false testimony will be admitted. The evidence will be in truth, and the judgment in righteousness.

After all these scenes have occurred, the Judge will render a verdict, and pronounce the sentence, which will be irreversible and eternal. With regard to the righteous, though they have been guilty of many sins, both of omission and commission, and have no merits of their own to plead, and consider themselves justly obnoxious to eternal banishment, their Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, while in the flesh, they exercised a true and living faith, will now present them, clad in the white robes of his perfect righteousness, faultless before his Father, and they will now hear the welcome plaudit, “Come ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But those on the left hand, who all their life rejected the mercy offered – the great salvation proffered without money and without price – will now hear the dread sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!”

O my dear, impenitent fellow-prisoners! how can ye take up your abode, your eternal abode, in everlasting burnings? How can ye dwell with devouring fire? How can ye endure everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power, shut up for ever in the fearful pit out of which there is no egress except for the vision of the damned, and the smoke of its torment? Be wise to-day, ’tis madness to defer. Procrastination is the thief of time. Delay is fraught with awful danger. Trust not in promises of future amendment. The way to hell is paved with good resolutions, which are never kept. The future convenient season never arrives. Like Felix, we may tremble when the minister reasons of a judgment to come; and like Agrippa, we may be almost persuaded to be a Christian, and yet come short of the glory of God through procrastination. Procrastination has populated hell. All the doomed and damned from Christian lands are victims of this pernicious and destructive wile of the devil. It is foolish to procrastinate. Though the Bible teems with rich and glorious promises of a hundred-fold blessings in this life, and eternal glory in the world to come, to those who break off their sins by righteousness, and their transgressions by turning unto the Lord, yet all these promises are limited to the present tense. There is not a single blessing promised the future penitent. He procrastinates at the risk of losing all. Behold, now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” “And the Spirit and the Bride say, come; let him that heareth say, come; and let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. There is no warrant for deferring till to-morrow the momentous and eternal interests of the immortal soul. The shortness and uncertainty of life furnish a strong reason why we should not procrastinate. In the Bible, life is compared to everything that is swift, transient, and fleeting in its nature. It is compared to the swoop of the eagle hasting to the prey; to the swift post, to the bubble on the river. Life is compared in its duration to a year, a day, and to nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity. All these comparisons indicate that it is very brief and evanescent. We have no lease of life; we hold it by a very slight tenure; and this is especially true of us in our present condition. Confined in prison, some of us led to death every day without a moment’s warning, every evening I address some who, before the next evening, are in eternity. Myself in chains, my life declared forfeited, ought we not all to be deeply impressed with the necessity of immediate preparation to meet our God? I feel that I am preaching as a dying man to dying men, and I beseech you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved. Trust in him for salvation, for he is faithful who has promised. God has never said to any, seek ye my face in vain. By the love and mercy of God, by the terrors of the judgment, by the sympathy and compassion of Jesus, I entreat you, my fellow-prisoners, to seek an interest, a present interest, in the great salvation!

I close for the present. We shall never all engage in divine service together again on earth. We separate – some to go to a distant prison, and some to death. May God grant that when we are done with earthly scenes, we may all meet in the realms of bliss, where there is in God’s presence fulness of joy, and at his right hand pleasures for evermore! And may the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us, and all the Israel of God, now, henceforth, and for ever, Amen!

The following hymn was then sung:

In the sun, and moon, and stars,Signs and wonders there shall be;Earth shall quake with inward wars,Nations with perplexity.Soon shall ocean’s hoary deep,Tossed with stronger tempests, rise;Wilder storms the mountains sweep,Louder thunders rock the skies.Dread alarms shall shake the proud,Pale amazement, restless fear;And, amid the thunder-cloud,Shall the Judge of men appear.But though from his awful face,Heaven shall fade, and earth shall fly,Fear not ye, his chosen race,Your redemption draweth nigh.

I preached longer than I had intended, having become so fully engrossed with the subject as to forget my chains and my frustrated plans. My fellow-prisoners were listening apparently with interest; great solemnity prevailed, and penitential tears were flowing. It was evident that the Spirit of the living God was in our midst; and though danger and death were before our eyes, the consolations of the glorious gospel of the blessed God caused our peace to flow like a river. The precious seed was sown in tears. May we not entertain a good hope that he who cast the seed into this soil, prepared by affliction, shall come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. By my side stood two in chains, who appeared deeply moved. During the day I had conversed with them about their souls. They expressed regret that they had not heretofore given this matter the attention its importance demanded. Since their imprisonment, however, they had been led to feel that they were great sinners, and had, as they hoped, put their trust in Christ alone for salvation. I have since learned that on the morrow they were shot.

CHAPTER VI.

SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE

The Second Plan of Escape – Under the Jail – Egress – Among the Guards – In the Swamp – Travelling on the Underground Railroad – The Fare – Green Corn eaten Raw – Blackberries and Stagnant Water – The Bloodhounds – Tantalizing Dreams – The Pickets – The Cows – Become Sick – Fons Beatus – Find Friends – Union Friend No. Two – The night in the Barn – Death of Newman by Scalding – Union Friend No. Three – Bound for the Union Lines – Rebel Soldiers – Black Ox – Pied Ox – Reach Headquarters in Safety – Emotions on again beholding the Old Flag – Kindness while Sick – Meeting with his Family – Richard Malone again – The Serenade – Leave Dixie – Northward bound.

After the sermon was concluded, the preparations for my escape were commenced. The building used for our prison was built with the front toward the east. The doors were at the eastern and western extremities, which were the gable ends, one door being in each end. There were also two windows at each end, the door being between them. The doors and window-sashes had been removed, to allow the guards stationed in front an unobstructed view of the interior. At night the apartment was lighted, and a guard patrolled the floor; it was, therefore, nearly impossible for a person to escape the observation of the guards, either within or without the jail. In the North, the houses are usually built with a cellar underneath; at the South, such a thing is very rare, the houses being built upon the ground, or upon piles. Our prison was built upon piles, the floor being elevated about eighteen inches above the ground. The boards were nailed upon the building perpendicularly, and in some cases did not quite reach to the ground. Small openings were thus left between the floor and the ground, through which a person could crawl underneath the building. Around each door was an enclosure, formed by stakes surmounted with poles, in the shape of a parallelogram, whose dimensions were about ten by sixteen feet. In each of these enclosures four guards were stationed, one of them being seated in the doorway. The rear enclosure was used for cooking purposes; and into both enclosures we were permitted to go at pleasure during all hours of the day, and as late at night as ten o’clock. Only three prisoners were allowed to be in an enclosure at one time.

M – had discovered a hole by the side of the steps within the front enclosure, by which I could get under the building. I felt unwilling to make such an attempt, as the aperture was in the immediate vicinity of the guards. M – stated that four others would aid me, though at considerable risk on their part. “I’ll take the risk,” was the individual response of all present. M – selected three, who with himself assumed the perilous task, in which discovery would have cost them their lives. M – , who had devised the plan of escape, now instructed us in the respective parts we were to perform. All promised implicit obedience. At half-past nine, three prisoners and myself were to go into the enclosure. They would stand up and converse with the guards, whilst I sat upon the ground by the hole, to wait for an opportunity to crawl under the building unobserved. This opportunity we expected to occur at ten o’clock, when the relief-guard came on duty. The duty of one prisoner was to remain inside and engage the attention of the guard who sat in the doorway, while the other three would go into the enclosure, and entertain the other guards, according to the previously devised plan. At half-past nine o’clock, we placed ourselves in the designated positions. I readily removed my chain, coiled it up, and laid it by the side of a little stump. The moon shone with great brilliancy, revealing the tents which surrounded us on every side. Officers and soldiers passed hurriedly to and fro. We were in the midst of the noise and confusion of a great encampment, as there were in and around Tupelo some fifteen thousand soldiers. Mingled sounds of mirth and contention proceeded from the surrounding tents. My prisoner friends were engaged in a fierce argument with the guards as to the comparative merits of Tennessee and Mississippi troops. This was done to divert their attention, and I observed with pleasure that they were meeting with success. I reflected that a few more moments would decide my fate. If detected, my life must end ignominiously and on the gallows. In the morning, my anklets would be securely welded. I would also be handcuffed and chained to a post. Then all hope must end, and soon my corpse would be borne into the presence of her whose tears were flowing, and who refused to be comforted because of my ominous absence.

The order for the relief-guard now came loud and clear. I heard their hurried tramp, and saw their glittering bayonets in the bright moonlight. The set time, the appointed moment, big with my fate, had arrived. I offered an ejaculatory prayer to Him who sits upon the throne of heaven for protection at this critical moment. The guard stood within ten feet of me, with their eyes constantly upon me. Just as they were turning to receive the advancing relief-guard, I crawled backward under the building, and disappeared from their view. The relief-guard went on duty, and those relieved retired. The prisoners were ordered into the house, and as the new guards did not know that four were in the enclosure, I was not missed.

I was now under the prison, but there were guards on every side, and the jail was in the midst of a camp, so that I was still in great danger of detection. I saw, through the crevices in the floor, the guard who patrolled the prison. I heard the murmurings and mutterings of the prisoners, as he occasionally trod upon them in his carelessness. I could hear, though not distinctly, the conversation of the prisoners. One of my assistants was detailing to his companions their success in getting me off unnoticed. The prisoners slept but little that night, owing to their anxiety for my safety, and I frequently heard my name mentioned, and hopes for my safety expressed. I occasionally fell into uneasy slumbers, but the fleas and other vermin were so annoying, that my sleep refreshed me but little. I could distinctly hear the new guard conversing, and among other topics, one remarked that he had forgotten the countersign; the other replied that it was Braxton. Well, said the former, I thought it was Bragg, or Braxton, or something like that. Knowing the countersign emboldened me, as I could, if halted, give it, and pass on. I soon crawled to the north side of the prison, and found that there were three apertures sufficiently large to admit of my egress. Upon reaching the first one, I found a number of guards, some sitting and some lying so close to it, that I dared not make the attempt at that point.

Crawling to the second, I remained till there was comparative quiet; but at the instant I was about to pass out, a soldier, who was lying with his face toward me, commenced to cough, and continued to do so, at intervals, for more than an hour. Finding it unadvisable to run the risk of detection at this point, I made my way, with considerable difficulty, to the third and last aperture, near the rear of the building, and not very distant from the rear-guards. I remained at this aperture till I heard one guard say to another that it was three o’clock, and that they must soon go on duty. I felt confident that then was my time, or never, as morning would find me under the house, and I would be re-arrested in that situation. Committing myself into the hands of God, and asking him to keep me from detection, and grant me a safe escape, I arose from under the building, passed by two sleeping guards, who were lying within three or four feet of the prison. As it was my first essay at walking without chains, I reeled, as if under the influence of strong drink, striking my foot against the head of one of those sleeping guards, who, awaking, turned over, and uttering some exclamation of disapprobation, took no further notice of me, doubtless mistaking me for one of his companions. After proceeding a few steps, I sat down upon the ground among some of the guards. I took out my knife, and whistling, to appear as unconcerned as possible, commenced whittling a stump, around which they were collected – some sitting, some standing, and others reclining. I readily passed for one of them, as I was wearing a colored shirt, which resembled that worn by the guards. I soon, however, arose, and wound my way among the various groups, endeavouring to reach the corn-field, to which I had made my first escape. After passing the guards off duty, a sentinel arose a short distance in front of me, evidently with the intention of halting me, if I advanced farther. Stopping a few minutes, to avoid suspicion, I changed my direction, bearing southwest, and after a time, got into the woods. Kneeling down, I returned God thanks for thus crowning my efforts with success, and prayed for his continuous protection, and that he would choose out my path, that I might escape detection, and rejoin my family and friends in safety.

I now pursued my journey rapidly in a southwest direction, choosing that which led directly from my home, for two reasons. The cavalry and bloodhounds would not be so likely to follow in that direction, and after listening, while in prison, to the drum-beat morning and evening, in the various surrounding camps, I noticed that it had ceased in the southwest for several mornings; hence I supposed that the camp in that direction had been broken up, and that, in taking that route, I could more readily get beyond the rebel pickets, and then I could change my course, and bear northward, and reach the Federal lines at some point on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. I hastened on till the sun arose, having passed through woods and corn-fields, studiously avoiding all roads, when, as I was rapidly travelling along a narrow path, I met a negro. The suddenness of our meeting alarmed both. I, in a peremptory tone, addressed him, in quick succession, the following interrogatories:

“Where are you going? To whom do you belong? Where have you been? Have you a pass?”

“I belong,” said the boy, trembling, “to Mr. – . I have been to wife’s house; am gwine back home, but I haint got nary pass.”

“I suppose it is all right with you?”

“Oh, yes, master! it’s all right wid me.”

Concluding that it was not all right “wid” myself, I hurried on, soon leaving the path, and turning into a dense woods. Travelling on till about one P. M., I came to an open country, so extensive that I could not go round it, neither could I, in daylight, travel through it with safety. I sought out a place to hide, and finding a ditch which bisected a corn-field, I concealed myself in that. During the day, negroes and whites passed near, without discovering me. Becoming hungry, I ate a small piece of the bread which one of my fellow-prisoners had given me, but it made me quite sick. On my former escape, I had, just before leaving the house, traded pants with a fellow-prisoner, without his knowledge or consent. On my return, he refused to trade back. My reason for trading was, to get a dark pair, as mine were so light-coloured, I feared the guards would discover me more readily. Their owner had been accustomed to use tobacco, and the bread had become tinctured with it. Tobacco being very offensive to me, its presence on my bread caused me to lose it.

The day passed away, and the night came. The stars came out in silent glory, one by one. Fixing my eye upon the pole-star, the underground railroad travellers’ guide, I set out, bearing a little to the west of north. I soon reached the thick woods, and found it very difficult to make rapid progress, in consequence of the dense under-growth and obscure light. The bushes would strike me in the eyes, and often the top of a fallen tree would cause me to make quite a circuit. Soon, however, the moon arose in her brightness – the old silver moon. But her light I found to be far less brilliant than that of the sun, and her rays were much obscured by the dense foliage overhead; hence my progress was necessarily slow, laboured, and toilsome. I slept but little during the day, in consequence of the proximity of those who might be bitter foes, and also the unpleasant position I occupied, as the ditch in which I had concealed myself was muddy, and proved an uncomfortable bed. I therefore became weary, my limbs stiff from travel and from the pressure of the heavy iron bands. Sleep overpowered me, and I laid down in the leaves, and slept till the cold awoke me, which, judging from the moon’s descent, must have been an hour and a half. The nights in Mississippi are invariably cool, however hot the days may be. Arising from my uneasy slumber, I pressed on. My thirst, which for some time had been increasing, now became absolutely unendurable. I knew not where to obtain water, not daring to go near a well, through fear of being arrested. At length I heard some suckling pigs and their dam, at a short distance from me, in the woods. There seemed to be no alternative. I must either perish, or obtain some fluid to slake my raging thirst; so I resolved to catch a little pig, cut its throat, and drink the blood. I searched for my knife, but I had lost it. I was, therefore, reluctantly compelled to abandon my design on the suckling’s life. As I went forward, the sow and her brood started up alarmed, and in their flight, plunged into water. I immediately followed, and found a mud-hole. Removing the green scum, I drank deep of the stagnant pool. My thirst was only partially quenched by this draught, and soon returned. As day dawned, I found some sassafras leaves, which I chewed, to allay the pangs of hunger; but they formed a paste which I could not swallow.

I soon after came to an old field, where I obtained an abundant supply of blackberries, which not only served to check the gnawings of hunger, but also to allay my intolerable thirst. I reflected that this day was the holy Sabbath, but it brought neither rest to my weary frame, nor composure to my agitated and excited mind. Like Salathiel, the Wandering Jew, the word March! was ringing in my ears. Onward! was my motto; Liberty or death! my watchword. About ten o’clock I came to an open country, and sought out a ditch, in which to conceal myself. Here I fell into a troubled sleep. I saw, in dreams, tables groaning under the weight of the most delicious viands, and brooks of crystal waters, bubbling and sparkling as they rushed onward in their meandering course; but when I attempted to grasp them, they served me as they did Tantalus, of olden time, by vanishing into thin air, or receding beyond my reach. While lying here, I was now and then aroused by the trampling of horses grazing in the field, which I feared might be bringing on my pursuers. And once the voices of men, mingled with the sounds of horses’ feet upon a little bridge, some twenty feet distant, induced me to look out from my hiding-place, and lo! two cavalry-men – perhaps hunting for my life! – rode along.