Escape from the Confederacy

Escape from the Confederacy by Benjamin Hasson is about the plight of prisoners escaping from Belle Island during the mid-19th century Great Rebellion. Excerpt: «Flank out Frank, and go with us tomorrow.» We were squatted on the sandy ground—vermin-ladened sand—inside the prison stockade on Belle Island, discussing the probable destination of the prisoners then being daily removed from that place. Joseph Morton and Peter Deems of my regiment and myself were of the party and the above remark was made by Morton and addressed to me. It was early in March 1864, and just after that famous raid to the vicinity of Richmond by Gen. Kilpatrick and Col. Ulrich Dahlgren."