How Henry Adams was Captured
Narrow Escape #10
Ironton Register 20 Jan. 1887
Submitted by Jimmie Epling
“Hello, Henry,” said the Register reporter to Henry Adams. “I’m on the hunt for a “Narrow Escape,” please proceed.”
“Well, now, this is too sudden,” returned Henry; “give me a chance to think up one.”
“Oh, no. You ought to have had one thought up. Give about your capture if you can’t think of another. While it was no escape, you were in pretty close quarters.”
“Yes, I can tell you of that. I was a member of Battery B, commanding. On the 3rd of January 1863, the rebs attacked us at Moorfield, and we drove them off and supposed they were gone. So on the 5th, I was started to Winchester with a battery wagon, a forge, and a baggage wagon.
“We were guarded by 25 cavalries of Capt. Rowan’s company, 1st W. Va. Lieut. Dawson is in command. We left Moorfield about 7 a.m. and started on a two or three days journey, but very suddenly, our progress was cut off. We hadn’t been gone an hour, and while yet in sight of Moorfield, two companies of reb cavalry came swooping down on us. Lieut. Dawson and his 25 cavalrymen were in our lead, and the rebs drove them back, but notwithstanding their good fighting, they were all around us.
“Three or four were killed or wounded. I was standing right by the battery wagon where I had emptied my revolver at them when a reb officer dashed right at me and, pointing his revolver in my face, said: “Well, of course, I did, and I didn’t hesitate either. I was only glad to get off that easy.
“He put me in charge of a guard and kept on. I tell you, it was no time when they had us all, 33 prisoners, each in charge of a guard. They set fire to the wagons and started us toward the mountains–prisoners and guards ahead and the reb companies behind.
“Of Course, our camp at Moorfield caught on to the racket right off, and Ringgold’s cavalry started in pursuit, and from 8 o’clock in the morning until ten at night, we could hear the banging and the clatter at the rear. Three times we caught sight of our men in pursuit of us, and our hopes grew bright, but as often, we were disappointed. So at 10 o’clock that night, when we got into the mountains, our would-be rescuers gave up the chase.
“We kept on and, in a few days, came into the valley at Strasburg. We were treated kindly by the guards. Capt. McNeal, the reb commander, said when we started our fight, “Now if a guard mistreats any of you, let me know, and I’ll tend to him.” “I was captured once myself at Lexington, Mo., by Col. Mulligan and treated generously and so shall be my prisoners.
“But at Strasburg, we were handed over to Gen. Imboden, and then things were different. Every little article we had, even our pocket combs, was taken from us. Some of our boys had just been paid off, and they had to give up their money. Max Stoker, who lived at Hanging Rock, lost $217.65. My little $27 went, too.
“Ed. Lyman and I were taken before the General together. Ed. Had bought a $60 silver watch just before we were captured, and then that was taken. Ed. could not contain himself, so he broke out: ‘Gen. Imboden, I consider you a d—n thief.’ Imboden retorted: “Shut up!
“We shoot men for less thing than that.” “Shoot and be dashed,” replied Ed. “It will be only one man less.” He was not shot, but he was tied down out on a cold night, that awful January night, and came near freezing to death. It was a “Narrow Escape” for him, for he would have frozen to death as sure as fate had not someone, having great pity, taken him an overcoat about midnight.
“Other boys who were with us were Jim Henry, Hezekiah Miner, Davy Thomas, James Howard, and Pete D’Army. All of them lost their two months’ pay, or what was in their pockets, left of it.
“We were then sent off to Libby Prison, where we remained 32 days, and then we were sent to City Point, where we were paroled. Then we went to Paroled Prisoners’ Camp at Annapolis, where Ed. Lyman and I, by a little dodge, got a furlough. We went to Baltimore, where we reported to Gen. Wool, and the old white-headed General treated us nicely. After a short visit home, we were exchanged and returned to our regiment.
“When I left, Capt. McNeal, who had captured us at Strasburg, gave me a letter to Col. Mulligan, his captor, which I had to sew up in my coat to protect McNeal and get it through the lines I presented it to Mulligan in the Shenandoah valley and he seemed delighted to hear from his old prisoner and the effect of his own kind treatment.”
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