NOTES
79
22 James Cleland Hamilton, "John
Brown in Canada," Canadian Magazine, IV (1894), 119-140.
23 G. D. Smith, "A Well-Kept
Secret," in Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram, February 12, 1933,
quoting John J. Davis at the dedication
of the Masonic Temple at Clarksburg in 1915.
24 Harrison County Circuit Court
records, Clarksburg, West Virginia.
25 Joseph H. Diss Debar, "Two Men,
Old John Brown and Stonewall Jackson, of World-Wide
Fame, by One Who Knew Them Both,"
in Clarksburg Telegram. Undated clipping, about 1894.
26 Le Monde Maconnique (Paris), January 1860, reprinted in translation in Anti-Slavery
Standard (New York), October 6, 1860.
CAPTAIN T. W.
RATHBONE'S "BRIEF DIARY OF IMPRISONMENT"
1 Rathbone still showed his indignation
at being forcibly deprived of his personal property when
he added the following in the first of
the notes later appended to his diary:
"When captured the Rebs, that is
the men of the 18th & 23d Cav were robbing my men of all
the loose property and hats, blouses and
shoes. This took place even after they had us in ranks.
One burly fellow came up behind me and
struck me in the back of the head with his fist [and] took
my hat. Another grabbed my watch
guard[,] broke it in several pieces [and] took my watch &
knife. I threw my revolver into the
river when a Reb jumped in and got it. While this robbery
was going on I asked who the Commander
of the Rebels was and was shown and told that this was
Gen Imboden's command. When shown to me
I appealed to him to stop the robbery of my
command. He replied 'It is no more than
you deserve you damned Yank.'"
In the final sentence of the note he
added some information about their fight: "After the war
I learned from one of the Rebs who was
in the engagement there we killed 16 and wounded 40."
2 Here the text of the diary is followed
by this statement in parentheses: "Note, these particulars
are not full." Rathbone apparently
was referring to his fourth appended note which reads as follows:
"As soon as taken Prisoners we were
put on the road and marched as fast as we could be made
to go, and a part of the way over the
same roads that we had come on. In six or eight miles we
overtook our other detachment and with
it was Col. Leeds and the men taken with him: They
kept us on the jump till nearly night[,]
halted us awhile[,] and then marched us nearly all night.
"Very many of the prisoners were
about run off their last legs. Many overheated and exhausted.
Some could go no further and were put on
to ambulances or on horseback, and thus kept along
with the Rebel force. Col Leeds seemed
to feel the effects of the over march more than any one
and had to ride. He seemed to be
prostrated by the sun and to have taken cold in his throat and
was chilled whenever we got in a shade.
"I had been nearly prostrated by
the march of the 2d July over and across some very steep and
high hills or ridges and the march,
after the capture, about took the little of life that I had left.
I was like a windbroken horse, couldn't
breathe half way down.
"This lasted me through all my
imprisonment. It also caused severe symptoms of Heart-trouble
and threatened paralysis[,] and later on
the food produced scurvy and diarrhea and constipation."
3 This is known as the skirmish at South
Branch Bridge. Another of Rathbone's notes to the
diary adds a little to the account in
the text:
"When the Rebs fell back from South
Branch they didn't say much. Gen Imboden came back
propped up in a carriage. He was said to
be wounded. They marched us hard till way after night
till they got to forks of Cacapon when
they crowded us close together and placed a heavy guard
around us, gave us some meal but no way
to cook it or carry it."
4 Note three at the end of the diary
describes his quarters at Lynchburg and an incident that
took place there involving Col. Leeds:
"While confined in the old Tobacco
warehouse at Lynchburg, our room was perhaps 40/20 ft.
with windows in one end, and that end 4
stories high while in front or on the street our floor was
but one story, or the second floor. We
were assigned to and placed in the end of the room where
the windows were, but we couldn't see
anything for the windows were strongly barred. We occupied
about half the room and the one door
opened into our part; two guards, one on each side of the
room kept us separate from the occupants
of the other end of the room. The stench was horrible.
Among the men confined in the back end
was a civillian [sic] or citizen from East Tennessee.
He was a Preacher and was about 65 years
old. He had been in Prison for more than a year and
was nearly naked. He was Union to the
death. I heard him say one day that 'I'll rot in Prison
before I'll deny the good old Stars and
Stripes.' His name was James Floyd. One day a cowardly
assault was made on him by a Deserter
who knocked the old man down, jumped on him and was
beating him when Col Leeds regardless of
the guards sprang through the guard line seized the
Reb, pulled him off and holding him at
arms length as if his touch was contamination, shook him