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| The Confederate sergeant berry Benson, who tunneled out of Elmira prison Sergeant Berry Benson, of Company H, First South Carolina Infantry, was a prisoner at Elmira from July 25 to October 7, 1864. At four o'clock in the morning on the latter date, he and nine companions entered a tunnel sixty-six feet long which they had been digging for about two months. The earth extracted had been carried away in their haversacks and disposed of. On reaching the outside of the stockade the prisoners scattered in parties of two and three, Sergeant Benson going alone, since the companion he had intended to take with him failed to escape. None of them were recaptured. Sergeant Benson, half a century later, still preserved the passes given him from Newmarket, Virginia, where he first reached Early's army, to Richmond. He wrote in 1911 that the men who thus effected their escape were Washington B. Trawick, of the Jeff. Davis Artillery, Alabama, then living at Cold Springs, Texas; John Fox Maull, of the Jeff. Davis Artillery, deceased; J. P. Putegnat, deceased; G. G. Jackson of Wetumpka, Alabama; William Templin, of Faunsdale, Alabama; J. P. Scruggs, of Limestone Springs, South Carolina; Cecrops Malone, of Company F, Ninth Alabama Infantry, then living at Waldron, Ark.; Crawford of the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, and Glenn. Most of them were present at Appomattox. |
