"
"So you have had a taste of Union prisons, eh?" asked Senator Baker, who
spoke feelingly--his "Recollections of Johnson's Island" had just made
its appearance.
"Just a leetle might of a taste, Senator; nothing like your experience,
though. You see, it was this way with me. I was captured by a pretty
good sort of a fellow--a big, husky, soft-hearted chap who wouldn't hurt
a flea. That's him over there," pointing to Senator Bull, "and he has
held me prisoner ever since. He ran up against me at Chickamauga."
"Well?" said Senator Baker expectantly.
"Tell them the whole story, Sammy," said Senator Bull, as several of the
party drew their chairs up closer to the private secretary; "tell them
the whole story; it will kill time, anyway."
"Yes," continued Mr. Ridley, "I was taken prisoner, and it all came of
my foolishness and scorn for the enemy. We boys of the --th Arkansas
thought any Johnny Reb could whip five Yanks, and it made us kind of
careless-like, I reckon. I was a raw country lad when the war broke out,
as tough a specimen as ever Jefferson County turned loose on the
unsuspecting public, but I wasn't much worse than the rest of the boys
who loafed around Todd's livery stable swapping lies, chawing tobacco,
and setting the nation to rights. We were all full of fight when the
Sumter news came, and anxious to get in it; and I saw a heap of it, too,
before I made the acquaintance of Nathan Bull.
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