h circumstances? To resist
was certain death, while to submit was a mortification and humiliation
that it was hard for a proud-spirited officer to submit to, in the
presence of his comrades. All we could do was to hoot and hiss him from a
safe distance, and chaff and exasperate him by sneering, deriding and
laughing at him; so that although he was the king, and we the subjects, we
managed to insert in the crown he wore, more thorns than laurels. On the
second day after the discovery of this second tunnel, Tabb had a platform
built on the northwest corner of the stockade, and another on the opposite
side, upon each of which he mounted a twelve-pounder brass-piece.

Here was a good chance to have some fun, and as we watched the progress of
the erection of the platforms and mounting of the guns, we indulged in all
sorts of comments and criticisms. Some one would sing out, "Say, Captain,
get a good, strong force behind that gun when you fire it, to catch it
when it goes over;" "Say, Johnny, that gun is like the Irishman's musket,
there'll be more danger behind it than in front;" "Tabb, when you fire
that gun, just stand plumb behind it, and we'll be satisfied;" "I'll let
you shoot that gun at me for a dollar a shot, and take Confederate money,
if you will pull the laniard yourself." "How is it that Lee never found
you out, and placed you in command of his engineer corps or artillery,
instead of keeping such a genius here, guarding Yankee prisoners, with no
chance of immortalizing yourself?" "Barnum would make a fortune out of
you. Why, he paid five thousand dollars once for a fellow that wasn't half
as big a humbug, and done well out of the speculation." "Oh! go soak your
head." "Don't shoot, Tabb; we won't tunnel any more." "We don't want to
get away; we just dig a little once in a while for exercise." "You can't
drive us out of the Confederacy with that gun; we have come to stay."

Such exasperating expressions were kept up from morning till night, for
the two days they were at work erecting these guns on the frail platforms,
to prevent tunnelling. But these precautions did not for a moment
interfere with our tunnelling, and while we were thus pestering Tabb,
others were busy preparing other avenues of escape. Two tunnels were
started simultaneously, one commencing in an old building on the east side
of the camp, and the other in what was called No. 7 Squad, which was on
the opposite side of the stockade. The one on the ea