Adventures of Richmond Oliver Knowles
Grandma Fanny Heacock had lots of Knowles folks in her ancestry, so we are likely related to Richmond. But, just exactly how, I don't know. If I ever find out, then this story can be updated to accommodate the new information.
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Richmond Oliver Knowles, son of William and Sarah (Woodward) Knowles, b. 23 Apr 1825, Athens Co., Ohio; d. 8 Oct 1910, DeLand, Valusia Co., Florida.; m. 23 Dec 1848 Frances Jane Chick b. abt 1833, d 25 Dec 1887, DeLand, Florida.
20 Aug. 1862, Richmond Oliver Knowles enrolled as Private in 116th Ohio Vol. Inf.; served as 1st and 2nd Sargeant and 1st and 2nd Lt., and was Captain at time of discharge 14 June 1865. He was described as 5’10”, light comp., blue eyes, black hair. He was taken prisoner at Winchester, sent to Danville and escaped from prison, Virginia, according to a statement of War Department dated 12 Jan. 1883.
CAPTAIN R. O. KNOWLES
Who was captured at Winchester, June 15, 1863, was confined in various Rebel prisons before he finally found himself at Columbia, South Carolina. After confinement of twenty days there, he and others began to lay plans for escape. How they did it and how they fared afterwards is told by the Captain in a letter from him to Captain A. B. Frame, under date of Deland, Florida, September 10th, 1882. We let the Captain tell the story himself:
“I escaped from Columbia Rebel Prison October 26th, 1864. After being there about twenty days, we began to watch for a chance to escape. We finally approached a guard whom we found willing to aid us in case some greenbacks were forthcoming. We soon arranged with him to let three or four of us pass his post the next time he came on duty which was 26th of October. We had prepared for it by cooking every thing we could find and making maps of the route we would take.
The night arriving, we went to the spot our man was to occupy, about nine o’clock in the evening. There were three other Ohio officers besides myself and two Wisconsin officers in our crowd, all of whom had bribed the same guard. We found our man after some difficulty. I walked up to the guard, and he let me pass. One of the other officers had the greenbacks. I called to the other officers to come on, when a guard close by fired his gun. I jumped pretty high at this a ran as fast as I could; the other officers started with me. The guards fired six or seven shots at us, and of course alarmed every body. We ran as hard as we could, falling several times over stumps and into holes. Two officers were ahead of me, they thinking I was a Johnny, ran for dear life. After eighteen months of captivity, you might well imagine that we ran well. We soon got into a swamp, with mud and water up to our knees. Getting out of this after awhile, we took our planned route, as near as we could guess.
After about an hour, we came near a house, where we were seen by some persons who started after us with some dogs. We took the backtrack for about two hundred yards, when we climbed a fence and took across a field, the dogs keeping on our old track and passing where we crossed the fence. We heard their barking all night. Striking a piece of woods, we lay by all the rest of the night and next day.
When night came again, we stared on our journey, keeping our eyes on the North Star. Some time in the night we struck a road, and concluded to follow it, although it was not our direct course. We ran day and night. I think it was our third night and about three o’clock in the morning, that I gave out, and lay down by the roadside, saying I could go no further. I was sick and weak, and had been so for some days past. We were out of provisions, hungry and exhausted, and something had to be done, so we dragged ourselves into the edge of a woods, and watched for a colored man to pass. During the day we hailed one who, after seeing our condition and learning who we were, left us to return at dark in company with his wife, with a good supply of victuals. They put us on the right road and gave us directions for several days travel, telling us, at the same time, that whenever we got out of provisions, to let the “cullud people know it.”
After this if we missed our way or got out of provisions we applied to the Negroes, who never failed to help us or to be true to us. We had many narrow escapes from capture, often meeting parties on the roads, but fortunately were never molested. After traveling together nearly across North Carolina, our party separated, I going in a squad by myself. The next night I went to a house and telling the man who I was, he gave me half a loaf of corn bread and started me on the right way over the mountains.
That night I waded a wide, cold river. I was two nights crossing the mountains into Tennessee. I called at a house about two o’clock in the morning of the second day, and asked an old lady the way. She told me, but had to tell me too, what a pity it was to send so many souls to Hell in this war. She was firmly of the conviction that there was where all engaged in it were going. After getting into East Tennessee, I traveled in the day time, and after twenty-one days, or rather nights, I reached Knoxville, and was within the Union lines once more, thank God! I tell you I was never happier in my life! I went to a paymaster there, who paid me two months’ pay, and in a few days I was at home sweet home in Coolville.”
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Many thanks to Karen Donsbach for sending a copy of this story.
