Bull Run wrote a part of it’s history in a lump on the side of his face were a rifle bullet still lies hidden in the flesh. The Davis farm fight is autographed in a scar on his leg and Cold Harbor gave him a memento in the shape of a jagged cut on his hand. Libby prison is written deeply in lines on his face which 48 years have not ereased.

Henry enlisted in an Infantry Regiment when the first call for troops came and had his first real smell of battle smoke at the First Battle of Bull Run. His company was out of the main firing line and he became curious to know what was going on so he climbed upon a cassion and looked over the earth works. His Capt. ordered him down but he soon climbed up again and as he looked over a sharpshooter from a neighboring tree droped him. The buller entered his right cheek, passed through an opening were a tooth was missing, notched his tounge, knocked two teeth on the left side and lodged in his left cheek. It is still there for the military physicians refused to remove it. It never bothered him until recently and he is now planning to have it removed.

None of my wounds were as dangerous or caused me half the suffering of two other experiences, said Mr. Culbey.The first was when I was on picket duty along the Chickahominy in old Virgina and the other was in Libby prison.

Our Regiment was camped along the banks of the Chickahominy and four of us were sent out along the river to guard and out post, to being on duty at a time.

We had on very little clothing but the weather was freezing, the rain fell all night as we wathched the post. Our bodies became numb and we were chilled until we could hardly move but we managed to keep alive until morning when the relief came. My partner was so far gone that he couldn’t walk and they helped him into camp while I carried both our guns. The poor fellow died in a short time and we burried him close by the side of the river. The two men who had the watch with us were overcome by the cold and both died before they reached home. One of them had been married just before we went to the war and his wife never saw him again for he was buried in the field.

Mr. Culbey passed through the experience unharmed.

Libby prison was the shot that came near putting an other of the boys in blue under the ground.

Mr. Clubey was captured with others of his company at the battle of Pine Ridge and was sent to Libby prison. He was one of the few men who ever escaped from the grim prison but when he came out he weighed 98 pounds while he weighed 165 pounds the day before he entered.

I was accused of insulting the Confederate who called the roll every morning to check up the living and was sentenced to five days in “Castle Thunder” on bread and water.

I went there four days and on the fourth I was brought out and there was a woman waiting there for me. “Are you Henry Cubley from Center county, Pennsylvania?” she asked. I told her that I was and she looked at me again and cried as though she was my own mother. She was a Mrs. Harrison who formerly lived in Center County and I used to haul wood for her when I was a boy. I had become so thin and haggered from six months in prison that she did not reconize me.

When she saw the marks of the hardships in my face she asked permission of the commander to take me to her home which was only a little way off and give me dinner, but he refused and was bound to send me back but as he did so the door opened and a Confederate officer came in with several aides. The others saluted as he came into the room. He inquired the cause of the consultation and the commander of the castle explained it to him, and the woman begged him to allow me to accompany her.

The officer a short, elderly man with gray beard bowed to Mrs. Harrison. “If you will allow a guard to stay on your porch while he eats his diner he may go, he said. She gladly accepted the conditions and I staggered to her home under guard.”

“The elderly officer accompanied us to the door of the prison. As we left I asked Mrs. Harrison who he was and she said : That was General Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces.

After that I went every day to Mrs. Harrison’s home for my meals and I will never be able to describe the kind of meals they were. After six months of Libby prison fare the big white table loaded with Southern dishes seemed like a dream and it braced me up so that I gradually regained my strenght.

At first the guard went with me every day but finally, when I made no attept to escape he became careless and sometime allowed me to go by myself.

One day when I came without a guard I found Mrs. Harrison ready to help me escape. She wrapped me up in some cloths which hid my ragged uniform and she herself drove with me in a cariage to within half a mile of the Union lines, seven miles from the prison. There she put me down and I went through the lines and joined the regiment.

I never saw her since, but I learned that prominence kept her from sufferings punishment for helping me escape.