Some Quiet Diplomacy at Elmira

Gideon Tyson, a private in the Confederate army, was captured at Fort Fisher. He was sent to the Elmira prison camp in New York, where a guard caught him stealing food in the kitchen area in the middle of the night. Gideon overpowered the guard with a knife, but did not kill him. The guard could not turn Gideon in, because then the guard would be punished. For the remainder of the war, the guard looked out for Gideon in return for the leniency that Gideon showed him. On release, Gideon walked home from New York, where he built a grist mill in Bladen County. He later built and operated a grist and cotton mill in Cumberland County.