was caught and taken back, but this time by Joe Bruner. He escaped
several times, but never could seem to get anywhere. Once when he and
another slave, Phil, escaped they were caught and made to walk the
entire distance barefoot. After this Peter, was chained each night to a
chair. One morning while eating his breakfast he heard a knock at the
door and on opening it he found a troop of Union Home Guards. Jim Benton
and John Bruner were taken to prison. After this Peter went to Miller's
Creek and worked at odd jobs for awhile.

When John Bruner was taken from Prison, he was much better to Peter.
Soon after John was released from Prison, Peter escaped again. This time
he had joined a regiment in the war. He went through hardships, cold,
hunger and illness.

Often when they were awaken in the morning they would find their
blankets frozen to the ground. He was sick several times. His feet
frozen and other things would go wrong such as having fever and once he
had Variloid. After serving for awhile he was mustered out and returned
to Winchester, where his mother lived. He stayed a short time and then
went to Oxford, Ohio. Here he went to school, but soon decided he was
not learning anything so decided to get married. In the spring he was
married to Nannie Proctor. Again he made a mistake and during this time
suffered hardships trying to keep a roof over their heads and food
enough to eat. He worked at odd jobs, but could not find much to do and
got very much in debt. He then went to Hamilton, Ohio and asked Mr. John
Frye to loan him some money. He had asked Mr. Roberts for some and he
would not loan it. However, John Frye did loan him the money and Peter
paid himself out of debt and bought a stone quarry from his
mother-in-law. He sold a lot of stone from it, but finally sold this and
took a job as engineer at Oxford, College. Dr. Walker was president at