Nine months in Rebel prisons ...

Preface

Dear Reader: — In writing this book I do not wish to cast reflections on the people of the South, no, not even so much as to mention their names. I write this only to give you a true and full description of what I saw and experienced in the Rebel Prison Pens of the South, in the last year and the dark hours of the rebellion, for many have said ''how is it that the Rebs starved our men to death and still there seems to be so many of our exprisoners still alive?" To answer this question in a proper form it must be done in writing, for this generation will soon pass away, and without a written history this thing will never be understood, and this is why I write. These prison pens of which I write, one was located at Andersonville, Georgia, and one at Florence, South Carolina.

v^

Chapter I

My Enlistment, Capture and Journey to Andf.rsonville. Andersonville Stockade or Prison Pen. How It WAS Made. Where the Guards were Stationed. The Dead Line.

I enlisted in the Union or the United States Army on the tenth day of September, 1861, for three years, or during the war. I was captured at or near Spottsylvania, Va., on or about the fourteenth day of May, 1864. The Rebs had fell back from Spottsylvania and two or three regiments where sent out on the morning of the 14th to find where they had made their line of battle. 1 was among those sent out and we had not gone more than two miles before we found them in a strong position. We opened the fight and before our main lines of battle could get to us, we where charged on by the Rebs and about twelve hundred of us were killed, wounded or captured. Here it was we had both of our color bearers shot down and one of our colors or flags captured; but for the battles and fighting of that month and year, see history of the war or of the civil war in the United States. As soon as we were captured the Rebs said: ''your side have lost forty thousand in the last ten days' fight." We said: "thats all right; our army has been reinforced forty thousand from the North since the fight commenced, so you see we are just about as strong now as we were the fourth of May." The Rebs said they "did not care; they had whipped aU our Generals of the Army of the Potomac, and this time they would whip Grant worse than all the rest.

10 NINE MONTHS IN REBP:L PRISONS.

The Rebs took us two or three miles south of their army where we met about one thousand prisoners. We now numbered about two thousand men and several officers.

The officers were here taken away and the private soldiers were marched thirty or forty miles to a place called Danville, Va. At Danville the Rebs took our gum blankets, knives and money; some of the men hid their knives and money so that the Rebs could not find them. I had a large buckhorn penknife which they did not get and twenty cents in money which they did not take; they would not take less than a dollar. We received from the Rebsnine hardtacks or bread and one pound of bacon or meat. This they said would last us three days. We were now put in box cars and started South. The Rebs said "we will now show you Yanks how large our country is." It was now the seventeenth (lay of May, 1864.

The Rebs now took us South. We traveled in daylight and stopped off at nights. We traveled on down through Virginia, North Carolina and Couth Carolina on to about the center o Ceorgia^ where we stopped at a place called Andersonville, a small s'-ation on the Georgia Central R. R. about sixty miles South-east from Macon, Gi.

The Rebs now took us off the cars and marched us about one mile, and then we stood before and in sight of Andersonville Stockade or Prison Pen. This was the twenty fifth day of May, 1864. The Rebs now divided or counted us c ff into detachments of thousands, hundreds and twenty-fives. The twenty-five were called a mess Some of the men wanted to know what they were going to do with us. The Captain in charge said, '*we are going to put you in that Stockade and tliere we are going to keep you until your Government takes you out."

Nine months in heBel prisons. 11

It was now about six o'clock in the evening ; the gate of the Stockade was opened and we were marched into the Prison, tired, hungry and disappointed.

There were about ten thousand prisoners in this Prison at this time

Andersonville Stockade or Prison Pen was a pen of about sixteen acres of land, without shelter of any kind except two pine trees that stood in the Northern part of ihe Prison. Those two trees were cut down on or about the first of July. Wood was so scarce in the prison we had to take the trees to do our cooking.

What little shelter we had was what the prisoners made themselves with their blankets, clothing or what ever they hapened to have when they entered the prison. The Rebs gave us nothing for shelter.

This Prison Pen was inclosed by a Stockade of pine logs sixteen feet long set close together, four feet in the ground, or twelve feet above the ground, or twelve feet high, with two gates, both gates being on one side of the prison, one gate at the upper and one at the lower end, with a drive way so that a horse and wagon could come in and drive about halfway across the prison and turn.

The Reb gu?rd had little sheds about twenty yards apart all the way around tlie Stockade; these sheds where made a Kttle higher than the Stockade so that tlic guards could stand in them and vvutch the Prisoners.

Thesj slieds where on the outside above the stockade. On the inside all the way around was the dead line, and it was certain death for any one who dared to cross the dead line; this dead line on the inside of the Stockade or Prison Ten, was thirty feet from each side and end, and was mirk'^d by a small railir.g nailed on top of Stakes driven in the ground and about two feet high. This railing did not last long for the men being always short of wood, it was carried away piece at a time until it was all gone, and there was nothing left to mark this dead line.

This was very bad for the new Prisoners coming in, for those in the prison never told them about the dead line, and very often when fresh prisoners would come in they would rush over the '.lead line for a place to rest and some one would be sure to be killed or wounded before they could find out their mistake.

Chapter II

Where we got our Water. How we dug wells. The price

OF Water. Overrun with vermin. How we fared

FOR shelter. Fighting Lice. Making a

MUD shanty. Who was responsible

FOR the way we were

treated.

Through the center of this Prison was a ditch of water about one foot deep and three feet wide. About one third of this ditch at one end was used for a sink. This sink was marked by a railing, l)ui by the first of July the railing had all been used for wood to cook with. One-third of this ditch about midway was used to wash in and there could be seen hundreds of men there day and night waiting for their turn to wash themselves; I never washed in the ditch. One end of the ditch was used for drink water.

The Rebs had a cook house on the outside near the ditch, and much of the dirt from their cook house would get in the water, which ir.rdeitvery bad to drink. I never drank water from the ditch. At the end of the ditch inside of the dead line was a small running spring of water. The water would run out of this spring into the ditch and many of the men would reach through or under the dead line so as to get pure water, and there could be seen hundreds of men waiting for their turn to get water there, for only one or two at a time could get water in this way.

There was so much danger that I never went there for water; too near tlie dead line for me.

14 KlXK Months In" HEiiEL pRlsOJcg.

There were about sixteen wells of water in this prison. These wells were from three to thirty feet deep but they were owned by private parties. Some of these welb would have as many as a hundred owners. We had nothing to dig these wells with; we had to dig them with our knives, tin cups and tin plates. It would take iis three or four weeks to dig a well and some of the men would dig fjr weeks and find no water. I have seen men lowered down in these wells, twenty-live of thirty feet deep, with a leather string made from or out of a shoe. Any one who was not an owner was not alowed to use this wellwater, without they bought it at the rate of one cent a quart.

We had no pennies in this prison, and so when we wanted to buy water we would give one teaspoon ful of corn meal, or one teaspoonful of mush or a cliew of tobacco about the size of half a grain of corn. I was one of the owners of a well. The well that I had a share in was fifteen feet deep and it had eighteen owners and the water was good, we used this water to drink, to cook with, and to wash ourselves with.

The owners of the wells had to watch over them day and night. On both sides of this ditch the ground was low and muddy; the mud in some places was knee deep. The men could not stay on this low land All who tried to live there would soon get sick and die. This low muddy ground contained about three acres. From this low land up to the stockade the ground was higher and it was between the dead line and the low land where the Prisoners lived. I have seen men in this low muddy ground up to their knees in mud hunting for wood; every stump and every peice of wood was gathered and used for fuel to cook with.

This low muddy ground was used by the sick men who could not reach or get to the sink or ditch In fact, many of the men were so sick that they could not walk down to the low land, and they had to dig little holes in the ground; and after using them they would cover them over, and these holes, thousand of them, would get full and by the effect of the hot sun and rain they would boil over and run down the hill. This was the cause of creating millions of maggots, and when we would lay down to sleep hundreds of these maggots would crawl over us. Some of them would crawl in our ears and in our mouths.

The Rebs gave us nothing for shelter so we had to depend on our own resources, or whatever we would happen to have when we entered the prison, and there were thousands of little shanties or tents of all description from a shelter tent to a hole in the ground. Many of the men had no shelter. They of course would soon be taken sick and die. There was a place in this prison we called the Island It was a small neck of land that was very nearly surrounded by the low muddy ground, This island was near the center of the prison. It was on this island that I and a number of my friends located. There was about six hundred prisoners on this island, and about three hundred of them were from New Jersey. The men had no change of clothing and no soap to wash with, and living in so much dirt it was no wonder that all of the men in prison became lousy. We had to take our clothes off every day and hunt and kill the lice and nits. These were what we called body lice; we did not make much account of head lice. We had to kill the lice or they would kill us. Oh, pity the sick who could not or had not strengh enough to hunt their lice. The ground or sand seemed to be full of these lice and at any time we could see them crawling on us from off the ground.

I would like here to make a statement in regard to myself: From the fourth of July until the first day of September, every

16 NINK MONTHS IN KEBEL PRISONS.

day in those two months, I killed three hundred lice and nits. When I got up to this number I would stop killing until the next

day.

All the clothes I had was a hat, a coat, one pair of pants, one shirt, one pair of stockings, one pair of shoes. The first night that I landed in the prison I slept out in the open air. The next morning one of the prisoners had a board which he offered to sell for two dollars; it was an inch board twelve feet long and about ten inches wide, and Phil. Hilyard, of Williamstown, N. J.; Jacob Kay, of Longacoming, N. J.; George Macintosh of Mauch Chunk, Pa. and I, made up the two dollars and bought the board. I put in twenty cents, all the money I had. With this board we made a frame for our shanty or tent and enclosed it with mud and clay which we dug from the low muddy ground.

This shanty or tent was one foot high at the back, three feet high at the front, four feet long and four feet wide. Phil had a wool blanket that we used for an awning on the front toward the south. It was built for four, but when we got it finished only three could crawl in at a time, but it done very well to keep the hot sun off. We were raised in the North and this was so far South we suffered much by the heat. Every time it rained very much the roof of our shanty would get soft and fall in and part of the shanty would f.ill down, so we had the pleasure of building it up about once or twice a week. This shanty or tent of ours was called one of the best in the prison and many of the men would come and take a drawing of it when they v anted to build. Oh, pity those who had no shelter, for there were thousands of them who had nothing to keep them from the hot sun and rain. About ten feet from our tent was the low muddy ground, and about five feet from the low land was wheri we dug our well of

NINK MONIUS IN RKBEL PRISONS. 17

water. Now before you read too for I do not wish yon to blame the common people of the South. This thing was done against their wishes. The Rebellion of the South was caused by slavery — by slave holders and slave owners only, and not by the common people— slavery caused it all; and these slave owners, after they started the Rebt^bion, were willing to do anything wrong to carry their point and extend slavery, and this being in the last year of the war they wanted to do something to bring the United States Crovernment to terms, and this was one of the things they tried and failed. The R^bel Leaders were in much trouble at this time and every thing they done seemed to be wrong and bad, while on the other side the United States Government seemed to <lo every thing that was pure, and noble, and right. And now in regard to prison life I propose to give it in detail, and to itemize as far as my memory goes so that all who read will knowhow this starving of prisoners was done.

Chapter III

What we had to eat. The Regulators or Police. Cooking OUR OWN food. Food cut down one-half. Mosby's Raiders. Dog soup. Arrest of the raiders. Six hung.

When I was first put in this Prison Pen the men received their food ready cooked, of which, each one of us received half a pound of corn meal bread, and four ounces of boiled ham or bacon for one day's food. One day in each week we received four ounces of fresh beef. In addition to this we received every two (I lys half a pint of mush, or half a pint of cooked beans, or six tea.poonfuls of molasses ; so you see part of the time we received two difftrent kinds, and part of the time three kinds of food.

Well we went on at tliis rate until June the first, new prisoners coming in every day or two, until we numbered about twenty thousand, and it took ?o much food that the Rebs could not cook it for us, and some times it would be near sun down before we would receive any thing to eat. The mush was put in large dry good boxes; three or four of these boxes were filled with hot mush, put on a two horse open wagor., which the Rebs would drive iito the prison. It took several of these boxes of mush to supply us, and some times the men would get tired waiting, ar.d when t'iie loaded wagon would come in, many of the men would make a raid on the wagon, upset the boxes and spill the mush; in this way it would get wasted and many of the men had to go without mush for that day.

The Rebs and the prisoners soon got tired of this, so we had two companies of regulators or police appointed-. It was the duty or work of the regulators to keep the raiders from the food wagons, for which service they received double rations. The Rebs said that they could not cook our corn meal bread for us so now they gave> us our corn meal raw and wood to cook all our food except the mush, beans, rice and molasses. Generally these articles were cooked before we got them, but some times we would receive them raw. We received our ration of food about in this way : Sunday we received corn meal, saltmeat and half a pint of cooked rice; Monday, corn meal and saltmeat ; Tuesday, corn meal, saltmeat and half a pint of mush; Wednesday, corn meal and fresh beef; Thursday, corn meal, saltmeat and six teaspoonfuls of molasses ; Friday, corn meal and saltmeat ; Saturday, corn meal, saltmeat and half a pint of cooked beans, and then on Sunday, corn meal, etc.

This is, or was, about the way they tried to feed us during tlu nine months that I was there. We had four separate days we received no food, twice we received no food for three days at a time, about thirty days we received no meat, and we received no mush, rice, beans or molasses for forty days at a tiaie. These days we received nothing but corn meal and meat. When we commence to get our food raw it was on or about the first of June and from that time we had to do the cooking ourselves. Each man got his food and done his own cooking. x\t first we received one quart of corn meal and four ounces of meat for one day's food.

This was more corn meal than many of the men could eatp for there were many sick who did not eat one pint a day; I could eat my quart every day. Each man received a piece of wood about one inch square and three feet long every day to cook with. This wood was too small to do our cooking with and as soon as

it I uiiud out we wculd eat our food, very oiten, half cooked. We went on in this way for about tliree weeks. The sick did not eat their full ration of food. Corn meal was plenty, we could buy it in any })art of th.e prison for five cents a quart. I kept about four quarts on hand. Many of the men would try to keep their meal but it would get wet and sour, and corn meal could be seen all through the i)rison where the m.en had thrown it away.

'J'he Rebs saw this and they thought that they were giving us too much to eat, so in the last week in June our food was cut down one-half. Of mush, beans, rice and molasses we got about the same, but of com meal and meat we received but one pint of corn meal and about three ounces of meat a day. The next day after food was cut down corn meal went up to fifty cents a quart and never sold for less during my imprisonment. I never received salt from the Rebs while in Anders jnville prison. I do not think that they e\er gave the Prisoners any salt except what was in the meat.

The }jrice of salt was five cents a tablecpoonful or fifty cent.-j a jjint. It was now the first of July and new i)risoners were coming in and we numbered about thirty t!"iou>an.L At tliis time we were pested with a gang of our men who were called Mosby's Raiders. There seemed to be about one thousand of these men banded together, nearly all of them were known, and we could point them out wherever we would see them. These men, or raiders did not disturb many of the old prisoners but they would steal off of the new ones when they first came ia, which made a great

deal of trouble in the prison.

One day t'.irej Rjbs cam^ in the prison. One appeared to be

a doctcr who h.ul a little pet dog witli him, I saw one of the raiders slip up behind tliem and steal the dog. He took it to hisshan-

T}iM Aui-i T, from .1 cLii^uerreotype takon fhrpe months before lii.s r-apturt ty, killed it and made it into soup. I saw that same raider that evening going through the prison selling soup. He would sing out, "here is your nice mutton soup, twenty-five cents a pint, with a piece of mutton in every pint." The doctor never knew what became of his dog. One day these raiders stole a watch. Some said they stole it fron^ the Rebs and some said they stole it off of one of the new prisoners. I do not know which it was for when any thing happened in the prison we could hear all kind of rumors ; any way there was quite a riot started on account of it.

The watch was never found but the raiders got themselves into trouble by it. The excitement was so strong that the Rebs marched in a company of their men. They then had it explained to them how we were tormented by the raiders. The captain in charge of the prison now ordered the regulators to arrest all the raiders and send them outside to him. The regulators in two days, had arrested over three hundred and sent them out. They where then tried by a court-martial composed of prisoners and rebels, six of them where found guilty of murder. One of their shanties was dug out and one of the prisoners found murdered and buried therein. Then all but the six where sent back into the prison again and they were kept out until the eleventh

of July.

The Captain that had charge over the prison came in and said, ''we have arrested some of your men and have given them a fair trial ; six of them have been found guilty of murder ; we do not know what to do with those six men ; they ought to be hung, but we dare not hang them for fear your government may retaliate, so we hive made up our minds to send them back into the prison and let them go. You men can take them, let them go free, hang them or do what you like with them." Every thing had

22 KINK iMONTHS IN KEBKL PRISONS.

been still and silent while the captain was speaking, but iiow a cry went up from five thousand men, to "hang them;" ''hang them." One of tlie prisoners went uj) to the captain in charge of the ]jrison and said that he would hang them if the captain would give him lumber to build a scaffold and rope to do the hanging with? for, said he, "these raiders have killed my brother and I want to hang them for it." The captain said he would send every thing in that w^as needed. A wagon was sent in with the lumber and soon the men had a scaffold built with six ropes dangling on it. Then about three o'clock in the afternoon the six men were brought in hand-cuffed The captain in charge of the prison then removed the hand-cuffs and turned the men over to the prisoners. The Rebs then all went out except the Quartermaster and the Priest. These two stayed inside the prison until after the hanging. There was about five thousand prisoners at this time standing crowded together near the gate.

As soon as the six men where relieved of their cuffs one of them, the leader of the gang, made a break for liberty. He run hrough this crowd of five thousand men, up and down the prison, across the low mudy ground, wen tup to his knees in mud, fell down, crawled out of the mud, got on the up land and kept on running until some one run up to him and caught him. Then they were taken to the scaffold, the ropes put around their necks, m'^alsacks pulled over their heads, and soon they were dangling in the air. One man broke the rope but he was put up again and hung. They were left hanging for about one hour when a wagon drove in and they were then cut down, loaded on the wagon and

KtNE MoNTfiS IN REbEL PklSONS. ^-^

took out. This stopped the raiding and there was no raiders now to be found. Now if a man was caught stealing he was taken to the regulators and if found guitly, he was tied to a post, received from five to twenty lashes, and then let go.

24 MINE MONTHS IN REBEL PRISONS.

Chapter IV

Drawing Rations. Amount of rations in bulk and what

EACH RECEIVED. MaKING COFFEE. ThE PEN ENLARGED. Men GETTING WILD. PLACING CANNON ON THE

STOCKADE. Clothing giving out.

Now in regards to drawing or di voiding our rations or food. In every detachment or thousand men there was one Reb and one Union man appointed over them. It was the work of the Reb to count his thousand every morning. This was done by counting the first, second, third, and so on hundred at a time. Then the Reb would report to the Rebel Quartermaster, draw the rations or food, and turn it over to the Union man that had charge of the thousand. This Union man would then divide the food into ten parts for which service he would received a double ration of food Each hundred had one Union man appointed over them and it was the work of this man to draw the rations for his men from the man that had charge of the thousand. Then this man would divide the food into four parts for which he would receive for his work a double ration or two shares of the food; and one Union man had charge over the mess, or twenty-five men. It was the work of this man to draw the portion of food for the twenty five men and divide it and for this work he received nothing. It was the rule for the man that divided the twenty-five rations to always take the last ration; this rule caused him to divide it very true and exact ; every man seemed to get his full share. When we received fresh beef with a bone in it the bone would count for one ration of meat as any of the men would take it in preference to the meat. One man told me that he liad boiled his beef bone forty times, always getting a little sab-' stance out of it to season his corn meal or meal cake. At one time the man that was in charge of my mess of twenty-five got sick and died. I was appointed to divide the rations, and the first day I was short of one ration of meat. Of course I had to go without meat for that day. I divided the rations for two or thres weeks; I soon found that I was losing in strength so I threw up the job and some one else took it.