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diff --git a/3072-0.txt b/3072-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a18d3d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/3072-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19996 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Andersonville, complete, by John McElroy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Andersonville, complete + +Author: John McElroy + +Release Date: August 22, 2006 [EBook #3072] +Last Updated: August 24, 2023 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSONVILLE, COMPLETE *** + + + + + ANDERSONVILLE + A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS + + FIFTEEN MONTHS A GUEST OF THE SO-CALLED + SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY + + A PRIVATE SOLDIERS EXPERIENCE + IN + RICHMOND, ANDERSONVILLE, SAVANNAH, MILLEN + BLACKSHEAR AND FLORENCE + + + BY JOHN McELROY + Late of Co. L. 16th Ill Cav. + 1879 + + + + + TO THE HONORABLE + + NOAH H. SWAYNE. + + JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, + A JURIST OF DISTINGUISHED TALENTS AND EXALTED CHARACTER; + ONE OF THE LAST OF THAT + ADMIRABLE ARRAY OF PURE PATRIOTS AND SAGACIOUS COUNSELORS, + WHO, IN + THE YEARS OF THE NATION’S TRIAL, + FAITHFULLY SURROUNDED THE GREAT PRESIDENT, + AND, WITH HIM, BORE THE BURDEN + OF + THOSE MOMENTOUS DAYS; + AND WHOSE WISDOM AND FAIRNESS HAVE DONE SO MUCH SINCE + TO + CONSERVE WHAT WAS THEN WON, + THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH RESPECT AND APPRECIATION, + + BY THE AUTHOR. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +The fifth part of a century almost has sped with the flight of time +since the outbreak of the Slaveholder’s Rebellion against the United +States. The young men of to-day were then babes in their cradles, or, +if more than that, too young to be appalled by the terror of the times. +Those now graduating from our schools of learning to be teachers of +youth and leaders of public thought, if they are ever prepared to teach +the history of the war for the Union so as to render adequate honor to +its martyrs and heroes, and at the same time impress the obvious moral +to be drawn from it, must derive their knowledge from authors who can +each one say of the thrilling story he is spared to tell: “All of which +I saw, and part of which I was.” + +The writer is honored with the privilege of introducing to the reader +a volume written by an author who was an actor and a sufferer in the +scenes he has so vividly and faithfully described, and sent forth to +the public by a publisher whose literary contributions in support of +the loyal cause entitle him to the highest appreciation. Both author +and publisher have had an honorable and efficient part in the great +struggle, and are therefore worthy to hand down to the future a record +of the perils encountered and the sufferings endured by patriotic +soldiers in the prisons of the enemy. The publisher, at the beginning +of the war, entered, with zeal and ardor upon the work of raising +a company of men, intending to lead them to the field. Prevented +from carrying out this design, his energies were directed to a more +effective service. His famous “Nasby Letters” exposed the absurd and +sophistical argumentations of rebels and their sympathisers, in such +broad, attractive and admirable burlesque, as to direct against them +the “loud, long laughter of a world!” The unique and telling satire of +these papers became a power and inspiration to our armies in the field +and to their anxious friends at home, more than equal to the might of +whole battalions poured in upon the enemy. An athlete in logic may +lay an error writhing at his feet, and after all it may recover to do +great mischief. But the sharp wit of the humorist drives it before the +world’s derision into shame and everlasting contempt. These letters +were read and shouted over gleefully at every camp-fire in the Union +Army, and eagerly devoured by crowds of listeners when mails were +opened at country post-offices. Other humorists were content when they +simply amused the reader, but “Nasby’s” jests were arguments--they had +a meaning--they were suggested by the necessities and emergencies of the +Nation’s peril, and written to support, with all earnestness, a most +sacred cause. + +The author, when very young, engaged in journalistic work, until the +drum of the recruiting officer called him to join the ranks of his +country’s defenders. As the reader is told, he was made a prisoner. +He took with him into the terrible prison enclosure not only a brave, +vigorous, youthful spirit, but invaluable habits of mind and thought +for storing up the incidents and experiences of his prison life. As a +journalist he had acquired the habit of noticing and memorizing every +striking or thrilling incident, and the experiences of his prison +life were adapted to enstamp themselves indelibly on both feeling and +memory. He speaks from personal experience and from the stand-paint of +tender and complete sympathy with those of his comrades who suffered +more than he did himself. Of his qualifications, the writer of these +introductory words need not speak. The sketches themselves testify to +his ability with such force that no commendation is required. + +This work is needed. A generation is arising who do not know what the +preservation of our free government cost in blood and suffering. Even +the men of the passing generation begin to be forgetful, if we may +judge from the recklessness or carelessness of their political action. +The soldier is not always remembered nor honored as he should be. But, +what to the future of the great Republic is more important, there is +great danger of our people under-estimating the bitter animus and +terrible malignity to the Union and its defenders cherished by those +who made war upon it. This is a point we can not afford to be mistaken +about. And yet, right at this point this volume will meet its severest +criticism, and at this point its testimony is most vital and necessary. + +Many will be slow to believe all that is here told most truthfully +of the tyranny and cruelty of the captors of our brave boys in +blue. There are no parallels to the cruelties and malignities here +described in Northern society. The system of slavery, maintained for +over two hundred years at the South, had performed a most perverting, +morally desolating, and we might say, demonizing work on the dominant +race, which people bred under our free civilization can not at once +understand, nor scarcely believe when it is declared unto them. This +reluctance to believe unwelcome truths has been the snare of our +national life. We have not been willing to believe how hardened, +despotic, and cruel the wielders of irresponsible power may become. + +When the anti-slavery reformers of thirty years ago set forth the +cruelties of the slave system, they were met with a storm of indignant +denial, villification and rebuke. When Theodore D. Weld issued his +“Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses,” to the cruelty of slavery, he +introduced it with a few words, pregnant with sound philosophy, which +can be applied to the work now introduced, and may help the reader +better to accept and appreciate its statements. Mr. Weld said: + +“Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into +the field, and make you work without pay as long as you lived. Would +that be justice? Would it be kindness? Or would it be monstrous +injustice and cruelty? Now, is the man who robs you every day too +tender-hearted ever to cuff or kick you? He can empty your pockets +without remorse, but if your stomach is empty, it cuts him to the +quick. He can make you work a life-time without pay, but loves you +too well to let you go hungry. He fleeces you of your rights with a +relish, but is shocked if you work bare-headed in summer, or without +warm stockings in winter. He can make you go without your liberty, +but never without a shirt. He can crush in you all hope of bettering +your condition by vowing that you shall die his slave, but though he +can thus cruelly torture your feelings, he will never lacerate your +back--he can break your heart, but is very tender of your skin. He can +strip you of all protection of law, and all comfort in religion, and +thus expose you to all outrages, but if you are exposed to the weather, +half-clad and half-sheltered, how yearn his tender bowels! What! talk +of a man treating you well while robbing you of all you get, and as +fast as you get it? And robbing you of yourself, too, your hands and +feet, your muscles, limbs and senses, your body and mind, your liberty +and earnings, your free speech and rights of conscience, your right to +acquire knowledge, property and reputation, and yet you are content to +believe without question that men who do all this by their slaves have +soft hearts oozing out so lovingly toward their human chattles that +they always keep them well housed and well clad, never push them too +hard in the field, never make their dear backs smart, nor let their +dear stomachs get empty!” + +In like manner we may ask, are not the cruelties and oppressions +described in the following pages what we should legitimately expect +from men who, all their lives, have used whip and thumb-screw, shot-gun +and bloodhound, to keep human beings subservient to their will? Are we +to expect nothing but chivalric tenderness and compassion from men who +made war on a tolerant government to make more secure their barbaric +system of oppression? + +These things are written because they are true. Duty to the brave +dead, to the heroic living, who have endured the pangs of a hundred +deaths for their country’s sake; duty to the government which depends +on the wisdom and constancy of its good citizens for its support and +perpetuity, calls for this “round, unvarnished tale” of suffering +endured for freedom’s sake. + +The publisher of this work urged his friend and associate in journalism +to write and send forth these sketches because the times demanded just +such an expose of the inner hell of the Southern prisons. The tender +mercies of oppressors are cruel. We must accept the truth and act in +view of it. Acting wisely on the warnings of the past, we shall be able +to prevent treason, with all its fearful concomitants, from being again +the scourge and terror of our beloved land. + +ROBERT McCUNE. + + + + +AUTHOR’S PREFACE + +Fifteen months ago--and one month before it was begun--I had no more +idea of writing this book than I have now of taking up my residence in +China. + +While I have always been deeply impressed with the idea that the +public should know much more of the history of Andersonville and other +Southern prisons than it does, it had never occurred to me that I was +in any way charged with the duty of increasing that enlightenment. + +No affected deprecation of my own abilities had any part is this. +I certainly knew enough of the matter, as did every other boy who +had even a month’s experience in those terrible places, but the +very magnitude of that knowledge overpowered me, by showing me the +vast requirements of the subject-requirements that seemed to make +it presumption for any but the greatest pens in our literature to +attempt the work. One day at Andersonville or Florence would be task +enough for the genius of Carlyle or Hugo; lesser than they would fail +preposterously to rise to the level of the theme. No writer ever +described such a deluge of woes as swept over the unfortunates confined +in Rebel prisons in the last year-and-a-half of the Confederacy’s life. +No man was ever called upon to describe the spectacle and the process +of seventy thousand young, strong, able-bodied men, starving and +rotting to death. Such a gigantic tragedy as this stuns the mind and +benumbs the imagination. + +I no more felt myself competent to the task than to accomplish one of +Michael Angelo’s grand creations in sculpture or painting. + +Study of the subject since confirms me in this view, and my only claim +for this book is that it is a contribution--a record of individual +observation and experience--which will add something to the material +which the historian of the future will find available for his work. + +The work was begun at the suggestion of Mr. D. R. Locke, (Petroleum V. +Nasby), the eminent political satirist. At first it was only intended +to write a few short serial sketches of prison life for the columns +of the TOLEDO BLADE. The exceeding favor with which the first of the +series was received induced a great widening of their scope, until +finally they took the range they now have. + +I know that what is contained herein will be bitterly denied. I am +prepared for this. In my boyhood I witnessed the savagery of the +Slavery agitation--in my youth I felt the fierceness of the hatred +directed against all those who stood by the Nation. I know that hell +hath no fury like the vindictiveness of those who are hurt by the +truth being told of them. I apprehend being assailed by a sirocco +of contradiction and calumny. But I solemnly affirm in advance the +entire and absolute truth of every material fact, statement and +description. I assert that, so far from there being any exaggeration +in any particular, that in no instance has the half of the truth +been told, nor could it be, save by an inspired pen. I am ready to +demonstrate this by any test that the deniers of this may require, +and I am fortified in my position by unsolicited letters from over +3,000 surviving prisoners, warmly indorsing the account as thoroughly +accurate in every respect. + +It has been charged that hatred of the South is the animus of this +work. Nothing can be farther from the truth. No one has a deeper love +for every part of our common country than I, and no one to-day will +make more efforts and sacrifices to bring the South to the same plane +of social and material development with the rest of the Nation than I +will. If I could see that the sufferings at Andersonville and elsewhere +contributed in any considerable degree to that end, and I should not +regret that they had been. Blood and tears mark every step in the +progress of the race, and human misery seems unavoidable in securing +human advancement. But I am naturally embittered by the fruitlessness, +as well as the uselessness of the misery of Andersonville. There was +never the least military or other reason for inflicting all that +wretchedness upon men, and, as far as mortal eye can discern, no +earthly good resulted from the martyrdom of those tens of thousands. +I wish I could see some hope that their wantonly shed blood has sown +seeds that will one day blossom, and bear a rich fruitage of benefit to +mankind, but it saddens me beyond expression that I can not. + +The years 1864-5 were a season of desperate battles, but in that +time many more Union soldiers were slain behind the Rebel armies, by +starvation and exposure, than were killed in front of them by cannon +and rifle. The country has heard much of the heroism and sacrifices of +those loyal youths who fell on the field of battle; but it has heard +little of the still greater number who died in prison pen. It knows +full well how grandly her sons met death in front of the serried ranks +of treason, and but little of the sublime firmness with which they +endured unto the death, all that the ingenious cruelty of their foes +could inflict upon them while in captivity. + +It is to help supply this deficiency that this book is written. It is +a mite contributed to the better remembrance by their countrymen of +those who in this way endured and died that the Nation might live. It +is an offering of testimony to future generations of the measureless +cost of the expiation of a national sin, and of the preservation of our +national unity. + +This is all. I know I speak for all those still living comrades who +went with me through the scenes that I have attempted to describe, when +I say that we have no revenges to satisfy, no hatreds to appease. We do +not ask that anyone shall be punished. We only desire that the Nation +shall recognize and remember the grand fidelity of our dead comrades, +and take abundant care that they shall not have died in vain. + +For the great mass of Southern people we have only the kindliest +feeling. We but hate a vicious social system, the lingering shadow of +a darker age, to which they yield, and which, by elevating bad men to +power, has proved their own and their country’s bane. + +The following story does not claim to be in any sense a history of +Southern prisons. It is simply a record of the experience of one +individual--one boy--who staid all the time with his comrades inside +the prison, and had no better opportunities for gaining information +than any other of his 60,000 companions. + +The majority of the illustrations in this work are from the skilled +pencil of Captain O. J. Hopkins, of Toledo, who served through the war +in the ranks of the Forty-second Ohio. His army experience has been of +peculiar value to the work, as it has enabled him to furnish a series +of illustrations whose life-like fidelity of action, pose and detail +are admirable. + +Some thirty of the pictures, including the frontispiece, and the +allegorical illustrations of War and Peace, are from the atelier of Mr. +O. Reich, Cincinnati, O. + +A word as to the spelling: Having always been an ardent believer in +the reformation of our present preposterous system--or rather, no +system--of orthography, I am anxious to do whatever lies in my power +to promote it. In the following pages the spelling is simplified to +the last degree allowed by Webster. I hope that the time is near when +even that advanced spelling reformer will be left far in the rear by +the progress of a people thoroughly weary of longer slavery to the +orthographical absurdities handed down to us from a remote and grossly +unlearned ancestry. + +Toledo, O., Dec. 10, 1879. + +JOHN McELROY. + + + + +We wait beneath the furnace blast +The pangs of transformation; +Not painlessly doth God recast +And mold anew the nation. +Hot burns the fire +Where wrongs expire; +Nor spares the hand +That from the land +Uproots the ancient evil. + +The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared +Its bloody rain is dropping; +The poison plant the fathers spared +All else is overtopping. +East, West, South, North, +It curses the earth; +All justice dies, +And fraud and lies +Live only in its shadow. + +Then let the selfish lip be dumb +And hushed the breath of sighing; +Before the joy of peace must come +The pains of purifying. +God give us grace +Each in his place +To bear his lot, +And, murmuring not, +Endure and wait and labor! + +WHITTIER + + + + + + +ANDERSONVILLE + +A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A STRANGE LAND--THE HEART OF THE APPALACHIANS--THE GATEWAY OF AN EMPIRE +--A SEQUESTERED VALE, AND A PRIMITIVE, ARCADIAN, NON-PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE. + +A low, square, plainly-hewn stone, set near the summit of the eastern +approach to the formidable natural fortress of Cumberland Gap, +indicates the boundaries of--the three great States of Virginia, +Kentucky and Tennessee. It is such a place as, remembering the old +Greek and Roman myths and superstitions, one would recognize as fitting +to mark the confines of the territories of great masses of strong, +aggressive, and frequently conflicting peoples. There the god Terminus +should have had one of his chief temples, where his shrine would be +shadowed by barriers rising above the clouds, and his sacred solitude +guarded from the rude invasion of armed hosts by range on range of +battlemented rocks, crowning almost inaccessible mountains, interposed +across every approach from the usual haunts of men. + +Roundabout the land is full of strangeness and mystery. The throes of +some great convulsion of Nature are written on the face of the four +thousand square miles of territory, of which Cumberland Gap is the +central point. Miles of granite mountains are thrust up like giant +walls, hundreds of feet high, and as smooth and regular as the side of +a monument. + +Huge, fantastically-shaped rocks abound everywhere--sometimes rising +into pinnacles on lofty summits--sometimes hanging over the verge of +beetling cliffs, as if placed there in waiting for a time when they +could be hurled down upon the path of an advancing army, and sweep it +away. + +Large streams of water burst out in the most unexpected planes, +frequently far up mountain sides, and fall in silver veils upon +stones beaten round by the ceaseless dash for ages. Caves, rich in +quaintly formed stalactites and stalagmites, and their recesses filled +with metallic salts of the most powerful and diverse natures; break +the mountain sides at frequent intervals. Everywhere one is met by +surprises and anomalies. Even the rank vegetation is eccentric, and as +prone to develop into bizarre forms as are the rocks and mountains. + +The dreaded panther ranges through the primeval, rarely trodden +forests; every crevice in the rocks has for tenants rattlesnakes or +stealthy copperheads, while long, wonderfully swift “blue racers” haunt +the edges of the woods, and linger around the fields to chill his +blood who catches a glimpse of their upreared heads, with their great, +balefully bright eyes, and “white-collar” encircled throats. + +The human events happening here have been in harmony with the natural +ones. It has always been a land of conflict. In 1540--339 years ago +--De Soto, in that energetic but fruitless search for gold which +occupied his later years, penetrated to this region, and found it the +fastness of the Xualans, a bold, aggressive race, continually warring +with its neighbors. When next the white man reached the country--a +century and a half later--he found the Xualans had been swept away by +the conquering Cherokees, and he witnessed there the most sanguinary +contest between Indians of which our annals give any account--a pitched +battle two days in duration, between the invading Shawnees, who lorded +it over what is now Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana--and the Cherokees, who +dominated the country the southeast of the Cumberland range. Again the +Cherokees were victorious, and the discomfited Shawnees retired north +of the Gap. + +Then the white man delivered battle for the possession the land, and +bought it with the lives of many gallant adventurers. Half a century +later Boone and his hardy companion followed, and forced their way into +Kentucky. + +Another half century saw the Gap the favorite haunt of the greatest +of American bandits--the noted John A. Murrell--and his gang. They +infested the country for years, now waylaying the trader or drover +threading his toilsome way over the lone mountains, now descending upon +some little town, to plunder its stores and houses. + +At length Murrell and his band were driven out, and sought a new field +of operations on the Lower Mississippi. They left germs behind them, +however, that developed into horse thieve counterfeiters, and later +into guerrillas and bushwhackers. + +When the Rebellion broke out the region at once became the theater of +military operations. Twice Cumberland Gap was seized by the Rebels, and +twice was it wrested away from them. In 1861 it was the point whence +Zollicoffer launched out with his legions to “liberate Kentucky,” and +it was whither they fled, beaten and shattered, after the disasters of +Wild Cat and Mill Springs. In 1862 Kirby Smith led his army through the +Gap on his way to overrun Kentucky and invade the North. Three months +later his beaten forces sought refuge from their pursuers behind its +impregnable fortifications. Another year saw Burnside burst through the +Gap with a conquering force and redeem loyal East Tennessee from its +Rebel oppressors. + +Had the South ever been able to separate from the North the boundary +would have been established along this line. + +Between the main ridge upon which Cumberland Gap is situated, and the +next range on the southeast which runs parallel with it, is a narrow, +long, very fruitful valley, walled in on either side for a hundred +miles by tall mountains as a City street is by high buildings. It is +called Powell’s Valley. In it dwell a simple, primitive people, shut +out from the world almost as much as if they lived in New Zealand, and +with the speech, manners and ideas that their fathers brought into the +Valley when they settled it a century ago. There has been but little +change since then. The young men who have annually driven cattle to +the distant markets in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, have brought +back occasional stray bits of finery for the “women folks,” and the +latest improved fire-arms for themselves, but this is about all the +innovations the progress of the world has been allowed to make. Wheeled +vehicles are almost unknown; men and women travel on horseback as +they did a century ago, the clothing is the product of the farm and +the busy looms of the women, and life is as rural and Arcadian as any +ever described in a pastoral. The people are rich in cattle, hogs, +horses, sheep and the products of the field. The fat soil brings forth +the substantials of life in opulent plenty. Having this there seems +to be little care for more. Ambition nor avarice, nor yet craving +after luxury, disturb their contented souls or drag them away from the +non-progressive round of simple life bequeathed them by their fathers. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SCARCITY OF FOOD FOR THE ARMY--RAID FOR FORAGE--ENCOUNTER WIT THE +REBELS --SHARP CAVALRY FIGHT--DEFEAT OF THE “JOHNNIES”--POWELL’S VALLEY +OPENED UP. + +As the Autumn of 1863 advanced towards Winter the difficulty of +supplying the forces concentrated around Cumberland Gap--as well as +the rest of Burnside’s army in East Tennessee--became greater and +greater. The base of supplies was at Camp Nelson, near Lexington, +Ky., one hundred and eighty miles from the Gap, and all that the Army +used had to be hauled that distance by mule teams over roads that, in +their best state were wretched, and which the copious rains and heavy +traffic had rendered well-nigh impassable. All the country to our +possession had been drained of its stock of whatever would contribute +to the support of man or beast. That portion of Powell’s Valley +extending from the Gap into Virginia was still in the hands of the +Rebels; its stock of products was as yet almost exempt from military +contributions. Consequently a raid was projected to reduce the Valley +to our possession, and secure its much needed stores. It was guarded by +the Sixty-fourth Virginia, a mounted regiment, made up of the young men +of the locality, who had then been in the service about two years. + +Maj. C. H. Beer’s third Battalion, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry--four +companies, each about 75 strong--was sent on the errand of driving +out the Rebels and opening up the Valley for our foraging teams. The +writer was invited to attend the excursion. As he held the honorable, +but not very lucrative position of “high, private” in Company L, of the +Battalion, and the invitation came from his Captain, he did not feel at +liberty to decline. He went, as private soldiers have been in the habit +of doing ever since the days of the old Centurion, who said with the +characteristic boastfulness of one of the lower grades of commissioned +officers when he happens to be a snob: + + For I am also a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, + and I say unto one, Go; and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he + cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. + +Rather “airy” talk that for a man who nowadays would take rank with +Captains of infantry. + +Three hundred of us responded to the signal of “boots and saddles,” +buckled on three hundred more or less trusty sabers and revolvers, +saddled three hundred more or less gallant steeds, came into line +“as companies” with the automatic listlessness of the old soldiers, +“counted off by fours” in that queer gamut-running style that makes a +company of men “counting off”--each shouting a number in a different +voice from his neighbor--sound like running the scales on some great +organ badly out of tune; something like this: + +One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. + +Then, as the bugle sounded “Right forward! fours right!” we moved off +at a walk through the melancholy mist that soaked through the very +fiber of man and horse, and reduced the minds of both to a condition of +limp indifference as to things past, present and future. + +Whither we were going we knew not, nor cared. Such matters had long +since ceased to excite any interest. A cavalryman soon recognizes +as the least astonishing thing in his existence the signal to “Fall +in!” and start somewhere. He feels that he is the “Poor Joe” of the +Army--under perpetual orders to “move on.” + +Down we wound over the road that zig-tagged through the forts, +batteries and rifle-pits covering the eastern ascent to the Flap-past +the wonderful Murrell Spring--so-called because the robber chief had +killed, as he stooped to drink of its crystal waters, a rich drover, +whom he was pretending to pilot through the mountains--down to where +the “Virginia road” turned off sharply to the left and entered Powell’s +Valley. The mist had become a chill, dreary rain, through, which we +plodded silently, until night closed in around us some ten miles from +the Gap. As we halted to go into camp, an indignant Virginian resented +the invasion of the sacred soil by firing at one of the guards moving +out to his place. The guard looked at the fellow contemptuously, as +if he hated to waste powder on a man who had no better sense than to +stay out in such a rain, when he could go in-doors, and the bushwhacker +escaped, without even a return shot. + +Fires were built, coffee made, horses rubbed, and we laid down with +feet to the fire to get what sleep we could. + +Before morning we were awakened by the bitter cold. It had cleared off +during the night and turned so cold that everything was frozen stiff. +This was better than the rain, at all events. A good fire and a hot cup +of coffee would make the cold quite endurable. + +At daylight the bugle sounded “Right forward! fours right!” again, and +the 300 of us resumed our onward plod over the rocky, cedar-crowned +hills. + +In the meantime, other things were taking place elsewhere. Our esteemed +friends of the Sixty-fourth Virginia, who were in camp at the little +town of Jonesville, about 40 miles from the Gap, had learned of our +starting up the Valley to drive them out, and they showed that warm +reciprocity characteristic of the Southern soldier, by mounting and +starting down the Valley to drive us out. Nothing could be more +harmonious, it will be perceived. Barring the trifling divergence of +yews as to who was to drive and who be driven, there was perfect accord +in our ideas. + +Our numbers were about equal. If I were to say that they considerably +outnumbered us, I would be following the universal precedent. No +soldier-high or low-ever admitted engaging an equal or inferior force +of the enemy. + +About 9 o’clock in the morning--Sunday--they rode through the streets +of Jonesville on their way to give us battle. It was here that most of +the members of the Regiment lived. Every man, woman and child in the +town was related in some way to nearly every one of the soldiers. + +The women turned out to wave their fathers, husbands, brothers and +lovers on to victory. The old men gathered to give parting counsel and +encouragement to their sons and kindred. The Sixty-fourth rode away to +what hope told them would be a glorious victory. + +At noon we are still straggling along without much attempt at soldierly +order, over the rough, frozen hill-sides. It is yet bitterly cold, and +men and horses draw themselves together, as if to expose as little +surface as possible to the unkind elements. Not a word had been spoken +by any one for hours. + +The head of the column has just reached the top of the hill, and the +rest of us are strung along for a quarter of a mile or so back. + +Suddenly a few shots ring out upon the frosty air from the carbines +of the advance. The general apathy is instantly, replaced by keen +attention, and the boys instinctively range themselves into fours--the +cavalry unit of action. The Major, who is riding about the middle of +the first Company--I--dashes to the front. A glance seems to satisfy +him, for he turns in his saddle and his voice rings out: + +“Company I! FOURS LEFT INTO LINE!--MARCH!!” + +The Company swings around on the hill-top like a great, jointed toy +snake. As the fours come into line on a trot, we see every man draw +his saber and revolver. The Company raises a mighty cheer and dashes +forward. + +Company K presses forward to the ground Company I has just left, +the fours sweep around into line, the sabers and revolvers come out +spontaneously, the men cheer and the Company flings itself forward. + +All this time we of Company L can see nothing except what the companies +ahead of us are doing. We are wrought up to the highest pitch. As +Company K clears its ground, we press forward eagerly. Now we go into +line just as we raise the hill, and as my four comes around, I catch +a hurried glimpse through a rift in the smoke of a line of butternut +and gray clad men a hundred yards or so away. Their guns are at their +faces, and I see the smoke and fire spurt from the muzzles. At the same +instant our sabers and revolvers are drawn. We shout in a frenzy of +excitement, and the horses spring forward as if shot from a bow. + +I see nothing more until I reach the place where the Rebel line stood. +Then I find it is gone. Looking beyond toward the bottom of the hill, +I see the woods filled with Rebels, flying in disorder and our men +yelling in pursuit. This is the portion of the line which Companies +I and K struck. Here and there are men in butternut clothing, prone +on the frozen ground, wounded and dying. I have just time to notice +closely one middle-aged man lying almost under my horse’s feet. He has +received a carbine bullet through his head and his blood colors a great +space around him. + +One brave man, riding a roan horse, attempts to rally his companions. +He halts on a little knoll, wheels his horse to face us, and waves his +hat to draw his companions to him. A tall, lank fellow in the next four +to me--who goes by the nickname of “’Leven Yards”--aims his carbine at +him, and, without checking his horse’s pace, fires. The heavy Sharpe’s +bullet tears a gaping hole through the Rebel’s heart. He drops from his +saddle, his life-blood runs down in little rills on either side of the +knoll, and his riderless horse dashes away in a panic. + +At this instant comes an order for the Company to break up into fours +and press on through the forest in pursuit. My four trots off to the +road at the right. A Rebel bugler, who hag been cut off, leaps his +horse into the road in front of us. We all fire at him on the impulse +of the moment. He falls from his horse with a bullet through his back. +Company M, which has remained in column as a reserve, is now thundering +up close behind at a gallop. Its seventy-five powerful horses are +spurning the solid earth with steel-clad hoofs. The man will be ground +into a shapeless mass if left where he has fallen. We spring from our +horses and drag him into a fence corner; then remount and join in the +pursuit. + +This happened on the summit of Chestnut Ridge, fifteen miles from +Jonesville. + +Late in the afternoon the anxious watchers at Jonesville saw a single +fugitive urging his well-nigh spent horse down the slope of the hill +toward town. In an agony of anxiety they hurried forward to meet him +and learn his news. + +The first messenger who rushed into Job’s presence to announce the +beginning of the series of misfortunes which were to afflict the +upright man of Uz is a type of all the cowards who, before or since +then, have been the first to speed away from the field of battle to +spread the news of disaster. He said: + + “And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have + slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped + alone to tell thee.” + +So this fleeing Virginian shouted to his expectant friends: + +“The boys are all cut to pieces; I’m the only one that got away.” + +The terrible extent of his words was belied a little later, by the +appearance on the distant summit of the hill of a considerable mob +of fugitives, flying at the utmost speed of their nearly exhausted +horses. As they came on down the hill as almost equally disorganized +crowd of pursuers appeared on the summit, yelling in voices hoarse +with continued shouting, and pouring an incessant fire of carbine and +revolver bullets upon the hapless men of the Sixty-fourth Virginia. + +The two masses of men swept on through the town. Beyond it, the road +branched in several directions, the pursued scattered on each of these, +and the worn-out pursuers gave up the chase. + +Returning to Jonesville, we took an account of stock, and found that +we were “ahead” one hundred and fifteen prisoners, nearly that many +horses, and a considerable quantity of small arms. How many of the +enemy had been killed and wounded could not be told, as they were +scattered over the whole fifteen miles between where the fight occurred +and the pursuit ended. Our loss was trifling. + +Comparing notes around the camp-fires in the evening, we found that +our success had been owing to the Major’s instinct, his grasp of the +situation, and the soldierly way in which he took advantage of it. When +he reached the summit of the hill he found the Rebel line nearly formed +and ready for action. A moment’s hesitation might have been fatal to +us. At his command Company I went into line with the thought-like +celerity of trained cavalry, and instantly dashed through the right +of the Rebel line. Company K followed and plunged through the Rebel +center, and when we of Company L arrived on the ground, and charged the +left, the last vestige of resistance was swept away. The whole affair +did not probably occupy more than fifteen minutes. + +This was the way Powell’s Valley was opened to our foragers. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LIVING OFF THE ENEMY--REVELING IN THE FATNESS OF THE COUNTRY--SOLDIERLY +PURVEYING AND CAMP COOKERY--SUSCEPTIBLE TEAMSTERS AND THEIR TENDENCY TO +FLIGHTINESS--MAKING SOLDIER’S BED. + +For weeks we rode up and down--hither and thither--along the length +of the narrow, granite-walled Valley; between mountains so lofty that +the sun labored slowly over them in the morning, occupying half the +forenoon in getting to where his rays would reach the stream that ran +through the Valley’s center. Perpetual shadow reigned on the northern +and western faces of these towering Nights--not enough warmth and +sunshine reaching them in the cold months to check the growth of the +ever-lengthening icicles hanging from the jutting cliffs, or melt the +arabesque frost-forms with which the many dashing cascades decorated +the adjacent rocks and shrubbery. Occasionally we would see where some +little stream ran down over the face of the bare, black rocks for many +hundred feet, and then its course would be a long band of sheeny white, +like a great rich, spotless scarf of satin, festooning the war-grimed +walls of some old castle. + +Our duty now was to break up any nuclei of concentration that the +Rebels might attempt to form, and to guard our foragers--that is, the +teamsters and employee of the Quartermaster’s Department--who were +loading grain into wagons and hauling it away. + +This last was an arduous task. There is no man in the world that needs +as much protection as an Army teamster. He is worse in this respect +than a New England manufacturer, or an old maid on her travels. He is +given to sudden fears and causeless panics. Very innocent cedars have +a fashion of assuming in his eyes the appearance of desperate Rebels +armed with murderous guns, and there is no telling what moment a rock +may take such a form as to freeze his young blood, and make each +particular hair stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine. +One has to be particular about snapping caps in his neighborhood, +and give to him careful warning before discharging a carbine to +clean it. His first impulse, when anything occurs to jar upon his +delicate nerves, is to cut his wheel-mule loose and retire with the +precipitation of a man having an appointment to keep and being behind +time. There is no man who can get as much speed out of a mule as a +teamster falling back from the neighborhood of heavy firing. + +This nervous tremor was not peculiar to the engineers of our +transportation department. It was noticeable in the gentry who carted +the scanty provisions of the Rebels. One of Wheeler’s cavalrymen told +me that the brigade to which he belonged was one evening ordered to +move at daybreak. The night was rainy, and it was thought best to +discharge the guns and reload before starting. Unfortunately, it was +neglected to inform the teamsters of this, and at the first discharge +they varnished from the scene with such energy that it was over a week +before the brigade succeeded in getting them back again. + +Why association with the mule should thus demoralize a man, has +always been a puzzle to me, for while the mule, as Col. Ingersoll has +remarked, is an animal without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity, +he is still not a coward by any means. It is beyond dispute that a +full-grown and active lioness once attacked a mule in the grounds +of the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, and was ignominiously beaten, +receiving injuries from which she died shortly afterward. + +The apparition of a badly-scared teamster urging one of his wheel mules +at break-neck speed over the rough ground, yelling for protection +against “them Johnnies,” who had appeared on some hilltop in sight of +where he was gathering corn, was an almost hourly occurrence. Of course +the squad dispatched to his assistance found nobody. + +Still, there were plenty of Rebels in the country, and they hung around +our front, exchanging shots with us at long taw, and occasionally +treating us to a volley at close range, from some favorable point. +But we had the decided advantage of them at this game. Our Sharpe’s +carbines were much superior in every way to their Enfields. They +would shoot much farther, and a great deal more rapidly, so that the +Virginians were not long in discovering that they were losing more than +they gained in this useless warfare. + +Once they played a sharp practical joke upon us. Copper River is a +deep, exceedingly rapid mountain stream, with a very slippery rocky +bottom. The Rebels blockaded a ford in such a way that it was almost +impossible for a horse to keep his feet. Then they tolled us off in +pursuit of a small party to this ford. When we came to it there was +a light line of skirmishers on the opposite bank, who popped away at +us industriously. Our boys formed in line, gave the customary, cheer, +and dashed in to carry the ford at a charge. As they did so at least +one-half of the horses went down as if they were shot, and rolled over +their riders in the swift running, ice-cold waters. The Rebels yelled +a triumphant laugh, as they galloped away, and the laugh was re-echoed +by our fellows, who were as quick to see the joke as the other side. We +tried to get even with them by a sharp chase, but we gave it up after a +few miles, without having taken any prisoners. + +But, after all, there was much to make our sojourn in the Valley +endurable. Though we did not wear fine linen, we fared sumptuously--for +soldiers--every day. The cavalryman is always charged by the infantry +and artillery with having a finer and surer scent for the good things +in the country than any other man in the service. He is believed to +have an instinct that will unfailingly lead him, in the dankest night, +to the roosting place of the most desirable poultry, and after he has +camped in a neighborhood for awhile it would require a close chemical +analysis to find a trace of ham. + +We did our best to sustain the reputation of our arm of the service. +We found the most delicious hams packed away in the ash-houses. They +were small, and had that; exquisite nutty flavor, peculiar to mast-fed +bacon. Then there was an abundance of the delightful little apple known +as “romanites.” There were turnips, pumpkins, cabbages, potatoes, and +the usual products of the field in plenty, even profusion. The corn +in the fields furnished an ample supply of breadstuff. We carried it +to and ground it in the quaintest, rudest little mills that can be +imagined outside of the primitive affairs by which the women of Arabia +coarsely powder the grain for the family meal. Sometimes the mill would +consist only of four stout posts thrust into the ground at the edge of +some stream. A line of boulders reaching diagonally across the stream +answered for a dam, by diverting a portion of the volume of water to a +channel at the side, where it moved a clumsily constructed wheel, that +turned two small stones, not larger than good-sized grindstones. Over +this would be a shed made by resting poles in forked posts stuck into +the ground, and covering these with clapboards held in place by large +flat stones. They resembled the mills of the gods--in grinding slowly. +It used to seem that a healthy man could eat the meal faster than they +ground it. + +But what savory meals we used to concoct around the campfires, out of +the rich materials collected during the day’s ride! Such stews, such +soups, such broils, such wonderful commixtures of things diverse in +nature and antagonistic in properties such daring culinary experiments +in combining materials never before attempted to be combined. The +French say of untasteful arrangement of hues in dress “that the colors +swear at each other.” I have often thought the same thing of the +heterogeneities that go to make up a soldier’s pot-a feu. + +But for all that they never failed to taste deliciously after a long +day’s ride. They were washed down by a tincupful of coffee strong +enough to tan leather, then came a brier-wood pipeful of fragrant +kinnikinnic, and a seat by the ruddy, sparkling fire of aromatic cedar +logs, that diffused at once warmth, and spicy, pleasing incense. A +chat over the events of the day, and the prospect of the morrow, the +wonderful merits of each man’s horse, and the disgusting irregularities +of the mails from home, lasted until the silver-voiced bugle rang out +the sweet, mournful tattoo of the Regulations, to the flowing cadences +of which the boys had arranged the absurdly incongruous words: + + “S-a-y--D-e-u-t-c-h-e-r-will-you fight-mit Sigel! + Zwei-glass of lager-bier, ja! ja! JA!” + +Words were fitted to all the calls, which generally bore some +relativeness to the signal, but these were as, destitute of congruity +as of sense. + +Tattoo always produces an impression of extreme loneliness. As its +weird, half-availing notes ring out and are answered back from +the distant rocks shrouded in night, and perhaps concealing the +lurking foe, the soldier remembers that he is far away from home and +friends--deep in the enemy’s country, encompassed on every hand by +those in deadly hostility to him, who are perhaps even then maturing +the preparations for his destruction. + +As the tattoo sounds, the boys arise from around the fire, visit the +horse line, see that their horses are securely tied, rub off from +the fetlocks and legs such specks of mud as may have escaped the +cleaning in the early evening, and if possible, smuggle their faithful +four-footed friends a few ears of corn, or another bunch of hay. + +If not too tired, and everything else is favorable, the cavalryman has +prepared himself a comfortable couch for the night. He always sleeps +with a chum. The two have gathered enough small tufts of pine or cedar +to make a comfortable, springy, mattress-like foundation. On this is +laid the poncho or rubber blanket. Next comes one of their overcoats, +and upon this they lie, covering themselves with the two blankets and +the other overcoat, their feet towards the fire, their boots at the +foot, and their belts, with revolver, saber and carbine, at the sides +of the bed. It is surprising what an amount of comfort a man can get +out of such a couch, and how, at an alarm, he springs from it, almost +instantly dressed and armed. + +Half an hour after tattoo the bugle rings out another sadly sweet +strain, that hath a dying sound. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A BITTER COLD MORNING AND A WARM AWAKENING--TROUBLE ALL ALONG THE LINE +--FIERCE CONFLICTS, ASSAULTS AND DEFENSE--PROLONGED AND DESPERATE +STRUGGLE ENDING WITH A SURRENDER. + +The night had been the most intensely cold that the country had +known for many years. Peach and other tender trees had been killed +by the frosty rigor, and sentinels had been frozen to death in our +neighborhood. The deep snow on which we made our beds, the icy covering +of the streams near us, the limbs of the trees above us, had been +cracking with loud noises all night, from the bitter cold. + +We were camped around Jonesville, each of the four companies lying on +one of the roads leading from the town. Company L lay about a mile from +the Court House. On a knoll at the end of the village toward us, and at +a point where two roads separated,--one of which led to us,--stood a +three-inch Rodman rifle, belonging to the Twenty-second Ohio Battery. +It and its squad of eighteen men, under command of Lieutenant Alger and +Sergeant Davis, had been sent up to us a few days before from the Gap. + +The comfortless gray dawn was crawling sluggishly over the +mountain-tops, as if numb as the animal and vegetable life which had +been shrinking all the long hours under the fierce chill. + +The Major’s bugler had saluted the morn with the lively, ringing +tarr-r-r-a-ta-ara of the Regulation reveille, and the company buglers, +as fast as they could thaw out their mouth-pieces, were answering him. + +I lay on my bed, dreading to get up, and yet not anxious to lie still. +It was a question which would be the more uncomfortable. I turned over, +to see if there was not another position in which it would be warmer, +and began wishing for the thousandth time that the efforts for the +amelioration of the horrors of warfare would progress to such a point +as to put a stop to all Winter soldiering, so that a fellow could go +home as soon as cold weather began, sit around a comfortable stove in +a country store; and tell camp stories until the Spring was far enough +advanced to let him go back to the front wearing a straw hat and a +linen duster. + +Then I began wondering how much longer I would dare lie there, before +the Orderly Sergeant would draw me out by the heels, and accompany the +operation with numerous unkind and sulphurous remarks. + +This cogitation, was abruptly terminated by hearing an excited shout +from the Captain: + +“Turn Out!--COMPANY L!! TURNOUT!!!” + +Almost at the same instant rose that shrill, piercing Rebel yell, which +one who has once heard it rarely forgets, and this was followed by a +crashing volley from apparently a regiment of rifles. + +I arose-promptly. + +There was evidently something of more interest on hand than the weather. + +Cap, overcoat, boots and revolver belt went on, and eyes opened at +about the same instant. + +As I snatched up my carbine, I looked out in front, and the whole woods +appeared to be full of Rebels, rushing toward us, all yelling and some +firing. My Captain and First Lieutenant had taken up position on the +right front of the tents, and part of the boys were running up to form +a line alongside them. The Second Lieutenant had stationed himself on a +knoll on the left front, and about a third of the company was rallying +around him. + +My chum was a silent, sententious sort of a chap, and as we ran forward +to the Captain’s line, he remarked earnestly: + +“Well: this beats hell!” + +I thought he had a clear idea of the situation. + +All this occupied an inappreciably short space of time. The Rebels +had not stopped to reload, but were rushing impetuously toward us. We +gave them a hot, rolling volley from our carbines. Many fell, more +stopped to load and reply, but the mass surged straight forward at us. +Then our fire grew so deadly that they showed a disposition to cover +themselves behind the rocks and trees. Again they were urged forward; +and a body of them headed by their Colonel, mounted on a white horse, +pushed forward through the gap between us and the Second Lieutenant. +The Rebel Colonel dashed up to the Second Lieutenant, and ordered him +to surrender. The latter-a gallant old graybeard--cursed the Rebel +bitterly and snapped his now empty revolver in his face. The Colonel +fired and killed him, whereupon his squad, with two of its Sergeants +killed and half its numbers on the ground, surrendered. + +The Rebels in our front and flank pressed us with equal closeness. It +seemed as if it was absolutely impossible to check their rush for an +instant, and as we saw the fate of our companions the Captain gave +the word for every man to look out for himself. We ran back a little +distance, sprang over the fence into the fields, and rushed toward +Town, the Rebels encouraging us to make good time by a sharp fire into +our backs from the fence. + +While we were vainly attempting to stem the onset of the column dashed +against us, better success was secured elsewhere. Another column swept +down the other road, upon which there was only an outlying picket. +This had to come back on the run before the overwhelming numbers, and +the Rebels galloped straight for the three-inch Rodman. Company M was +the first to get saddled and mounted, and now came up at a steady, +swinging gallop, in two platoons, saber and revolver in hand, and led +by two Sergeants-Key and McWright,--printer boys from Bloomington, +Illinois. They divined the object of the Rebel dash, and strained every +nerve to reach the gun first. The Rebels were too near, and got the +gun and turned it. Before they could fire it, Company M struck them +headlong, but they took the terrible impact without flinching, and +for a few minutes there was fierce hand-to-hand work, with sword and +pistol. The Rebel leader sank under a half-dozen simultaneous wounds, +and fell dead almost under the gun. Men dropped from their horses each +instant, and the riderless steeds fled away. The scale of victory was +turned by the Major dashing against the Rebel left flank at the head of +Company I, and a portion of the artillery squad. The Rebels gave ground +slowly, and were packed into a dense mass in the lane up which they +had charged. After they had been crowded back, say fifty yards, word +was passed through our men to open to the right and left on the sides +of the road. The artillerymen had turned the gun and loaded it with a +solid shot. Instantly a wide lane opened through our ranks; the man +with the lanyard drew the fatal cord, fire burst from the primer and +the muzzle, the long gun sprang up and recoiled, and there seemed to +be a demoniac yell in its ear-splitting crash, as the heavy ball left +the mouth, and tore its bloody way through the bodies of the struggling +mass of men and horses. + +This ended it. The Rebels gave way in disorder, and our men fell back +to give the gun an opportunity to throw shell and canister. + +The Rebels now saw that we were not to be run over like a field of +cornstalks, and they fell back to devise further tactics, giving us a +breathing spell to get ourselves in shape for defense. + +The dullest could see that we were in a desperate situation. Critical +positions were no new experience to us, as they never are to a cavalry +command after a few months in the field, but, though the pitcher goes +often to the well, it is broken at last, and our time was evidently at +hand. The narrow throat of the Valley, through which lay the road back +to the Gap, was held by a force of Rebels evidently much superior to +our own, and strongly posted. The road was a slender, tortuous one, +winding through rocks and gorges. Nowhere was there room enough to +move with even a platoon front against the enemy, and this precluded +all chances of cutting out. The best we could do was a slow, difficult +movement, in column of fours, and this would have been suicide. On the +other side of the Town the Rebels were massed stronger, while to the +right and left rose the steep mountain sides. We were caught-trapped as +surely as a rat ever was in a wire trap. + +As we learned afterwards, a whole division of cavalry, under command of +the noted Rebel, Major General Sam Jones, had been sent to effect our +capture, to offset in a measure Longstreet’s repulse at Knoxville. A +gross overestimate of our numbers had caused the sending of so large a +force on this errand, and the rough treatment we gave the two columns +that attacked us first confirmed the Rebel General’s ideas of our +strength, and led him to adopt cautious tactics, instead of crushing us +out speedily, by a determined advance of all parts of his encircling +lines. + +The lull in the fight did not last long. A portion of the Rebel line on +the east rushed forward to gain a more commanding position. + +We concentrated in that direction and drove it back, the Rodman +assisting with a couple of well-aimed shells.--This was followed by a +similar but more successful attempt by another part of the Rebel line, +and so it went on all day--the Rebels rushing up first on this side, +and then on that, and we, hastily collecting at the exposed points, +seeking to drive them back. We were frequently successful; we were on +the inside, and had the advantage of the short interior lines, so that +our few men and our breech-loaders told to a good purpose. + +There were frequent crises in the struggle, that at some times gave +encouragement, but never hope. Once a determined onset was made +from the East, and was met by the equally determined resistance of +nearly our whole force. Our fire was so galling that a large number +of our foes crowded into a house on a knoll, and making loopholes in +its walls, began replying to us pretty sharply. We sent word to our +faithful artillerists, who trained the gun upon the house. The first +shell screamed over the roof, and burst harmlessly beyond. We suspended +fire to watch the next. It crashed through the side; for an instant +all was deathly still; we thought it had gone on through. Then came a +roar and a crash; the clapboards flew off the roof, and smoke poured +out; panic-stricken Rebels rushed from the doors and sprang from the +windows--like bees from a disturbed hive; the shell had burst among +the confined mass of men inside! We afterwards heard that twenty-five +were killed there. + +At another time a considerable force of rebels gained the cover of a +fence in easy range of our main force. Companies L and K were ordered +to charge forward on foot and dislodge them. Away we went, under a +fire that seemed to drop a man at every step. A hundred yards in front +of the Rebels was a little cover, and behind this our men lay down as +if by one impulse. Then came a close, desperate duel at short range. +It was a question between Northern pluck and Southern courage, as to +which could stand the most punishment. Lying as flat as possible on the +crusted snow, only raising the head or body enough to load and aim, the +men on both sides, with their teeth set, their glaring eyes fastened +on the foe, their nerves as tense as tightly-drawn steel wires, rained +shot on each other as fast as excited hands could crowd cartridges into +the guns and discharge them. + +Not a word was said. + +The shallower enthusiasm that expresses itself in oaths and shouts +had given way to the deep, voiceless rage of men in a death grapple. +The Rebel line was a rolling torrent of flame, their bullets shrieked +angrily as they flew past, they struck the snow in front of us, +and threw its cold flakes in faces that were white with the fires +of consuming hate; they buried themselves with a dull thud in the +quivering bodies of the enraged combatants. + +Minutes passed; they seemed hours. + +Would the villains, scoundrels, hell-hounds, sons of vipers never go? + +At length a few Rebels sprang up and tried to fly. They were shot down +instantly. + +Then the whole line rose and ran! + +The relief was so great that we jumped to our feet and cheered wildly, +forgetting in our excitement to make use of our victory by shooting +down our flying enemies. + +Nor was an element of fun lacking. A Second Lieutenant was ordered +to take a party of skirmishers to the top of a hill and engage those +of the Rebels stationed on another hill-top across a ravine. He had +but lately joined us from the Regular Army, where he was a Drill +Sergeant. Naturally, he was very methodical in his way, and scorned +to do otherwise under fire than he would upon the parade ground. He +moved his little command to the hill-top, in close order, and faced +them to the front. The Johnnies received them with a yell and a volley, +whereat the boys winced a little, much to the Lieutenant’s disgust, who +swore at them; then had them count off with great deliberation, and +deployed them as coolly as if them was not an enemy within a hundred +miles. After the line deployed, he “dressed” it, commanded “Front!” and +“Begin, firing!” his attention was called another way for an instant, +and when he looked back again, there was not a man of his nicely formed +skirmish line visible. The logs and stones had evidently been put there +for the use of skirmishers, the boys thought, and in an instant they +availed themselves of their shelter. + +Never was there an angrier man than that Second Lieutenant; he +brandished his saber and swore; he seemed to feel that all his +soldierly reputation was gone, but the boys stuck to their shelter for +all that, informing him that when the Rebels would stand out in the +open field and take their fire, they would likewise. + +Despite all our efforts, the Rebel line crawled up closer an closer to +us; we were driven back from knoll to knoll, and from one fence after +another. We had maintained the unequal struggle for eight hours; over +one-fourth of our number were stretched upon the snow, killed or badly +wounded. Our cartridges were nearly all gone; the cannon had fired its +last shot long ago, and having a blank cartridge left, had shot the +rammer at a gathering party of the enemy. + +Just as the Winter sun was going down upon a day of gloom the bugle +called us all up on the hillside. Then the Rebels saw for the first +time how few there were, and began an almost simultaneous charge all +along the line. The Major raised piece of a shelter tent upon a pole. +The line halted. An officer rode out from it, followed by two privates. + +Approaching the Major, he said, “Who is in command this force?” + +The Major replied: “I am.” + +“Then, Sir, I demand your sword.” + +“What is your rank, Sir!” + +“I am Adjutant of the Sixty-fourth Virginia.” + +The punctillious soul of the old “Regular”--for such the Major was +swelled up instantly, and he answered: + +“By ---, sir, I will never surrender to my inferior in rank!” + +The Adjutant reined his horse back. His two followers leveled their +pieces at the Major and waited orders to fire. They were covered by a +dozen carbines in the hands of our men. The Adjutant ordered his men to +“recover arms,” and rode away with them. He presently returned with a +Colonel, and to him the Major handed his saber. + +As the men realized what was being done, the first thought of many +of them was to snatch out the cylinder’s of their revolvers, and the +slides of their carbines, and throw them away, so as to make the arms +useless. + +We were overcome with rage and humiliation at being compelled to yield +to an enemy whom we had hated so bitterly. As we stood there on the +bleak mountain-side, the biting wind soughing through the leafless +branches, the shadows of a gloomy winter night closing around us, the +groans and shrieks of our wounded mingling with the triumphant yells of +the Rebels plundering our tents, it seemed as if Fate could press to +man’s lips no cup with bitterer dregs in it than this. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE REACTION--DEPRESSION--BITTING COLD--SHARP HUNGER AND SAD REFLEXION. + + “Of being taken by the Insolent foe.”--Othello. + + +The night that followed was inexpressibly dreary: The high-wrought +nervous tension, which had been protracted through the long hours +that the fight lasted, was succeeded by a proportionate mental +depression, such as naturally follows any strain upon the mind. +This was intensified in our cases by the sharp sting of defeat, the +humiliation of having to yield ourselves, our horses and our arms into +the possession of the enemy, the uncertainty as to the future, and the +sorrow we felt at the loss of so many of our comrades. + +Company L had suffered very severely, but our chief regret was for the +gallant Osgood, our Second Lieutenant. He, above all others, was our +trusted leader. The Captain and First Lieutenant were brave men, and +good enough soldiers, but Osgood was the one “whose adoption tried, +we grappled to our souls with hooks of steel.” There was never any +difficulty in getting all the volunteers he wanted for a scouting +party. A quiet, pleasant spoken gentleman, past middle age, he looked +much better fitted for the office of Justice of the Peace, to which +his fellow-citizens of Urbana, Illinois, had elected and reelected +him, than to command a troop of rough riders in a great civil war. But +none more gallant than he ever vaulted into saddle to do battle for +the right. He went into the Army solely as a matter of principle, and +did his duty with the unflagging zeal of an olden Puritan fighting for +liberty and his soul’s salvation. He was a superb horseman--as all the +older Illinoisans are and, for all his two-score years and ten, he +recognized few superiors for strength and activity in the Battalion. A +radical, uncompromising Abolitionist, he had frequently asserted that +he would rather die than yield to a Rebel, and he kept his word in this +as in everything else. + +As for him, it was probably the way he desired to die. No one believed +more ardently than he that + + Whether on the scaffold high, + Or in the battle’s van; + The fittest place for man to die, + Is where he dies for man. + +Among the many who had lost chums and friends was Ned Johnson, of +Company K. Ned was a young Englishman, with much of the suggestiveness +of the bull-dog common to the lower class of that nation. His fist was +readier than his tongue. His chum, Walter Savage was of the same surly +type. The two had come from England twelve years before, and had been +together ever since. Savage was killed in the struggle for the fence +described in the preceding chapter. Ned could not realize for a while +that his friend was dead. It was only when the body rapidly stiffened +on its icy bed, and the eyes which had been gleaming deadly hate when +he was stricken down were glazed over with the dull film of death, that +he believed he was gone from him forever. Then his rage was terrible. +For the rest of the day he was at the head of every assault upon the +enemy. His voice could ever be heard above the firing, cursing the +Rebels bitterly, and urging the boys to “Stand up to ’em! Stand right +up to ’em! Don’t give a inch! Let them have the best you got in the +shop! Shoot low, and don’t waste a cartridge!” + +When we surrendered, Ned seemed to yield sullenly to the inevitable. +He threw his belt and apparently his revolver with it upon the snow. A +guard was formed around us, and we gathered about the fires that were +started. Ned sat apart, his arms folded, his head upon his breast, +brooding bitterly upon Walter’s death. A horseman, evidently a Colonel +or General, clattered up to give some directions concerning us. At the +sound of his voice Ned raised his head and gave him a swift glance; +the gold stars upon the Rebel’s collar led him to believe that he was +the commander of the enemy. Ned sprang to his feet, made a long stride +forward, snatched from the breast of his overcoat the revolver he had +been hiding there, cocked it and leveled it at the Rebel’s breast. +Before he could pull the trigger Orderly Sergeant Charles Bentley, of +his Company, who was watching him, leaped forward, caught his wrist +and threw the revolver up. Others joined in, took the weapon away, and +handed it over to the officer, who then ordered us all to be searched +for arms, and rode away. + +All our dejection could not make us forget that we were intensely +hungry. We had eaten nothing all day. The fight began before we had +time to get any breakfast, and of course there was no interval for +refreshments during the engagement. The Rebels were no better off than +we, having been marched rapidly all night in order to come upon us by +daylight. + +Late in the evening a few sacks of meal were given us, and we took the +first lesson in an art that long and painful practice afterward was to +make very familiar to us. We had nothing to mix the meal in, and it +looked as if we would have to eat it dry, until a happy thought struck +some one that our caps would do for kneading troughs. At once every +cap was devoted to this. Getting water from an adjacent spring, each +man made a little wad of dough--unsalted--and spreading it upon a flat +stone or a chip, set it up in front of the fire to bake. As soon as it +was browned on one side, it was pulled off the stone, and the other +side turned to the fire. It was a very primitive way of cooking and I +became thoroughly disgusted with it. It was fortunate for me that I +little dreamed that this was the way I should have to get my meals for +the next fifteen months. + +After somewhat of the edge had been taken off our hunger by this food, +we crouched around the fires, talked over the events of the day, +speculated as to what was to be done with us, and snatched such sleep +as the biting cold would permit. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +“ON TO RICHMOND!”--MARCHING ON FOOT OVER THE MOUNTAINS--MY HORSE HAS A +NEW RIDER--UNSOPHISTICATED MOUNTAIN GIRLS--DISCUSSING THE ISSUES OF THE +WAR--PARTING WITH “HIATOGA.” + +At dawn we were gathered together, more meal issued to us, which we +cooked in the same way, and then were started under heavy guard to +march on foot over the mountains to Bristol, a station at the point +where the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad crosses the line between +Virginia and Tennessee. + +As we were preparing to set out a Sergeant of the First Virginia +cavalry came galloping up to us on my horse! The sight of my faithful +“Hiatoga” bestrid by a Rebel, wrung my heart. During the action I had +forgotten him, but when it ceased I began to worry about his fate. As +he and his rider came near I called out to him; he stopped and gave +a whinny of recognition, which seemed also a plaintive appeal for an +explanation of the changed condition of affairs. + +The Sergeant was a pleasant, gentlemanly boy of about my own age. He +rode up to me and inquired if it was my horse, to which I replied in +the affirmative, and asked permission to take from the saddle pockets +some letters, pictures and other trinkets. He granted this, and we +became friends from thence on until we separated. He rode by my side as +we plodded over the steep, slippery hills, and we beguiled the way by +chatting of the thousand things that soldiers find to talk about, and +exchanged reminiscences of the service on both sides. But the subject +he was fondest of was that which I relished least: my--now his--horse. +Into the open ulcer of my heart he poured the acid of all manner of +questions concerning my lost steed’s qualities and capabilities: would +he swim? how was he in fording? did he jump well! how did he stand +fire? I smothered my irritation, and answered as pleasantly as I could. + +In the afternoon of the third day after the capture, we came up to +where a party of rustic belles were collected at “quilting.” The +“Yankees” were instantly objects of greater interest than the parade of +a menagerie would have been. The Sergeant told the girls we were going +to camp for the night a mile or so ahead, and if they would be at a +certain house, he would have a Yankee for them for close inspection. +After halting, the Sergeant obtained leave to take me out with a +guard, and I was presently ushered into a room in which the damsels +were massed in force, --a carnation-checked, staring, open-mouthed, +linsey-clad crowd, as ignorant of corsets and gloves as of Hebrew, and +with a propensity to giggle that was chronic and irrepressible. When +we entered the room there was a general giggle, and then a shower of +comments upon my appearance,--each sentence punctuated with the chorus +of feminine cachination. A remark was made about my hair and eyes, and +their risibles gave way; judgment was passed on my nose, and then came +a ripple of laughter. I got very red in the face, and uncomfortable +generally. Attention was called to the size of my feet and hands, and +the usual chorus followed. Those useful members of my body seemed to +swell up as they do to a young man at his first party. + +Then I saw that in the minds of these bucolic maidens I was scarcely, +if at all, human; they did not understand that I belonged to the +race; I was a “Yankee”--a something of the non-human class, as the +gorilla or the chimpanzee. They felt as free to discuss my points +before my face as they would to talk of a horse or a wild animal in a +show. My equanimity was partially restored by this reflection, but I +was still too young to escape embarrassment and irritation at being +thus dissected and giggled at by a party of girls, even if they were +ignorant Virginia mountaineers. + +I turned around to speak to the Sergeant, and in so doing showed my +back to the ladies. The hum of comment deepened into surprise, that +half stopped and then intensified the giggle. + +I was puzzled for a minute, and then the direction of their glances, +and their remarks explained it all. At the rear of the lower part of +the cavalry jacket, about where the upper ornamental buttons are on +the tail of a frock coat, are two funny tabs, about the size of small +pin-cushions. They are fastened by the edge, and stick out straight +behind. Their use is to support the heavy belt in the rear, as the +buttons do in front. When the belt is off it would puzzle the Seven +Wise Men to guess what they are for. The unsophisticated young ladies, +with that swift intuition which is one of lovely woman’s salient mental +traits, immediately jumped at the conclusion that the projections +covered some peculiar conformation of the Yankee anatomy--some +incipient, dromedary-like humps, or perchance the horns of which they +had heard so much. + +This anatomical phenomena was discussed intently for a few minutes, +during which I heard one of the girls inquire whether “it would hurt +him to cut ’em off?” and another hazarded the opinion that “it would +probably bleed him to death.” + +Then a new idea seized them, and they said to the Sergeant “Make him +sing! Make him sing!” + +This was too much for the Sergeant, who had been intensely amused at +the girls’ wonderment. He turned to me, very red in the face, with: + +“Sergeant: the girls want to hear you sing.” + +I replied that I could not sing a note. Said he: + +“Oh, come now. I know better than that; I never seed or heerd of a +Yankee that couldn’t sing.” + +I nevertheless assured him that there really were some Yankees that +did not have any musical accomplishments, and that I was one of that +unfortunate number. I asked him to get the ladies to sing for me, and +to this they acceded quite readily. One girl, with a fair soprano, who +seemed to be the leader of the crowd, sang “The Homespun Dress,” a song +very popular in the South, and having the same tune as the “Bonnie Blue +Flag.” It began, + + I envy not the Northern girl + Their silks and jewels fine, + +and proceeded to compare the homespun habiliments of the Southern women +to the finery and frippery of the ladies on the other side of Mason and +Dixon’s line in a manner very disadvantageous to the latter. + +The rest of the girls made a fine exhibition of the lung-power acquired +in climbing their precipitous mountains, when they came in on the chorus + + Hurra! Hurra! for southern rights Hurra! + Hurra for the homespun dress, + The Southern ladies wear. + +This ended the entertainment. + +On our journey to Bristol we met many Rebel soldiers, of all ranks, and +a small number of citizens. As the conscription had then been enforced +pretty sharply for over a year the only able-bodied men seen in civil +life were those who had some trade which exempted them from being +forced into active service. It greatly astonished us at first to find +that nearly all the mechanics were included among the exempts, or could +be if they chose; but a very little reflection showed us the wisdom of +such a policy. The South is as nearly a purely agricultural country +as is Russia or South America. The people have, little inclination +or capacity for anything else than pastoral pursuits. Consequently +mechanics are very scarce, and manufactories much scarcer. The limited +quantity of products of mechanical skill needed by the people was +mostly imported from the North or Europe. Both these sources of supply +were cutoff by the war, and the country was thrown upon its own slender +manufacturing resources. To force its mechanics into the army would +therefore be suicidal. The Army would gain a few thousand men, but its +operations would be embarrassed, if not stopped altogether, by a want +of supplies. This condition of affairs reminded one of the singular +paucity of mechanical skill among the Bedouins of the desert, which +renders the life of a blacksmith sacred. No matter how bitter the feud +between tribes, no one will kill the other’s workers of iron, and +instances are told of warriors saving their lives at critical periods +by falling on their knees and making with their garments an imitation +of the action of a smith’s bellows. + +All whom we met were eager to discuss with us the causes, phases and +progress of the war, and whenever opportunity offered or could be +made, those of us who were inclined to talk were speedily involved in +an argument with crowds of soldiers and citizens. But, owing to the +polemic poverty of our opponents, the argument was more in name than +in fact. Like all people of slender or untrained intellectual powers +they labored under the hallucination that asserting was reasoning, and +the emphatic reiteration of bald statements, logic. The narrow round +which all from highest to lowest--traveled was sometimes comical, and +sometimes irritating, according to one’s mood! The dispute invariably +began by their asking: + +“Well, what are you ’uns down here a-fightin’ we ’uns for?” + +As this was replied to the newt one followed: + +“Why are you’uns takin’ our niggers away from we ’uns for?” + +Then came: + +“What do you ’uns put our niggers to fightin’ we’uns for?” The windup +always was: “Well, let me tell you, sir, you can never whip people that +are fighting for liberty, sir.” + +Even General Giltner, who had achieved considerable military reputation +as commander of a division of Kentucky cavalry, seemed to be as +slenderly furnished with logical ammunition as the balance, for as he +halted by us he opened the conversation with the well-worn formula: + +“Well: what are you ’uns down here a-fighting we’uns for?” + +The question had become raspingly monotonous to me, whom he addressed, +and I replied with marked acerbity: + +“Because we are the Northern mudsills whom you affect to despise, and +we came down here to lick you into respecting us.” + +The answer seemed to tickle him, a pleasanter light came into his +sinister gray eyes, he laughed lightly, and bade us a kindly good day. + +Four days after our capture we arrived in Bristol. The guards who had +brought us over the mountains were relieved by others, the Sergeant +bade me good by, struck his spurs into “Hiatoga’s” sides, and he and my +faithful horse were soon lost to view in the darkness. + +A new and keener sense of desolation came over me at the final +separation from my tried and true four-footed friend, who had been +my constant companion through so many perils and hardships. We had +endured together the Winter’s cold, the dispiriting drench of the rain, +the fatigue of the long march, the discomforts of the muddy camp, the +gripings of hunger, the weariness of the drill and review, the perils +of the vidette post, the courier service, the scout and the fight. We +had shared in common + + The whips and scorns of time, + The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, + The insolence of office, and the spurns + +which a patient private and his horse of the unworthy take; we had had +our frequently recurring rows with other fellows and their horses, over +questions of precedence at watering places, and grass-plots, had had +lively tilts with guards of forage piles in surreptitious attempts to +get additional rations, sometimes coming off victorious and sometimes +being driven off ingloriously. I had often gone hungry that he might +have the only ear of corn obtainable. I am not skilled enough in horse +lore to speak of his points or pedigree. I only know that his strong +limbs never failed me, and that he was always ready for duty and ever +willing. + +Now at last our paths diverged. I was retired from actual service to +a prison, and he bore his new master off to battle against his old +friends. + + ........................... + +Packed closely in old, dilapidated stock and box cars, as if cattle +in shipment to market, we pounded along slowly, and apparently +interminably, toward the Rebel capital. + +The railroads of the South were already in very bad condition. They +were never more than passably good, even in their best estate, but now, +with a large part of the skilled men engaged upon them escaped back to +the North, with all renewal, improvement, or any but the most necessary +repairs stopped for three years, and with a marked absence of even +ordinary skill and care in their management, they were as nearly ruined +as they could well be and still run. + +One of the severe embarrassments under which the roads labored was +a lack of oil. There is very little fatty matter of any kind in the +South. The climate and the food plants do not favor the accumulation of +adipose tissue by animals, and there is no other source of supply. Lard +oil and tallow were very scarce and held at exorbitant prices. + +Attempts were made to obtain lubricants from the peanut and the cotton +seed. The first yielded a fine bland oil, resembling the ordinary grade +of olive oil, but it was entirely too expensive for use in the arts. +The cotton seed oil could be produced much cheaper, but it had in it +such a quantity of gummy matter as to render it worse than useless for +employment on machinery. + +This scarcity of oleaginous matter produced a corresponding scarcity of +soap and similar detergents, but this was a deprivation which caused +the Rebels, as a whole, as little inconvenience as any that they +suffered from. I have seen many thousands of them who were obviously +greatly in need of soap, but if they were rent with any suffering on +that account they concealed it with marvelous self-control. + +There seemed to be a scanty supply of oil provided for the locomotives, +but the cars had to run with unlubricated axles, and the screaking and +groaning of the grinding journals in the dry boxes was sometimes almost +deafening, especially when we were going around a curve. + +Our engine went off the wretched track several times, but as she was +not running much faster than a man could walk, the worst consequence to +us was a severe jolting. She was small, and was easily pried back upon +the track, and sent again upon her wheezy, straining way. + +The depression which had weighed us down for a night and a day after +our capture had now been succeeded by a more cheerful feeling. We began +to look upon our condition as the fortune of war. We were proud of our +resistance to overwhelming numbers. We knew we had sold ourselves at a +price which, if the Rebels had it to do over again, they would not pay +for us. We believed that we had killed and seriously wounded as many +of them as they had killed, wounded and captured of us. We had nothing +to blame ourselves for. Moreover, we began to be buoyed up with the +expectation that we would be exchanged immediately upon our arrival at +Richmond, and the Rebel officers confidently assured us that this would +be so. There was then a temporary hitch in the exchange, but it would +all be straightened out in a few days, and it might not be a month +until we were again marching out of Cumberland Gap, on an avenging +foray against some of the force which had assisted in our capture. + +Fortunately for this delusive hopefulness there was no weird and boding +Cassandra to pierce the veil of the future for us, and reveal the +length and the ghastly horror of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, +through which we must pass for hundreds of sad days, stretching out +into long months of suffering and death. Happily there was no one to +tell us that of every five in that party four would never stand under +the Stars and Stripes again, but succumbing to chronic starvation, +long-continued exposure, the bullet of the brutal guard, the loathsome +scurvy, the hideous gangrene, and the heartsickness of hope deferred, +would find respite from pain low in the barren sands of that hungry +Southern soil. + +Were every doom foretokened by appropriate omens, the ravens along our +route would have croaked themselves hoarse. + +But, far from being oppressed by any presentiment of coming evil, we +began to appreciate and enjoy the picturesque grandeur of the scenery +through which we were moving. The rugged sternness of the Appalachian +mountain range, in whose rock-ribbed heart we had fought our losing +fight, was now softening into less strong, but more graceful outlines +as we approached the pine-clad, sandy plains of the seaboard, upon +which Richmond is built. We were skirting along the eastern base of +the great Blue Ridge, about whose distant and lofty summits hung a +perpetual veil of deep, dark, but translucent blue, which refracted the +slanting rays of the morning and evening sun into masses of color more +gorgeous than a dreamer’s vision of an enchanted land. At Lynchburg +we saw the famed Peaks of Otter--twenty miles away--lifting their +proud heads far into the clouds, like giant watch-towers sentineling +the gateway that the mighty waters of the James had forced through +the barriers of solid adamant lying across their path to the far-off +sea. What we had seen many miles back start from the mountain sides +as slender rivulets, brawling over the worn boulders, were now great, +rushing, full-tide streams, enough of them in any fifty miles of our +journey to furnish water power for all the factories of New England. +Their amazing opulence of mechanical energy has lain unutilized, almost +unnoticed; in the two and one-half centuries that the white man has +dwelt near them, while in Massachusetts and her near neighbors every +rill that can turn a wheel has been put into harness and forced to do +its share of labor for the benefit of the men who have made themselves +its masters. + +Here is one of the differences between the two sections: In the North +man was set free, and the elements made to do his work. In the South +man was the degraded slave, and the elements wantoned on in undisturbed +freedom. + +As we went on, the Valleys of the James and the Appomattox, down which +our way lay, broadened into an expanse of arable acres, and the faces +of those streams were frequently flecked by gem-like little islands. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ENTERING RICHMOND--DISAPPOINTMENT AT ITS APPEARANCE--EVERYBODY IN +UNIFORM--CURLED DARLINGS OF THE CAPITAL--THE REBEL FLAG--LIBBY PRISON +--DICK TURNER--SEARCHING THE NEW COMERS. + +Early on the tenth morning after our capture we were told that we were +about to enter Richmond. Instantly all were keenly observant of every +detail in the surroundings of a City that was then the object of the +hopes and fears of thirty-five millions of people--a City assailing +which seventy-five thousand brave men had already laid down their +lives, defending which an equal number had died, and which, before +it fell, was to cost the life blood of another one hundred and fifty +thousand valiant assailants and defenders. + +So much had been said and written about Richmond that our boyish +minds had wrought up the most extravagant expectations of it and its +defenses. We anticipated seeing a City differing widely from anything +ever seen before; some anomaly of nature displayed in its site, itself +guarded by imposing and impregnable fortifications, with powerful forts +and heavy guns, perhaps even walls, castles, postern gates, moats and +ditches, and all the other panoply of defensive warfare, with which +romantic history had made us familiar. + +We were disappointed--badly disappointed--in seeing nothing of this +as we slowly rolled along. The spires and the tall chimneys of the +factories rose in the distance very much as they had in other Cities +we had visited. We passed a single line of breastworks of bare yellow +sand, but the scrubby pines in front were not cut away, and there were +no signs that there had ever been any immediate expectation of use +for the works. A redoubt or two--without guns--could be made out, and +this was all. Grim-visaged war had few wrinkles on his front in that +neighborhood. They were then seaming his brow on the Rappahannock, +seventy miles away, where the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of +the Potomac lay confronting each other. + +At one of the stopping places I had been separated from my companions +by entering a car in which were a number of East Tennesseeans, captured +in the operations around Knoxville, and whom the Rebels, in accordance +with their usual custom, were treating with studied contumely. I had +always had a very warm side for these simple rustics of the mountains +and valleys. I knew much of their unwavering fidelity to the Union, of +the firm steadfastness with which they endured persecution for their +country’s sake, and made sacrifices even unto death; and, as in those +days I estimated all men simply by their devotion to the great cause +of National integrity, (a habit that still clings to me) I rated these +men very highly. I had gone into their car to do my little to encourage +them, and when I attempted to return to my own I was prevented by the +guard. + +Crossing the long bridge, our train came to a halt on the other side +of the river with the usual clamor of bell and whistle, the usual +seemingly purposeless and vacillating, almost dizzying, running +backward and forward on a network of sidetracks and switches, that +seemed unavoidably necessary, a dozen years ago, in getting a train +into a City. + +Still unable to regain my comrades and share their fortunes, I was +marched off with the Tennesseeans through the City to the office of +some one who had charge of the prisoners of war. + +The streets we passed through were lined with retail stores, in which +business was being carried on very much as in peaceful times. Many +people were on the streets, but the greater part of the men wore some +sort of a uniform. Though numbers of these were in active service, yet +the wearing of a military garb did not necessarily imply this. Nearly +every able-bodied man in Richmond was; enrolled in some sort of an +organization, and armed, and drilled regularly. Even the members of the +Confederate Congress were uniformed and attached, in theory at least, +to the Home Guards. + +It was obvious even to the casual glimpse of a passing prisoner of war, +that the City did not lack its full share of the class which formed +so large an element of the society of Washington and other Northern +Cities during the war--the dainty carpet soldiers, heros of the +promenade and the boudoir, who strutted in uniforms when the enemy was +far off, and wore citizen’s clothes when he was close at hand. There +were many curled darlings displaying their fine forms in the nattiest +of uniforms, whose gloss had never suffered from so much as a heavy +dew, let alone a rainy day on the march. The Confederate gray could be +made into a very dressy garb. With the sleeves lavishly embroidered +with gold lace, and the collar decorated with stars indicating the +wearer’s rank--silver for the field officers, and gold for the higher +grade,--the feet compressed into high-heeled, high-instepped boots, +(no Virginian is himself without a fine pair of skin-tight boots) +and the head covered with a fine, soft, broad-brimmed hat, trimmed +with a gold cord, from which a bullion tassel dangled several inches +down the wearer’s back, you had a military swell, caparisoned for +conquest--among the fair sex. + +On our way we passed the noted Capitol of Virginia--a handsome marble +building,--of the column-fronted Grecian temple style. It stands +in the center of the City. Upon the grounds is Crawford’s famous +equestrian statue of Washington, surrounded by smaller statues of other +Revolutionary patriots. + +The Confederate Congress was then in session in the Capitol, and also +the Legislature of Virginia, a fact indicated by the State flag of +Virginia floating from the southern end of the building, and the new +flag of the Confederacy from the northern end. This was the first time +I had seen the latter, which had been recently adopted, and I examined +it with some interest. The design was exceedingly plain. Simply a white +banner, with a red field in the corner where the blue field with stars +is in ours. The two blue stripes were drawn diagonally across this +field in the shape of a letter X, and in these were thirteen white +stars, corresponding to the number of States claimed to be in the +Confederacy. + +The battle-flag was simply the red field. My examination of all this +was necessarily very brief. The guards felt that I was in Richmond +for other purposes than to study architecture, statuary and heraldry, +and besides they were in a hurry to be relieved of us and get their +breakfast, so my art-education was abbreviated sharply. + +We did not excite much attention on the streets. Prisoners had by that +time become too common in Richmond to create any interest. Occasionally +passers by would fling opprobrious epithets at “the East Tennessee +traitors,” but that was all. + +The commandant of the prisons directed the Tennesseeans to be taken to +Castle Lightning--a prison used to confine the Rebel deserters, among +whom they also classed the East Tennesseeans, and sometimes the West +Virginians, Kentuckians, Marylanders and Missourians found fighting +against them. Such of our men as deserted to them were also lodged +there, as the Rebels, very properly, did not place a high estimate upon +this class of recruits to their army, and, as we shall see farther +along, violated all obligations of good faith with them, by putting +them among the regular prisoners of war, so as to exchange them for +their own men. + +Back we were all marched to a street which ran parallel to the river +and canal, and but one square away from them. It was lined on both +sides by plain brick warehouses and tobacco factories, four and five +stories high, which were now used by the Rebel Government as prisons +and military storehouses. + +The first we passed was Castle Thunder, of bloody repute. This occupied +the same place in Confederate history, that, the dungeons beneath the +level of the water did in the annals of the Venetian Council of Ten. It +was believed that if the bricks in its somber, dirt-grimed walls could +speak, each could tell a separate story of a life deemed dangerous to +the State that had gone down in night, at the behest of the ruthless +Confederate authorities. It was confidently asserted that among the +commoner occurrences within its confines was the stationing of a doomed +prisoner against a certain bit of blood-stained, bullet-chipped wall, +and relieving the Confederacy of all farther fear of him by the rifles +of a firing party. How well this dark reputation was deserved, no one +but those inside the inner circle of the Davis Government can say. It +is safe to believe that more tragedies were enacted there than the +archives of the Rebel civil or military judicature give any account of. +The prison was employed for the detention of spies, and those charged +with the convenient allegation of “treason against the Confederate +States of America.” It is probable that many of these were sent out +of the world with as little respect for the formalities of law as was +exhibited with regard to the ‘suspects’ during the French Revolution. + +Next we came to Castle Lightning, and here I bade adieu to my Tennessee +companions. + +A few squares more and we arrived at a warehouse larger than any of the +others. Over the door was a sign + + THOMAS LIBBY & SON, + SHIP CHANDLERS AND GROCERS. + +This was the notorious “Libby Prison,” whose name was painfully +familiar to every Union man in the land. Under the sign was a broad +entrance way, large enough to admit a dray or a small wagon. On one +side of this was the prison office, in which were a number of dapper, +feeble-faced clerks at work on the prison records. + +As I entered this space a squad of newly arrived prisoners were being +searched for valuables, and having their names, rank and regiment +recorded in the books. Presently a clerk addressed as “Majah Tunnah,” +the man who was superintending these operations, and I scanned him +with increased interest, as I knew then that he was the ill-famed Dick +Turner, hated all over the North for his brutality to our prisoners. + +He looked as if he deserved his reputation. Seen upon the street he +would be taken for a second or third class gambler, one in whom a +certain amount of cunning is pieced out by a readiness to use brute +force. His face, clean-shaved, except a “Bowery-b’hoy” goatee, was +white, fat, and selfishly sensual. Small, pig-like eyes, set close +together, glanced around continually. His legs were short, his body +long, and made to appear longer, by his wearing no vest--a custom +common them with Southerners. + +His faculties were at that moment absorbed in seeing that no person +concealed any money from him. His subordinates did not search closely +enough to suit him, and he would run his fat, heavily-ringed fingers +through the prisoner’s hair, feel under their arms and elsewhere where +he thought a stray five dollar greenback might be concealed. But with +all his greedy care he was no match for Yankee cunning. The prisoners +told me afterward that, suspecting they would be searched, they had +taken off the caps of the large, hollow brass buttons of their coats, +carefully folded a bill into each cavity, and replaced the cap. In this +way they brought in several hundred dollars safely. + +There was one dirty old Englishman in the party, who, Turner was +convinced, had money concealed about his person. He compelled him to +strip off everything, and stand shivering in the sharp cold, while he +took up one filthy rag after another, felt over each carefully, and +scrutinized each seam and fold. I was delighted to see that after all +his nauseating work he did not find so much as a five cent piece. + +It came my turn. I had no desire, in that frigid atmosphere, to strip +down to what Artemus Ward called “the skanderlous costoom of the Greek +Slave;” so I pulled out of my pocket my little store of wealth--ten +dollars in greenbacks, sixty dollars in Confederate graybacks--and +displayed it as Turner came up with, “There’s all I have, sir.” Turner +pocketed it without a word, and did not search me. In after months, +when I was nearly famished, my estimation of “Majah Tunnah” was hardly +enhanced by the reflection that what would have purchased me many good +meals was probably lost by him in betting on a pair of queens, when his +opponent held a “king full.” + +I ventured to step into the office to inquire after my comrades. +One of the whey-faced clerks said with the supercilious asperity +characteristic of gnat-brained headquarters attaches: + +“Get out of here!” as if I had been a stray cur wandering in in search +of a bone lunch. + +I wanted to feed the fellow to a pile-driver. The utmost I could hope +for in the way of revenge was that the delicate creature might some day +make a mistake in parting his hair, and catch his death of cold. + +The guard conducted us across the street, and into the third story of +a building standing on the next corner below. Here I found about four +hundred men, mostly belonging to the Army of the Potomac, who crowded +around me with the usual questions to new prisoners: What was my +Regiment, where and when captured, and: + +What were the prospects of exchange? + +It makes me shudder now to recall how often, during the dreadful months +that followed, this momentous question was eagerly propounded to every +new comer: put with bated breath by men to whom exchange meant all that +they asked of this world, and possibly of the next; meant life, home, +wife or sweet-heart, friends, restoration to manhood, and self-respect +--everything, everything that makes existence in this world worth +having. + +I answered as simply and discouragingly as did the tens of thousands +that came after me: + +“I did not hear anything about exchange.” + +A soldier in the field had many other things of more immediate interest +to think about than the exchange of prisoners. The question only became +a living issue when he or some of his intimate friends fell into the +enemy’s hands. + +Thus began my first day in prison. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +INTRODUCTION TO PRISON LIFE--THE PEMBERTON BUILDING AND ITS +OCCUPANTS --NEAT SAILORS--ROLL CALL--RATIONS AND CLOTHING--CHIVALRIC +“CONFISCATION.” + +I began acquainting myself with my new situation and surroundings. The +building into which I had been conducted was an old tobacco factory, +called the “Pemberton building,” possibly from an owner of that name, +and standing on the corner of what I was told were Fifteenth and Carey +streets. In front it was four stories high; behind but three, owing to +the rapid rise of the hill, against which it was built. + +It fronted towards the James River and Kanawha Canal, and the James +River--both lying side by side, and only one hundred yards distant, +with no intervening buildings. The front windows afforded a fine view. +To the right front was Libby, with its guards pacing around it on the +sidewalk, watching the fifteen hundred officers confined within its +walls. At intervals during each day squads of fresh prisoners could +be seen entering its dark mouth, to be registered, and searched, and +then marched off to the prison assigned them. We could see up the James +River for a mile or so, to where the long bridges crossing it bounded +the view. Directly in front, across the river, was a flat, sandy plain, +said to be General Winfield Scott’s farm, and now used as a proving +ground for the guns cast at the Tredegar Iron Works. + +The view down the river was very fine. It extended about twelve miles, +to where a gap in the woods seemed to indicate a fort, which we +imagined to be Fort Darling, at that time the principal fortification +defending the passage of the James. + +Between that point and where we were lay the river, in a long, broad +mirror-like expanse, like a pretty little inland lake. Occasionally +a busy little tug would bustle up or down, a gunboat move along with +noiseless dignity, suggestive of a reserved power, or a schooner +beat lazily from one side to the other. But these were so few as to +make even more pronounced the customary idleness that hung over the +scene. The tug’s activity seemed spasmodic and forced--a sort of +protest against the gradually increasing lethargy that reigned upon +the bosom of the waters --the gunboat floated along as if performing +a perfunctory duty, and the schooners sailed about as if tired of +remaining in one place. That little stretch of water was all that was +left for a cruising ground. Beyond Fort Darling the Union gunboats +lay, and the only vessel that passed the barrier was the occasional +flag-of-truce steamer. + +The basement of the building was occupied as a store-house for the +taxes-in-kind which the Confederate Government collected. On the first +floor were about five hundred men. On the second floor--where I was +--were about four hundred men. These were principally from the First +Division, First Corps distinguished by a round red patch on their +caps; First Division, Second Corps, marked by a red clover leaf; and +the First Division, Third Corps, who wore a red diamond. They were +mainly captured at Gettysburg and Mine Run. Besides these there was +a considerable number from the Eighth Corps, captured at Winchester, +and a large infusion of Cavalry-First, Second and Third West +Virginia--taken in Averill’s desperate raid up the Virginia Valley, +with the Wytheville Salt Works as an objective. + +On the third floor were about two hundred sailors and marines, taken +in the gallant but luckless assault upon the ruins of Fort Sumter, in +the September previous. They retained the discipline of the ship in +their quarters, kept themselves trim and clean, and their floor as +white as a ship’s deck. They did not court the society of the “sojers” +below, whose camp ideas of neatness differed from theirs. A few old +barnacle-backs always sat on guard around the head of the steps leading +from the lower rooms. They chewed tobacco enormously, and kept their +mouths filled with the extracted juice. Any luckless “sojer” who +attempted to ascend the stairs usually returned in haste, to avoid the +deluge of the filthy liquid. + +For convenience in issuing rations we were divided into messes of +twenty, each mess electing a Sergeant as its head, and each floor +electing a Sergeant-of-the-Floor, who drew rations and enforced what +little discipline was observed. + +Though we were not so neat as the sailors above us, we tried to keep +our quarters reasonably clean, and we washed the floor every morning; +getting down on our knees and rubbing it clean and dry with rags. +Each mess detailed a man each day to wash up the part of the floor it +occupied, and he had to do this properly or no ration would be given +him. While the washing up was going on each man stripped himself +and made close examination of his garments for the body-lice, which +otherwise would have increased beyond control. Blankets were also +carefully hunted over for these “small deer.” + +About eight o’clock a spruce little lisping rebel named Ross would +appear with a book, and a body-guard, consisting of a big Irishman, +who had the air of a Policeman, and carried a musket barrel made +into a cane. Behind him were two or three armed guards. The +Sergeant-of-the-Floor commanded: + +“Fall in in four ranks for roll-call.” + +We formed along one side of the room; the guards halted at the head of +the stairs; Ross walked down in front and counted the files, closely +followed by his Irish aid, with his gun-barrel cane raised ready for +use upon any one who should arouse his ruffianly ire. Breaking ranks +we returned to our places, and sat around in moody silence for three +hours. We had eaten nothing since the previous noon. Rising hungry, our +hunger seemed to increase in arithmetical ratio with every quarter of +an hour. + +These times afforded an illustration of the thorough subjection of +man to the tyrant Stomach. A more irritable lot of individuals could +scarcely be found outside of a menagerie than these men during the +hours waiting for rations. “Crosser than, two sticks” utterly failed +as a comparison. They were crosser than the lines of a check apron. +Many could have given odds to the traditional bear with a sore head, +and run out of the game fifty points ahead of him. It was astonishingly +easy to get up a fight at these times. There was no need of going +a step out of the way to search for it, as one could have a full +fledged article of overwhelming size on his hands at any instant, by +a trifling indiscretion of speech or manner. All the old irritating +flings between the cavalry, the artillery and the infantry, the older +“first-call” men, and the later or “Three-Hundred-Dollar-men,” as +they were derisively dubbed, between the different corps of the Army +of the Potomac, between men of different States, and lastly between +the adherents and opponents of McClellan, came to the lips and were +answered by a blow with the fist, when a ring would be formed around +the combatants by a crowd, which would encourage them with yells to do +their best. In a few minutes one of the parties to the fistic debate, +who found the point raised by him not well taken, would retire to the +sink to wash the blood from his battered face, and the rest would +resume their seats and glower at space until some fresh excitement +roused them. For the last hour or so of these long waits hardly a word +would be spoken. We were too ill-natured to talk for amusement, and +there was nothing else to talk for. + +This spell was broken about eleven o’clock by the appearance at the +head of the stairway of the Irishman with the gun-barrel cane, and his +singing out: + +“Sargint uv the flure: fourtane min and a bread-box!” + +Instantly every man sprang to his feet, and pressed forward to be one +of the favored fourteen. One did not get any more gyrations or obtain +them any sooner by this, but it was a relief, and a change to walk the +half square outside the prison to the cookhouse, and help carry the +rations back. + +For a little while after our arrival in Richmond, the rations were +tolerably good. There had been so much said about the privations +of the prisoners that our Government had, after much quibbling and +negotiation, succeeded in getting the privilege of sending food and +clothing through the lines to us. Of course but a small part of that +sent ever reached its destination. There were too many greedy Rebels +along its line of passage to let much of it be received by those for +whom it was intended. We could see from our windows Rebels strutting +about in overcoats, in which the box wrinkles were still plainly +visible, wearing new “U. S.” blankets as cloaks, and walking in +Government shoes, worth fabulous prices in Confederate money. + +Fortunately for our Government the rebels decided to out themselves off +from this profitable source of supply. We read one day in the Richmond +papers that “President Davis and his Cabinet had come to the conclusion +that it was incompatible with the dignity of a sovereign power to +permit another power with which it was at war, to feed and clothe +prisoners in its hands.” + +I will not stop to argue this point of honor, and show its absurdity by +pointing out that it is not an unusual practice with nations at war. It +is a sufficient commentary upon this assumption of punctiliousness that +the paper went on to say that some five tons of clothing and fifteen +tons of food, which had been sent under a flag of truce to City Point, +would neither be returned nor delivered to us, but “converted to the +use of the Confederate Government.” + + “And surely they are all honorable men!” + +Heaven save the mark. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +BRANS OR PEAS--INSUFFICIENCY OF DARKY TESTIMONY--A GUARD KILLS A +PRISONER--PRISONERS TEAZE THE GUARDS--DESPERATE OUTBREAK. + +But, to return to the rations--a topic which, with escape or exchange, +were to be the absorbing ones for us for the next fifteen months. There +was now issued to every two men a loaf of coarse bread--made of a +mixture of flour and meal--and about the size and shape of an ordinary +brick. This half loaf was accompanied, while our Government was allowed +to furnish rations, with a small piece of corned beef. Occasionally we +got a sweet potato, or a half-pint or such a matter of soup made from +a coarse, but nutritious, bean or pea, called variously “nigger-pea,” +“stock-pea,” or “cow-pea.” + +This, by the way, became a fruitful bone of contention during our stay +in the South. One strong party among us maintained that it was a bean, +because it was shaped like one, and brown, which they claimed no pea +ever was. The other party held that it was a pea because its various +names all agreed in describing it as a pea, and because it was so full +of bugs--none being entirely free from insects, and some having as many +as twelve by actual count--within its shell. This, they declared, was a +distinctive characteristic of the pea family. The contention began with +our first instalment of the leguminous ration, and was still raging +between the survivors who passed into our lines in 1865. It waxed hot +occasionally, and each side continually sought evidence to support +its view of the case. Once an old darky, sent into the prison on some +errand, was summoned to decide a hot dispute that was raging in the +crowd to which I belonged. The champion of the pea side said, producing +one of the objects of dispute: + +“Now, boys, keep still, till I put the question fairly. Now, uncle, +what do they call that there?” + +The colored gentleman scrutinized the vegetable closely, and replied, + +“Well, dey mos’ generally calls ’em stock-peas, round hyar aways.” + +“There,” said the pea-champion triumphantly. + +“But,” broke in the leader of the bean party, “Uncle, don’t they also +call them beans?” + +“Well, yes, chile, I spec dat lots of ’em does.” + +And this was about the way the matter usually ended. + +I will not attempt to bias the reader’s judgment by saying which side I +believed to be right. As the historic British showman said, in reply to +the question as to whether an animal in his collection was a rhinoceros +or an elephant, “You pays your money and you takes your choice.” + +The rations issued to us, as will be seen above, though they appear +scanty, were still sufficient to support life and health, and months +afterward, in Andersonville, we used to look back to them as sumptuous. +We usually had them divided and eaten by noon, and, with the gnawings +of hunger appeased, we spent the afternoon and evening comfortably. +We told stories, paced up and down, the floor for exercise, played +cards, sung, read what few books were available, stood at the windows +and studied the landscape, and watched the Rebels trying their guns +and shells, and so on as long as it was daylight. Occasionally it was +dangerous to be about the windows. This depended wholly on the temper +of the guards. One day a member of a Virginia regiment, on guard on +the pavement in front, deliberately left his beat, walked out into +the center of the street, aimed his gun at a member of the Ninth West +Virginia, who was standing at a window near, and firing, shot him +through the heart, the bullet passing through his body, and through the +floor above. The act was purely malicious, and was done, doubtless, +in revenge for some injury which our men had done the assassin or his +family. + +We were not altogether blameless, by any means. There were few +opportunities to say bitterly offensive things to the guards, let pass +unimproved. + +The prisoners in the third floor of the Smith building, adjoining us, +had their own way of teasing them. Late at night, when everybody would +be lying down, and out of the way of shots, a window in the third story +would open, a broomstick, with a piece nailed across to represent arms, +and clothed with a cap and blouse, would be protruded, and a voice +coming from a man carefully protected by the wall, would inquire: + +“S-a-y, g-uarr-d, what time is it?” + +If the guard was of the long suffering kind he would answer: + +“Take yo’ head back in, up dah; you kno hits agin all odahs to do dat?” + +Then the voice would say, aggravatingly, “Oh, well, go to ---- you ---- +Rebel ----, if you can’t answer a civil question.” + +Before the speech was ended the guard’s rifle would be at his shoulder +and he would fire. Back would come the blouse and hat in haste, only to +go out again the next instant, with a derisive laugh, and, + +“Thought you were going to hurt somebody, didn’t you, you ---- ---- +---- ---- ----. But, Lord, you can’t shoot for sour apples; if I +couldn’t shoot no better than you, Mr. Johnny Reb, I would ----” + +By this time the guard, having his gun loaded again, would cut short +the remarks with another shot, which, followed up with similar remarks, +would provoke still another, when an alarm sounding, the guards at +Libby and all the other buildings around us would turn out. An officer +of the guard would go up with a squad into the third floor, only +to find everybody up there snoring away as if they were the Seven +Sleepers. After relieving his mind of a quantity of vigorous profanity, +and threats to “buck and gag” and cut off the rations of the whole +room, the officer would return to his quarters in the guard house, but +before he was fairly ensconced there the cap and blouse would go out +again, and the maddened guard be regaled with a spirited and vividly +profane lecture on the depravity of Rebels in general, and his own +unworthiness in particular. + +One night in January things took a more serious turn. The boys on the +lower floor of our building had long considered a plan of escape. There +were then about fifteen thousand prisoners in Richmond--ten thousand on +Belle Isle and five thousand in the buildings. Of these one thousand +five hundred were officers in Libby. Besides there were the prisoners +in Castles Thunder and Lightning. The essential features of the plan +were that at a preconcerted signal we at the second and third floors +should appear at the windows with bricks and irons from the tobacco +presses, which a should shower down on the guards and drive them away, +while the men of the first floor would pour out, chase the guards +into the board house in the basement, seize their arms, drive those +away from around Libby and the other prisons, release the officers, +organize into regiments and brigades, seize the armory, set fire to the +public buildings and retreat from the City, by the south side of the +James, where there was but a scanty force of Rebels, and more could be +prevented from coming over by burning the bridges behind us. + +It was a magnificent scheme, and might have been carried out, but there +was no one in the building who was generally believed to have the +qualities of a leader. + +But while it was being debated a few of the hot heads on the lower +floor undertook to precipitate the crisis. They seized what they +thought was a favorable opportunity, overpowered the guard who stood at +the foot of the stairs, and poured into the street. The other guards +fell back and opened fire on them; other troops hastened up, and soon +drove them back into the building, after killing ten or fifteen. We of +the second and third floors did not anticipate the break at that time, +and were taken as much by surprise as were the Rebels. Nearly all were +lying down and many were asleep. Some hastened to the windows, and +dropped missiles out, but before any concerted action could be taken it +was seen that the case was hopeless, and we remained quiet. + +Among those who led in the assault was a drummer-boy of some New York +Regiment, a recklessly brave little rascal. He had somehow smuggled a +small four-shooter in with him, and when they rushed out he fired it +off at the guards. + +After the prisoners were driven back, the Rebel officers came in and +vapored around considerably, but confined themselves to big words. +They were particularly anxious to find the revolver, and ordered a +general and rigorous search for it. The prisoners were all ranged on +one side of the room and carefully examined by one party, while another +hunted through the blankets and bundles. It was all in vain; no pistol +could be found. The boy had a loaf of wheat bread, bought from a baker +during the day. It was a round loaf, set together in two pieces like +a biscuit. He pulled these apart, laid the fourshooter between them, +pressed the two halves together, and went on calmly nibbling away at +the loaf while the search was progressing. + +Two gunboats were brought up the next morning, and anchored in the +canal near us, with their heavy guns trained upon the building. It was +thought that this would intimidate as from a repetition of the attack, +but our sailors conceived that, as they laid against the shore next to +us, they could be easily captured, and their artillery made to assist +us. A scheme to accomplish this was being wrought out, when we received +notice to move, and it came to naught. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE EXCHANGE AND THE CAUSE OF ITS INTERRUPTION--BRIEF RESUME OF THE +DIFFERENT CARTELS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THAT LED TO THEIR SUSPENSION. + +Few questions intimately connected with the actual operations of +the Rebellion have been enveloped with such a mass of conflicting +statement as the responsibility for the interruption of the exchange. +Southern writers and politicians, naturally anxious to diminish as +much as possible the great odium resting upon their section for the +treatment of prisoners of war during the last year and a half of the +Confederacy’s existence, have vehemently charged that the Government of +the United States deliberately and pitilessly resigned to their fate +such of its soldiers as fell into the hands of the enemy, and repelled +all advances from the Rebel Government looking toward a resumption +of exchange. It is alleged on our side, on the other hand, that our +Government did all that was possible, consistent with National dignity +and military prudence, to secure a release of its unfortunate men in +the power of the Rebels. + +Over this vexed question there has been waged an acrimonious +war of words, which has apparently led to no decision, nor any +convictions--the disputants, one and all, remaining on the sides of the +controversy occupied by them when the debate began. + +I may not be in possession of all the facts bearing upon the case, and +may be warped in judgment by prejudices in favor of my own Government’s +wisdom and humanity, but, however this may be, the following is my firm +belief as to the controlling facts in this lamentable affair: + +1. For some time after the beginning of hostilities our Government +refused to exchange prisoners with the Rebels, on the ground that this +might be held by the European powers who were seeking a pretext for +acknowledging the Confederacy, to be admission by us that the war was +no longer an insurrection but a revolution, which had resulted in the +‘de facto’ establishment of a new nation. This difficulty was finally +gotten over by recognizing the Rebels as belligerents, which, while it +placed them on a somewhat different plane from mere insurgents, did not +elevate them to the position of soldiers of a foreign power. + +2. Then the following cartel was agreed upon by Generals Dig on our +side and Hill on that of the Rebels: + +HAXALL’S LANDING, ON JAMES RIVER, July 22, 1882. + +The undersigned, having been commissioned by the authorities they +respectively represent to make arrangements for a general exchange of +prisoners of war, have agreed to the following articles: + +ARTICLE I.--It is hereby agreed and stipulated, that all prisoners +of war, held by either party, including those taken on private armed +vessels, known as privateers, shall be exchanged upon the conditions +and terms following: + +Prisoners to be exchanged man for man and officer for officer. +Privateers to be placed upon the footing of officers and men of the +navy. + +Men and officers of lower grades may be exchanged for officers of +a higher grade, and men and officers of different services may be +exchanged according to the following scale of equivalents: + +A General-commanding-in-chief, or an Admiral, shall be exchanged for +officers of equal rank, or for sixty privates or common seamen. + +A Commodore, carrying a broad pennant, or a Brigadier General, shall +be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or twenty privates or common +seamen. + +A Captain in the Navy, or a Colonel, shall be exchanged for officers of +equal rank, or for fifteen privates or common seamen. + +A Lieutenant Colonel, or Commander in the Navy, shall be exchanged for +officers of equal rank, or for ten privates or common seamen. + +A Lieutenant, or a Master in the Navy, or a Captain in the Army or +marines shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or six privates +or common seamen. + +Master’s-mates in the Navy, or Lieutenants or Ensigns in the Army, +shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or four privates or +common seamen. Midshipmen, warrant officers in the Navy, masters of +merchant vessels and commanders of privateers, shall be exchanged for +officers of equal rank, or three privates or common seamen; Second +Captains, Lieutenants or mates of merchant vessels or privateers, and +all petty officers in the Navy, and all noncommissioned officers in +the Army or marines, shall be severally exchanged for persons of equal +rank, or for two privates or common seamen; and private soldiers or +common seamen shall be exchanged for each other man for man. + +ARTICLE II.--Local, State, civil and militia rank held by persons +not in actual military service will not be recognized; the basis of +exchange being the grade actually held in the naval and military +service of the respective parties. + +ARTICLE III.--If citizens held by either party on charges of +disloyalty, or any alleged civil offense, are exchanged, it shall only +be for citizens. Captured sutlers, teamsters, and all civilians in the +actual service of either party, to be exchanged for persons in similar +positions. + +ARTICLE IV.--All prisoners of war to be discharged on parole in ten +days after their capture; and the prisoners now held, and those +hereafter taken, to be transported to the points mutually agreed +upon, at the expense of the capturing party. The surplus prisoners +not exchanged shall not be permitted to take up arms again, nor to +serve as military police or constabulary force in any fort, garrison +or field-work, held by either of the respective parties, nor as guards +of prisoners, deposits or stores, nor to discharge any duty usually +performed by soldiers, until exchanged under the provisions of this +cartel. The exchange is not to be considered complete until the officer +or soldier exchanged for has been actually restored to the lines to +which he belongs. + +ARTICLE V.--Each party upon the discharge of prisoners of the other +party is authorized to discharge an equal number of their own officers +or men from parole, furnishing, at the same time, to the other party a +list of their prisoners discharged, and of their own officers and men +relieved from parole; thus enabling each party to relieve from parole +such of their officers and men as the party may choose. The lists +thus mutually furnished, will keep both parties advised of the true +condition of the exchange of prisoners. + +ARTICLE VI.--The stipulations and provisions above mentioned to be of +binding obligation during the continuance of the war, it matters not +which party may have the surplus of prisoners; the great principles +involved being, First, An equitable exchange of prisoners, man for +man, or officer for officer, or officers of higher grade exchanged +for officers of lower grade, or for privates, according to scale of +equivalents. Second, That privates and officers and men of different +services may be exchanged according to the same scale of equivalents. +Third, That all prisoners, of whatever arm of service, are to be +exchanged or paroled in ten days from the time of their capture, if it +be practicable to transfer them to their own lines in that time; if +not, so soon thereafter as practicable. Fourth, That no officer, or +soldier, employed in the service of either party, is to be considered +as exchanged and absolved from his parole until his equivalent has +actually reached the lines of his friends. Fifth, That parole forbids +the performance of field, garrison, police, or guard or constabulary +duty. + + JOHN A. DIX, Major General. + + D. H. HILL, Major General, C. S. A. + +SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES. + +ARTICLE VII.--All prisoners of war now held on either side, and all +prisoners hereafter taken, shall be sent with all reasonable dispatch +to A. M. Aiken’s, below Dutch Gap, on the James River, in Virginia, or +to Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, in the State of Mississippi, +and there exchanged of paroled until such exchange can be effected, +notice being previously given by each party of the number of prisoners +it will send, and the time when they will be delivered at those points +respectively; and in case the vicissitudes of war shall change the +military relations of the places designated in this article to the +contending parties, so as to render the same inconvenient for the +delivery and exchange of prisoners, other places bearing as nearly as +may be the present local relations of said places to the lines of said +parties, shall be, by mutual agreement, substituted. But nothing in +this article contained shall prevent the commanders of the two opposing +armies from exchanging prisoners or releasing them on parole, at other +points mutually agreed on by said commanders. + +ARTICLE VIII.--For the purpose of carrying into effect the foregoing +articles of agreement, each party will appoint two agents for the +exchange of prisoners of war, whose duty it shall be to communicate +with each other by correspondence and otherwise; to prepare the lists +of prisoners; to attend to the delivery of the prisoners at the places +agreed on, and to carry out promptly, effectually, and in good faith, +all the details and provisions of the said articles of agreement. + +ARTICLE IX.--And, in case any misunderstanding shall arise in regard +to any clause or stipulation in the foregoing articles, it is mutually +agreed that such misunderstanding shall not affect the release of +prisoners on parole, as herein provided, but shall be made the subject +of friendly explanation, in order that the object of this agreement may +neither be defeated nor postponed. + + JOHN A. DIX, Major General. + D. H. HILL, Major General. C. S. A. + + +This plan did not work well. Men on both sides, who wanted a little +rest from soldiering, could obtain it by so straggling in the vicinity +of the enemy. Their parole--following close upon their capture, +frequently upon the spot--allowed them to visit home, and sojourn +awhile where were pleasanter pastures than at the front. Then the +Rebels grew into the habit of paroling everybody that they could +constrain into being a prisoner of war. Peaceable, unwarlike and +decrepit citizens of Kentucky, East Tennessee, West Virginia, Missouri +and Maryland were “captured” and paroled, and setoff against regular +Rebel soldiers taken by us. + +3. After some months of trial of this scheme, a modification of +the cartel was agreed upon, the main feature of which was that all +prisoners must be reduced to possession, and delivered to the exchange +officers either at City Point, Va., or Vicksburg, Miss. This worked +very well for some months, until our Government began organizing negro +troops. The Rebels then issued an order that neither these troops nor +their officers should be held as amenable to the laws of war, but that, +when captured, the men should be returned to slavery, and the officers +turned over to the Governors of the States in which they were taken, to +be dealt with according to the stringent law punishing the incitement +of servile insurrection. Our Government could not permit this for a +day. It was bound by every consideration of National honor to protect +those who wore its uniform and bore its flag. The Rebel Government was +promptly informed that rebel officers and men would be held as hostages +for the proper treatment of such members of colored regiments as might +be taken. + +4. This discussion did not put a stop to the exchange, but while it +was going on Vicksburg was captured, and the battle of Gettysburg was +fought. The first placed one of the exchange points in our hands. At +the opening of the fight at Gettysburg Lee captured some six thousand +Pennsylvania militia. He sent to Meade to have these exchanged on +the field of battle. Meade declined to do so for two reasons: first, +because it was against the cartel, which prescribed that prisoners must +be reduced to possession; and second, because he was anxious to have +Lee hampered with such a body of prisoners, since it was very doubtful +if he could get his beaten army back across the Potomac, let alone his +prisoners. Lee then sent a communication to General Couch, commanding +the Pennsylvania militia, asking him to receive prisoners on parole, +and Couch, not knowing what Meade had done, acceded to the request. +Our Government disavowed Couch’s action instantly, and ordered the +paroles to be treated as of no force, whereupon the Rebel Government +ordered back into the field twelve thousand of the prisoners captured +by Grant’s army at Vicksburg. + +5. The paroling now stopped abruptly, leaving in the hands of both +sides the prisoners captured at Gettysburg, except the militia above +mentioned. The Rebels added considerably to those in their hands by +their captures at Chickamauga, while we gained a great many at Mission +Ridge, Cumberland Gap and elsewhere, so that at the time we arrived in +Richmond the Rebels had about fifteen thousand prisoners in their hands +and our Government had about twenty-five thousand. + +6. The rebels now began demanding that the prisoners on both sides be +exchanged--man for man--as far as they went, and the remainder paroled. +Our Government offered to exchange man for man, but declined--on +account of the previous bad faith of the Rebels--to release the balance +on parole. The Rebels also refused to make any concessions in regard to +the treatment of officers and men of colored regiments. + +7. At this juncture General B. F. Butler was appointed to the command +of the Department of the Blackwater, which made him an ex-officio +Commissioner of Exchange. The Rebels instantly refused to treat +with him, on the ground that he was outlawed by the proclamation of +Jefferson Davis. General Butler very pertinently replied that this only +placed him nearer their level, as Jefferson Davis and all associated +with him in the Rebel Government had been outlawed by the proclamation +of President Lincoln. The Rebels scorned to notice this home thrust by +the Union General. + +8. On February 12, 1864, General Butler addressed a letter to the Rebel +Commissioner Ould, in which be asked, for the sake of humanity, that +the questions interrupting the exchange be left temporarily in abeyance +while an informal exchange was put in operation. He would send five +hundred prisoners to City Point; let them be met by a similar number +of Union prisoners. This could go on from day to day until all in each +other’s hands should be transferred to their respective flags. + +The five hundred sent with the General’s letter were received, and +five hundred Union prisoners returned for them. Another five hundred, +sent the next day, were refused, and so this reasonable and humane +proposition ended in nothing. + +This was the condition of affairs in February, 1864, when the Rebel +authorities concluded to send us to Andersonville. If the reader will +fix these facts in his minds I will explain other phases as they +develop. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PUTTING IN THE TIME--RATIONS--COOKING UTENSILS--“FIAT” SOUP--“SPOONING” +--AFRICAN NEWSPAPER VENDERS--TRADING GREENBACKS FOR CONFEDERATE MONEY +--VISIT FROM JOHN MORGAN. + +The Winter days passed on, one by one, after the manner described in +a former chapter,--the mornings in ill-nature hunger; the afternoons +and evenings in tolerable comfort. The rations kept growing lighter +and lighter; the quantity of bread remained the same, but the meat +diminished, and occasional days would pass without any being issued. +Then we receive a pint or less of soup made from the beans or peas +before mentioned, but this, too, suffered continued change, in the +gradually increasing proportion of James River water, and decreasing of +that of the beans. + +The water of the James River is doubtless excellent: it looks well--at +a distance--and is said to serve the purposes of ablution and +navigation admirably. There seems to be a limit however, to the extent +of its advantageous combination with the bean (or pea) for nutritive +purposes. This, though, was or view of the case, merely, and not +shared in to any appreciably extent by the gentlemen who were managing +our boarding house. We seemed to view the matter through allopathic +spectacles, they through homoeopathic lenses. We thought that the +atomic weight of peas (or beans) and the James River fluid were about +equal, which would indicate that the proper combining proportions would +be, say a bucket of beans (or peas) to a bucket of water. They held +that the nutritive potency was increased by the dilution, and the best +results were obtainable when the symptoms of hunger were combated by +the trituration of a bucketful of the peas-beans with a barrel of ‘aqua +jamesiana.’ + +My first experience with this “flat” soup was very instructive, if +not agreeable. I had come into prison, as did most other prisoners, +absolutely destitute of dishes, or cooking utensils. The well-used, +half-canteen frying-pan, the blackened quart cup, and the spoon, which +formed the usual kitchen outfit of the cavalryman in the field, were +in the haversack on my saddle, and were lost to me when I separated +from my horse. Now, when we were told that we were to draw soup, I was +in great danger of losing my ration from having no vessel in which to +receive it. There were but few tin cups in the prison, and these were, +of course, wanted by their owners. By great good fortune I found an +empty fruit can, holding about a quart. I was also lucky enough to find +a piece from which to make a bail. I next manufactured a spoon and +knife combined from a bit of hoop-iron. + +These two humble utensils at once placed myself and my immediate +chums on another plane, as far as worldly goods were concerned. We +were better off than the mass, and as well off as the most fortunate. +It was a curious illustration of that law of political economy which +teaches that so-called intrinsic value is largely adventitious. Their +possession gave us infinitely more consideration among our fellows than +would the possession of a brown-stone front in an eligible location, +furnished with hot and cold water throughout, and all the modern +improvements. It was a place where cooking utensils were in demand, +and title-deeds to brown-stone fronts were not. We were in possession +of something which every one needed every day, and, therefore, were +persons of consequence and consideration to those around us who were +present or prospective borrowers. + +On our side we obeyed another law of political economy: We clung to +our property with unrelaxing tenacity, made the best use of it in our +intercourse with our fellows, and only gave it up after our release and +entry into a land where the plenitude of cooking utensils of superior +construction made ours valueless. Then we flung them into the sea, with +little gratitude for the great benefit they had been to us. We were +more anxious to get rid of the many hateful recollections clustering +around them. + +But, to return to the alleged soup: As I started to drink my first +ration it seemed to me that there was a superfluity of bugs upon its +surface. Much as I wanted animal food, I did not care for fresh meat +in that form. I skimmed them off carefully, so as to lose as little +soup as possible. But the top layer seemed to be underlaid with another +equally dense. This was also skimmed off as deftly as possible. But +beneath this appeared another layer, which, when removed, showed still +another; and so on, until I had scraped to the bottom of the can, and +the last of the bugs went with the last of my soup. I have before +spoken of the remarkable bug fecundity of the beans (or peas). This was +a demonstration of it. Every scouped out pea (or bean) which found its +way into the soup bore inside of its shell from ten to twenty of these +hard-crusted little weevil. Afterward I drank my soup without skimming. +It was not that I hated the weevil less, but that I loved the soup +more. It was only another step toward a closer conformity to that grand +rule which I have made the guiding maxim of my life: + +‘When I must, I had better.’ + +I recommend this to other young men starting on their career. + +The room in which we were was barely large enough for all of us to lie +down at once. Even then it required pretty close “spooning” together +--so close in fact that all sleeping along one side would have to turn +at once. It was funny to watch this operation. All, for instance, would +be lying on their right sides. They would begin to get tired, and one +of the wearied ones would sing out to the Sergeant who was in command +of the row-- + +“Sergeant: let’s spoon the other way.” + +That individual would reply: + +“All right. Attention! LEFT SPOON!!” and the whole line would at once +flop over on their left sides. + +The feet of the row that slept along the east wall on the floor below +us were in a line with the edge of the outer door, and a chalk line +drawn from the crack between the door and the frame to the opposite +wall would touch, say 150 pairs of feet. They were a noisy crowd down +there, and one night their noise so provoked the guard in front of the +door that he called out to them to keep quiet or he would fire in upon +them. They greeted this threat with a chorus profanely uncomplimentary +to the purity of the guard’s ancestry; they did not imply his descent +a la Darwin, from the remote monkey, but more immediate generation +by a common domestic animal. The incensed Rebel opened the door wide +enough to thrust his gun in, and he fired directly down the line of +toes. His piece was apparently loaded with buckshot, and the little +balls must have struck the legs, nipped off the toes, pierced the feet, +and otherwise slightly wounded the lower extremities of fifty men. The +simultaneous shriek that went up was deafening. It was soon found out +that nobody had been hurt seriously, and there was not a little fun +over the occurrence. + +One of the prisoners in Libby was Brigadier General Neal Dow, of Maine, +who had then a National reputation as a Temperance advocate, and the +author of the famous Maine Liquor Law. We, whose places were near the +front window, used to see him frequently on the street, accompanied +by a guard. He was allowed, we understood, to visit our sick in the +hospital. His long, snowy beard and hair gave him a venerable and +commanding appearance. + +Newsboys seemed to be a thing unknown in Richmond. The papers were +sold on the streets by negro men. The one who frequented our section +with the morning journals had a mellow; rich baritone for which we +would be glad to exchange the shrill cries of our street Arabs. We long +remembered him as one of the peculiar features of Richmond. He had one +unvarying formula for proclaiming his wares. It ran in this wise: + +“Great Nooze in de papahs! + +“Great Nooze from Orange Coaht House, Virginny! + +“Great Nooze from Alexandry, Virginny! + +“Great Nooze from Washington City! + +“Great Nooze from Chattanoogy, Tennessee! + +“Great Nooze from Chahlston, Sou’ Cahlina! + +“Great Nooze in depapahs!” + +It did not matter to him that the Rebels had not been at some of these +places for months. He would not change for such mere trifles as the +entire evaporation of all possible interest connected with Chattanooga +and Alexandria. He was a true Bourbon Southerner--he learned nothing +and forgot nothing. + +There was a considerable trade driven between the prisoners and the +guard at the door. This was a very lucrative position for the latter, +and men of a commercial turn of mind generally managed to get stationed +there. The blockade had cut off the Confederacy’s supplies from the +outer world, and the many trinkets about a man’s person were in good +demand at high prices. The men of the Army of the Potomac, who were +paid regularly, and were always near their supplies, had their pockets +filled with combs, silk handkerchiefs, knives, neckties, gold pens, +pencils, silver watches, playing cards, dice, etc. Such of these as +escaped appropriation by their captors and Dick Turner, were eagerly +bought by the guards, who paid fair prices in Confederate money, or +traded wheat bread, tobacco, daily papers, etc., for them. + +There was also considerable brokerage in money, and the manner of doing +this was an admirable exemplification of the folly of the “fiat” money +idea. The Rebels exhausted their ingenuity in framing laws to sustain +the purchasing power of their paper money. It was made legal tender for +all debts public and private; it was decreed that the man who refused +to take it was a public enemy; all the considerations of patriotism +were rallied to its support, and the law provided that any citizens +found trafficking in the money of the enemy--i.e., greenbacks, should +suffer imprisonment in the Penitentiary, and any soldier so offending +should suffer death. + +Notwithstanding all this, in Richmond, the head and heart of the +Confederacy, in January, 1864--long before the Rebel cause began to +look at all desperate--it took a dollar to buy such a loaf of bread as +now sells for ten cents; a newspaper was a half dollar, and everything +else in proportion. And still worse: There was not a day during our +stay in Richmond but what one could go to the hole in the door before +which the guard was pacing and call out in a loud whisper: + +“Say, Guard: do you want to buy some greenbacks?” + +And be sure that the reply would be, after a furtive glance around to +see that no officer was watching: + +“Yes; how much do you want for them?” + +The reply was then: “Ten for one.” + +“All right; how much have you got?” + +The Yankee would reply; the Rebel would walk to the farther end of his +beat, count out the necessary amount, and, returning, put up one hand +with it, while with the other he caught hold of one end of the Yankee’s +greenback. At the word, both would release their holds simultaneously, +the exchange was complete, and the Rebel would pace industriously +up and down his beat with the air of the school boy who “ain’t been +a-doin’ nothing.” + +There was never any risk in approaching any guard with a proposition of +this kind. I never heard of one refusing to trade for greenbacks, and +if the men on guard could not be restrained by these stringent laws, +what hope could there be of restraining anybody else? + +One day we were favored with a visit from the redoubtable General +John H. Morgan, next to J. E. B. Stuart the greatest of Rebel cavalry +leaders. He had lately escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary. He was +invited to Richmond to be made a Major General, and was given a grand +ovation by the citizens and civic Government. He came into our building +to visit a number of the First Kentucky Cavalry (loyal)--captured at +New Philadelphia, East Tennessee--whom he was anxious to have exchanged +for men of his own regiment--the First Kentucky Cavalry (Rebel)--who +were captured at the same time he was. I happened to get very close to +him while he was standing there talking to his old acquaintances, and I +made a mental photograph of him, which still retains all its original +distinctness. He was a tall, heavy man, with a full, coarse, and +somewhat dull face, and lazy, sluggish gray eyes. His long black hair +was carefully oiled, and turned under at the ends, as was the custom +with the rural beaux some years ago. His face was clean shaved, except +a large, sandy goatee. He wore a high silk hat, a black broadcloth +coat, Kentucky jeans pantaloons, neatly fitting boots, and no vest. +There was nothing remotely suggestive of unusual ability or force of +character, and I thought as I studied him that the sting of George D. +Prentice’s bon mot about him was in its acrid truth. Said Mr. Prentice: + +“Why don’t somebody put a pistol to Basil Duke’s head, and blow John +Morgan’s brains out!” [Basil Duke was John Morgan’s right hand man.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +REMARKS AS TO NOMENCLATURE--VACCINATION AND ITS EFFECTS--“N’YAARKER’S” +--THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR METHODS OF OPERATING. + +Before going any further in this narrative it may be well to state that +the nomenclature employed is not used in any odious or disparaging +sense. It is simply the adoption of the usual terms employed by the +soldiers of both sides in speaking to or of each other. We habitually +spoke of them and to them, as “Rebels,” and “Johnnies;” they of +and to us, as “Yanks,” and “Yankees.” To have said “Confederates,” +“Southerners,” “Secessionists,” or “Federalists,” “Unionists,” +“Northerners” or “Nationalists,” would have seemed useless euphemism. +The plainer terms suited better, and it was a day when things were more +important than names. + +For some inscrutable reason the Rebels decided to vaccinate us all. +Why they did this has been one of the unsolved problems of my life. It +is true that there was small pox in the City, and among the prisoners +at Danville; but that any consideration for our safety should have +led them to order general inoculation is not among the reasonable +inferences. But, be that as it may, vaccination was ordered, and +performed. By great good luck I was absent from the building with the +squad drawing rations, when our room was inoculated, so I escaped what +was an infliction to all, and fatal to many. The direst consequences +followed the operation. Foul ulcers appeared on various parts of the +bodies of the vaccinated. In many instances the arms literally rotted +off; and death followed from a corruption of the blood. Frequently the +faces, and other parts of those who recovered, were disfigured by the +ghastly cicatrices of healed ulcers. A special friend of mine, Sergeant +Frank Beverstock--then a member of the Third Virginia Cavalry, (loyal), +and after the war a banker in Bowling Green, O.,--bore upon his temple +to his dying day, (which occurred a year ago), a fearful scar, where +the flesh had sloughed off from the effects of the virus that had +tainted his blood. + +This I do not pretend to account for. We thought at the time that the +Rebels had deliberately poisoned the vaccine matter with syphilitic +virus, and it was so charged upon them. I do not now believe that this +was so; I can hardly think that members of the humane profession of +medicine would be guilty of such subtle diabolism--worse even than +poisoning the wells from which an enemy must drink. The explanation +with which I have satisfied myself is that some careless or stupid +practitioner took the vaccinating lymph from diseased human bodies, and +thus infected all with the blood venom, without any conception of what +he was doing. The low standard of medical education in the South makes +this theory quite plausible. + +We now formed the acquaintance of a species of human vermin that united +with the Rebels, cold, hunger, lice and the oppression of distraint, to +leave nothing undone that could add to the miseries of our prison life. + +These were the fledglings of the slums and dives of New York--graduates +of that metropolitan sink of iniquity where the rogues and criminals of +the whole world meet for mutual instruction in vice. + +They were men who, as a rule, had never known, a day of honesty and +cleanliness in their misspent lives; whose fathers, brothers and +constant companions were roughs, malefactors and, felons; whose +mothers, wives and sisters were prostitutes, procuresses and thieves; +men who had from infancy lived in an atmosphere of sin, until it +saturated every fiber of their being as a dweller in a jungle imbibes +malaria by every one of his, millions of pores, until his very marrow +is surcharged with it. + +They included representatives from all nationalities, and their +descendants, but the English and Irish elements predominated. They +had an argot peculiar to themselves. It was partly made up of the +“flash” language of the London thieves, amplified and enriched by the +cant vocabulary and the jargon of crime of every European tongue. +They spoke it with a peculiar accent and intonation that made them +instantly recognizable from the roughs of all other Cities. They called +themselves “N’Yaarkers;” we came to know them as “Raiders.” + +If everything in the animal world has its counterpart among men, then +these were the wolves, jackals and hyenas of the race at once cowardly +and fierce--audaciously bold when the power of numbers was on their +side, and cowardly when confronted with resolution by anything like an +equality of strength. + +Like all other roughs and rascals of whatever degree, they were utterly +worthless as soldiers. There may have been in the Army some habitual +corner loafer, some fistic champion of the bar-room and brothel, some +Terror of Plug Uglyville, who was worth the salt in the hard tack he +consumed, but if there were, I did not form his acquaintance, and I +never heard of any one else who did. It was the rule that the man who +was the readiest in the use of fist and slungshot at home had the +greatest diffidence about forming a close acquaintance with cold lead +in the neighborhood of the front. Thousands of the so-called “dangerous +classes” were recruited, from whom the Government did not receive so +much service as would pay for the buttons on their uniforms. People +expected that they would make themselves as troublesome to the Rebels +as they were to good citizens and the Police, but they were only +pugnacious to the provost guard, and terrible to the people in the rear +of the Army who had anything that could be stolen. + +The highest type of soldier which the world has yet produced is the +intelligent, self-respecting American boy, with home, and father and +mother and friends behind him, and duty in front beckoning him on. In +the sixty centuries that war has been a profession no man has entered +its ranks so calmly resolute in confronting danger, so shrewd and +energetic in his aggressiveness, so tenacious of the defense and the +assault, so certain to rise swiftly to the level of every emergency, +as the boy who, in the good old phrase, had been “well-raised” in a +Godfearing home, and went to the field in obedience to a conviction +of duty. His unfailing courage and good sense won fights that the +incompetency or cankering jealousy of commanders had lost. High +officers were occasionally disloyal, or willing to sacrifice their +country to personal pique; still more frequently they were ignorant +and inefficient; but the enlisted man had more than enough innate +soldiership to make amends for these deficiencies, and his superb +conduct often brought honors and promotions to those only who deserved +shame and disaster. + +Our “N’Yaarkers,” swift to see any opportunity for dishonest gain, had +taken to bounty-jumping, or, as they termed it, “leppin’ the bounty,” +for a livelihood. Those who were thrust in upon us had followed this +until it had become dangerous, and then deserted to the Rebels. The +latter kept them at Castle Lightning for awhile, and then, rightly +estimating their character, and considering that it was best to trade +them off for a genuine Rebel soldier, sent them in among us, to be +exchanged regularly with us. There was not so much good faith as good +policy shown by this. It was a matter of indifference to the Rebels +how soon our Government shot these deserters after getting them in its +hands again. They were only anxious to use them to get their own men +back. + +The moment they came into contact with us our troubles began. They +stole whenever opportunities offered, and they were indefatigable in +making these offer; they robbed by actual force, whenever force would +avail; and more obsequious lick-spittles to power never existed--they +were perpetually on the look-out for a chance to curry favor by +betraying some plan or scheme to those who guarded us. + +I saw one day a queer illustration of the audacious side of these +fellows’ characters, and it shows at the same time how brazen +effrontery will sometimes get the better of courage. In a room in an +adjacent building were a number of these fellows, and a still greater +number of East Tennesseeans. These latter were simple, ignorant +folks, but reasonably courageous. About fifty of them were sitting in +a group in one corner of the room, and near them a couple or three +“N’Yaarkers.” Suddenly one of the latter said with an oath: + +“I was robbed last night; I lost two silver watches, a couple of rings, +and about fifty dollars in greenbacks. I believe some of you fellers +went through me.” + +This was all pure invention; he no more had the things mentioned than +he had purity of heart and a Christian spirit, but the unsophisticated +Tennesseeans did not dream of disputing his statement, and answered in +chorus: + +“Oh, no, mister; we didn’t take your things; we ain’t that kind.” + +This was like the reply of the lamb to the wolf, in the fable, and the +N’Yaarker retorted with a simulated storm of passion, and a torrent of +oaths: + +“---- ---- I know ye did; I know some uv yez has got them; stand up +agin the wall there till I search yez!” + +And that whole fifty men, any one of whom was physically equal to the +N’Yaarker, and his superior in point of real courage, actually stood +against the wall, and submitted to being searched and having taken +from them the few Confederate bills they had, and such trinkets as the +searcher took a fancy to. + +I was thoroughly disgusted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BELLE ISLE--TERRIBLE SUFFERING FROM COLD AND HUNGER--FATE OF LIEUTENANT +BOISSEUX’S DOG--OUR COMPANY MYSTERY--TERMINATION OF ALL HOPES OF ITS +SOLUTION. + +In February my chum--B. B. Andrews, now a physician in Astoria, +Illinois --was brought into our building, greatly to my delight and +astonishment, and from him I obtained the much desired news as to the +fate of my comrades. He told me they had been sent to Belle Isle, +whither he had gone, but succumbing to the rigors of that dreadful +place, he had been taken to the hospital, and, upon his convalesence, +placed in our prison. + +Our men were suffering terribly on the island. It was low, damp, and +swept by the bleak, piercing winds that howled up and down the surface +of the James. The first prisoners placed on the island had been given +tents that afforded them some shelter, but these were all occupied when +our battalion came in, so that they were compelled to lie on the snow +and frozen ground, without shelter, covering of any kind, or fire. +During this time the cold had been so intense that the James had frozen +over three times. + +The rations had been much worse than ours. The so-called soup had been +diluted to a ridiculous thinness, and meat had wholly disappeared. +So intense became the craving for animal food, that one day when +Lieutenant Boisseux--the Commandant--strolled into the camp with his +beloved white bull-terrier, which was as fat as a Cheshire pig, the +latter was decoyed into a tent, a blanket thrown over him, his throat +cut within a rod of where his master was standing, and he was then +skinned, cut up, cooked, and furnished a savory meal to many hungry men. + +When Boisseux learned of the fate of his four-footed friend he was, of +course, intensely enraged, but that was all the good it did him. The +only revenge possible was to sentence more prisoners to ride the cruel +wooden horse which he used as a means of punishment. + +Four of our company were already dead. Jacob Lowry and John Beach were +standing near the gate one day when some one snatched the guard’s +blanket from the post where he had hung it, and ran. The enraged +sentry leveled his gun and fired into the crowd. The balls passed +through Lowry’s and Beach’s breasts. Then Charley Osgood, son of our +Lieutenant, a quiet, fair-haired, pleasant-spoken boy, but as brave and +earnest as his gallant father, sank under the combination of hunger and +cold. One stinging morning he was found stiff and stark, on the hard +ground, his bright, frank blue eyes glazed over in death. + +One of the mysteries of our company was a tall, slender, elderly +Scotchman, who appeared on the rolls as William Bradford. What his +past life had been, where he had lived, what his profession, whether +married or single, no one ever knew. He came to us while in Camp of +Instruction near Springfield, Illinois, and seemed to have left all his +past behind him as he crossed the line of sentries around the camp. +He never received any letters, and never wrote any; never asked for a +furlough or pass, and never expressed a wish to be elsewhere than in +camp. He was courteous and pleasant, but very reserved. He interfered +with no one, obeyed orders promptly and without remark, and was always +present for duty. Scrupulously neat in dress, always as clean-shaved as +an old-fashioned gentleman of the world, with manners and conversation +that showed him to have belonged to a refined and polished circle, +he was evidently out of place as a private soldier in a company of +reckless and none-too-refined young Illinois troopers, but he never +availed himself of any of the numerous opportunities offered to change +his associations. His elegant penmanship would have secured him an easy +berth and better society at headquarters, but he declined to accept a +detail. He became an exciting mystery to a knot of us imaginative young +cubs, who sorted up out of the reminiscential rag-bag of high colors +and strong contrasts with which the sensational literature that we +most affected had plentifully stored our minds, a half-dozen intensely +emotional careers for him. We spent much time in mentally trying these +on, and discussing which fitted him best. We were always expecting +a denouement that would come like a lightning flash and reveal his +whole mysterious past, showing him to have been the disinherited scion +of some noble house, a man of high station, who was expiating some +fearful crime; an accomplished villain eluding his pursuers--in short, +a Somebody who would be a fitting hero for Miss Braddon’s or Wilkie +Collins’s literary purposes. We never got but two clues of his past, +and they were faint ones. One day, he left lying near me a small copy +of “Paradise Lost,” that he always carried with him. Turning over its +leaves I found all of Milton’s bitter invectives against women heavily +underscored. Another time, while on guard with him, he spent much of +his time in writing some Latin verses in very elegant chirography +upon the white painted boards of a fence along which his beat ran. We +pressed in all the available knowledge of Latin about camp, and found +that the tenor of the verses was very uncomplimentary to that charming +sex which does us the honor of being our mothers and sweethearts. +These evidences we accepted as sufficient demonstration that there was +a woman at the bottom of the mystery, and made us more impatient for +further developments. These were never to come. Bradford pined away an +Belle Isle, and grew weaker, but no less reserved, each day. At length, +one bitter cold night ended it all. He was found in the morning stone +dead, with his iron-gray hair frozen fast to the ground, upon which he +lay. Our mystery had to remain unsolved. There was nothing about his +person to give any hint as to his past. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HOPING FOR EXCHANGE--AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHANCES --OFF +FOR ANDERSONVILLE--UNCERTAINTY AS TO OUR DESTINATION--ARRIVAL AT +ANDERSONVILLE. + +As each lagging day closed, we confidently expected that the next would +bring some news of the eagerly-desired exchange. We hopefully assured +each other that the thing could not be delayed much longer; that the +Spring was near, the campaign would soon open, and each government +would make an effort to get all its men into the field, and this would +bring about a transfer of prisoners. A Sergeant of the Seventh Indiana +Infantry stated his theory to me this way: + +“You know I’m just old lightnin’ on chuck-a-luck. Now the way I bet is +this: I lay down, say on the ace, an’ it don’t come up; I just double +my bet on the ace, an’ keep on doublin’ every time it loses, until at +last it comes up an’ then I win a bushel o’ money, and mebbe bust the +bank. You see the thing’s got to come up some time; an’ every time it +don’t come up makes it more likely to come up the next time. It’s just +the same way with this ’ere exchange. The thing’s got to happen some +day, an’ every day that it don’t happen increases the chances that it +will happen the next day.” + +Some months later I folded the sanguine Sergeant’s stiffening hands +together across his fleshless ribs, and helped carry his body out to +the dead-house at Andersonville, in order to get a piece of wood to +cook my ration of meal with. + +On the evening of the 17th of February, 1864, we were ordered to get +ready to move at daybreak the next morning. We were certain this could +mean nothing else than exchange, and our exaltation was such that we +did little sleeping that night. The morning was very cold, but we +sang and joked as we marched over the creaking bridge, on our way to +the cars. We were packed so tightly in these that it was impossible +to even sit down, and we rolled slow ly away after a wheezing engine +to Petersburg, whence we expected to march to the exchange post. We +reached Petersburg before noon, and the cars halted there along time, +we momentarily expecting an order to get out. Then the train started up +and moved out of the City toward the southeast. This was inexplicable, +but after we had proceeded this way for several hours some one +conceived the idea that the Rebels, to avoid treating with Butler, were +taking us into the Department of some other commander to exchange us. +This explanation satisfied us, and our spirits rose again. + +Night found us at Gaston, N. C., where we received a few crackers for +rations, and changed cars. It was dark, and we resorted to a little +strategy to secure more room. About thirty of us got into a tight +box car, and immediately announced that it was too full to admit any +more. When an officer came along with another squad to stow away, we +would yell out to him to take some of the men out, as we were crowded +unbearably. In the mean time everybody in the car would pack closely +around the door, so as to give the impression that the car was densely +crowded. The Rebel would look convinced, and demand: + +“Why, how many men have you got in de cah?” + +Then one of us would order the imaginary host in the invisible recesses +to-- + +“Stand still there, and be counted,” while he would gravely count up to +one hundred or one hundred and twenty, which was the utmost limit of +the car, and the Rebel would hurry off to put his prisoners somewhere +else. We managed to play this successfully during the whole journey, +and not only obtained room to lie down in the car, but also drew three +or four times as many rations as were intended for us, so that while we +at no time had enough, we were farther from starvation than our less +strategic companions. + +The second afternoon we arrived at Raleigh, the capitol of North +Carolina, and were camped in a piece of timber, and shortly after dark +orders were issued to us all to lie flat on the ground and not rise up +till daylight. About the middle of the night a man belonging to a New +Jersey regiment, who had apparently forgotten the order, stood up, and +was immediately shot dead by the guard. + +For four or five days more the decrepit little locomotive strained +along, dragging after it the rattling’ old cars. The scenery was +intensely monotonous. It was a flat, almost unending, stretch of pine +barrens and the land so poor that a disgusted Illinoisan, used to the +fertility of the great American Bottom, said rather strongly, that, + +“By George, they’d have to manure this ground before they could even +make brick out of it.” + +It was a surprise to all of us who had heard so much of the wealth of +Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to find the soil +a sterile sand bank, interspersed with swamps. + +We had still no idea of where we were going. We only knew that our +general course was southward, and that we had passed through the +Carolinas, and were in Georgia. We furbished up our school knowledge +of geography and endeavored to recall something of the location of +Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta, through which we passed, but +the attempt was not a success. + +Late on the afternoon of the 25th of February the Seventh Indiana +Sergeant approached me with the inquiry: + +“Do you know where Macon is?” + +The place had not then become as well known as it was afterward. + +It seemed to me that I had read something of Macon in Revolutionary +history, and that it was a fort on the sea coast. He said that the +guard had told him that we were to be taken to a point near that place, +and we agreed that it was probably a new place of exchange. A little +later we passed through the town of Macon, Ga, and turned upon a road +that led almost due south. + +About midnight the train stopped, and we were ordered off. We were in +the midst of a forest of tall trees that loaded the air with the heavy +balsamic odor peculiar to pine trees. A few small rude houses were +scattered around near. + +Stretching out into the darkness was a double row of great heaps of +burning pitch pine, that smoked and flamed fiercely, and lit up a +little space around in the somber forest with a ruddy glare. Between +these two rows lay a road, which we were ordered to take. + +The scene was weird and uncanny. I had recently read the “Iliad,” and +the long lines of huge fires reminded me of that scene in the first +book, where the Greeks burn on the sea shore the bodies of those +smitten by Apollo’s pestilential-arrows + + For nine long nights, through all the dusky air, + The pyres, thick flaming shot a dismal glare. + +Five hundred weary men moved along slowly through double lines of +guards. Five hundred men marched silently towards the gates that were +to shut out life and hope from most of them forever. A quarter of a +mile from the railroad we came to a massive palisade of great squared +logs standing upright in the ground. The fires blazed up and showed +us a section of these, and two massive wooden gates, with heavy iron +hinges and bolts. They swung open as we stood there and we passed +through into the space beyond. + +We were in Andersonville. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +GEORGIA--A LEAN AND HUNGRY LAND--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UPPER AND LOWER +GEORGIA--THE PILLAGE OF ANDERSONVILLE. + +As the next nine months of the existence of those of us who survived +were spent in intimate connection with the soil of Georgia, and, as it +exercised a potential influence upon our comfort and well-being, or +rather lack of these--a mention of some of its peculiar characteristics +may help the reader to a fuller comprehension of the conditions +surrounding us--our environment, as Darwin would say. + +Georgia, which, next to Texas, is the largest State in the South, and +has nearly twenty-five per cent. more area than the great State of New +York, is divided into two distinct and widely differing sections, by a +geological line extending directly across the State from Augusta, on +the Savannah River, through Macon, on the Ocmulgee, to Columbus, on the +Chattahoochie. That part lying to the north and west of this line is +usually spoken of as “Upper Georgia;” while that lying to the south and +east, extending to the Atlantic Ocean and the Florida line, is called +“Lower Georgia.” In this part of the State--though far removed from +each other--were the prisons of Andersonville, Savannah, Millen and +Blackshear, in which we were incarcerated one after the other. + +Upper Georgia--the capital of which is Atlanta--is a fruitful, +productive, metalliferous region, that will in time become quite +wealthy. Lower Georgia, which has an extent about equal to that of +Indiana, is not only poorer now than a worn-out province of Asia Minor, +but in all probability will ever remain so. + +It is a starved, sterile land, impressing one as a desert in the first +stages of reclamation into productive soil, or a productive soil in +the last steps of deterioration into a desert. It is a vast expanse +of arid, yellow sand, broken at intervals by foul swamps, with a +jungle-life growth of unwholesome vegetation, and teeming With venomous +snakes, and all manner of hideous crawling thing. + +The original forest still stands almost unbroken on this wide stretch +of thirty thousand square miles, but it does not cover it as we say +of forests in more favored lands. The tall, solemn pines, upright and +symmetrical as huge masts, and wholly destitute of limbs, except the +little, umbrella-like crest at the very top, stand far apart from each +other in an unfriendly isolation. There is no fraternal interlacing of +branches to form a kindly, umbrageous shadow. Between them is no genial +undergrowth of vines, shrubs, and demi-trees, generous in fruits, +berries and nuts, such as make one of the charms of Northern forests. +On the ground is no rich, springing sod of emerald green, fragrant +with the elusive sweetness of white clover, and dainty flowers, but +a sparse, wiry, famished grass, scattered thinly over the surface in +tufts and patches, like the hair on a mangy cur. + +The giant pines seem to have sucked up into their immense boles all the +nutriment in the earth, and starved out every minor growth. So wide and +clean is the space between them, that one can look through the forest +in any direction for miles, with almost as little interference with the +view as on a prairie. In the swampier parts the trees are lower, and +their limbs are hung with heavy festoons of the gloomy Spanish moss, or +“death moss,” as it is more frequently called, because where it grows +rankest the malaria is the deadliest. Everywhere Nature seems sad, +subdued and somber. + +I have long entertained a peculiar theory to account for the decadence +and ruin of countries. My reading of the world’s history seems to teach +me that when a strong people take possession of a fertile land, they +reduce it to cultivation, thrive upon its bountifulness, multiply into +millions the mouths to be fed from it, tax it to the last limit of +production of the necessities of life, take from it continually, and +give nothing back, starve and overwork it as cruel, grasping men do a +servant or a beast, and when at last it breaks down under the strain, +it revenges itself by starving many of them with great famines, while +the others go off in search of new countries to put through the same +process of exhaustion. We have seen one country after another undergo +this process as the seat of empire took its westward way, from the +cradle of the race on the banks of the Oxus to the fertile plains in +the Valley of the Euphrates. Impoverishing these, men next sought the +Valley of the Nile, then the Grecian Peninsula; next Syracuse and the +Italian Peninsula, then the Iberian Peninsula, and the African shores +of the Mediterranean. Exhausting all these, they were deserted for the +French, German and English portions of Europe. The turn of the latter +is now come; famines are becoming terribly frequent, and mankind is +pouring into the virgin fields of America. + +Lower Georgia, the Carolinas and Eastern Virginia have all the +characteristics of these starved and worn-out lands. It would seem as +if, away back in the distance of ages, some numerous and civilized race +had drained from the soil the last atom of food-producing constituents, +and that it is now slowly gathering back, as the centuries pass, the +elements that have been wrung from the land. + +Lower Georgia is very thinly settled. Much of the land is still in +the hands of the Government. The three or four railroads which pass +through it have little reference to local traffic. There are no towns +along them as a rule; stations are made every ten miles, and not named, +but numbered, as “Station No. 4”--“No. 10”, etc. The roads were built +as through lines, to bring to the seaboard the rich products of the +interior. + +Andersonville is one of the few stations dignified with a same, +probably because it contained some half dozen of shabby houses, whereas +at the others there was usually nothing more than a mere open shed, to +shelter goods and travelers. It is on a rudely constructed, rickety +railroad, that runs from Macon to Albany, the head of navigation on +the Flint River, which is, one hundred and six miles from Macon, and +two hundred and fifty from the Gulf of Mexico. Andersonville is about +sixty miles from Macon, and, consequently, about three hundred miles +from the Gulf. The camp was merely a hole cut in the wilderness. It was +as remote a point from, our armies, as they then lay, as the Southern +Confederacy could give. The nearest was Sherman, at Chattanooga, four +hundred miles away, and on the other side of a range of mountains +hundreds of miles wide. + +To us it seemed beyond the last forlorn limits of civilization. We felt +that we were more completely at the mercy of our foes than ever. While +in Richmond we were in the heart of the Confederacy; we were in the +midst of the Rebel military and, civil force, and were surrounded on +every hand by visible evidences of the great magnitude of that power, +but this, while it enforced our ready submission, did not overawe us +depressingly, We knew that though the Rebels were all about us in great +force, our own men were also near, and in still greater force--that +while they were very strong our army was still stronger, and there was +no telling what day this superiority of strength, might be demonstrated +in such a way as to decisively benefit us. + +But here we felt as did the Ancient Mariner: + + Alone on a wide, wide sea, + So lonely ’twas that God himself + Scarce seemed there to be. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WAKING UP IN ANDERSONVILLE--SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE--OUR FIRST +MAIL--BUILDING SHELTER--GEN. WINDER--HIMSELF AND LINEAGE. + +We roused up promptly with the dawn to take a survey of our new abiding +place. We found ourselves in an immense pen, about one thousand feet +long by eight hundred wide, as a young surveyor--a member of the +Thirty-fourth Ohio--informed us after he had paced it off. He estimated +that it contained about sixteen acres. The walls were formed by pine +logs twenty-five feet long, from two to three feet in diameter, hewn +square, set into the ground to a depth of five feet, and placed so +close together as to leave no crack through which the country outside +could be seen. There being five feet of the logs in the ground, the +wall was, of course, twenty feet high. This manner of enclosure was in +some respects superior to a wall of masonry. It was equally unscalable, +and much more difficult to undermine or batter down. + +The pen was longest due north and south. It was divided in the center +by a creek about a yard wide and ten inches deep, running from west to +east. On each side of this was a quaking bog of slimy ooze one hundred +and fifty feet wide, and so yielding that one attempting to walk upon +it would sink to the waist. From this swamp the sand-hills sloped north +and south to the stockade. All the trees inside the stockade, save two, +had been cut down and used in its construction. All the rank vegetation +of the swamp had also been cut off. + +There were two entrances to the stockade, one on each side of the +creek, midway between it and the ends, and called respectively the +“North Gate” and the “South Gate.” These were constructed double, by +building smaller stockades around them on the outside, with another +set of gates. When prisoners or wagons with rations were brought in, +they were first brought inside the outer gates, which were carefully +secured, before the inner gates were opened. This was done to prevent +the gates being carried by a rush by those confined inside. + +At regular intervals along the palisades were little perches, upon +which stood guards, who overlooked the whole inside of the prison. + +The only view we had of the outside was that obtained by looking from +the highest points of the North or South Sides across the depression +where the stockade crossed the swamp. In this way we could see about +forty acres at a time of the adjoining woodland, or say one hundred and +sixty acres altogether, and this meager landscape had to content us for +the next half year. + +Before our inspection was finished, a wagon drove in with rations, and +a quart of meal, a sweet potato and a few ounces of salt beef were +issued to each one of us. + +In a few minutes we were all hard at work preparing our first meal in +Andersonville. The debris of the forest left a temporary abundance +of fuel, and we had already a cheerful fire blazing for every little +squad. There were a number of tobacco presses in the rooms we occupied +in Richmond, and to each of these was a quantity of sheets of tin, +evidently used to put between the layers of tobacco. The deft hands of +the mechanics among us bent these up into square pans, which were real +handy cooking utensils, holding about--a quart. Water was carried in +them from the creek; the meal mixed in them to a dough, or else boiled +as mush in the same vessels; the potatoes were boiled; and their final +service was to hold a little meal to be carefully browned, and then +water boiled upon it, so as to form a feeble imitation of coffee. I +found my education at Jonesville in the art of baking a hoe-cake now +came in good play, both for myself and companions. Taking one of the +pieces of tin which had not yet been made into a pan, we spread upon +it a layer of dough about a half-inch thick. Propping this up nearly +upright before the fire, it was soon nicely browned over. This process +made it sweat itself loose from the tin, when it was turned over and +the bottom browned also. Save that it was destitute of salt, it was +quite a toothsome bit of nutriment for a hungry man, and I recommend my +readers to try making a “pone” of this kind once, just to see what it +was like. + +The supreme indifference with which the Rebels always treated the +matter of cooking utensils for us, excited my wonder. It never seemed +to occur to them that we could have any more need of vessels for our +food than cattle or swine. Never, during my whole prison life, did I +see so much as a tin cup or a bucket issued to a prisoner. Starving men +were driven to all sorts of shifts for want of these. Pantaloons or +coats were pulled off and their sleeves or legs used to draw a mess’s +meal in. Boots were common vessels for carrying water, and when the +feet of these gave way the legs were ingeniously closed up with pine +pegs, so as to form rude leathern buckets. Men whose pocket knives had +escaped the search at the gates made very ingenious little tubs and +buckets, and these devices enabled us to get along after a fashion. + +After our meal was disposed of, we held a council on the situation. +Though we had been sadly disappointed in not being exchanged, it +seemed that on the whole our condition had been bettered. This first +ration was a decided improvement on those of the Pemberton building; +we had left the snow and ice behind at Richmond--or rather at some +place between Raleigh, N. C., and Columbia, S. C.--and the air here, +though chill, was not nipping, but bracing. It looked as if we would +have a plenty of wood for shelter and fuel, it was certainly better +to have sixteen acres to roam over than the stiffing confines of a +building; and, still better, it seemed as if there would be plenty of +opportunities to get beyond the stockade, and attempt a journey through +the woods to that blissful land --“Our lines.” + +We settled down to make the best of things. A Rebel Sergeant came +in presently and arranged us in hundreds. We subdivided these into +messes of twenty-five, and began devising means for shelter. Nothing +showed the inborn capacity of the Northern soldier to take care of +himself better than the way in which we accomplished this with the +rude materials at our command. No ax, spade nor mattock was allowed +us by the Rebels, who treated us in regard to these the same as in +respect to culinary vessels. The only tools were a few pocket-knives, +and perhaps half-a-dozen hatchets which some infantrymen-principally +members of the Third Michigan--were allowed to retain. Yet, despite +all these drawbacks, we had quite a village of huts erected in a few +days,--nearly enough, in fact, to afford tolerable shelter for the +whole five hundred of us first-comers. + +The wither and poles that grew in the swamp were bent into the shape +of the semi-circular bows that support the canvas covers of army +wagons, and both ends thrust in the ground. These formed the timbers +of our dwellings. They were held in place by weaving in, basket-wise, +a network of briers and vines. Tufts of the long leaves which are the +distinguishing characteristic of the Georgia pine (popularly known as +the “long-leaved pine”) were wrought into this network until a thatch +was formed, that was a fair protection against the rain--it was like +the Irishman’s unglazed window-sash, which “kep’ out the coarsest uv +the cold.” + +The results accomplished were as astonishing to us as to the Rebels, +who would have lain unsheltered upon the sand until bleached out like +field-rotted flax, before thinking to protect themselves in this +way. As our village was approaching completion, the Rebel Sergeant +who called the roll entered. He was very odd-looking. The cervical +muscles were distorted in such a way as to suggest to us the name of +“Wry-necked Smith,” by which we always designated him. Pete Bates, of +the Third Michigan, who was the wag of our squad, accounted for Smith’s +condition by saying that while on dress parade once the Colonel of +Smith’s regiment had commanded “eyes right,” and then forgot to give +the order “front.” Smith, being a good soldier, had kept his eyes in +the position of gazing at the buttons of the third man to the right, +waiting for the order to restore them to their natural direction, +until they had become permanently fixed in their obliquity and he was +compelled to go through life taking a biased view of all things. + +Smith walked in, made a diagonal survey of the encampment, which, if +he had ever seen “Mitchell’s Geography,” probably reminded him of the +picture of a Kaffir village, in that instructive but awfully dull book, +and then expressed the opinion that usually welled up to every Rebel’s +lips: + +“Well, I’ll be durned, if you Yanks don’t just beat the devil.” + +Of course, we replied with the well-worn prison joke, that we supposed +we did, as we beat the Rebels, who were worse than the devil. + +There rode in among us, a few days after our arrival, an old man whose +collar bore the wreathed stars of a Major General. Heavy white locks +fell from beneath his slouched hat, nearly to his shoulders. Sunken +gray eyes, too dull and cold to light up, marked a hard, stony face, +the salient feature of which was a thin-upped, compressed mouth, with +corners drawn down deeply--the mouth which seems the world over to be +the index of selfish, cruel, sulky malignance. It is such a mouth as +has the school-boy--the coward of the play ground, who delights in +pulling off the wings of flies. It is such a mouth as we can imagine +some remorseless inquisitor to have had--that is, not an inquisitor +filled with holy zeal for what he mistakenly thought the cause of +Christ demanded, but a spleeny, envious, rancorous shaveling, who +tortured men from hatred of their superiority to him, and sheer love of +inflicting pain. + +The rider was John H. Winder, Commissary General of Prisoners, +Baltimorean renegade and the malign genius to whose account should be +charged the deaths of more gallant men than all the inquisitors of the +world ever slew by the less dreadful rack and wheel. It was he who in +August could point to the three thousand and eighty-one new made graves +for that month, and exultingly tell his hearer that he was “doing more +for the Confederacy than twenty regiments.” + +His lineage was in accordance with his character. His father was that +General William H. Winder, whose poltroonery at Bladensburg, in 1814, +nullified the resistance of the gallant Commodore Barney, and gave +Washington to the British. + +The father was a coward and an incompetent; the son, always cautiously +distant from the scene of hostilities, was the tormentor of those whom +the fortunes of war, and the arms of brave men threw into his hands. + +Winder gazed at us stonily for a few minutes without speaking, and, +turning, rode out again. + +Our troubles, from that hour, rapidly increased. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE PLANTATION NEGROS--NOT STUPID TO BE LOYAL--THEIR DITHYRAMBIC MUSIC +--COPPERHEAD OPINION OF LONGFELLOW. + +The stockade was not quite finished at the time of our arrival--a gap +of several hundred feet appearing at the southwest corner. A gang of +about two hundred negros were at work felling trees, hewing legs, and +placing them upright in the trenches. We had an opportunity--soon +to disappear forever--of studying the workings of the “peculiar +institution” in its very home. The negros were of the lowest field-hand +class, strong, dull, ox-like, but each having in our eyes an admixture +of cunning and secretiveness that their masters pretended was not in +them. Their demeanor toward us illustrated this. We were the objects +of the most supreme interest to them, but when near us and in the +presence of a white Rebel, this interest took the shape of stupid, +open-eyed, open-mouthed wonder, something akin to the look on the face +of the rustic lout, gazing for the first time upon a locomotive or a +steam threshing machine. But if chance threw one of them near us when +he thought himself unobserved by the Rebels, the blank, vacant face +lighted up with an entirely different expression. He was no longer the +credulous yokel who believed the Yankees were only slightly modified +devils, ready at any instant to return to their original horn-and-tail +condition and snatch him away to the bluest kind of perdition; he knew, +apparently quite as well as his master, that they were in some way his +friends and allies, and he lost no opportunity in communicating his +appreciation of that fact, and of offering his services in any possible +way. And these offers were sincere. It is the testimony of every Union +prisoner in the South that he was never betrayed by or disappointed in +a field-negro, but could always approach any one of them with perfect +confidence in his extending all the aid in his power, whether as a +guide to escape, as sentinel to signal danger, or a purveyor of food. +These services were frequently attended with the greatest personal +risk, but they were none the less readily undertaken. This applies only +to the field-hands; the house servants were treacherous and wholly +unreliable. Very many of our men who managed to get away from the +prisons were recaptured through their betrayal by house servants, but +none were retaken where a field hand could prevent it. + +We were much interested in watching the negro work. They wove in a +great deal of their peculiar, wild, mournful music, whenever the +character of the labor permitted. They seemed to sing the music for +the music’s sake alone, and were as heedless of the fitness of the +accompanying words, as the composer of a modern opera is of his +libretto. One middle aged man, with a powerful, mellow baritone, like +the round, full notes of a French horn, played by a virtuoso, was the +musical leader of the party. He never seemed to bother himself about +air, notes or words, but improvised all as he went along, and he sang +as the spirit moved him. He would suddenly break out with-- + + “Oh, he’s gone up dah, nevah to come back agin,” + +At this every darkey within hearing would roll out, in admirable +consonance with the pitch, air and time started by the leader-- + + “O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!” + +Then would ring out from the leader as from the throbbing lips of a +silver trumpet, + + “Lord bress him soul; I done hope he is happy now!” + +And the antiphonal two hundred would chant back + + “O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!” + +And so on for hours. They never seemed to weary of singing, and we +certainly did not of listening to them. The absolute independence +of the conventionalities of tune and sentiment, gave them freedom +to wander through a kaleideoscopic variety of harmonic effects, as +spontaneous and changeful as the song of a bird. + +I sat one evening, long after the shadows of night had fallen upon the +hillside, with one of my chums--a Frank Berkstresser, of the Ninth +Maryland Infantry, who before enlisting was a mathematical tutor in +college at Hancock, Maryland. As we listened to the unwearying flow of +melody from the camp of the laborers, I thought of and repeated to him +Longfellow’s fine lines: + +THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT. + +And the voice of his devotion +Filled my soul with strong emotion; +For its tones by turns were glad +Sweetly solemn, wildly sad. + + Paul and Silas, in their prison, + Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen, + And an earthquake’s arm of might + Broke their dungeon gates at night. + + But, alas, what holy angel + Brings the slave this glad evangel + And what earthquake’s arm of might. + Breaks his prison gags at night. + +Said I: “Now, isn’t that fine, Berkstresser?” + +He was a Democrat, of fearfully pro-slavery ideas, and he replied, +sententiously: + +“O, the poetry’s tolerable, but the sentiment’s damnable.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +SCHEMES AND PLANS TO ESCAPE--SCALING THE STOCKADE--ESTABLISHING THE +DEAD LINE--THE FIRST MAN KILLED. + +The official designation of our prison was “Camp Sumpter,” but this +was scarcely known outside of the Rebel documents, reports and orders. +It was the same way with the prison five miles from Millen, to which +we were afterward transferred. The Rebels styled it officially “Camp +Lawton,” but we called it always “Millen.” + +Having our huts finished, the next solicitude was about escape, +and this was the burden of our thoughts, day and night. We held +conferences, at which every man was required to contribute all the +geographical knowledge of that section of Georgia that he might have +left over from his schoolboy days, and also that gained by persistent +questioning of such guards and other Rebels as he had come in contact +with. When first landed in the prison we were as ignorant of our +whereabouts as if we had been dropped into the center of Africa. But +one of the prisoners was found to have a fragment of a school atlas, +in which was an outline map of Georgia, that had Macon, Atlanta, +Milledgeville, and Savannah laid down upon it. As we knew we had +come southward from Macon, we felt pretty certain we were in the +southwestern corner of the State. Conversations with guards and others +gave us the information that the Chattahooche flowed some two score of +miles to the westward, and that the Flint lay a little nearer on the +east. Our map showed that these two united and flowed together into +Appalachicola Bay, where, some of us remembered, a newspaper item had +said that we had gunboats stationed. The creek that ran through the +stockade flowed to the east, and we reasoned that if we followed its +course we would be led to the Flint, down which we could float on a log +or raft to the Appalachicola. This was the favorite scheme of the party +with which I sided. Another party believed the most feasible plan was +to go northward, and endeavor to gain the mountains, and thence get +into East Tennessee. + +But the main thing was to get away from the stockade; this, as the +French say of all first steps, was what would cost. + +Our first attempt was made about a week after our arrival. We found two +logs on the east side that were a couple of feet shorter than the rest, +and it seemed as if they could be successfully scaled. About fifty of +us resolved to make the attempt. We made a rope twenty-five or thirty +feet long, and strong enough to bear a man, out of strings and strips +of cloth. A stout stick was fastened to the end, so that it would catch +on the logs on either side of the gap. On a night dark enough to favor +our scheme, we gathered together, drew cuts to determine each boy’s +place in the line, fell in single rank, according to this arrangement, +and marched to the place. The line was thrown skillfully, the stick +caught fairly in the notch, and the boy who had drawn number one +climbed up amid a suspense so keen that I could hear my heart beating. +It seemed ages before he reached the top, and that the noise he made +must certainly attract the attention of the guard. It did not. We saw +our comrade’s. figure outlined against the sky as he slid, over the +top, and then heard the dull thump as he sprang to the ground on the +other side. “Number two,” was whispered by our leader, and he performed +the feat as successfully as his predecessor. “Number, three,” and he +followed noiselessly and quickly. Thus it went on, until, just as we +heard number fifteen drop, we also heard a Rebel voice say in a vicious +undertone: + +“Halt! halt, there, d--n you!” + +This was enough. The game was up; we were discovered, and the remaining +thirty-five of us left that locality with all the speed in our heels, +getting away just in time to escape a volley which a squad of guards, +posted in the lookouts, poured upon the spot where we had been standing. + +The next morning the fifteen who had got over the Stockade were brought +in, each chained to a sixty-four pound ball. Their story was that one +of the N’Yaarkers, who had become cognizant of our scheme, had sought +to obtain favor in the Rebel eyes by betraying us. The Rebels stationed +a squad at the crossing place, and as each man dropped down from the +Stockade he was caught by the shoulder, the muzzle of a revolver thrust +into his face, and an order to surrender whispered into his ear. It was +expected that the guards in the sentry-boxes would do such execution +among those of us still inside as would prove a warning to other +would-be escapes. They were defeated in this benevolent intention by +the readiness with which we divined the meaning of that incautiously +loud halt, and our alacrity in leaving the unhealthy locality. + +The traitorous N’Yaarker was rewarded with a detail into the commissary +department, where he fed and fattened like a rat that had secured +undisturbed homestead rights in the center of a cheese. When the +miserable remnant of us were leaving Andersonville months afterward, +I saw him, sleek, rotund, and well-clothed, lounging leisurely in the +door of a tent. He regarded us a moment contemptuously, and then went +on conversing with a fellow N’Yaarker, in the foul slang that none but +such as he were low enough to use. + +I have always imagined that the fellow returned home, at the close of +the war, and became a prominent member of Tweed’s gang. + +We protested against the barbarity of compelling men to wear irons +for exercising their natural right of attempting to escape, but no +attention was paid to our protest. + +Another result of this abortive effort was the establishment of the +notorious “Dead Line.” A few days later a gang of negros came in and +drove a line of stakes down at a distance of twenty feet from the +stockade. They nailed upon this a strip of stuff four inches wide, and +then an order was issued that if this was crossed, or even touched, the +guards would fire upon the offender without warning. + +Our surveyor figured up this new contraction of our space, and came to +the conclusion that the Dead Line and the Swamp took up about three +acres, and we were left now only thirteen acres. This was not of much +consequence then, however, as we still had plenty of room. + +The first man was killed the morning after the Dead-Line was put up. +The victim was a German, wearing the white crescent of the Second +Division of the Eleventh Corps, whom we had nicknamed “Sigel.” Hardship +and exposure had crazed him, and brought on a severe attack of St. +Vitus’s dance. As he went hobbling around with a vacuous grin upon +his face, he spied an old piece of cloth lying on the ground inside +the Dead Line. He stooped down and reached under for it. At that +instant the guard fired. The charge of ball-and-buck entered the poor +old fellow’s shoulder and tore through his body. He fell dead, still +clutching the dirty rag that had cost him his Life. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +CAPT. HENRI WIRZ--SOME DESCRIPTION OF A SMALL-MINDED PERSONAGE, WHO +GAINED GREAT NOTORIETY--FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH HIS DISCIPLINARY METHOD. + +The emptying of the prisons at Danville and Richmond into Andersonville +went on slowly during the month of March. They came in by train loads +of from five hundred to eight hundred, at intervals of two or three +days. By the end of the month there were about five thousand in the +stockade. There was a fair amount of space for this number, and as yet +we suffered no inconvenience from our crowding, though most persons +would fancy that thirteen acres of ground was a rather limited area for +five thousand men to live, move and have their being a upon. Yet a few +weeks later we were to see seven times that many packed into that space. + +One morning a new Rebel officer came in to superintend calling the +roll. He was an undersized, fidgety man, with an insignificant face, +and a mouth that protruded like a rabbit’s. His bright little eyes, +like those of a squirrel or a rat, assisted in giving his countenance +a look of kinship to the family of rodent animals--a genus which +lives by stealth and cunning, subsisting on that which it can steal +away from stronger and braver creatures. He was dressed in a pair of +gray trousers, with the other part of his body covered with a calico +garment, like that which small boys used to wear, called “waists.” +This was fastened to the pantaloons by buttons, precisely as was the +custom with the garments of boys struggling with the orthography of +words in two syllables. Upon his head was perched a little gray cap. +Sticking in his belt, and fastened to his wrist by a strap two or three +feet long, was one of those formidable looking, but harmless English +revolvers, that have ten barrels around the edge of the cylinder, and +fire a musket-bullet from the center. The wearer of this composite +costume, and bearer of this amateur arsenal, stepped nervously about +and sputtered volubly in very broken English. He said to Wry-Necked +Smith: + +“Py Gott, you don’t vatch dem dam Yankees glose enough! Dey are +schlippin’ rount, and peatin’ you efery dimes.” + +This was Captain Henri Wirz, the new commandant of the interior of +the prison. There has been a great deal of misapprehension of the +character of Wirz. He is usually regarded as a villain of large mental +caliber, and with a genius for cruelty. He was nothing of the kind. He +was simply contemptible, from whatever point of view he was studied. +Gnat-brained, cowardly, and feeble natured, he had not a quality that +commanded respect from any one who knew him. His cruelty did not seem +designed so much as the ebullitions of a peevish, snarling little +temper, united to a mind incapable of conceiving the results of his +acts, or understanding the pain he was Inflicting. + +I never heard anything of his profession or vocation before entering +the army. I always believed, however, that he had been a cheap clerk +in a small dry-goods store, a third or fourth rate book-keeper, or +something similar. Imagine, if you please, one such, who never had +brains or self-command sufficient to control himself, placed in command +of thirty-five thousand men. Being a fool he could not help being an +infliction to them, even with the best of intentions, and Wirz was not +troubled with good intentions. + +I mention the probability of his having been a dry-goods clerk or +book-keeper, not with any disrespect to two honorable vocations, but +because Wirz had had some training as an accountant, and this was +what gave him the place over us. Rebels, as a rule, are astonishingly +ignorant of arithmetic and accounting, generally. They are good shots, +fine horsemen, ready speakers and ardent politicians, but, like all +noncommercial people, they flounder hopelessly in what people of this +section would consider simple mathematical processes. One of our +constant amusements was in befogging and “beating” those charged with +calling rolls and issuing rations. It was not at all difficult at times +to make a hundred men count as a hundred and ten, and so on. + +Wirz could count beyond one hundred, and this determined his selection +for the place. His first move was a stupid change. We had been grouped +in the natural way into hundreds and thousands. He re-arranged the men +in “squads” of ninety, and three of these--two hundred and seventy men +--into a “detachment.” The detachments were numbered in order from the +North Gate, and the squads were numbered “one, two, three.” On the +rolls this was stated after the man’s name. For instance, a chum of +mine, and in the same squad with me, was Charles L. Soule, of the Third +Michigan Infantry. His name appeared on the rolls: + +“Chas. L. Soule, priv. Co. E, 8d Mich. Inf., 1-2.” + +That is, he belonged to the Second Squad of the First Detachment. + +Where Wirz got his, preposterous idea of organization from has always +been a mystery to me. It was awkward in every way--in drawing rations, +counting, dividing into messes, etc. + +Wirz was not long in giving us a taste of his quality. The next morning +after his first appearance he came in when roll-call was sounded, and +ordered all the squads and detachments to form, and remain standing in +ranks until all were counted. Any soldier will say that there is no +duty more annoying and difficult than standing still in ranks for any +considerable length of time, especially when there is nothing to do +or to engage the attention. It took Wirz between two and three hours +to count the whole camp, and by that time we of the first detachments +were almost all out of ranks. Thereupon Wirz announced that no rations +would be issued to the camp that day. The orders to stand in ranks +were repeated the next morning, with a warning that a failure to obey +would be punished as that of the previous day had been. Though we were +so hungry, that, to use the words of a Thirty-Fifth Pennsylvanian +standing next to me--his “big intestines were eating his little ones +up,” it was impossible to keep the rank formation during the long +hours. One man after another straggled away, and again we lost our +rations. That afternoon we became desperate. Plots were considered for +a daring assault to force the gates or scale the stockade. The men were +crazy enough to attempt anything rather than sit down and patiently +starve. Many offered themselves as leaders in any attempt that it might +be thought best to make. The hopelessness of any such venture was +apparent, even to famished men, and the propositions went no farther +than inflammatory talk. + +The third morning the orders were again repeated. This time we +succeeded in remaining in ranks in such a manner as to satisfy Wirz, +and we were given our rations for that day, but those of the other days +were permanently withheld. + +That afternoon Wirz ventured into camp alone. He was assailed with a +storm of curses and execrations, and a shower of clubs. He pulled out +his revolver, as if to fire upon his assailants. A yell was raised to +take his pistol away from him and a crowd rushed forward to do this. +Without waiting to fire a shot, he turned and ran to the gate for dear +life. He did not come in again for a long while, and never afterward +without a retinue of guards. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +PRIZE-FIGHT AMONG THE N’YAARKERS--A GREAT MANY FORMALITIES, AND LITTLE +BLOOD SPILT--A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO RECOVER A WATCH--DEFEAT OF THE LAW AND +ORDER PARTY. + +One of the train-loads from Richmond was almost wholly made up of our +old acquaintances--the N’Yaarkers. The number of these had swelled to +four hundred or five hundred--all leagued together in the fellowship of +crime. + +We did not manifest any keen desire for intimate social relations with +them, and they did not seem to hunger for our society, so they moved +across the creek to the unoccupied South Side, and established their +camp there, at a considerable distance from us. + +One afternoon a number of us went across to their camp, to witness +a fight according to the rules of the Prize Ring, which was to come +off between two professional pugilists. These were a couple of +bounty-jumpers who had some little reputation in New York sporting +circles, under the names of the “Staleybridge Chicken” and the “Haarlem +Infant.” + +On the way from Richmond a cast-iron skillet, or spider, had been +stolen by the crowd from the Rebels. It was a small affair, holding a +half gallon, and worth to-day about fifty cents. In Andersonville its +worth was literally above rubies. Two men belonging to different messes +each claimed the ownership of the utensil, on the ground of being +most active in securing it. Their claims were strenuously supported +by their respective messes, at the heads of which were the aforesaid +Infant and Chicken. A great deal of strong talk, and several indecisive +knock-downs resulted in an agreement to settle the matter by wager of +battle between the Infant and Chicken. + +When we arrived a twenty-four foot ring had been prepared by drawing +a deep mark in the sand. In diagonally opposite corners of these the +seconds were kneeling on one knee and supporting their principals on +the other by their sides they had little vessels of water, and bundles +of rags to answer for sponges. Another corner was occupied by the +umpire, a foul-mouthed, loud-tongued Tombs shyster, named Pete Bradley. +A long-bodied, short-legged hoodlum, nick-named “Heenan,” armed with a +club, acted as ring keeper, and “belted” back, remorselessly, any of +the spectators who crowded over the line. Did he see a foot obtruding +itself so much as an inch over the mark in the sand--and the pressure +from the crowd behind was so great that it was difficult for the front +fellows to keep off the line--his heavy club and a blasting curse would +fall upon the offender simultaneously. + +Every effort was made to have all things conform as nearly as possible +to the recognized practices of the “London Prize Ring.” + +At Bradley’s call of “Time!” the principals would rise from their +seconds’ knees, advance briskly to the scratch across the center of the +ring, and spar away sharply for a little time, until one got in a blow +that sent the other to the ground, where he would lie until his second +picked him up, carried him back, washed his face off, and gave him a +drink. He then rested until the next call of time. + +This sort of performance went on for an hour or more, with the +knockdowns and other casualities pretty evenly divided between the two. +Then it became apparent that the Infant was getting more than he had +storage room for. His interest in the skillet was evidently abating, +the leering grin he wore upon his face during the early part of the +engagement had disappeared long ago, as the successive “hot ones” which +the Chicken had succeeded in planting upon his mouth, put it out of his +power to “smile and smile,” “e’en though he might still be a villain.” +He began coming up to the scratch as sluggishly as a hired man starting +out for his day’s work, and finally he did not come up at all. A bunch +of blood soaked rags was tossed into the air from his corner, and +Bradley declared the Chicken to be the victor, amid enthusiastic cheers +from the crowd. + +We voted the thing rather tame. In the whole hour and a-half there +was not so much savage fighting, not so much damage done, as a couple +of earnest, but unscientific men, who have no time to waste, will +frequently crowd into an impromptu affair not exceeding five minutes in +duration. + +Our next visit to the N’Yaarkers was on a different errand. The moment +they arrived in camp we began to be annoyed by their depredations. +Blankets--the sole protection of men--would be snatched off as they +slept at night. Articles of clothing and cooking utensils would go the +same way, and occasionally a man would be robbed in open daylight. +All these, it was believed, with good reason, were the work of the +N’Yaarkers, and the stolen things were conveyed to their camp. +Occasionally depredators would be caught and beaten, but they would +give a signal which would bring to their assistance the whole body of +N’Yaarkers, and turn the tables on their assailants. + +We had in our squad a little watchmaker named Dan Martin, of the Eighth +New York Infantry. Other boys let him take their watches to tinker up, +so as to make a show of running, and be available for trading to the +guards. + +One day Martin was at the creek, when a N’Yaarker asked him to let +him look at a watch. Martin incautiously did so, when the N’Yaarker +snatched it and sped away to the camp of his crowd. Martin ran back to +us and told his story. This was the last feather which was to break +the camel’s back of our patience. Peter Bates, of the Third Michigan, +the Sergeant of our squad, had considerable confidence in his muscular +ability. He flamed up into mighty wrath, and swore a sulphurous oath +that we would get that watch back, whereupon about two hundred of us +avowed our willingness to help reclaim it. + +Each of us providing ourselves with a club, we started on our errand. +The rest of the camp--about four thousand--gathered on the hillside to +watch us. We thought they might have sent us some assistance, as it +was about as much their fight as ours, but they did not, and we were +too proud to ask it. The crossing of the swamp was quite difficult. +Only one could go over at a time, and he very slowly. The N’Yaarkers +understood that trouble was pending, and they began mustering to +receive us. From the way they turned out it was evident that we should +have come over with three hundred instead of two hundred, but it was +too late then to alter the program. As we came up a stalwart Irishman +stepped out and asked us what we wanted. + +Bates replied: “We have come over to get a watch that one of your +fellows took from one of ours, and by --- we’re going to have it.” + +The Irishman’s reply was equally explicit though not strictly logical +in construction. Said he: “We havn’t got your watch, and be ye can’t +have it.” + +This joined the issue just as fairly as if it had been done by all the +documentary formula that passed between Turkey and Russia prior to +the late war. Bates and the Irishman then exchanged very derogatory +opinions of each other, and began striking with their clubs. The rest +of us took this as our cue, and each, selecting as small a N’Yaarker as +we could readily find, sailed in. + +There is a very expressive bit of slang coming into general use in the +West, which speaks of a man “biting off more than he can chew.” + +That is what we had done. We had taken a contract that we should have +divided, and sub-let the bigger half. Two minutes after the engagement +became general there was no doubt that we would have been much better +off if we had staid on our own side of the creek. The watch was a very +poor one, anyhow. We thought we would just say good day to our N’Yaark +friends, and return home hastily. But they declined to be left so +precipitately. They wanted to stay with us awhile. It was lots of fun +for them, and for the four thousand yelling spectators on the opposite +hill, who were greatly enjoying our discomfiture. There was hardly +enough of the amusement to go clear around, however, and it all fell +short just before it reached us. We earnestly wished that some of the +boys would come over and help us let go of the N’Yaarkers, but they +were enjoying the thing too much to interfere. + +We were driven down the hill, pell-mell, with the N’Yaarkers pursuing +hotly with yell and blow. At the swamp we tried to make a stand to +secure our passage across, but it was only partially successful. Very +few got back without some severe hurts, and many received blows that +greatly hastened their deaths. + +After this the N’Yaarkers became bolder in their robberies, and more +arrogant in their demeanor than ever, and we had the poor revenge upon +those who would not assist us, of seeing a reign of terror inaugurated +over the whole camp. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DIMINISHING RATIONS--A DEADLY COLD RAIN--HOVERING OVER PITCH PINE FIRES +--INCREASE ON MORTALITY--A THEORY OF HEALTH. + +The rations diminished perceptibly day by day. When we first entered +we each received something over a quart of tolerably good meal, a +sweet potato, a piece of meat about the size of one’s two fingers, and +occasionally a spoonful of salt. First the salt disappeared. Then the +sweet potato took unto itself wings and flew away, never to return. +An attempt was ostensibly made to issue us cow-peas instead, and the +first issue was only a quart to a detachment of two hundred and seventy +men. This has two-thirds of a pint to each squad of ninety, and made +but a few spoonfuls for each of the four messes in the squad. When it +came to dividing among the men, the beans had to be counted. Nobody +received enough to pay for cooking, and we were at a loss what to do +until somebody suggested that we play poker for them. This met general +acceptance, and after that, as long as beans were drawn, a large +portion of the day was spent in absorbing games of “bluff” and “draw,” +at a bean “ante,” and no “limit.” + +After a number of hours’ diligent playing, some lucky or skillful +player would be in possession of all the beans in a mess, a squad, and +sometimes a detachment, and have enough for a good meal. + +Next the meal began to diminish in quantity and deteriorate in quality. +It became so exceedingly coarse that the common remark was that the +next step would be to bring us the corn in the shock, and feed it to +us like stock. Then meat followed suit with the rest. The rations +decreased in size, and the number of days that we did not get any, kept +constantly increasing in proportion to the days that we did, until +eventually the meat bade us a final adieu, and joined the sweet potato +in that undiscovered country from whose bourne no ration ever returned. + +The fuel and building material in the stockade were speedily exhausted. +The later comers had nothing whatever to build shelter with. + +But, after the Spring rains had fairly set in, it seemed that we had +not tasted misery until then. About the middle of March the windows of +heaven opened, and it began a rain like that of the time of Noah. It +was tropical in quantity and persistency, and arctic in temperature. +For dreary hours that lengthened into weary days and nights, and these +again into never-ending weeks, the driving, drenching flood poured +down upon the sodden earth, searching the very marrow of the five +thousand hapless men against whose chilled frames it beat with pitiless +monotony, and soaked the sand bank upon which we lay until it was like +a sponge filled with ice-water. It seems to me now that it must have +been two or three weeks that the sun was wholly hidden behind the +dripping clouds, not shining out once in all that time. The intervals +when it did not rain were rare and short. An hour’s respite would be +followed by a day of steady, regular pelting of the great rain drops. + +I find that the report of the Smithsonian Institute gives the average +annual rainfall in the section around Andersonville, at fifty-six +inches --nearly five feet--while that of foggy England is only +thirty-two. Our experience would lead me to think that we got the five +feet all at once. + +We first comers, who had huts, were measurably better off than the +later arrivals. It was much drier in our leaf-thatched tents, and we +were spared much of the annoyance that comes from the steady dash of +rain against the body for hours. + +The condition of those who had no tents was truly pitiable. + +They sat or lay on the hill-side the live-long day and night, and took +the washing flow with such gloomy composure as they could muster. + +All soldiers will agree with me that there is no campaigning hardship +comparable to a cold rain. One can brace up against the extremes of +heat and cold, and mitigate their inclemency in various ways. But there +is no escaping a long-continued, chilling rain. It seems to penetrate +to the heart, and leach away the very vital force. + +The only relief attainable was found in huddling over little fires kept +alive by small groups with their slender stocks of wood. As this wood +was all pitch-pine, that burned with a very sooty flame, the effect +upon the appearance of the hoverers was, startling. Face, neck and +hands became covered with mixture of lampblack and turpentine, forming +a coating as thick as heavy brown paper, and absolutely irremovable by +water alone. The hair also became of midnight blackness, and gummed up +into elflocks of fantastic shape and effect. Any one of us could have +gone on the negro minstrel stage, without changing a hair, and put to +blush the most elaborate make-up of the grotesque burnt-cork artists. + +No wood was issued to us. The only way of getting it was to stand +around the gate for hours until a guard off duty could be coaxed or +hired to accompany a small party to the woods, to bring back a load of +such knots and limbs as could be picked up. Our chief persuaders to +the guards to do us this favor were rings, pencils, knives, combs, and +such trifles as we might have in our pockets, and, more especially, the +brass buttons on our uniforms. Rebel soldiers, like Indians, negros +and other imperfectly civilized people, were passionately fond of +bright and gaudy things. A handful of brass buttons would catch every +one of them as swiftly and as surely as a piece of red flannel will a +gudgeon. Our regular fee for an escort for three of us to the woods was +six over-coat or dress-coat buttons, or ten or twelve jacket buttons. +All in the mess contributed to this fund, and the fuel obtained was +carefully guarded and husbanded. + +This manner of conducting the wood business is a fair sample of the +management, or rather the lack of it, of every other detail of prison +administration. All the hardships we suffered from lack of fuel and +shelter could have been prevented without the slightest expense or +trouble to the Confederacy. Two hundred men allowed to go out on +parole, and supplied with ages, would have brought in from the adjacent +woods, in a week’s time, enough material to make everybody comfortable +tents, and to supply all the fuel needed. + +The mortality caused by the storm was, of course, very great. The +official report says the total number in the prison in March was four +thousand six hundred and three, of whom two hundred and eighty-three +died. + +Among the first to die was the one whom we expected to live longest. +He was by much the largest man in prison, and was called, because of +this, “BIG JOE.” He was a Sergeant in the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, +and seemed the picture of health. One morning the news ran through the +prison that “Big Joe is dead,” and a visit to his squad showed his +stiff, lifeless form, occupying as much ground as Goliath’s, after his +encounter with David. + +His early demise was an example of a general law, the workings of which +few in the army failed to notice. It was always the large and strong +who first succumbed to hardship. The stalwart, huge-limbed, toil-inured +men sank down earliest on the march, yielded soonest to malarial +influences, and fell first under the combined effects of home-sickness, +exposure and the privations of army life. The slender, withy boys, +as supple and weak as cats, had apparently the nine lives of those +animals. There were few exceptions to this rule in the army--there were +none in Andersonville. I can recall few or no instances where a large, +strong, “hearty” man lived through a few months of imprisonment. The +survivors were invariably youths, at the verge of manhood,--slender, +quick, active, medium-statured fellows, of a cheerful temperament, in +whom one would have expected comparatively little powers of endurance. + +The theory which I constructed for my own private use in accounting for +this phenomenon I offer with proper diffidence to others who may be in +search of a hypothesis to explain facts that they have observed. It is +this: + +a. The circulation of the blood maintains health, and consequently +life by carrying away from the various parts of the body the particles +of worn-out and poisonous tissue, and replacing them with fresh, +structure-building material. + +b. The man is healthiest in whom this process goes on most freely and +continuously. + +c. Men of considerable muscular power are disposed to be sluggish; +the exertion of great strength does not favor circulation. It rather +retards it, and disturbs its equilibrium by congesting the blood in +quantities in the sets of muscles called into action. + +d. In light, active men, on the other hand, the circulation goes on +perfectly and evenly, because all the parts are put in motion, and kept +so in such a manner as to promote the movement of the blood to every +extremity. They do not strain one set of muscles by long continued +effort, as a strong man does, but call one into play after another. + +There is no compulsion on the reader to accept this speculation at any +valuation whatever. There is not even any charge for it. I will lay +down this simple axiom: + + No strong man, is a healthy man + +from the athlete in the circus who lifts pieces of artillery and +catches cannon balls, to the exhibition swell in a country gymnasium. +If my theory is not a sufficient explanation of this, there is nothing +to prevent the reader from building up one to suit him better. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ALABAMIANS AND GEORGIANS--DEATH OF “POLL PARROTT” +--A GOOD JOKE UPON THE GUARD--A BRUTAL RASCAL. + +There were two regiments guarding us--the Twenty-Sixth Alabama and the +Fifty-Fifth Georgia. Never were two regiments of the same army more +different. The Alabamians were the superiors of the Georgians in every +way that one set of men could be superior to another. They were manly, +soldierly, and honorable, where the Georgians were treacherous and +brutal. We had nothing to complain of at the hands of the Alabamians; +we suffered from the Georgians everything that mean-spirited cruelty +could devise. The Georgians were always on the look-out for something +that they could torture into such apparent violation of orders, as +would justify them in shooting men down; the Alabamians never fired +until they were satisfied that a deliberate offense was intended. I can +recall of my own seeing at least a dozen instances where men of the +Fifty-Fifth Georgia Killed prisoners under the pretense that they were +across the Dead Line, when the victims were a yard or more from the +Dead Line, and had not the remotest idea of going any nearer. + +The only man I ever knew to be killed by one of the Twenty-Sixth +Alabama was named Hubbard, from Chicago, Ills., and a member of the +Thirty-Eighth Illinois. He had lost one leg, and went hobbling about +the camp on crutches, chattering continually in a loud, discordant +voice, saying all manner of hateful and annoying things, wherever +he saw an opportunity. This and his beak-like nose gained for him +the name of “Poll Parrot.” His misfortune caused him to be tolerated +where another man would have been suppressed. By-and-by he gave still +greater cause for offense by his obsequious attempts to curry favor +with Captain Wirz, who took him outside several times for purposes that +were not well explained. Finally, some hours after one of Poll Parrot’s +visits outside, a Rebel officer came in with a guard, and, proceeding +with suspicious directness to a tent which was the mouth of a large +tunnel that a hundred men or more had been quietly pushing forward, +broke the tunnel in, and took the occupants of the tent outside for +punishment. The question that demanded immediate solution then was: + +“Who is the traitor who has informed the Rebels?” + +Suspicion pointed very strongly to “Poll Parrot.” By the next morning +the evidence collected seemed to amount to a certainty, and a crowd +caught the Parrot with the intention of lynching him. He succeeded +in breaking away from them and ran under the Dead Line, near where I +was sitting in, my tent. At first it looked as if he had done this +to secure the protection of the guard. The latter--a Twenty-Sixth +Alabamian --ordered him out. Poll Parrot rose up on his one leg, put +his back against the Dead Line, faced the guard, and said in his harsh, +cackling voice: + +“No; I won’t go out. If I’ve lost the confidence of my comrades I want +to die.” + +Part of the crowd were taken back by this move, and felt disposed +to accept it as a demonstration of the Parrot’s innocence. The rest +thought it was a piece of bravado, because of his belief that the +Rebels would not injure, him after he had served them. They renewed +their yells, the guard again ordered the Parrot out, but the latter, +tearing open his blouse, cackled out: + +“No, I won’t go; fire at me, guard. There’s my heart shoot me right +there.” + +There was no help for it. The Rebel leveled his gun and fired. The +charge struck the Parrot’s lower jaw, and carried it completely away, +leaving his tongue and the roof of his mouth exposed. As he was carried +back to die, he wagged his tongue rigorously, in attempting to speak, +but it was of no use. + +The guard set his gun down and buried his face in his hands. It was the +only time that I saw a sentinel show anything but exultation at killing +a Yankee. + +A ludicrous contrast to this took place a few nights later. The rains +had ceased, the weather had become warmer, and our spirits rising +with this increase in the comfort of our surroundings, a number of +us were sitting around “Nosey”--a boy with a superb tenor voice--who +was singing patriotic songs. We were coming in strong on the chorus, +in a way that spoke vastly more for our enthusiasm for the Union than +our musical knowledge. “Nosey” sang the “Star Spangled Banner,” “The +Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Brave Boys are They,” etc., capitally, and we +threw our whole lungs into the chorus. It was quite dark, and while +our noise was going on the guards changed, new men coming on duty. +Suddenly, bang! went the gun of the guard in the box about fifty feet +away from us. We knew it was a Fifty-Fifth Georgian, and supposed that, +irritated at our singing, he was trying to kill some of us for spite. +At the sound of the gun we jumped up and scattered. As no one gave +the usual agonized yell of a prisoner when shot, we supposed the ball +had not taken effect. We could hear the sentinel ramming down another +cartridge, hear him “return rammer,” and cock his rifle. Again the gun +cracked, and again there was no sound of anybody being hit. Again we +could hear the sentry churning down another cartridge. The drums began +beating the long roll in the camps, and officers could be heard turning +the men out. The thing was becoming exciting, and one of us sang out to +the guard: + +“S-a-y! What the are you shooting at, any how?” + +“I’m a shootin’ at that ---- ---- Yank thar by the Dead Line, and by +--- if you’uns don’t take him in I’ll blow the whole head offn him.” + +“What Yank? Where’s any Yank?” + +“Why, thar--right thar--a-standin’ agin the Ded Line.” + +“Why, you Rebel fool, that’s a chunk of wood. You can’t get any +furlough for shooting that!” + +At this there was a general roar from the rest of the camp, which the +other guards took up, and as the Reserves came double-quicking up, and +learned the occasion of the alarm, they gave the rascal who had been so +anxious to kill somebody a torrent of abuse for having disturbed them. + +A part of our crowd had been out after wood during the day, and secured +a piece of a log as large as two of them could carry, and bringing it +in, stood it up near the Dead Line. When the guard mounted to his post +he was sure he saw a temerarious Yankee in front of him, and hastened +to slay him. + +It was an unusual good fortune that nobody was struck. It was very +rare that the guards fired into the prison without hitting at least +one person. The Georgia Reserves, who formed our guards later in the +season, were armed with an old gun called a Queen Anne musket, altered +to percussion. It carried a bullet as big as a large marble, and three +or four buckshot. When fired into a group of men it was sure to bring +several down. + +I was standing one day in the line at the gate, waiting for a chance to +go out after wood. A Fifty-Fifth Georgian was the gate guard, and he +drew a line in the sand with his bayonet which we should not cross. The +crowd behind pushed one man till he put his foot a few inches over the +line, to save himself from falling; the guard sank a bayonet through +the foot as quick as a flash. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A NEW LOT OF PRISONERS--THE BATTLE OF OOLUSTEE--MEN SACRIFICED TO +A GENERAL’S INCOMPETENCY--A HOODLUM REINFORCEMENT--A QUEER CROWD +--MISTREATMENT OF AN OFFICER OF A COLORED REGIMENT--KILLING THE +SERGEANT OF A NEGRO SQUAD. + +So far only old prisoners--those taken at Gettysburg, Chicamauga +and Mine Run--had been brought in. The armies had been very quiet +during the Winter, preparing for the death grapple in the Spring. +There had been nothing done, save a few cavalry raids, such as our +own, and Averill’s attempt to gain and break up the Rebel salt works +at Wytheville, and Saltville. Consequently none but a few cavalry +prisoners were added to the number already in the hands of the Rebels. + +The first lot of new ones came in about the middle of March. There +were about seven hundred of them, who had been captured at the battle +of Oolustee, Fla., on the 20th of February. About five hundred +of them were white, and belonged to the Seventh Connecticut, the +Seventh New Hampshire, Forty Seventh, Forty-Eighth and One Hundred +and Fifteenth New York, and Sherman’s regular battery. The rest were +colored, and belonged to the Eighth United States, and Fifty-Fourth +Massachusetts. The story they told of the battle was one which had +many shameful reiterations during the war. It was the story told +whenever Banks, Sturgis, Butler, or one of a host of similar smaller +failures were trusted with commands. It was a senseless waste of the +lives of private soldiers, and the property of the United States by +pretentious blunderers, who, in some inscrutable manner, had attained +to responsible commands. In this instance, a bungling Brigadier named +Seymore had marched his forces across the State of Florida, to do he +hardly knew what, and in the neighborhood of an enemy of whose numbers, +disposition, location, and intentions he was profoundly ignorant. +The Rebels, under General Finnegan, waited till he had strung his +command along through swamps and cane brakes, scores of miles from his +supports, and then fell unexpectedly upon his advance. The regiment +was overpowered, and another regiment that hurried up to its support, +suffered the same fate. The balance of the regiments were sent in in +the same manner--each arriving on the field just after its predecessor +had been thoroughly whipped by the concentrated force of the Rebels. +The men fought gallantly, but the stupidity of a Commanding General is +a thing that the gods themselves strive against in vain. We suffered a +humiliating defeat, with a loss of two thousand men and a fine rifled +battery, which was brought to Andersonville and placed in position to +command the prison. + +The majority of the Seventh New Hampshire were an unwelcome addition +to our numbers. They were N’Yaarkers--old time colleagues of those +already in with us--veteran bounty jumpers, that had been drawn to +New Hampshire by the size of the bounty offered there, and had been +assigned to fill up the wasted ranks of the veteran Seventh regiment. +They had tried to desert as soon as they received their bounty, but +the Government clung to them literally with hooks of steel, sending +many of them to the regiment in irons. Thus foiled, they deserted to +the Rebels during the retreat from the battlefield. They were quite an +accession to the force of our N’Yaarkers, and helped much to establish +the hoodlum reign which was shortly inaugurated over the whole prison. + +The Forty-Eighth New Yorkers who came in were a set of chaps so odd +in every way as to be a source of never-failing interest. The name of +their regiment was ‘L’Enfants Perdu’ (the Lost Children), which we +anglicized into “The Lost Ducks.” It was believed that every nation +in Europe was represented in their ranks, and it used to be said +jocularly, that no two of them spoke the same language. As near as I +could find out they were all or nearly all South Europeans, Italians, +Spaniards; Portuguese, Levantines, with a predominance of the French +element. They wore a little cap with an upturned brim, and a strap +resting on the chin, a coat with funny little tales about two inches +long, and a brass chain across the breast; and for pantaloons they had +a sort of a petticoat reaching to the knees, and sewed together down +the middle. They were just as singular otherwise as in their looks, +speech and uniform. On one occasion the whole mob of us went over in +a mass to their squad to see them cook and eat a large water snake, +which two of them had succeeded in capturing in the swamps, and carried +off to their mess, jabbering in high glee over their treasure trove. +Any of us were ready to eat a piece of dog, cat, horse or mule, if we +could get it, but, it was generally agreed, as Dawson, of my company +expressed it, that “Nobody but one of them darned queer Lost Ducks +would eat a varmint like a water snake.” + +Major Albert Bogle, of the Eighth United States, (colored) had fallen +into the hands of the rebels by reason of a severe wound in the leg, +which left him helpless upon the field at Oolustee. The Rebels treated +him with studied indignity. They utterly refused to recognize him as an +officer, or even as a man. Instead of being sent to Macon or Columbia, +where the other officers were, he was sent to Andersonville, the same +as an enlisted man. No care was given his wound, no surgeon would +examine it or dress it. He was thrown into a stock car, without a bed +or blanket, and hauled over the rough, jolting road to Andersonville. +Once a Rebel officer rode up and fired several shots at him, as he lay +helpless on the car floor. Fortunately the Rebel’s marksmanship was as +bad as his intentions, and none of the shots took effect. He was placed +in a squad near me, and compelled to get up and hobble into line when +the rest were mustered for roll-call. No opportunity to insult, “the +nigger officer,” was neglected, and the N’Yaarkers vied with the Rebels +in heaping abuse upon him. He was a fine, intelligent young man, and +bore it all with dignified self-possession, until after a lapse of some +weeks the Rebels changed their policy and took him from the prison to +send to where the other officers were. + +The negro soldiers were also treated as badly as possible. The wounded +were turned into the Stockade without having their hurts attended +to. One stalwart, soldierly Sergeant had received a bullet which +had forced its way under the scalp for some distance, and partially +imbedded itself in the skull, where it still remained. He suffered +intense agony, and would pass the whole night walking up and down the +street in front of our tent, moaning distressingly. The bullet could +be felt plainly with the fingers, and we were sure that it would not +be a minute’s work, with a sharp knife, to remove it and give the man +relief. But we could not prevail upon the Rebel Surgeons even to see +the man. Finally inflammation set in and he died. + +The negros were made into a squad by themselves, and taken out every +day to work around the prison. A white Sergeant was placed over them, +who was the object of the contumely of the guards and other Rebels. One +day as he was standing near the gate, waiting his orders to come out, +the gate guard, without any provocation whatever, dropped his gun until +the muzzle rested against the Sergeant’s stomach, and fired, killing +him instantly. + +The Sergeantcy was then offered to me, but as I had no accident policy, +I was constrained to decline the honor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +APRIL--LONGING TO GET OUT--THE DEATH RATE--THE PLAGUE OF LICE --THE +SO-CALLED HOSPITAL. + +April brought sunny skies and balmy weather. Existence became much +more tolerable. With freedom it would have been enjoyable, even had we +been no better fed, clothed and sheltered. But imprisonment had never +seemed so hard to bear--even in the first few weeks--as now. It was +easier to submit to confinement to a limited area, when cold and rain +were aiding hunger to benumb the faculties and chill the energies than +it was now, when Nature was rousing her slumbering forces to activity, +and earth, and air and sky were filled with stimulus to man to imitate +her example. The yearning to be up and doing something-to turn these +golden hours to good account for self and country--pressed into heart +and brain as the vivifying sap pressed into tree-duct and plant cell, +awaking all vegetation to energetic life. + +To be compelled, at such a time, to lie around in vacuous idleness +--to spend days that should be crowded full of action in a monotonous, +objectless routine of hunting lice, gathering at roll-call, and drawing +and cooking our scanty rations, was torturing. + +But to many of our number the aspirations for freedom were not, as +with us, the desire for a wider, manlier field of action, so much as +an intense longing to get where care and comforts would arrest their +swift progress to the shadowy hereafter. The cruel rains had sapped +away their stamina, and they could not recover it with the meager and +innutritious diet of coarse meal, and an occasional scrap of salt meat. +Quick consumption, bronchitis, pneumonia, low fever and diarrhea seized +upon these ready victims for their ravages, and bore them off at the +rate of nearly a score a day. + +It now became a part of, the day’s regular routine to take a walk past +the gates in the morning, inspect and count the dead, and see if any +friends were among them. Clothes having by this time become a very +important consideration with the prisoners, it was the custom of the +mess in which a man died to remove from his person all garments that +were of any account, and so many bodies were carried out nearly naked. +The hands were crossed upon the breast, the big toes tied together with +a bit of string, and a slip of paper containing the man’s name, rank, +company and regiment was pinned on the breast of his shirt. + +The appearance of the dead was indescribably ghastly. The unclosed eyes +shone with a stony glitter-- + + An orphan’s curse would drag to hell + A spirit from on high: + But, O, more terrible than that, + Is the curse in a dead man’s eye. + +The lips and nostrils were distorted with pain and hunger, the sallow, +dirt-grimed skin drawn tensely over the facial bones, and the whole +framed with the long, lank, matted hair and beard. Millions of lice +swarmed over the wasted limbs and ridged ribs. These verminous pests +had become so numerous--owing to our lack of changes of clothing, and +of facilities for boiling what we had--that the most a healthy man +could do was to keep the number feeding upon his person down to a +reasonable limit--say a few tablespoonfuls. When a man became so sick +as to be unable to help himself, the parasites speedily increased into +millions, or, to speak more comprehensively, into pints and quarts. It +did not even seem exaggeration when some one declared that he had seen +a dead man with more than a gallon of lice on him. + +There is no doubt that the irritation from the biting of these myriads +materially the days of those who died. + +Where a sick man had friends or comrades, of course part of their duty, +in taking care of him, was to “louse” his clothing. One of the most +effectual ways of doing this was to turn the garments wrong side out +and hold the seams as close to the fire as possible, without burning +the cloth. In a short time the lice would swell up and burst open, +like pop-corn. This method was a favorite one for another reason than +its efficacy: it gave one a keener sense of revenge upon his rascally +little tormentors than he could get in any other way. + +As the weather grew warmer and the number in the prison increased, the +lice became more unendurable. They even filled the hot sand under our +feet, and voracious troops would climb up on one like streams of ants +swarming up a tree. We began to have a full comprehension of the third +plague with which the Lord visited the Egyptians: + + And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, + and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice through all + the land of Egypt. + + And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and + smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; + all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of + Egypt. + +The total number of deaths in April, according to the official report, +was five hundred and seventy-six, or an average of over nineteen a day. +There was an average of five thousand prisoner’s in the pen during +all but the last few days of the month, when the number was increased +by the arrival of the captured garrison of Plymouth. This would make +the loss over eleven per cent., and so worse than decimation. At that +rate we should all have died in about eight months. We could have gone +through a sharp campaign lasting those thirty days and not lost so +great a proportion of our forces. The British had about as many men as +were in the Stockade at the battle of New Orleans, yet their loss in +killed fell much short of the deaths in the pen in April. + +A makeshift of a hospital was established in the northeastern corner of +the Stockade. A portion of the ground was divided from the rest of the +prison by a railing, a few tent flies were stretched, and in these the +long leaves of the pine were made into apologies for beds of about the +goodness of the straw on which a Northern farmer beds his stock. The +sick taken there were no better off than if they had staid with their +comrades. + +What they needed to bring about their recovery was clean clothing, +nutritious food, shelter and freedom from the tortures of the lice. +They obtained none of these. Save a few decoctions of roots, there were +no medicines; the sick were fed the same coarse corn meal that brought +about the malignant dysentery from which they all suffered; they wore +and slept in the same vermin-infested clothes, and there could be but +one result: the official records show that seventy-six per cent. of +those taken to the hospitals died there. + +The establishment of the hospital was specially unfortunate for my +little squad. The ground required for it compelled a general reduction +of the space we all occupied. We had to tear down our huts and move. +By this time the materials had become so dry that we could not rebuild +with them, as the pine tufts fell to pieces. This reduced the tent +and bedding material of our party--now numbering five--to a cavalry +overcoat and a blanket. We scooped a hole a foot deep in the sand and +stuck our tent-poles around it. By day we spread our blanket over the +poles for a tent. At night we lay down upon the overcoat and covered +ourselves with the blanket. It required considerable stretching to make +it go over five; the two out side fellows used to get very chilly, and +squeeze the three inside ones until they felt no thicker than a wafer. +But it had to do, and we took turns sleeping on the outside. In the +course of a few weeks three of my chums died and left myself and B. B. +Andrews (now Dr. Andrews, of Astoria, Ill.) sole heirs to and occupants +of, the overcoat and blanket. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE “PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS”--SAD TRANSITION FROM COMFORTABLE BARRACKS +TO ANDERSONVILLE--A CRAZED PENNSYLVANIAN--DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUTLER +BUSINESS. + +We awoke one morning, in the last part of April, to find about two +thousand freshly arrived prisoners lying asleep in the main streets +running from the gates. They were attired in stylish new uniforms, with +fancy hats and shoes; the Sergeants and Corporals wore patent leather +or silk chevrons, and each man had a large, well-filled knapsack, of +the kind new recruits usually carried on coming first to the front, and +which the older soldiers spoke of humorously as “bureaus.” They were +the snuggest, nattiest lot of soldiers we had ever seen, outside of the +“paper collar” fellows forming the headquarter guard of some General in +a large City. As one of my companions surveyed them, he said: + +“Hulloa! I’m blanked if the Johnnies haven’t caught a regiment of +Brigadier Generals, somewhere.” + +By-and-by the “fresh fish,” as all new arrivals were termed, began to +wake up, and then we learned that they belonged to a brigade consisting +of the Eighty-Fifth New York, One Hundred and First and One Hundred +and Third Pennsylvania, Sixteenth Connecticut, Twenty-Fourth New York +Battery, two companies of Massachusetts heavy artillery, and a company +of the Twelfth New York Cavalry. + +They had been garrisoning Plymouth, N. C., an important seaport on the +Roanoke River. Three small gunboats assisted them in their duty. The +Rebels constructed a powerful iron clad called the “Albemarle,” at a +point further up the Roanoke, and on the afternoon of the 17th, with +her and three brigades of infantry, made an attack upon the post. The +“Albemarle” ran past the forts unharmed, sank one of the gunboats, and +drove the others away. She then turned her attention to the garrison, +which she took in the rear, while the infantry attacked in front. Our +men held out until the 20th, when they capitulated. They were allowed +to retain their personal effects, of all kinds, and, as is the case +with all men in garrison, these were considerable. + +The One Hundred and First and One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania and +Eighty-Fifth New York had just “veteranized,” and received their first +instalment of veteran bounty. Had they not been attacked they would +have sailed for home in a day or two, on their veteran furlough, and +this accounted for their fine raiment. They were made up of boys +from good New York and Pennsylvania families, and were, as a rule, +intelligent and fairly educated. + +Their horror at the appearance of their place of incarceration was +beyond expression. At one moment they could not comprehend that we +dirty and haggard tatterdemalions had once been clean, self-respecting, +well-fed soldiers like themselves; at the next they would affirm that +they knew they could not stand it a month, in here we had then endured +it from four to nine months. They took it, in every way, the hardest of +any prisoners that came in, except some of the ‘Hundred-Days’ men, who +were brought in in August, from the Valley of Virginia. They had served +nearly all their time in various garrisons along the seacoast--from +Fortress Monroe to Beaufort--where they had had comparatively little of +the actual hardships of soldiering in the field. They had nearly always +had comfortable quarters, an abundance of food, few hard marches or +other severe service. Consequently they were not so well hardened for +Andersonville as the majority who came in. In other respects they were +better prepared, as they had an abundance of clothing, blankets and +cooking utensils, and each man had some of his veteran bounty still in +possession. + +It was painful to see how rapidly many of them sank under the miseries +of the situation. They gave up the moment the gates were closed upon +them, and began pining away. We older prisoners buoyed ourselves up +continually with hopes of escape or exchange. We dug tunnels with the +persistence of beavers, and we watched every possible opportunity to +get outside the accursed walls of the pen. But we could not enlist the +interest of these discouraged ones in any of our schemes, or talk. They +resigned themselves to Death, and waited despondingly till he came. + +A middle-aged One Hundred and First Pennsylvanian, who had taken up +his quarters near me, was an object of peculiar interest. Reasonably +intelligent and fairly read, I presume that he was a respectable +mechanic before entering the Army. He was evidently a very domestic +man, whose whole happiness centered in his family. + +When he first came in he was thoroughly dazed by the greatness of his +misfortune. He would sit for hours with his face in his hands and +his elbows on his knees, gazing out upon the mass of men and huts, +with vacant, lack-luster eyes. We could not interest him in anything. +We tried to show him how to fix his blanket up to give him some +shelter, but he went at the work in a disheartened way, and finally +smiled feebly and stopped. He had some letters from his family and a +melaineotype of a plain-faced woman--his wife--and her children, and +spent much time in looking at them. At first he ate his rations when +he drew them, but finally began to reject, them. In a few days he was +delirious with hunger and homesick ness. He would sit on the sand for +hours imagining that he was at his family table, dispensing his frugal +hospitalities to his wife and children. + +Making a motion, as if presenting a dish, he would say: + +“Janie, have another biscuit, do!” + +Or, + +“Eddie, son, won’t you have another piece of this nice steak?” + +Or, + +“Maggie, have some more potatos,” and so on, through a whole family of +six, or more. It was a relief to us when he died in about a month after +he came in. + +As stated above, the Plymouth men brought in a large amount of +money --variously estimated at from ten thousand to one hundred +thousand dollars. The presence of this quantity of circulating medium +immediately started a lively commerce. All sorts of devices were +resorted to by the other prisoners to get a little of this wealth. +Rude chuck-a-luck boards were constructed out of such material as was +attainable, and put in operation. Dice and cards were brought out by +those skilled in such matters. As those of us already in the Stockade +occupied all the ground, there was no disposition on the part of many +to surrender a portion of their space without exacting a pecuniary +compensation. Messes having ground in a good location would frequently +demand and get ten dollars for permission for two or three to quarter +with them. Then there was a great demand for poles to stretch blankets +over to make tents; the Rebels, with their usual stupid cruelty, would +not supply these, nor allow the prisoners to go out and get them +themselves. Many of the older prisoners had poles to spare which they +were saying up for fuel. They sold these to the Plymouth folks at the +rate of ten dollars for three--enough to put up a blanket. + +The most considerable trading was done through the gates. The Rebel +guards were found quite as keen to barter as they had been in Richmond. +Though the laws against their dealing in the money of the enemy were +still as stringent as ever, their thirst for greenbacks was not abated +one whit, and they were ready to sell anything they had for the +coveted currency. The rate of exchange was seven or eight dollars in +Confederate money for one dollar in greenbacks. Wood, tobacco, meat, +flour, beans, molasses, onions and a villainous kind of whisky made +from sorghum, were the staple articles of trade. A whole race of little +traffickers in these articles sprang up, and finally Selden, the Rebel +Quartermaster, established a sutler shop in the center of the North +Side, which he put in charge of Ira Beverly, of the One Hundredth +Ohio, and Charlie Huckleby, of the Eighth Tennessee. It was a fine +illustration of the development of the commercial instinct in some men. +No more unlikely place for making money could be imagined, yet starting +in without a cent, they contrived to turn and twist and trade, until +they had transferred to their pockets a portion of the funds which were +in some one else’s. The Rebels, of course, got nine out of every ten +dollars there was in the prison, but these middle men contrived to have +a little of it stick to their fingers. + +It was only the very few who were able to do this. Nine hundred and +ninety-nine out of every thousand were, like myself, either wholly +destitute of money and unable to get it from anybody else, or they paid +out what money they had to the middlemen, in exorbitant prices for +articles of food. + +The N’Yaarkers had still another method for getting food, money, +blankets and clothing. They formed little bands called “Raiders,” +under the leadership of a chief villain. One of these bands would +select as their victim a man who had good blankets, clothes, a watch, +or greenbacks. Frequently he would be one of the little traders, with +a sack of beans, a piece of meat, or something of that kind. Pouncing +upon him at night they would snatch away his possessions, knock down +his friends who came to his assistance, and scurry away into the +darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +LONGINGS FOR GOD’S COUNTRY--CONSIDERATIONS OF THE METHODS OF GETTING +THERE--EXCHANGE AND ESCAPE--DIGGING TUNNELS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES +CONNECTED THEREWITH--PUNISHMENT OF A TRAITOR. + +To our minds the world now contained but two grand divisions, as widely +different from each other as happiness and misery. The first--that +portion over which our flag floated was usually spoken of as “God’s +Country;” the other--that under the baneful shadow of the banner of +rebellion--was designated by the most opprobrious epithets at the +speaker’s command. + +To get from the latter to the former was to attain, at one bound, the +highest good. Better to be a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord, under +the Stars and Stripes, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness, under +the hateful Southern Cross. + +To take even the humblest and hardest of service in the field now would +be a delightsome change. We did not ask to go home--we would be content +with anything, so long as it was in that blest place “within our +lines.” Only let us get back once, and there would be no more grumbling +at rations or guard duty--we would willingly endure all the hardships +and privations that soldier flesh is heir to. + +There were two ways of getting back--escape and exchange. Exchange was +like the ever receding mirage of the desert, that lures the thirsty +traveler on over the parched sands, with illusions of refreshing +springs, only to leave his bones at last to whiten by the side of those +of his unremembered predecessors. Every day there came something to +build up the hopes that exchange was near at hand--every day brought +something to extinguish the hopes of the preceding one. We took these +varying phases according to our several temperaments. The sanguine +built themselves up on the encouraging reports; the desponding sank +down and died under the discouraging ones. + +Escape was a perpetual allurement. To the actively inclined among us +it seemed always possible, and daring, busy brains were indefatigable +in concocting schemes for it. The only bit of Rebel brain work that I +ever saw for which I did not feel contempt was the perfect precautions +taken to prevent our escape. This is shown by the fact that, although, +from first to last, there were nearly fifty thousand prisoners in +Andersonville, and three out of every five of these were ever on the +alert to take French leave of their captors, only three hundred and +twenty-eight succeeded in getting so far away from Andersonville as to +leave it to be presumed that they had reached our lines. + +The first, and almost superhuman difficulty was to get outside the +Stockade. It was simply impossible to scale it. The guards were too +close together to allow an instant’s hope to the most sanguine, that +he could even pass the Dead Line without being shot by some one of +them. This same closeness prevented any hope of bribing them. To be +successful half those on post would have to be bribed, as every part of +the Stockade was clearly visible from every other part, and there was +no night so dark as not to allow a plain view to a number of guards of +the dark figure outlined against the light colored logs of any Yankee +who should essay to clamber towards the top of the palisades. + +The gates were so carefully guarded every time they were opened as to +preclude hope of slipping out through theme. They were only unclosed +twice or thrice a day--once to admit, the men to call the roll, once +to let them out again, once to let the wagons come in with rations, +and once, perhaps, to admit, new prisoners. At all these times every +precaution was taken to prevent any one getting out surreptitiously. + +This narrowed down the possibilities of passing the limits of the pen +alive, to tunneling. This was also surrounded by almost insuperable +difficulties. First, it required not less than fifty feet of +subterranean excavation to get out, which was an enormous work with +our limited means. Then the logs forming the Stockade were set in the +ground to a depth of five feet, and the tunnel had to go down beneath +them. They had an unpleasant habit of dropping down into the burrow +under them. It added much to the discouragements of tunneling to think +of one of these massive timbers dropping upon a fellow as he worked his +mole-like way under it, and either crushing him to death outright, or +pinning him there to die of suffocation or hunger. + +In one instance, in a tunnel near me, but in which I was not +interested, the log slipped down after the digger had got out beyond +it. He immediately began digging for the surface, for life, and was +fortunately able to break through before he suffocated. He got his head +above the ground, and then fainted. The guard outside saw him, pulled +him out of the hole, and when he recovered sensibility hurried him back +into the Stockade. + +In another tunnel, also near us, a broad-shouldered German, of the +Second Minnesota, went in to take his turn at digging. He was so much +larger than any of his predecessors that he stuck fast in a narrow +part, and despite all the efforts of himself and comrades, it was +found impossible to move him one way or the other. The comrades were +at last reduced to the humiliation of informing the Officer of the +Guard of their tunnel and the condition of their friend, and of asking +assistance to release him, which was given. + +The great tunneling tool was the indispensable half-canteen. The +inventive genius of our people, stimulated by the war, produced nothing +for the comfort and effectiveness of the soldier equal in usefulness +to this humble and unrecognized utensil. It will be remembered that a +canteen was composed of two pieces of tin struck up into the shape of +saucers, and soldered together at the edges. After a soldier had been +in the field a little while, and thrown away or lost the curious and +complicated kitchen furniture he started out with, he found that by +melting the halves of his canteen apart, he had a vessel much handier +in every way than any he had parted with. It could be used for anything +--to make soup or coffee in, bake bread, brown coffee, stew vegetables, +etc., etc. A sufficient handle was made with a split stick. When the +cooking was done, the handle was thrown away, and the half canteen +slipped out of the road into the haversack. There seemed to be no end +of the uses to which this ever-ready disk of blackened sheet iron could +be turned. Several instances are on record where infantry regiments, +with no other tools than this, covered themselves on the field with +quite respectable rifle pits. + +The starting point of a tunnel was always some tent close to the Dead +Line, and sufficiently well closed to screen the operations from the +sight of the guards near by. The party engaged in the work organized +by giving every man a number to secure the proper apportionment of the +labor. Number One began digging with his half canteen. After he had +worked until tired, he came out, and Number Two took his place, and so +on. The tunnel was simply a round, rat-like burrow, a little larger +than a man’s body. The digger lay on his stomach, dug ahead of him, +threw the dirt under him, and worked it back with his feet till the man +behind him, also lying on his stomach, could catch it and work it back +to the next. As the tunnel lengthened the number of men behind each +other in this way had to be increased, so that in a tunnel seventy-five +feet long there would be from eight to ten men lying one behind the +other. When the dirt was pushed back to the mouth of the tunnel it was +taken up in improvised bags, made by tying up the bottoms of pantaloon +legs, carried to the Swamp, and emptied. The work in the tunnel was +very exhausting, and the digger had to be relieved every half-hour. + +The greatest trouble was to carry the tunnel forward in a straight +line. As nearly everybody dug most of the time with the right hand, +there was an almost irresistible tendency to make the course veer +to the left. The first tunnel I was connected with was a ludicrous +illustration of this. About twenty of us had devoted our nights for +over a week to the prolongation of a burrow. We had not yet reached +the Stockade, which astonished us, as measurement with a string showed +that we had gone nearly twice the distance necessary for the purpose. +The thing was inexplicable, and we ceased operations to consider the +matter. The next day a man walking by a tent some little distance from +the one in which the hole began, was badly startled by the ground +giving way under his feet, and his sinking nearly to his waist in a +hole. It was very singular, but after wondering over the matter for +some hours, there came a glimmer of suspicion that it might be, in some +way, connected with the missing end of our tunnel. One of us started +through on an exploring expedition, and confirmed the suspicions by +coming out where the man had broken through. Our tunnel was shaped like +a horse shoe, and the beginning and end were not fifteen feet apart. +After that we practised digging with our left hand, and made certain +compensations for the tendency to the sinister side. + +Another trouble connected with tunneling was the number of traitors and +spies among us. There were many--principally among the N’Yaarker crowd +who were always zealous to betray a tunnel, in order to curry favor +with the Rebel officers. Then, again, the Rebels had numbers of their +own men in the pen at night, as spies. It was hardly even necessary +to dress these in our uniform, because a great many of our own men +came into the prison in Rebel clothes, having been compelled to trade +garments with their captors. + +One day in May, quite an excitement was raised by the detection of one +of these “tunnel traitors” in such a way as left no doubt of his guilt. +At first everybody was in favor of killing him, and they actually +started to beat him to death. This was arrested by a proposition to +“have Captain Jack tattoo him,” and the suggestion was immediately +acted upon. + +“Captain Jack” was a sailor who had been with us in the Pemberton +building at Richmond. He was a very skilful tattoo artist, but, I am +sure, could make the process nastier than any other that I ever saw +attempt it. He chewed tobacco enormously. After pricking away for a few +minutes at the design on the arm or some portion of the body, he would +deluge it with a flood of tobacco spit, which, he claimed, acted as +a kind of mordant. Piping this off with a filthy rag, he would study +the effect for an instant, and then go ahead with another series of +prickings and tobacco juice drenchings. + +The tunnel-traitor was taken to Captain Jack. That worthy decided to +brand him with a great “T,” the top part to extend across his forehead +and the stem to run down his nose. Captain Jack got his tattooing kit +ready, and the fellow was thrown upon the ground and held there. The +Captain took his head between his legs, and began operations. After an +instant’s work with the needles, he opened his mouth, and filled the +wretch’s face and eyes full of the disgusting saliva. The crowd round +about yelled with delight at this new process. For an hour, that was +doubtless an eternity to the rascal undergoing branding, Captain Jack +continued his alternate pickings and drenchings. At the end of that +time the traitor’s face was disfigured with a hideous mark that he +would bear to his grave. We learned afterwards that he was not one of +our men, but a Rebel spy. This added much to our satisfaction with the +manner of his treatment. He disappeared shortly after the operation was +finished, being, I suppose, taken outside. I hardly think Captain Jack +would be pleased to meet him again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE HOUNDS, AND THE DIFFICULTIES THEY PUT IN THE WAY OF ESCAPE --THE +WHOLE SOUTH PATROLLED BY THEM. + +Those who succeeded, one way or another, in passing the Stockade +limits, found still more difficulties lying between them and freedom +than would discourage ordinarily resolute men. The first was to get +away from the immediate vicinity of the prison. All around were Rebel +patrols, pickets and guards, watching every avenue of egress. Several +packs of hounds formed efficient coadjutors of these, and were more +dreaded by possible “escapes,” than any other means at the command +of our jailors. Guards and patrols could be evaded, or circumvented, +but the hounds could not. Nearly every man brought back from a futile +attempt at escape told the same story: he had been able to escape +the human Rebels, but not their canine colleagues. Three of our +detachment--members of the Twentieth Indiana--had an experience of this +kind that will serve to illustrate hundreds of others. They had been +taken outside to do some work upon the cook-house that was being built. +A guard was sent with the three a little distance into the woods to +get a piece of timber. The boys sauntered, along carelessly with the +guard, and managed to get pretty near him. As soon as they were fairly +out of sight of the rest, the strongest of them--Tom Williams--snatched +the Rebel’s gun away from him, and the other two springing upon him as +swift as wild cats, throttled him, so that he could not give the alarm. +Still keeping a hand on his throat, they led him off some distance, +and tied him to a sapling with strings made by tearing up one of their +blouses. He was also securely gagged, and the boys, bidding him a +hasty, but not specially tender, farewell, struck out, as they fondly +hoped, for freedom. It was not long until they were missed, and the +parties sent in search found and released the guard, who gave all the +information he possessed as to what had become of his charges. All the +packs of hounds, the squads of cavalry, and the foot patrols were sent +out to scour the adjacent country. The Yankees kept in the swamps and +creeks, and no trace of them was found that afternoon or evening. By +this time they were ten or fifteen miles away, and thought that they +could safely leave the creeks for better walking on the solid ground. +They had gone but a few miles, when the pack of hounds Captain Wirz was +with took their trail, and came after them in full cry. The boys tried +to ran, but, exhausted as they were, they could make no headway. Two of +them were soon caught, but Tom Williams, who was so desperate that he +preferred death to recapture, jumped into a mill-pond near by. When he +came up, it was in a lot of saw logs and drift wood that hid him from +being seen from the shore. The dogs stopped at the shore, and bayed +after the disappearing prey. The Rebels with them, who had seen Tom +spring in, came up and made a pretty thorough search for him. As they +did not think to probe around the drift wood this was unsuccessful, and +they came to the conclusion that Tom had been drowned. Wirz marched +the other two back and, for a wonder, did not punish them, probably +because he was so rejoiced at his success in capturing them. He was +beaming with delight when he returned them to our squad, and said, with +a chuckle: + +“Brisoners, I pring you pack two of dem tam Yankees wat got away +yesterday, unt I run de oder raskal into a mill-pont and trowntet him.” + +What was our astonishment, about three weeks later, to see Tom, fat +and healthy, and dressed in a full suit of butternut, come stalking +into the pen. He had nearly reached the mountains, when a pack of +hounds, patrolling for deserters or negros, took his trail, where he +had crossed the road from one field to another, and speedily ran him +down. He had been put in a little country jail, and well fed till an +opportunity occurred to send him back. This patrolling for negros and +deserters was another of the great obstacles to a successful passage +through the country. The rebels had put, every able-bodied white man in +the ranks, and were bending every energy to keep him there. The whole +country was carefully policed by Provost Marshals to bring out those +who were shirking military duty, or had deserted their colors, and to +check any movement by the negros. One could not go anywhere without +a pass, as every road was continually watched by men and hounds. It +was the policy of our men, when escaping, to avoid roads as much as +possible by traveling through the woods and fields. + +From what I saw of the hounds, and what I could learn from others, +I believe that each pack was made up of two bloodhounds and from +twenty-five to fifty other dogs. The bloodhounds were debased +descendants of the strong and fierce hounds imported from Cuba--many of +them by the United States Government--for hunting Indians, during the +Seminole war. The other dogs were the mongrels that are found in such +plentifulness about every Southern house--increasing, as a rule, in +numbers as the inhabitant of the house is lower down and poorer. They +are like wolves, sneaking and cowardly when alone, fierce and bold when +in packs. Each pack was managed by a well-armed man, who rode a mule; +and carried, slung over his shoulders by a cord, a cow horn, scraped +very thin, with which he controlled the band by signals. + +What always puzzled me much was why the hounds took only Yankee trails, +in the vicinity of the prison. There was about the Stockade from six +thousand to ten thousand Rebels and negros, including guards, officers, +servants, workmen, etc. These were, of course, continually in motion +and must have daily made trails leading in every direction. It was the +custom of the Rebels to send a pack of hounds around the prison every +morning, to examine if any Yankees had escaped during the night. It was +believed that they rarely failed to find a prisoner’s tracks, and still +more rarely ran off upon a Rebel’s. If those outside the Stockade had +been confined to certain path and roads we could have understood this, +but, as I understand, they were not. It was part of the interest of the +day, for us, to watch the packs go yelping around the pen searching +for tracks. We got information in this way whether any tunnel had been +successfully opened during the night. + +The use of hounds furnished us a crushing reply to the ever recurring +Rebel question: + +“Why are you-uns puttin’ niggers in the field to fight we-uns for?” + +The questioner was always silenced by the return interrogatory: + +“Is that as bad as running white men down with blood hounds?” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MAY--INFLUX OF NEW PRISONERS--DISPARITY IN NUMBERS BETWEEN THE EASTERN +AND WESTERN ARMIES--TERRIBLE CROWDING--SLAUGHTER OF MEN AT THE CREEK. + +In May the long gathering storm of war burst with angry violence all +along the line held by the contending armies. The campaign began +which was to terminate eleven months later in the obliteration of the +Southern Confederacy. May 1, Sigel moved up the Shenandoah Valley +with thirty thousand men; May 3, Butler began his blundering movement +against Petersburg; May 3, the Army of the Potomac left Culpeper, and +on the 5th began its deadly grapple with Lee, in the Wilderness; May 6, +Sherman moved from Chattanooga, and engaged Joe Johnston at Rocky Face +Ridge and Tunnel Hill. + +Each of these columns lost heavily in prisoners. It could not be +otherwise; it was a consequence of the aggressive movements. An army +acting offensively usually suffers more from capture than one on the +defensive. Our armies were penetrating the enemy’s country in close +proximity to a determined and vigilant foe. Every scout, every skirmish +line, every picket, every foraging party ran the risk of falling into a +Rebel trap. This was in addition to the risk of capture in action. + +The bulk of the prisoners were taken from the Army of the Potomac. For +this there were two reasons: First, that there were many more men in +that Army than in any other; and second, that the entanglement in the +dense thickets and shrubbery of the Wilderness enabled both sides to +capture great numbers of the other’s men. Grant lost in prisoners from +May 5 to May 31, seven thousand four hundred and fifty; he probably +captured two-thirds of that number from the Johnnies. + +Wirz’s headquarters were established in a large log house which had +been built in the fort a little distant from the southeast corner of +the prison. Every day--and sometimes twice or thrice a day--we would +see great squads of prisoners marched up to these headquarters, where +they would be searched, their names entered upon the prison records, +by clerks (detailed prisoners; few Rebels had the requisite clerical +skill) and then be marched into the prison. As they entered, the Rebel +guards would stand to arms. The infantry would be in line of battle, +the cavalry mounted, and the artillerymen standing by their guns, ready +to open at the instant with grape and canister. + +The disparity between the number coming in from the Army of the +Potomac and Western armies was so great, that we Westerners began to +take some advantage of it. If we saw a squad of one hundred and fifty +or thereabouts at the headquarters, we felt pretty certain they were +from Sherman, and gathered to meet them, and learn the news from our +friends. If there were from five hundred to two thousand we knew they +were from the Army of the Potomac, and there were none of our comrades +among them. There were three exceptions to this rule while we were in +Andersonville. The first was in June, when the drunken and incompetent +Sturgis (now Colonel of the Seventh United States Cavalry) shamefully +sacrificed a superb division at Guntown, Miss. The next was after Hood +made his desperate attack on Sherman, on the 22d of July, and the third +was when Stoneman was captured at Macon. At each of these times about +two thousand prisoners were brought in. + +By the end of May there were eighteen thousand four hundred and +fifty-four prisoners in the Stockade. Before the reader dismisses this +statement from his mind let him reflect how great a number this is. +It is more active, able-bodied young men than there are in any of our +leading Cities, save New York and Philadelphia. It is more than the +average population of an Ohio County. It is four times as many troops +as Taylor won the victory of Buena Vista with, and about twice as many +as Scott went into battle with at any time in his march to the City of +Mexico. + +These eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-four men were cooped up +on less than thirteen acres of ground, making about fifteen hundred +to the acre. No room could be given up for streets, or for the usual +arrangements of a camp, and most kinds of exercise were wholly +precluded. The men crowded together like pigs nesting in the woods on +cold nights. The ground, despite all our efforts, became indescribably +filthy, and this condition grew rapidly worse as the season advanced +and the sun’s rays gained fervency. As it is impossible to describe +this adequately, I must again ask the reader to assist with a few +comparisons. He has an idea of how much filth is produced, on an +ordinary City lot, in a week, by its occupation by a family say of six +persons. Now let him imagine what would be the result if that lot, +instead of having upon it six persons, with every appliance for keeping +themselves clean, and for removing and concealing filth, was the home +of one hundred and eight men, with none of these appliances. + +That he may figure out these proportions for himself, I will repeat +some of the elements of the problem: We will say that an average City +lot is thirty feet front by one hundred deep. This is more front than +most of them have, but we will be liberal. This gives us a surface of +three thousand square feet. An acre contains forty-three thousand five +hundred and sixty square feet. Upon thirteen of these acres, we had +eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-four men. After he has found +the number of square feet that each man had for sleeping apartment, +dining room, kitchen, exercise grounds and outhouses, and decided that +nobody could live for any length of time in such contracted space, I +will tell him that a few weeks later double that many men were crowded +upon that space that over thirty-five thousand were packed upon those +twelve and a-half or thirteen acres. + +But I will not anticipate. With the warm weather the condition of the +swamp in the center of the prison became simply horrible. We hear so +much now-a-days of blood poisoning from the effluvia of sinks and +sewers, that reading it, I wonder how a man inside the Stockade, and +into whose nostrils came a breath of that noisomeness, escaped being +carried off by a malignant typhus. In the slimy ooze were billions of +white maggots. They would crawl out by thousands on the warm sand, and, +lying there a few minutes, sprout a wing or a pair of them. With these +they would essay a clumsy flight, ending by dropping down upon some +exposed portion of a man’s body, and stinging him like a gad-fly. Still +worse, they would drop into what he was cooking, and the utmost care +could not prevent a mess of food from being contaminated with them. + +All the water that we had to use was that in the creek which flowed +through this seething mass of corruption, and received its sewerage. +How pure the water was when it came into the Stockade was a question. +We always believed that it received the drainage from the camps of the +guards, a half-a-mile away. + +A road was made across the swamp, along the Dead Line at the west side, +where the creek entered the pen. Those getting water would go to this +spot, and reach as far up the stream as possible, to get the water that +was least filthy. As they could reach nearly to the Dead Line this +furnished an excuse to such of the guards as were murderously inclined +to fire upon them. I think I hazard nothing in saying that for weeks +at least one man a day was killed at this place. The murders became +monotonous; there was a dreadful sameness to them. A gun would crack; +looking up we would see, still smoking, the muzzle of the musket of +one of the guards on either side of the creek. At the same instant +would rise a piercing shriek from the man struck, now floundering in +the creek in his death agony. Then thousands of throats would yell out +curses and denunciations, and-- + +“O, give the Rebel ---- ---- ---- ---- a furlough!” + +It was our belief that every guard who killed a Yankee was rewarded +with a thirty-day furlough. Mr. Frederick Holliger, now of Toledo, +formerly a member of the Seventy-Second Ohio, and captured at Guntown, +tells me, as his introduction to Andersonville life, that a few hours +after his entry he went to the brook to get a drink, reached out too +far, and was fired upon by the guard, who missed him, but killed +another man and wounded a second. The other prisoners standing near +then attacked him, and beat him nearly to death, for having drawn the +fire of the guard. + +Nothing could be more inexcusable than these murders. Whatever defense +there might be for firing on men who touched the Dead Line in other +parts of the prison, there could be none here. The men had no intention +of escaping; they had no designs upon the Stockade; they were not +leading any party to assail it. They were in every instance killed in +the act of reaching out with their cups to dip up a little water. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +SOME DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOLDIERLY DUTY AND MURDER--A PLOT TO ESCAPE +--IT IS REVEALED AND FRUSTRATED. + +Let the reader understand that in any strictures I make I do not +complain of the necessary hardships of war. I understood fully and +accepted the conditions of a soldier’s career. My going into the +field uniformed and armed implied an intention, at least, of killing, +wounding, or capturing, some of the enemy. There was consequently no +ground of complaint if I was, myself killed, wounded, or captured. +If I did not want to take these chances I ought to stay at home. In +the same way, I recognized the right of our captors or guards to take +proper precautions to prevent our escape. I never questioned for an +instant the right of a guard to fire upon those attempting to escape, +and to kill them. Had I been posted over prisoners I should have +had no compunction about shooting at those trying to get away, and +consequently I could not blame the Rebels for doing the same thing. It +was a matter of soldierly duty. + +But not one of the men assassinated by the guards at Andersonville were +trying to escape, nor could they have got away if not arrested by a +bullet. In a majority of instances there was not even a transgression +of a prison rule, and when there was such a transgression it was a mere +harmless inadvertence. The slaying of every man there was a foul crime. + +The most of this was done by very young boys; some of it by old men. +The Twenty-Sixth Alabama and Fifty-Fifth Georgia, had guarded us since +the opening of the prison, but now they were ordered to the field, and +their places filled by the Georgia “Reserves,” an organization of boys +under, and men over the military age. As General Grant aptly-phrased +it, “They had robbed the cradle and the grave,” in forming these +regiments. The boys, who had grown up from children since the war +began, could not comprehend that a Yankee was a human being, or that it +was any more wrongful to shoot one than to kill a mad dog. Their young +imaginations had been inflamed with stories of the total depravity of +the Unionists until they believed it was a meritorious thing to seize +every opportunity to exterminate them. + +Early one morning I overheard a conversation between two of these +youthful guards: + +“Say, Bill, I heerd that you shot a Yank last night?” + +“Now, you just bet I did. God! you jest ought to’ve heerd him holler.” + +Evidently the juvenile murderer had no more conception that he had +committed crime than if he had killed a rattlesnake. + +Among those who came in about the last of the month were two thousand +men from Butler’s command, lost in the disastrous action of May 15, +by which Butler was “bottled up” at Bermuda Hundreds. At that time +the Rebel hatred for Butler verged on insanity, and they vented this +upon these men who were so luckless--in every sense--as to be in his +command. Every pains was taken to mistreat them. Stripped of every +article of clothing, equipment, and cooking utensils--everything, +except a shirt and a pair of pantaloons, they were turned bareheaded +and barefooted into the prison, and the worst possible place in the pen +hunted out to locate them upon. This was under the bank, at the edge of +the Swamp and at the eastern side of the prison, where the sinks were, +and all filth from the upper part of the camp flowed down to them. The +sand upon which they lay was dry and burning as that of a tropical +desert; they were without the slightest shelter of any kind, the maggot +flies swarmed over them, and the stench was frightful. If one of them +survived the germ theory of disease is a hallucination. + +The increasing number of prisoners made it necessary for the Rebels to +improve their means of guarding and holding us in check. They threw +up a line of rifle pits around the Stockade for the infantry guards. +At intervals along this were piles of hand grenades, which could be +used with fearful effect in case of an outbreak. A strong star fort +was thrown up at a little distance from the southwest corner. Eleven +field pieces were mounted in this in such a way as to rake the Stockade +diagonally. A smaller fort, mounting five guns, was built at the +northwest corner, and at the northeast and southeast corners were small +lunettes, with a couple of howitzers each. Packed as we were we had +reason to dread a single round from any of these works, which could not +fail to produce fearful havoc. + +Still a plot was concocted for a break, and it seemed to the sanguine +portions of us that it must prove successful. First a secret society +was organized, bound by the most stringent oaths that could be devised. +The members of this were divided into companies of fifty men each; +under officers regularly elected. The secrecy was assumed in order +to shut out Rebel spies and the traitors from a knowledge of the +contemplated outbreak. A man named Baker--belonging, I think, to some +New York regiment--was the grand organizer of the scheme. We were +careful in each of our companies to admit none to membership except +such as long acquaintance gave us entire confidence in. + +The plan was to dig large tunnels to the Stockade at various places, +and then hollow out the ground at the foot of the timbers, so that a +half dozen or so could be pushed over with a little effort, and make +a gap ten or twelve feet wide. All these were to be thrown down at +a preconcerted signal, the companies were to rush out and seize the +eleven guns of the headquarters fort. The Plymouth Brigade was then +to man these and turn them on the camp of the Reserves who, it was +imagined, would drop their arms and take to their heels after receiving +a round or so of shell. We would gather what arms we could, and place +them in the hands of the most active and determined. This would give us +frown eight to ten thousand fairly armed, resolute men, with which we +thought we could march to Appalachicola Bay, or to Sherman. + +We worked energetically at our tunnels, which soon began to assume such +shape as to give assurance that they would answer our expectations in +opening the prison walls. + +Then came the usual blight to all such enterprises: a spy or a traitor +revealed everything to Wirz. One day a guard came in, seized Baker and +took him out. What was done with him I know not; we never heard of him +after he passed the inner gate. + +Immediately afterward all the Sergeants of detachments were summoned +outside. There they met Wirz, who made a speech informing them that he +knew all the details of the plot, and had made sufficient preparations +to defeat it. The guard had been strongly reinforced, and disposed in +such a manner as to protect the guns from capture. The Stockade had +been secured to prevent its falling, even if undermined. He said, in +addition, that Sherman had been badly defeated by Johnston, and driven +back across the river, so that any hopes of co-operation by him would +be ill-founded. + +When the Sergeants returned, he caused the following notice to be +posted on the gates: + + NOTICE. + + Not wishing to shed the blood of hundreds, not connected with those + who concocted a mad plan to force the Stockade, and make in this way + their escape, I hereby warn the leaders and those who formed + themselves into a band to carry out this, that I am in possession of + all the facts, and have made my dispositions accordingly, so as to + frustrate it. No choice would be left me but to open with grape and + canister on the Stockade, and what effect this would have, in this + densely crowded place, need not be told. + + May 25, 1864. + H. Wirz. + +The next day a line of tall poles, bearing white flags, were put up at +some little distance from the Dead Line, and a notice was read to us +at roll call that if, except at roll call, any gathering exceeding one +hundred was observed, closer the Stockade than these poles, the guns +would open with grape and canister without warning. + +The number of deaths in the Stockade in May was seven hundred and +eight, about as many as had been killed in Sherman’s army during the +same time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +JUNE--POSSIBILITIES OF A MURDEROUS CANNONADE--WHAT WAS PROPOSED TO +BE DONE IN THAT EVENT--A FALSE ALARM--DETERIORATION OF THE RATIONS +--FEARFUL INCREASE OF MORTALITY. + +After Wirz’s threat of grape and canister upon the slightest +provocation, we lived in daily apprehension of some pretext being found +for opening the guns upon us for a general massacre. Bitter experience +had long since taught us that the Rebels rarely threatened in vain. +Wirz, especially, was much more likely to kill without warning, than +to warn without killing. This was because of the essential weakness of +his nature. He knew no art of government, no method of discipline save +“kill them!” His petty little mind’s scope reached no further. He could +conceive of no other way of managing men than the punishment of every +offense, or seeming offense, with death. Men who have any talent for +governing find little occasion for the death penalty. The stronger they +are in themselves--the more fitted for controlling others--the less +their need of enforcing their authority by harsh measures. + +There was a general expression of determination among the prisoners to +answer any cannonade with a desperate attempt to force the Stockade. +It was agreed that anything was better than dying like rats in a pit +or wild animals in a battue. It was believed that if anything would +occur which would rouse half those in the pen to make a headlong effort +in concert, the palisade could be scaled, and the gates carried, and, +though it would be at a fearful loss of life, the majority of those +making the attempt would get out. If the Rebels would discharge grape +and canister, or throw a shell into the prison, it would lash everybody +to such a pitch that they would see that the sole forlorn hope of +safety lay in wresting the arms away from our tormentors. The great +element in our favor was the shortness of the distance between us and +the cannon. We could hope to traverse this before the guns could be +reloaded more than once. + +Whether it would have been possible to succeed I am unable to say. +It would have depended wholly upon the spirit and unanimity with +which the effort was made. Had ten thousand rushed forward at once, +each with a determination to do or die, I think it would have been +successful without a loss of a tenth of the number. But the insuperable +trouble--in our disorganized state--was want of concert of action. I am +quite sure, however, that the attempt would have been made had the guns +opened. + +One day, while the agitation of this matter was feverish, I was cooking +my dinner--that is, boiling my pitiful little ration of unsalted meal, +in my fruit can, with the aid of a handful of splinters that I had been +able to pick up by a half day’s diligent search. Suddenly the long +rifle in the headquarters fort rang out angrily. A fuse shell shrieked +across the prison--close to the tops of the logs, and burst in the +woods beyond. It was answered with a yell of defiance from ten thousand +throats. + +I sprang up-my heart in my mouth. The long dreaded time had arrived; +the Rebels had opened the massacre in which they must exterminate us, +or we them. + +I looked across to the opposite bank, on which were standing twelve +thousand men--erect, excited, defiant. I was sure that at the next shot +they would surge straight against the Stockade like a mighty human +billow, and then a carnage would begin the like of which modern times +had never seen. + +The excitement and suspense were terrible. We waited for what seemed +ages for the next gun. It was not fired. Old Winder was merely showing +the prisoners how he could rally the guards to oppose an outbreak. +Though the gun had a shell in it, it was merely a signal, and the +guards came double-quicking up by regiments, going into position in the +rifle pits and the hand-grenade piles. + +As we realized what the whole affair meant, we relieved our surcharged +feelings with a few general yells of execration upon Rebels generally, +and upon those around us particularly, and resumed our occupation of +cooking rations, killing lice, and discussing the prospects of exchange +and escape. + +The rations, like everything else about us, had steadily grown worse. A +bakery was built outside of the Stockade in May and our meal was baked +there into loaves about the size of brick. Each of us got a half of one +of these for a day’s ration. This, and occasionally a small slice of +salt pork, was call that I received. I wish the reader would prepare +himself an object lesson as to how little life can be supported on for +any length of time, by procuring a piece of corn bread the size of an +ordinary brickbat, and a thin slice of pork, and then imagine how he +would fare, with that as his sole daily ration, for long hungry weeks +and months. Dio Lewis satisfied himself that he could sustain life on +sixty cents, a week. I am sure that the food furnished us by the Rebels +would not, at present prices cost one-third that. They pretended to +give us one-third of pound of bacon and one and one-fourth pounds of +corn meal. A week’s rations then would be two and one-third pounds of +bacon--worth ten cents, and eight and three-fourths pounds of meal, +worth, say, ten cents more. As a matter of fact, I do not presume that +at any time we got this full ration. It would surprise me to learn that +we averaged two-thirds of it. + +The meal was ground very coarse and produced great irrition in the +bowels. We used to have the most frightful cramps that men ever +suffered from. Those who were predisposed intestinal affections were +speedily carried off by incurable diarrhea and dysentery. Of the +twelve thousand and twelve men who died, four thousand died of chronic +diarrhea; eight hundred and seventeen died of acute diarrhea, and one +thousand three hundred and eighty-four died of dysenteria, making total +of six thousand two hundred and one victims to enteric disorders. + +Let the reader reflect a moment upon this number, till comprehends +fully how many six thousand two hundred and men are, and how much +force, energy, training, and rich possibilities for the good of the +community and country died with those six thousand two hundred and +one young, active men. It may help his perception of the magnitude of +this number to remember that the total loss of the British, during the +Crimean war, by death in all shapes, was four thousand five hundred and +ninety-five, or one thousand seven hundred and six less than the deaths +in Andersonville from dysenteric diseases alone. + +The loathsome maggot flies swarmed about the bakery, and dropped into +the trough where the dough was being mixed, so that it was rare to get +a ration of bread not contaminated with a few of them. + +It was not long until the bakery became inadequate to supply bread +for all the prisoners. Then great iron kettles were set, and mush was +issued to a number of detachments, instead of bread. There was not +so much cleanliness and care in preparing this as a farmer shows in +cooking food for stock. A deep wagon-bed would be shoveled full of +the smoking paste, which was then hailed inside and issued out to the +detachments, the latter receiving it on blankets, pieces of shelter +tents, or, lacking even these, upon the bare sand. + +As still more prisoners came in, neither bread nor mush could be +furnished them, and a part of the detachments received their rations +in meal. Earnest solicitation at length resulted in having occasional +scanty issues of wood to cook this with. My detachment was allowed to +choose which it would take--bread, mush or meal. It took the latter. + +Cooking the meal was the topic of daily interest. There were three +ways of doing it: Bread, mush and “dumplings.” In the latter the +meal was dampened until it would hold together, and was rolled into +little balls, the size of marbles, which were then boiled. The bread +was the most satisfactory and nourishing; the mush the bulkiest--it +made a bigger show, but did not stay with one so long. The dumplings +held an intermediate position--the water in which they were boiled +becoming a sort of a broth that helped to stay the stomach. We received +no salt, as a rule. No one knows the intense longing for this, when +one goes without it for a while. When, after a privation of weeks we +would get a teaspoonful of salt apiece, it seemed as if every muscle +in our bodies was invigorated. We traded buttons to the guards for +red peppers, and made our mush, or bread, or dumplings, hot with the +fiery-pods, in hopes that this would make up for the lack of salt, but +it was a failure. One pinch of salt was worth all the pepper pods in +the Southern Confederacy. My little squad--now diminished by death from +five to three--cooked our rations together to economize wood and waste +of meal, and quarreled among ourselves daily as to whether the joint +stock should be converted into bread, mush or dumplings. The decision +depended upon the state of the stomach. If very hungry, we made mush; +if less famished, dumplings; if disposed to weigh matters, bread. + +This may seem a trifling matter, but it was far from it. We all +remember the man who was very fond of white beans, but after having +fifty or sixty meals of them in succession, began to find a suspicion +of monotony in the provender. We had now six months of unvarying diet +of corn meal and water, and even so slight a change as a variation in +the way of combining the two was an agreeable novelty. + +At the end of June there were twenty-six thousand three hundred +and sixty-seven prisoners in the Stockade, and one thousand two +hundred--just forty per day--had died during the month. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +DYING BY INCHES--SEITZ, THE SLOW, AND HIS DEATH--STIGGALL AND EMERSON +--RAVAGES ON THE SCURVY. + +May and June made sad havoc in the already thin ranks of our battalion. +Nearly a score died in my company--L--and the other companies suffered +proportionately. Among the first to die of my company comrades, was +a genial little Corporal, “Billy” Phillips--who was a favorite with +us all. Everything was done for him that kindness could suggest, but +it was of little avail. Then “Bruno” Weeks--a young boy, the son of a +preacher, who had run away from his home in Fulton County, Ohio, to +join us, succumbed to hardship and privation. + +The next to go was good-natured, harmless Victor Seitz, a Detroit cigar +maker, a German, and one of the slowest of created mortals. How he ever +came to go into the cavalry was beyond the wildest surmises of his +comrades. Why his supernatural slowness and clumsiness did not result +in his being killed at least once a day, while in the service, was even +still farther beyond the power of conjecture. No accident ever happened +in the company that Seitz did not have some share in. Did a horse fall +on a slippery road, it was almost sure to be Seitz’s, and that imported +son of the Fatherland was equally sure to be caught under him. Did +somebody tumble over a bank of a dark night, it was Seitz that we soon +heard making his way back, swearing in deep German gutterals, with +frequent allusion to ‘tausend teuflin.’ Did a shanty blow down, we ran +over and pulled Seitz out of the debris, when he would exclaim: + +“Zo! dot vos pretty vunny now, ain’t it?” + +And as he surveyed the scene of his trouble with true German phlegm, +he would fish a brier-wood pipe from the recesses of his pockets, fill +it with tobacco, and go plodding off in a cloud of smoke in search of +some fresh way to narrowly escape destruction. He did not know enough +about horses to put a snaffle-bit in one’s mouth, and yet he would draw +the friskiest, most mettlesome animal in the corral, upon whose back he +was scarcely more at home than he would be upon a slack rope. It was +no uncommon thing to see a horse break out of ranks, and go past the +battalion like the wind, with poor Seitz clinging to his mane like the +traditional grim Death to a deceased African. We then knew that Seitz +had thoughtlessly sunk the keen spurs he would persist in wearing; deep +into the flanks of his high-mettled animal. + +These accidents became so much a matter-of-course that when anything +unusual occurred in the company our first impulse was to go and help +Seitz out. + +When the bugle sounded “boots and saddles,” the rest of us would pack +up, mount, “count off by fours from the right,” and be ready to move +out before the last notes of the call had fairly died away. Just then +we would notice an unsaddled horse still tied to the hitching place. It +was Seitz’s, and that worthy would be seen approaching, pipe in mouth, +and bridle in hand, with calm, equable steps, as if any time before the +expiration of his enlistment would be soon enough to accomplish the +saddling of his steed. A chorus of impatient and derisive remarks would +go up from his impatient comrades: + +“For heaven’s sake, Seitz, hurry up!” + +“Seitz! you are like a cow’s tail--always behind!” + +“Seitz, you are slower than the second coming of the Savior!” + +“Christmas is a railroad train alongside of you, Seitz!” + +“If you ain’t on that horse in half a second, Seitz, we’ll go off and +leave you, and the Johnnies will skin you alive!” etc., etc. + +Not a ripple of emotion would roll over Seitz’s placid features under +the sharpest of these objurgations. At last, losing all patience, two +or three boys would dismount, run to Seitz’s horse, pack, saddle and +bridle him, as if he were struck with a whirlwind. Then Seitz would +mount, and we would move ’off. + +For all this, we liked him. His good nature was boundless, and his +disposition to oblige equal to the severest test. He did not lack a +grain of his full share of the calm, steadfast courage of his race, and +would stay where he was put, though Erebus yawned and bade him fly. +He was very useful, despite his unfitness for many of the duties of a +cavalryman. He was a good guard, and always ready to take charge of +prisoners, or be sentry around wagons or a forage pile-duties that most +of the boys cordially hated. + +But he came into the last trouble at Andersonville. He stood up pretty +well under the hardships of Belle Isle, but lost his cheerfulness--his +unrepining calmness--after a few weeks in the Stockade. One day we +remembered that none of us had seen him for several days, and we +started in search of him. We found him in a distant part of the camp, +lying near the Dead Line. His long fair hair was matted together, his +blue eyes had the flush of fever. Every part of his clothing was gray +with the lice that were hastening his death with their torments. He +uttered the first complaint I ever heard him make, as I came up to him: + +“My Gott, M ----, dis is worse dun a dog’s det!” + +In a few days we gave him all the funeral in our power; tied his big +toes together, folded his hands across his breast, pinned to his shirt +a slip of paper, upon which was written: + + VICTOR E. SEITZ, + Co. L, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry. + +And laid his body at the South Gate, beside some scores of others that +were awaiting the arrival of the six-mule wagon that hauled them to the +Potter’s Field, which was to be their last resting-place. + +John Emerson and John Stiggall, of my company, were two Norwegian boys, +and fine specimens of their race--intelligent, faithful, and always +ready for duty. They had an affection for each other that reminded +one of the stories told of the sworn attachment and the unfailing +devotion that were common between two Gothic warrior youths. Coming +into Andersonville some little time after the rest of us, they found +all the desirable ground taken up, and they established their quarters +at the base of the hill, near the Swamp. There they dug a little hole +to lie in, and put in a layer of pine leaves. Between them they had an +overcoat and a blanket. At night they lay upon the coat and covered +themselves with the blanket. By day the blanket served as a tent. The +hardships and annoyances that we endured made everybody else cross and +irritable. At times it seemed impossible to say or listen to pleasant +words, and nobody was ever allowed to go any length of time spoiling +for a fight. He could usually be accommodated upon the spot to any +extent he desired, by simply making his wishes known. Even the best of +chums would have sharp quarrels and brisk fights, and this disposition +increased as disease made greater inroads upon them. I saw in one +instance two brothers-both of whom died the next day of scurvy--and +who were so helpless as to be unable to rise, pull themselves up on +their knees by clenching the poles of their tents --in order to strike +each other with clubs, and they kept striking until the bystanders +interfered and took their weapons away from them. + +But Stiggall and Emerson never quarreled with each other. Their +tenderness and affection were remarkable to witness. They began to +go the way that so many were going; diarrhea and scurvy set in; they +wasted away till their muscles and tissues almost disappeared, leaving +the skin lying fiat upon the bones; but their principal solicitude was +for each other, and each seemed actually jealous of any person else +doing anything for the other. I met Emerson one day, with one leg drawn +clear out of shape, and rendered almost useless by the scurvy. He was +very weak, but was hobbling down towards the Creek with a bucket made +from a boot leg. I said: + +“Johnny, just give me your bucket. I’ll fill it for you, and bring it +up to your tent.” + +“No; much obliged, M ----” he wheezed out; “my pardner wants a cool +drink, and I guess I’d better get it for him.” + +Stiggall died in June. He was one of the first victims of scurvy, +which, in the succeeding few weeks, carried off so many. All of us who +had read sea-stories had read much of this disease and its horrors, but +we had little conception of the dreadful reality. It usually manifested +itself first in the mouth. The breath became unbearably fetid; the +gums swelled until they protruded, livid and disgusting, beyond the +lips. The teeth became so loose that they frequently fell out, and +the sufferer would pick them up and set them back in their sockets. +In attempting to bite the hard corn bread furnished by the bakery the +teeth often stuck fast and were pulled out. The gums had a fashion +of breaking away, in large chunks, which would be swallowed or spit +out. All the time one was eating his mouth would be filled with blood, +fragments of gums and loosened teeth. + +Frightful, malignant ulcers appeared in other parts of the body; the +ever-present maggot flies laid eggs in these, and soon worms swarmed +therein. The sufferer looked and felt as if, though he yet lived and +moved, his body was anticipating the rotting it would undergo a little +later in the grave. + +The last change was ushered in by the lower parts of the legs +swelling. When this appeared, we considered the man doomed. We all +had scurvy, more or less, but as long as it kept out of our legs we +were hopeful. First, the ankle joints swelled, then the foot became +useless. The swelling increased until the knees became stiff, and the +skin from these down was distended until it looked pale, colorless and +transparent as a tightly blown bladder. The leg was so much larger at +the bottom than at the thigh, that the sufferers used to make grim +jokes about being modeled like a churn, “with the biggest end down.” +The man then became utterly helpless and usually died in a short time. + +The official report puts down the number of deaths from scurvy at +three thousand five hundred and seventy-four, but Dr. Jones, the Rebel +surgeon, reported to the Rebel Government his belief that nine-tenths +of the great mortality of the prison was due, either directly or +indirectly, to this cause. + +The only effort made by the Rebel doctors to check its ravages was +occasionally to give a handful of sumach berries to some particularly +bad case. + +When Stiggall died we thought Emerson would certainly follow him in a +day or two, but, to our surprise, he lingered along until August before +dying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +“OLE BOO,” AND “OLE SOL, THE HAYMAKER”--A FETID, BURNING +DESERT--NOISOME WATER, AND THE EFFECTS OF DRINKING IT--STEALING SOFT +SOAP. + +The gradually lengthening Summer days were insufferably long and +wearisome. Each was hotter, longer and more tedious than its +predecessors. In my company was a none-too-bright fellow, named Dawson. +During the chilly rains or the nipping, winds of our first days in +prison, Dawson would, as he rose in, the morning, survey the forbidding +skies with lack-luster eyes and remark, oracularly: + +“Well, Ole Boo gits us agin, to-day.” + +He was so unvarying in this salutation to the morn that his designation +of disagreeable weather as “Ole Boo” became generally adopted by us. +When the hot weather came on, Dawson’s remark, upon rising and seeing +excellent prospects for a scorcher, changed to: “Well, Ole Sol, the +Haymaker, is going to git in his work on us agin to-day.” + +As long as he lived and was able to talk, this was Dawson’s invariable +observation at the break of day. + +He was quite right. The Ole Haymaker would do some famous work before +he descended in the West, sending his level rays through the wide +interstices between the somber pines. + +By nine o’clock in the morning his beams would begin to fairly singe +everything in the crowded pen. The hot sand would glow as one sees it +in the center of the unshaded highway some scorching noon in August. +The high walls of the prison prevented the circulation inside of any +breeze that might be in motion, while the foul stench rising from the +putrid Swamp and the rotting ground seemed to reach the skies. + +One can readily comprehend the horrors of death on the burning sands +of a desert. But the desert sand is at least clean; there is nothing +worse about it than heat and intense dryness. It is not, as that was +at Andersonville, poisoned with the excretions of thousands of sick +and dying men, filled with disgusting vermin, and loading the air with +the germs of death. The difference is as that between a brick-kiln and +a sewer. Should the fates ever decide that I shall be flung out upon +sands to perish, I beg that the hottest place in the Sahara may be +selected, rather than such a spot as the interior of the Andersonville +Stockade. + +It may be said that we had an abundance of water, which made a decided +improvement on a desert. Doubtless--had that water been pure. But +every mouthful of it was a blood poison, and helped promote disease +and death. Even before reaching the Stockade it was so polluted by +the drainage of the Rebel camps as to be utterly unfit for human +use. In our part of the prison we sank several wells--some as deep +as forty feet--to procure water. We had no other tools for this than +our ever-faithful half canteens, and nothing wherewith to wall the +wells. But a firm clay was reached a few feet below the surface, which +afforded tolerable strong sides for the lower part, ana furnished +material to make adobe bricks for curbs to keep out the sand of the +upper part. The sides were continually giving away, however, and +fellows were perpetually falling down the holes, to the great damage of +their legs and arms. The water, which was drawn up in little cans, or +boot leg buckets, by strings made of strips of cloth, was much better +than that of the creek, but was still far from pure, as it contained +the seepage from the filthy ground. + +The intense heat led men to drink great quantities of water, and this +superinduced malignant dropsical complaints, which, next to diarrhea, +scurvy and gangrene, were the ailments most active in carrying men off. +Those affected in this way swelled up frightfully from day to day. +Their clothes speedily became too small for them, and were ripped off, +leaving them entirely naked, and they suffered intensely until death +at last came to their relief. Among those of my squad who died in this +way, was a young man named Baxter, of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry, taken +at Chicamauga. He was very fine looking--tall, slender, with regular +features and intensely black hair and eyes; he sang nicely, and was +generally liked. A more pitiable object than he, when last I saw him, +just before his death, can not be imagined. His body had swollen until +it seemed marvelous that the human skin could bear so much distention +without disruption, All the old look of bright intelligence had been. +driven from his face by the distortion of his features. His swarthy +hair and beard, grown long and ragged, had that peculiar repulsive look +which the black hair of the sick is prone to assume. + +I attributed much of my freedom from the diseases to which others +succumbed to abstention from water drinking. Long before I entered the +army, I had constructed a theory--on premises that were doubtless as +insufficient as those that boyish theories are usually based upon--that +drinking water was a habit, and a pernicious one, which sapped away +the energy. I took some trouble to curb my appetite for water, and +soon found that I got along very comfortably without drinking anything +beyond that which was contained in my food. I followed this up after +entering the army, drinking nothing at any time but a little coffee, +and finding no need, even on the dustiest marches, for anything more. I +do not presume that in a year I drank a quart of cold water. Experience +seemed to confirm my views, for I noticed that the first to sink under +a fatigue, or to yield to sickness, were those who were always on the +lookout for drinking water, springing from their horses and struggling +around every well or spring on the line of march for an opportunity to +fill their canteens. + +I made liberal use of the Creek for bathing purposes, however, visiting +it four or five times a day during the hot days, to wash myself all +over. This did not cool one off much, for the shallow stream was nearly +as hot as the sand, but it seemed to do some good, and it helped pass +away the tedious hours. The stream was nearly all the time filled as +full of bathers as they could stand, and the water could do little +towards cleansing so many. The occasional rain storms that swept +across the prison were welcomed, not only because they cooled the air +temporarily, but because they gave us a shower-bath. As they came up, +nearly every one stripped naked and got out where he could enjoy the +full benefit of the falling water. Fancy, if possible, the spectacle +of twenty-five thousand or thirty thousand men without a stitch of +clothing upon them. The like has not been seen, I imagine, since the +naked followers of Boadicea gathered in force to do battle to the Roman +invaders. + +It was impossible to get really clean. Our bodies seemed covered with +a varnish-like, gummy matter that defied removal by water alone. I +imagined that it came from the rosin or turpentine, arising from the +little pitch pine fires over which we hovered when cooking our rations. +It would yield to nothing except strong soap-and soap, as I have before +stated--was nearly as scarce in the Southern Confederacy as salt. We in +prison saw even less of it, or rather, none at all. The scarcity of it, +and our desire for it, recalls a bit of personal experience. + +I had steadfastly refused all offers of positions outside the prison +on parole, as, like the great majority of the prisoners, my hatred of +the Rebels grew more bitter, day by day; I felt as if I would rather +die than accept the smallest favor at their hands, and I shared the +common contempt for those who did. But, when the movement for a grand +attack on the Stockade--mentioned in a previous chapter--was apparently +rapidly coming to a head, I was offered a temporary detail outside to, +assist in making up some rolls. I resolved to accept; first because +I thought I might get some information that would be of use in our +enterprise; and, next, because I foresaw that the rush through the gaps +in the Stockade would be bloody business, and by going out in advance +I would avoid that much of the danger, and still be able to give +effective assistance. + +I was taken up to Wirz’s office. He was writing at a desk at one end of +a large room when the Sergeant brought me in. He turned around, told +the Sergeant to leave me, and ordered me to sit down upon a box at the +other end of the room. + +Turning his back and resuming his writing, in a few minutes he had +forgotten me. I sat quietly, taking in the details for a half-hour, and +then, having exhausted everything else in the room, I began wondering +what was in the box I was sitting upon. The lid was loose; I hitched +it forward a little without attracting Wirz’s attention, and slipped +my left hand down of a voyage of discovery. It seemed very likely that +there was something there that a loyal Yankee deserved better than a +Rebel. I found that it was a fine article of soft soap. A handful was +scooped up and speedily shoved into my left pantaloon pocket. Expecting +every instant that Wirz would turn around and order me to come to the +desk to show my handwriting, hastily and furtively wiped my hand on the +back of my shirt and watched Wirz with as innocent an expression as a +school boy assumes when he has just flipped a chewed paper wad across +the room. Wirz was still engrossed in his writing, and did not look +around. I was emboldened to reach down for another handful. This was +also successfully transferred, the hand wiped off on the back of the +shirt, and the face wore its expression of infantile ingenuousness. +Still Wirz did not look up. I kept dipping up handful after handful, +until I had gotten about a quart in the left hand pocket. After each +handful I rubbed my hand off on the back of my shirt and waited an +instant for a summons to the desk. Then the process was repeated with +the other hand, and a quart of the saponaceous mush was packed in the +right hand pocket. + +Shortly after Wirz rose and ordered a guard to take me away and keep +me, until he decided what to do with me. The day was intensely hot, and +soon the soap in my pockets and on the back of my shirt began burning +like double strength Spanish fly blisters. There was nothing to do but +grin and bear it. I set my teeth, squatted down under the shade of the +parapet of the fort, and stood it silently and sullenly. For the first +time in my life I thoroughly appreciated the story of the Spartan boy, +who stole the fox and suffered the animal to tear his bowels out rather +than give a sign which would lead to the exposure of his theft. + +Between four and five o’clock-after I had endured the thing for five or +six hours, a guard came with orders from Wirz that I should be returned +to the Stockade. Upon hastily removing my clothes, after coming inside, +I found I had a blister on each thigh, and one down my back, that would +have delighted an old practitioner of the heroic school. But I also had +a half gallon of excellent soft soap. My chums and I took a magnificent +wash, and gave our clothes the same, and we still had soap enough left +to barter for some onions that we had long coveted, and which tasted as +sweet to us as manna to the Israelites. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +“POUR PASSER LE TEMPS”--A SET OF CHESSMEN PROCURED UNDER DIFFICULTIES +--RELIGIOUS SERVICES--THE DEVOTED PRIEST--WAR SONG. + +The time moved with leaden feet. Do the best we could, there were very +many tiresome hours for which no occupation whatever could be found. +All that was necessary to be done during the day--attending roll +call, drawing and cooking rations, killing lice and washing--could be +disposed of in an hour’s time, and we were left with fifteen or sixteen +waking hours, for which there was absolutely no employment. Very many +tried to escape both the heat and ennui by sleeping as much as possible +through the day, but I noticed that those who did this soon died, and +consequently I did not do it. Card playing had sufficed to pass away +the hours at first, but our cards soon wore out, and deprived us of +this resource. My chum, Andrews, and I constructed a set of chessmen +with an infinite deal of trouble. We found a soft, white root in the +swamp which answered our purpose. A boy near us had a tolerably sharp +pocket-knife, for the use of which a couple of hours each day, we gave +a few spoonfuls of meal. The knife was the only one among a large +number of prisoners, as the Rebel guards had an affection for that +style of cutlery, which led them to search incoming prisoners, very +closely. The fortunate owner of this derived quite a little income of +meal by shrewdly loaning it to his knifeless comrades. The shapes that +we made for pieces and pawns were necessarily very rude, but they were +sufficiently distinct for identification. We blackened one set with +pitch pine soot, found a piece of plank that would answer for a board +and purchased it from its possessor for part of a ration of meal, and +so were fitted out with what served until our release to distract our +attention from much of the surrounding misery. + +Every one else procured such amusement as they could. Newcomers, who +still had money and cards, gambled as long as their means lasted. Those +who had books read them until the leaves fell apart. Those who had +paper and pen and ink tried to write descriptions and keep journals, +but this was usually given up after being in prison a few weeks. I +was fortunate enough to know a boy who had brought a copy of “Gray’s +Anatomy” into prison with him. I was not specially interested in the +subject, but it was Hobson’s choice; I could read anatomy or nothing, +and so I tackled it with such good will that before my friend became +sick and was taken outside, and his book with him, I had obtained a +very fair knowledge of the rudiments of physiology. + +There was a little band of devoted Christian workers, among whom were +Orderly Sergeant Thomas J. Sheppard, Ninety-Seventh O. Y. L, now a +leading Baptist minister in Eastern Ohio; Boston Corbett, who afterward +slew John Wilkes Booth, and Frank Smith, now at the head of the +Railroad Bethel work at Toledo. They were indefatigable in trying to +evangelize the prison. A few of them would take their station in some +part of the Stockade (a different one every time), and begin singing +some old familiar hymn like: + + “Come, Thou fount of every blessing,” + +and in a few minutes they would have an attentive audience of as many +thousand as could get within hearing. The singing would be followed +by regular services, during which Sheppard, Smith, Corbett, and some +others would make short, spirited, practical addresses, which no doubt +did much good to all who heard them, though the grains of leaven were +entirely too small to leaven such an immense measure of meal. They +conducted several funerals, as nearly like the way it was done at home +as possible. Their ministrations were not confined to mere lip service, +but they labored assiduously in caring for the sick, and made many a +poor fellow’s way to the grave much smoother for him. + +This was about all the religious services that we were favored with. +The Rebel preachers did not make that effort to save our misguided +souls which one would have imagined they would having us where we could +not choose but hear they might have taken advantage of our situation +to rake us fore and aft with their theological artillery. They only +attempted it in one instance. While in Richmond a preacher came into +our room and announced in an authoritative way that he would address us +on religious subjects. We uncovered respectfully, and gathered around +him. He was a loud-tongued, brawling Boanerges, who addressed the Lord +as if drilling a brigade. + +He spoke but a few moments before making apparent his belief that the +worst of crimes was that of being a Yankee, and that a man must not +only be saved through Christ’s blood, but also serve in the Rebel army +before he could attain to heaven. + +Of course we raised such a yell of derision that the sermon was brought +to an abrupt conclusion. + +The only minister who came into the Stockade was a Catholic priest, +middle-aged, tall, slender, and unmistakably devout. He was unwearied +in his attention to the sick, and the whole day could be seen moving +around through the prison, attending to those who needed spiritual +consolation. It was interesting to see him administer the extreme +unction to a dying man. Placing a long purple scarf about his own +neck and a small brazen crucifix in the hands of the dying one, he +would kneel by the latter’s side and anoint him upon the eyes, ears, +nostrils; lips, hands, feet and breast, with sacred oil; from a little +brass vessel, repeating the while, in an impressive voice, the solemn +offices of the Church. + +His unwearying devotion gained the admiration of all, no matter how +little inclined one might be to view priestliness generally with favor. +He was evidently of such stuff as Christian heros have ever been made +of, and would have faced stake and fagot, at the call of duty, with +unquailing eye. His name was Father Hamilton, and he was stationed +at Macon. The world should know more of a man whose services were so +creditable to humanity and his Church: + +The good father had the wisdom of the serpent, with the harmlessness +of the dove. Though full of commiseration for the unhappy lot of the +prisoners, nothing could betray him into the slightest expression of +opinion regarding the war or those who were the authors of all this +misery. In our impatience at our treatment, and hunger for news, we +forgot his sacerdotal character, and importuned him for tidings of +the exchange. His invariable reply was that he lived apart from these +things and kept himself ignorant of them. + +“But, father,” said I one day, with an impatience that I could not +wholly repress, “you must certainly hear or read something of this, +while you are outside among the Rebel officers.” Like many other +people, I supposed that the whole world was excited over that in which +I felt a deep interest. + +“No, my son,” replied he, in his usual calm, measured tones. “I go not +among them, nor do I hear anything from them. When I leave the prison +in the evening, full of sorrow at what I have seen here, I find that +the best use I can make of my time is in studying the Word of God, and +especially the Psalms of David.” + +We were not any longer good company for each other. We had heard over +and over again all each other’s stories and jokes, and each knew as +much about the other’s previous history as we chose to communicate. The +story of every individual’s past life, relations, friends, regiment, +and soldier experience had been told again and again, until the +repetition was wearisome. The cool nights following the hot days were +favorable to little gossiping seances like the yarn-spinning watches +of sailors on pleasant nights. Our squad, though its stock of stories +was worn threadbare, was fortunate enough to have a sweet singer in +Israel “Nosey” Payne--of whose tunefulness we never tired. He had a +large repertoire of patriotic songs, which he sang with feeling and +correctness, and which helped much to make the calm Summer nights pass +agreeably. Among the best of these was “Brave Boys are They,” which +I always thought was the finest ballad, both in poetry and music, +produced by the War. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +MAGGOTS, LICE AND RAIDERS--PRACTICES OF THESE HUMAN VERMIN--PLUNDERING +THE SICK AND DYING--NIGHT ATTACKS, AND BATTLES BY DAY--HARD TIMES FOR +THE SMALL TRADERS. + +With each long, hot Summer hour the lice, the maggot-flies and the +N’Yaarkers increased in numbers and venomous activity. They were +ever-present annoyances and troubles; no time was free from them. The +lice worried us by day and tormented us by night; the maggot-flies +fouled our food, and laid in sores and wounds larvae that speedily +became masses of wriggling worms. The N’Yaarkers were human vermin that +preyed upon and harried us unceasingly. + +They formed themselves into bands numbering from five to twenty-five, +each led by a bold, unscrupulous, energetic scoundrel. We now called +them “Raiders,” and the most prominent and best known of the bands were +called by the names of their ruffian leaders, as “Mosby’s Raiders,” +“Curtis’s Raiders,” “Delaney’s Raiders,” “Sarsfield’s Raiders,” +“Collins’s Raiders,” etc. + +As long as we old prisoners formed the bulk of those inside the +Stockade, the Raiders had slender picking. They would occasionally +snatch a blanket from the tent poles, or knock a boy down at the +Creek and take his silver watch from him; but this was all. Abundant +opportunities for securing richer swag came to them with the advent of +the Plymouth Pilgrims. As had been before stated, these boys brought +in with them a large portion of their first instalment of veteran +bounty--aggregating in amount, according to varying estimates, between +twenty-five thousand and one hundred thousand dollars. The Pilgrims +were likewise well clothed, had an abundance of blankets and camp +equipage, and a plentiful supply of personal trinkets, that could be +readily traded off to the Rebels. An average one of them--even if his +money were all gone--was a bonanza to any band which could succeed in +plundering him. His watch and chain, shoes, knife, ring, handkerchief, +combs and similar trifles, would net several hundred dollars in +Confederate money. The blockade, which cut off the Rebel communication +with the outer world, made these in great demand. Many of the prisoners +that came in from the Army of the Potomac repaid robbing equally +well. As a rule those from that Army were not searched so closely as +those from the West, and not unfrequently they came in with all their +belongings untouched, where Sherman’s men, arriving the same day, would +be stripped nearly to the buff. + +The methods of the Raiders were various, ranging all the way from sneak +thievery to highway robbery. All the arts learned in the prisons and +purlieus of New York were put into exercise. Decoys, “bunko-steerers” +at home, would be on the look-out for promising subjects as each crowd +of fresh prisoners entered the gate, and by kindly offers to find them +a sleeping place, lure them to where they could be easily despoiled +during the night. If the victim resisted there was always sufficient +force at hand to conquer him, and not seldom his life paid the penalty +of his contumacy. I have known as many as three of these to be killed +in a night, and their bodies--with throats cut, or skulls crushed +in--be found in the morning among the dead at the gates. + +All men having money or valuables were under continual espionage, +and when found in places convenient for attack, a rush was made for +them. They were knocked down and their persons rifled with such swift +dexterity that it was done before they realized what had happened. + +At first these depredations were only perpetrated at night. The quarry +was selected during the day, and arrangements made for a descent. After +the victim was asleep the band dashed down upon him, and sheared him +of his goods with incredible swiftness. Those near would raise the cry +of “Raiders!” and attack the robbers. If the latter had secured their +booty they retreated with all possible speed, and were soon lost in +the crowd. If not, they would offer battle, and signal for assistance +from the other bands. Severe engagements of this kind were of continual +occurrence, in which men were so badly beaten as to die from the +effects. The weapons used were fists, clubs, axes, tent-poles, etc. +The Raiders were plentifully provided with the usual weapons of their +class--slung-shots and brass-knuckles. Several of them had succeeded in +smuggling bowie-knives into prison. + +They had the great advantage in these rows of being well acquainted +with each other, while, except the Plymouth Pilgrims, the rest of the +prisoners were made up of small squads of men from each regiment in +the service, and total strangers to all outside of their own little +band. The Raiders could concentrate, if necessary, four hundred or five +hundred men upon any point of attack, and each member of the gangs had +become so familiarized with all the rest by long association in New +York, and elsewhere, that he never dealt a blow amiss, while their +opponents were nearly as likely to attack friends as enemies. + +By the middle of June the continual success of the Raiders emboldened +them so that they no longer confined their depredations to the night, +but made their forays in broad daylight, and there was hardly an hour +in the twenty-four that the cry of “Raiders! Raiders!” did, not go up +from some part of the pen, and on looking in the direction of the cry, +one would see a surging commotion, men struggling, and clubs being +plied vigorously. This was even more common than the guards shooting +men at the Creek crossing. + +One day I saw “Dick Allen’s Raiders,” eleven in number, attack a man +wearing the uniform of Ellett’s Marine Brigade. He was a recent comer, +and alone, but he was brave. He had come into possession of a spade, +by some means or another, and he used this with delightful vigor and +effect. Two or three times he struck one of his assailants so fairly +on the head and with such good will that I congratulated myself that +he had killed him. Finally, Dick Allen managed to slip around behind +him unnoticed, and striking him on the head with a slung-shot, knocked +him down, when the whole crowd pounced upon him to kill him, but were +driven off by others rallying to his assistance. + +The proceeds of these forays enabled the Raiders to wax fat and lusty, +while others were dying from starvation. They all had good tents, +constructed of stolen blankets, and their headquarters was a large, +roomy tent, with a circular top, situated on the street leading to +the South Gate, and capable of accommodating from seventy-five to one +hundred men. All the material for this had been wrested away from +others. While hundreds were dying of scurvy and diarrhea, from the +miserable, insufficient food, and lack of vegetables, these fellows +had flour, fresh meat, onions, potatoes, green beans, and other +things, the very looks of which were a torture to hungry, scorbutic, +dysenteric men. They were on the best possible terms with the Rebels, +whom they fawned upon and groveled before, and were in return allowed +many favors, in the way of trading, going out upon detail, and making +purchases. + +Among their special objects of attack were the small traders in the +prison. We had quite a number of these whose genius for barter was +so strong that it took root and flourished even in that unpropitious +soil, and during the time when new prisoners were constantly coming in +with money, they managed to accumulate small sums--from ten dollars +upward, by trading between the guards and the prisoners. In the period +immediately following a prisoner’s entrance he was likely to spend +all his money and trade off all his possessions for food, trusting to +fortune to get him out of there when these were gone. Then was when +he was profitable to these go-betweens, who managed to make him pay +handsomely for what he got. The Raiders kept watch of these traders, +and plundered them whenever occasion served. It reminded one of the +habits of the fishing eagle, which hovers around until some other bird +catches a fish, and then takes it away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A COMMUNITY WITHOUT GOVERNMENT--FORMATION OF THE REGULATORS--RAIDERS +ATTACK KEY BUT ARE BLUFFED OFF--ASSAULT OF THE REGULATORS ON THE +RAIDERS --DESPERATE BATTLE--OVERTHROW OF THE RAIDERS. + +To fully appreciate the condition of affairs let it be remembered +that we were a community of twenty-five thousand boys and young +men--none too regardful of control at best--and now wholly destitute +of government. The Rebels never made the slightest attempt to maintain +order in the prison. Their whole energies were concentrated in +preventing our escape. So long as we staid inside the Stockade, they +cared as little what we did there as for the performances of savages +in the interior of Africa. I doubt if they would have interfered had +one-half of us killed and eaten the other half. They rather took a +delight in such atrocities as came to their notice. It was an ocular +demonstration of the total depravity of the Yankees. + +Among ourselves there was no one in position to lay down law and +enforce it. Being all enlisted men we were on a dead level as far as +rank was concerned--the highest being only Sergeants, whose stripes +carried no weight of authority. The time of our stay was--it was +hoped--too transient to make it worth while bothering about organizing +any form of government. The great bulk of the boys were recent comers, +who hoped that in another week or so they would be out again. There +were no fat salaries to tempt any one to take upon himself the duty of +ruling the masses, and all were left to their own devices, to do good +or evil, according to their several bents, and as fear of consequences +swayed them. Each little squad of men was a law unto themselves, and +made and enforced their own regulations on their own territory. The +administration of justice was reduced to its simplest terms. If a +fellow did wrong he was pounded--if there was anybody capable of doing +it. If not he went free. + +The almost unvarying success of the Raiders in--their forays gave the +general impression that they were invincible--that is, that not enough +men could be concentrated against them to whip them. Our ill-success in +the attack we made on them in April helped us to the same belief. If we +could not beat them then, we could not now, after we had been enfeebled +by months of starvation and disease. It seemed to us that the Plymouth +Pilgrims, whose organization was yet very strong, should undertake +the task; but, as is usually the case in this world, where we think +somebody else ought to undertake the performance of a disagreeable +public duty, they did not see it in the light that we wished them to. +They established guards around their squads, and helped beat off the +Raiders when their own territory was invaded, but this was all they +would do. The rest of us formed similar guards. In the southwest corner +of the Stockade--where I was--we formed ourselves into a company of +fifty active boys--mostly belonging to my own battalion and to other +Illinois regiments--of which I was elected Captain. My First Lieutenant +was a tall, taciturn, long-armed member of the One Hundred and Eleventh +Illinois, whom we called “Egypt,” as he came from that section of +the State. He was wonderfully handy with his fists. I think he could +knock a fellow down so that he would fall-harder, and lie longer than +any person I ever saw. We made a tacit division of duties: I did the +talking, and “Egypt” went through the manual labor of knocking our +opponents down. In the numerous little encounters in which our company +was engaged, “Egypt” would stand by my side, silent, grim and patient, +while I pursued the dialogue with the leader of the other crowd. As +soon as he thought the conversation had reached the proper point, his +long left arm stretched out like a flash, and the other fellow dropped +as if he had suddenly come in range of a mule that was feeling well. +That unexpected left-hander never failed. It would have made Charles +Reade’s heart leap for joy to see it. + +In spite of our company and our watchfulness, the Raiders beat us +badly on one occasion. Marion Friend, of Company I of our battalion, +was one of the small traders, and had accumulated forty dollars by his +bartering. One evening at dusk Delaney’s Raiders, about twenty-five +strong, took advantage of the absence of most of us drawing rations, to +make a rush for Marion. They knocked him down, cut him across the wrist +and neck with a razor, and robbed him of his forty dollars. By the time +we could rally Delaney and his attendant scoundrels were safe from +pursuit in the midst of their friends. + +This state of things had become unendurable. Sergeant Leroy L. Key, +of Company M, our battalion, resolved to make an effort to crush the +Raiders. He was a printer, from Bloomington, Illinois, tall, dark, +intelligent and strong-willed, and one of the bravest men I ever knew. +He was ably seconded by “Limber Jim,” of the Sixty-Seventh Illinois, +whose lithe, sinewy form, and striking features reminded one of a young +Sioux brave. He had all of Key’s desperate courage, but not his brains +or his talent for leadership. Though fearfully reduced in numbers, our +battalion had still about one hundred well men in it, and these formed +the nucleus for Key’s band of “Regulators,” as they were styled. Among +them were several who had no equals in physical strength and courage +in any of the Raider chiefs. Our best man was Ned Carrigan, Corporal +of Company I, from Chicago--who was so confessedly the best man in the +whole prison that he was never called upon to demonstrate it. He was a +big-hearted, genial Irish boy, who was never known to get into trouble +on his own account, but only used his fists when some of his comrades +were imposed upon. He had fought in the ring, and on one occasion had +killed a man with a single blow of his fist, in a prize fight near +St. Louis. We were all very proud of him, and it was as good as an +entertainment to us to see the noisiest roughs subside into deferential +silence as Ned would come among them, like some grand mastiff in the +midst of a pack of yelping curs. Ned entered into the regulating scheme +heartily. Other stalwart specimens of physical manhood in our battalion +were Sergeant Goody, Ned Johnson, Tom Larkin, and others, who, while +not approaching Carrigan’s perfect manhood, were still more than a +match for the best of the Raiders. + +Key proceeded with the greatest secrecy in the organization of his +forces. He accepted none but Western men, and preferred Illinoisans, +Iowans, Kansans, Indianians and Ohioans. The boys from those States +seemed to naturally go together, and be moved by the same motives. He +informed Wirz what he proposed doing, so that any unusual commotion +within the prison might not be mistaken for an attempt upon the +Stockade, and made the excuse for opening with the artillery. Wirz, +who happened to be in a complaisant humor, approved of the design, and +allowed him the use of the enclosure of the North Gate to confine his +prisoners in. + +In spite of Key’s efforts at secrecy, information as to his scheme +reached the Raiders. It was debated at their headquarters, and decided +there that Key must be killed. Three men were selected to do this +work. They called on Key, a dusk, on the evening of the 2d of July. In +response to their inquiries, he came out of the blanket-covered hole +on the hillside that he called his tent. They told him what they had +heard, and asked if it was true. He said it was. One of them then drew +a knife, and the other two, “billies” to attack him. But, anticipating +trouble, Key had procured a revolver which one of the Pilgrims had +brought in in his knapsack and drawing this he drove them off, but +without firing a shot. + +The occurrence caused the greatest excitement. To us of the Regulators +it showed that the Raiders had penetrated our designs, and were +prepared for them. To the great majority of the prisoners it was the +first intimation that such a thing was contemplated; the news spread +from squad to squad with the greatest rapidity, and soon everybody was +discussing the chances of the movement. For awhile men ceased their +interminable discussion of escape and exchange--let those over worked +words and themes have a rare spell of repose--and debated whether +the Raiders would whip the regulators, or the Regulators conquer the +Raiders. The reasons which I have previously enumerated, induced a +general disbelief in the probability of our success. The Raiders were +in good health well fed, used to operating together, and had the +confidence begotten by a long series of successes. The Regulators +lacked in all these respects. + +Whether Key had originally fixed on the next day for making the attack, +or whether this affair precipitated the crisis, I know not, but later +in the evening he sent us all order: to be on our guard all night, and +ready for action the next morning. + +There was very little sleep anywhere that night. The Rebels learned +through their spies that something unusual was going on inside, and as +their only interpretation of anything unusual there was a design upon +the Stockade, they strengthened the guards, took additional precautions +in every way, and spent the hours in anxious anticipation. + +We, fearing that the Raiders might attempt to frustrate the scheme +by an attack in overpowering force on Key’s squad, which would be +accompanied by the assassination of him and Limber Jim, held ourselves +in readiness to offer any assistance that might be needed. + +The Raiders, though confident of success, were no less exercised. +They threw out pickets to all the approaches to their headquarters, +and provided otherwise against surprise. They had smuggled in some +canteens of a cheap, vile whisky made from sorghum--and they grew quite +hilarious in their Big Tent over their potations. Two songs had long +ago been accepted by us as peculiarly the Raiders’ own--as some one in +their crowd sang them nearly every evening, and we never heard them +anywhere else. The first began: + + In Athol lived a man named Jerry Lanagan; + He battered away till he hadn’t a pound. + His father he died, and he made him a man agin; + Left him a farm of ten acres of ground. + +The other related the exploits of an Irish highwayman named Brennan, +whose chief virtue was that + + What he rob-bed from the rich he gave unto the poor. + +And this was the villainous chorus in which they all joined, and sang in +such a way as suggested highway robbery, murder, mayhem and arson: + + Brennan on the moor! + Brennan on the moor! + Proud and undaunted stood + John Brennan on the moor. + +They howled these two nearly the live-long night. They became +eventually quite monotonous to us, who were waiting and watching. It +would have been quite a relief if they had thrown in a new one every +hour or so, by way of variety. + +Morning at last came. Our companies mustered on their grounds, and then +marched to the space on the South Side where the rations were issued. +Each man was armed with a small club, secured to his wrist by a string. + +The Rebels--with their chronic fear of an outbreak animating them--had +all the infantry in line of battle with loaded guns. The cannon in the +works were shotted, the fuses thrust into the touch-holes and the men +stood with lanyards in hand ready to mow down everybody, at any instant. + +The sun rose rapidly through the clear sky, which soon glowed down on +us like a brazen oven. The whole camp gathered where it could best view +the encounter. This was upon the North Side. As I have before explained +the two sides sloped toward each other like those of a great trough. +The Raiders’ headquarters stood upon the center of the southern slope, +and consequently those standing on the northern slope saw everything as +if upon the stage of a theater. + +While standing in ranks waiting the orders to move, one of my comrades +touched me on the arm, and said: + +“My God! just look over there!” + +I turned from watching the Rebel artillerists, whose intentions gave +me more uneasiness than anything else, and looked in the direction +indicated by the speaker. The sight was the strangest one my eyes +ever encountered. There were at least fifteen thousand perhaps twenty +thousand--men packed together on the bank, and every eye was turned on +us. The slope was such that each man’s face showed over the shoulders +of the one in front of him, making acres on acres of faces. It was +as if the whole broad hillside was paved or thatched with human +countenances. + +When all was ready we moved down upon the Big Tent, in as good order +as we could preserve while passing through the narrow tortuous paths +between the tents. Key, Limber Jim, Ned Carigan, Goody, Tom Larkin, and +Ned Johnson led the advance with their companies. The prison was as +silent as a graveyard. As we approached, the Raiders massed themselves +in a strong, heavy line, with the center, against which our advance was +moving, held by the most redoubtable of their leaders. How many there +were of them could not be told, as it was impossible to say where their +line ended and the mass of spectators began. They could not themselves +tell, as the attitude of a large portion of the spectators would be +determined by which way the battle went. + +Not a blow was struck until the lines came close together. Then the +Raider center launched itself forward against ours, and grappled +savagely with the leading Regulators. For an instant--it seemed an +hour--the struggle was desperate. + +Strong, fierce men clenched and strove to throttle each other; great +muscles strained almost to bursting, and blows with fist and club-dealt +with all the energy of mortal hate--fell like hail. One-perhaps +two-endless minutes the lines surged--throbbed--backward and forward a +step or two, and then, as if by a concentration of mighty effort, our +men flung the Raider line back from it--broken--shattered. The next +instant our leaders were striding through the mass like raging lions. +Carrigan, Limber Jim, Larkin, Johnson and Goody each smote down a swath +of men before them, as they moved resistlessly forward. + +We light weights had been sent around on the flanks to separate the +spectators from the combatants, strike the Raiders ‘en revers,’ and, as +far as possible, keep the crowd from reinforcing them. + +In five minutes after the first blow--was struck the overthrow of the +Raiders was complete. Resistance ceased, and they sought safety in +flight. + +As the result became apparent to the--watchers on the opposite +hillside, they vented their pent-up excitement in a yell that made the +very ground tremble, and we answered them with a shout that expressed +not only our exultation over our victory, but our great relief from the +intense strain we had long borne. + +We picked up a few prisoners on the battle field, and retired without +making any special effort to get any more then, as we knew, that they +could not escape us. + +We were very tired, and very hungry. The time for drawing rations had +arrived. Wagons containing bread and mush had driven to the gates, but +Wirz would not allow these to be opened, lest in the excited condition +of the men an attempt might be made to carry them. Key ordered +operations to cease, that Wirz might be re-assured and let the rations +enter. It was in vain. Wirz was thoroughly scared. The wagons stood +out in the hot sun until the mush fermented and soured, and had to be +thrown away, while we event rationless to bed, and rose the next day +with more than usually empty stomachs to goad us on to our work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +WHY THE REGULATORS WERE NOT ASSISTED BY THE ENTIRE CAMP--PECULIARITIES +OF BOYS FROM DIFFERENT SECTIONS--HUNTING THE RAIDERS DOWN--EXPLOITS OF +MY LEFT-HANDED LIEUTENANT--RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. + +I may not have made it wholly clear to the reader why we did not have +the active assistance of the whole prison in the struggle with the +Raiders. There were many reasons for this. First, the great bulk of +the prisoners were new comers, having been, at the farthest, but three +or four weeks in the Stockade. They did not comprehend the situation +of affairs as we older prisoners did. They did not understand that +all the outrages--or very nearly all--were the work of--a relatively +small crowd of graduates from the metropolitan school of vice. The +activity and audacity of the Raiders gave them the impression that at +least half the able-bodied men in the Stockade were engaged in these +depredations. This is always the case. A half dozen burglars or other +active criminals in a town will produce the impression that a large +portion of the population are law breakers. We never estimated that the +raiding N’Yaarkers, with their spies and other accomplices, exceeded +five hundred, but it would have been difficult to convince a new +prisoner that there were not thousands of them. Secondly, the prisoners +were made up of small squads from every regiment at the front along the +whole line from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. These were strangers +to and distrustful of all out side their own little circles. The +Eastern men were especially so. The Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers each +formed groups, and did not fraternize readily with those outside their +State lines. The New Jerseyans held aloof from all the rest, while the +Massachusetts soldiers had very little in Common with anybody--even +their fellow New Englanders. The Michigan men were modified New +Englanders. They had the same tricks of speech; they said “I be” +for “I am,” and “haag” for “hog;” “Let me look at your knife half a +second,” or “Give me just a sup of that water,” where we said simply +“Lend me your knife,” or “hand me a drink.” They were less reserved +than the true Yankees, more disposed to be social, and, with all their +eccentricities, were as manly, honorable a set of fellows as it was +my fortune to meet with in the army. I could ask no better comrades +than the boys of the Third Michigan Infantry, who belonged to the same +“Ninety” with me. The boys from Minnesota and Wisconsin were very much +like those from Michigan. Those from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and +Kansas all seemed cut off the same piece. To all intents and purposes +they might have come from the same County. They spoke the same dialect, +read the same newspapers, had studied McGuffey’s Readers, Mitchell’s +Geography, and Ray’s Arithmetics at school, admired the same great men, +and held generally the same opinions on any given subject. It was never +difficult to get them to act in unison--they did it spontaneously; +while it required an effort to bring about harmony of action with those +from other sections. Had the Western boys in prison been thoroughly +advised of the nature of our enterprise, we could, doubtless, have +commanded their cordial assistance, but they were not, and there was no +way in which it could be done readily, until after the decisive blow +was struck. + +The work of arresting the leading Raiders went on actively all day on +the Fourth of July. They made occasional shows of fierce resistance, +but the events of the day before had destroyed their prestige, broken +their confidence, and driven away from their support very many who +followed their lead when they were considered all-powerful. They +scattered from their former haunts, and mingled with the crowds in +other parts of the prison, but were recognized, and reported to Key, +who sent parties to arrest them. Several times they managed to collect +enough adherents to drive off the squads sent after them, but this +only gave them a short respite, for the squad would return reinforced, +and make short work of them. Besides, the prisoners generally were +beginning to understand and approve of the Regulators’ movement, and +were disposed to give all the assistance needed. + +Myself and “Egypt,” my taciturn Lieutenant of the sinewy left arm, were +sent with our company to arrest Pete Donnelly, a notorious character, +and leader of, a bad crowd. He was more “knocker” than Raider, however. +He was an old Pemberton building acquaintance, and as we marched up to +where he was standing at the head of his gathering clan, he recognized +me and said: + +“Hello, Illinoy,” (the name by which I was generally known in prison) +“what do you want here?” + +I replied, “Pete, Key has sent me for you. I want you to go to +headquarters.” + +“What the ---- does Key want with me?” + +“I don’t know, I’m sure; he only said to bring you.” + +“But I haven’t had anything to do with them other snoozers you have +been a-having trouble with.” + +“I don’t know anything about that; you can talk to Key as to that. I +only know that we are sent for you.” + +“Well, you don’t think you can take me unless I choose to go? You haint +got anybody in that crowd big enough to make it worth while for him to +waste his time trying it.” + +I replied diffidently that one never knew what--he could do till he +tried; that while none of us were very big, we were as willing a lot of +little fellows as he ever saw, and if it were all the same to him, we +would undertake to waste a little time getting him to headquarters. + +The conversation seemed unnecessarily long to “Egypt,” who stood by my +side; about a half step in advance. Pete was becoming angrier and more +defiant every minute. His followers were crowding up to us, club in +hand. Finally Pete thrust his fist in my face, and roared out: + +“By ---, I ain’t a going with ye, and ye can’t take me, you ---- ---- +---- ” + +This was “Egypt’s” cue. His long left arm uncoupled like the loosening +of the weight of a pile-driver. It caught Mr. Donnelly under the chin, +fairly lifted him from his feet, and dropped him on his back among his +followers. It seemed to me that the predominating expression in his +face as he went, over was that of profound wonder as to where that blow +could have come from, and why he did not see it in time to dodge or +ward it off. + +As Pete dropped, the rest of us stepped forward with our clubs, to +engage his followers, while “Egypt” and one or two others tied his +hands and otherwise secured him. But his henchmen made no effort to +rescue him, and we carried him over to headquarters without molestation. + +The work of arresting increased in interest and excitement until it +developed into the furore of a hunt, with thousands eagerly engaged +in it. The Raiders’ tents were torn down and pillaged. Blankets, tent +poles, and cooking utensils were carried off as spoils, and the ground +was dug over for secreted property. A large quantity of watches, +chains, knives, rings, gold pens, etc., etc.--the booty of many a +raid--was found, and helped to give impetus to the hunt. Even the Rebel +Quartermaster, with the characteristic keen scent of the Rebels for +spoils, smelled from the outside the opportunity for gaining plunder, +and came in with a squad of Rebels equipped with spades, to dig for +buried treasures. How successful he was I know not, as I took no part +in any of the operations of that nature. + +It was claimed that several skeletons of victims of the Raiders were +found buried beneath the tent. I cannot speak with any certainty as to +this, though my impression is that at least one was found. + +By evening Key had perhaps one hundred and twenty-five of the most +noted Raiders in his hands. Wirz had allowed him the use of the small +stockade forming the entrance to the North Gate to confine them in. + +The next thing was the judgment and punishment of the arrested ones. +For this purpose Key organized a court martial composed of thirteen +Sergeants, chosen from the latest arrivals of prisoners, that they +might have no prejudice against the Raiders. I believe that a man named +Dick McCullough, belonging to the Third Missouri Cavalry, was the +President of the Court. The trial was carefully conducted, with all +the formality of a legal procedure that the Court and those managing +the matter could remember as applicable to the crimes with which +the accused were charged. Each of these confronted by the witnesses +who testified against him, and allowed to cross-examine them to any +extent he desired. The defense was managed by one of their crowd, +the foul-tongued Tombs shyster, Pete Bradley, of whom I have before +spoken. Such was the fear of the vengeance of the Raiders and their +friends that many who had been badly abused dared not testify against +them, dreading midnight assassination if they did. Others would not go +before the Court except at night. But for all this there was no lack +of evidence; there were thousands who had been robbed and maltreated, +or who had seen these outrages committed on others, and the boldness +of the leaders in their bight of power rendered their identification a +matter of no difficulty whatever. + +The trial lasted several days, and concluded with sentencing quite a +large number to run the gauntlet, a smaller number to wear balls and +chains, and the following six to be hanged: + + John Sarsfield, One Hundred and Forty-Fourth New York. + William Collins, alias “Mosby,” Company D, Eighty-Eighth Pennsylvania, + Charles Curtis, Company A, Fifth Rhode Island Artillery. + Patrick Delaney, Company E, Eighty-Third Pennsylvania. + A. Muir, United States Navy. + Terence Sullivan, Seventy-Second New York. + +These names and regiments are of little consequence, however, as I +believe all the rascals were professional bounty-jumpers, and did not +belong to any regiment longer than they could find an opportunity to +desert and join another. + +Those sentenced to ball-and-chain were brought in immediately, and had +the irons fitted to them that had been worn by some of our men as a +punishment for trying to escape. + +It was not yet determined how punishment should be meted out to the +remainder, but circumstances themselves decided the matter. Wirz +became tired of guarding so large a number as Key had arrested, and +he informed Key that he should turn them back into the Stockade +immediately. Key begged for little farther time to consider the +disposition of the cases, but Wirz refused it, and ordered the Officer +of the Guard to return all arrested, save those sentenced to death, to +the Stockade. In the meantime the news had spread through the prison +that the Raiders were to be sent in again unpunished, and an angry +mob, numbering some thousands, and mostly composed of men who had +suffered injuries at the hands of the marauders, gathered at the South +Gate, clubs in hand, to get such satisfaction as they could out of the +rascals. They formed in two long, parallel lines, facing inward, and +grimly awaited the incoming of the objects of their vengeance. + +The Officer of the Guard opened the wicket in the gate, and began +forcing the Raiders through it--one at a time--at the point of the +bayonet, and each as he entered was told what he already realized +well--that he must run for his life. They did this with all the energy +that they possessed, and as they ran blows rained on their heads, arms +and backs. If they could succeed in breaking through the line at any +place they were generally let go without any further punishment. Three +of the number were beaten to death. I saw one of these killed. I had no +liking for the gauntlet performance, and refused to have anything to +do with it, as did most, if not all, of my crowd. While the gauntlet +was in operation, I was standing by my tent at the head of a little +street, about two hundred feet from the line, watching what was being +done. A sailor was let in. He had a large bowie knife concealed about +his person somewhere, which he drew, and struck savagely with at his +tormentors on either side. They fell back from before him, but closed +in behind and pounded him terribly. He broke through the line, and ran +up the street towards me. About midway of the distance stood a boy +who had helped carry a dead man out during the day, and while out had +secured a large pine rail which he had brought in with him. He was +holding this straight up in the air, as if at a “present arms.” He +seemed to have known from the first that the Raider would run that way. +Just as he came squarely under it, the boy dropped the rail like the +bar of a toll gate. It struck the Raider across the head, felled him as +if by a shot, and his pursuers then beat him to death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE EXECUTION--BUILDING THE SCAFFOLD--DOUBTS OF THE CAMP-CAPTAIN +WIRZ THINKS IT IS PROBABLY A RUSE TO FORCE THE STOCKADE--HIS +PREPARATIONS AGAINST SUCH AN ATTEMPT--ENTRANCE OF THE DOOMED +ONES--THEY REALIZE THEIR FATE--ONE MAKES A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO +ESCAPE--HIS RECAPTURE--INTENSE EXCITEMENT--WIRZ ORDERS THE GUNS TO +OPEN--FORTUNATELY THEY DO NOT--THE SIX ARE HANGED--ONE BREAKS HIS +ROPE--SCENE WHEN THE RAIDERS ARE CUT DOWN. + +It began to be pretty generally understood through the prison that +six men had been sentenced to be hanged, though no authoritative +announcement of the fact had been made. There was much canvassing +as to where they should be executed, and whether an attempt to hang +them inside of the Stockade would not rouse their friends to make a +desperate effort to rescue them, which would precipitate a general +engagement of even larger proportions than that of the 3d. Despite +the result of the affairs of that and the succeeding days, the camp +was not yet convinced that the Raiders were really conquered, and the +Regulators themselves were not thoroughly at ease on that score. Some +five thousand or six thousand new prisoners had come in since the first +of the month, and it was claimed that the Raiders had received large +reinforcements from those,--a claim rendered probable by most of the +new-comers being from the Army of the Potomac. + +Key and those immediately about him kept their own counsel in the +matter, and suffered no secret of their intentions to leak out, until +on the morning of the 11th, when it became generally known that the +sentences were too be carried into effect that day, and inside the +prison. + +My first direct information as to this was by a messenger from Key with +an order to assemble my company and stand guard over the carpenters +who were to erect the scaffold. He informed me that all the Regulators +would be held in readiness to come to our relief if we were attacked in +force. I had hoped that if the men were to be hanged I would be spared +the unpleasant duty of assisting, for, though I believed they richly +deserved that punishment, I had much rather some one else administered +it upon them. There was no way out of it, however, that I could see, +and so “Egypt” and I got the boys together, and marched down to the +designated place, which was an open space near the end of the street +running from the South Gate, and kept vacant for the purpose of issuing +rations. It was quite near the spot where the Raiders’ Big Tent had +stood, and afforded as good a view to the rest of the camp as could be +found. + +Key had secured the loan of a few beams and rough planks, sufficient +to build a rude scaffold with. Our first duty was to care for these +as they came in, for such was the need of wood, and plank for tent +purposes, that they would scarcely have fallen to the ground before +they were spirited away, had we not stood over them all the time with +clubs. + +The carpenters sent by Key came over and set to work. The N’Yaarkers +gathered around in considerable numbers, sullen and abusive. They +cursed us with all their rich vocabulary of foul epithets, vowed that +we should never carry out the execution, and swore that they had marked +each one for vengeance. We returned the compliments in kind, and +occasionally it seemed as if a general collision was imminent; but we +succeeded in avoiding this, and by noon the scaffold was finished. It +was a very simple affair. A stout beam was fastened on the top of two +posts, about fifteen feet high. At about the height of a man’s head +a couple of boards stretched across the space between the posts, and +met in the center. The ends at the posts laid on cleats; the ends in +the center rested upon a couple of boards, standing upright, and each +having a piece of rope fastened through a hole in it in such a manner, +that a man could snatch it from under the planks serving as the floor +of the scaffold, and let the whole thing drop. A rude ladder to ascend +by completed the preparations. + +As the arrangements neared completion the excitement in and around the +prison grew intense. Key came over with the balance of the Regulators, +and we formed a hollow square around the scaffold, our company marking +the line on the East Side. There were now thirty thousand in the +prison. Of these about one-third packed themselves as tightly about our +square as they could stand. The remaining twenty thousand were wedged +together in a solid mass on the North Side. Again I contemplated the +wonderful, startling, spectacle of a mosaic pavement of human faces +covering the whole broad hillside. + +Outside, the Rebel, infantry was standing in the rifle pits, the +artillerymen were in place about their loaded and trained pieces, the +No. 4 of each gun holding the lanyard cord in his hand, ready to fire +the piece at the instant of command. The small squad of cavalry was +drawn up on the hill near the Star Fort, and near it were the masters +of the hounds, with their yelping packs. + +All the hangers-on of the Rebel camp--clerks, teamsters, employer, +negros, hundreds of white and colored women, in all forming a motley +crowd of between one and two thousand, were gathered together in a +group between the end of the rifle pits and the Star Fort. They had a +good view from there, but a still better one could be had, a little +farther to the right, and in front of the guns. They kept edging up in +that direction, as crowds will, though they knew the danger they would +incur if the artillery opened. + +The day was broiling hot. The sun shot his perpendicular rays down with +blistering fierceness, and the densely packed, motionless crowds made +the heat almost insupportable. + +Key took up his position inside the square to direct matters. With him +were Limber Jim, Dick McCullough, and one or two others. Also, Ned +Johnson, Tom Larkin, Sergeant Goody, and three others who were to act +as hangmen. Each of these six was provided with a white sack, such as +the Rebels brought in meal in. Two Corporals of my company--“Stag” +Harris and Wat Payne--were appointed to pull the stays from under the +platform at the signal. + +A little after noon the South Gate opened, and Wirz rode in, dressed +in a suit of white duck, and mounted on his white horse--a conjunction +which had gained for him the appellation of “Death on a Pale Horse.” +Behind him walked the faithful old priest, wearing his Church’s purple +insignia of the deepest sorrow, and reading the service for the +condemned. The six doomed men followed, walking between double ranks of +Rebel guards. + +All came inside the hollow square and halted. Wirz then said: + +“Brizners, I return to you dose men so Boot as I got dem. You haf tried +dem yourselves, and found dem guilty--I haf had notting to do wit it. I +vash my hands of eferyting connected wit dem. Do wit dem as you like, +and may Gott haf mercy on you and on dem. Garts, about face! Voryvarts, +march!” + +With this he marched out and left us. + +For a moment the condemned looked stunned. They seemed to comprehend +for the first time that it was really the determination of the +Regulators to hang them. Before that they had evidently thought that +the talk of hanging was merely bluff. One of them gasped out: + +“My God, men, you don’t really mean to hang us up there!” + +Key answered grimly and laconically: + +“That seems to be about the size of it.” + +At this they burst out in a passionate storm of intercessions and +imprecations, which lasted for a minute or so, when it was stopped by +one of them saying imperatively: + +“All of you stop now, and let the priest talk for us.” + +At this the priest closed the book upon which he had kept his eyes bent +since his entrance, and facing the multitude on the North Side began a +plea for mercy. + +The condemned faced in the same direction, to read their fate in the +countenances of those whom he was addressing. This movement brought +Curtis--a low-statured, massively built man--on the right of their +line, and about ten or fifteen steps from my company. + +The whole camp had been as still as death since Wirz’s exit. The +silence seemed to become even more profound as the priest began his +appeal. For a minute every ear was strained to catch what he said. +Then, as the nearest of the thousands comprehended what he was saying +they raised a shout of “No! no!! NO!!” “Hang them! hang them!” “Don’t +let them go! Never!” + +“Hang the rascals! hang the villains!” + +“Hang, ’em! hang ’em! hang ’em!” + +This was taken up all over the prison, and tens of thousands throats +yelled it in a fearful chorus. + +Curtis turned from the crowd with desperation convulsing his features. +Tearing off the broad-brimmed hat which he wore, he flung it on the +ground with the exclamation! + +“By God, I’ll die this way first!” and, drawing his head down and +folding his arms about it, he dashed forward for the center of my +company, like a great stone hurled from a catapult. + +“Egypt” and I saw where he was going to strike, and ran down the line +to help stop him. As he came up we rained blows on his head with our +clubs, but so many of us struck at him at once that we broke each +other’s clubs to pieces, and only knocked him on his knees. He rose +with an almost superhuman effort, and plunged into the mass beyond. + +The excitement almost became delirium. For an instant I feared that +everything was gone to ruin. “Egypt” and I strained every energy to +restore our lines, before the break could be taken advantage of by +the others. Our boys behaved splendidly, standing firm, and in a few +seconds the line was restored. + +As Curtis broke through, Delaney, a brawny Irishman standing next to +him, started to follow. He took one step. At the same instant Limber +Jim’s long legs took three great strides, and placed him directly in +front of Delaney. Jim’s right hand held an enormous bowie-knife, and as +he raised it above Delaney he hissed out: + +“If you dare move another step, I’ll open you ---- ---- ----, I’ll open +you from one end to the other. + +Delaney stopped. This checked the others till our lines reformed. + +When Wirz saw the commotion he was panic-stricken with fear that the +long-dreaded assault on the Stockade had begun. He ran down from the +headquarter steps to the Captain of the battery, shrieking: + +“Fire! fire! fire!” + +The Captain, not being a fool, could see that the rush was not towards +the Stockade, but away from it, and he refrained from giving the order. + +But the spectators who had gotten before the guns, heard Wirz’s +excited yell, and remembering the consequences to themselves should +the artillery be discharged, became frenzied with fear, and screamed, +and fell down over and trampled upon each other in endeavoring to get +away. The guards on that side of the Stockade ran down in a panic, and +the ten thousand prisoners immediately around us, expecting no less +than that the next instant we would be swept with grape and canister, +stampeded tumultuously. There were quite a number of wells right around +us, and all of these were filled full of men that fell into them as the +crowd rushed away. Many had legs and arms broken, and I have no doubt +that several were killed. + +It was the stormiest five minutes that I ever saw. + +While this was going on two of my company, belonging to the Fifth Iowa +Cavalry, were in hot pursuit of Curtis. I had seen them start and +shouted to them to come back, as I feared they would be set upon by the +Raiders and murdered. But the din was so overpowering that they could +not hear me, and doubtless would not have come back if they had heard. + +Curtis ran diagonally down the hill, jumping over the tents and +knocking down the men who happened in his way. Arriving at the swamp +he plunged in, sinking nearly to his hips in the fetid, filthy ooze. +He forged his way through with terrible effort. His pursuers followed +his example, and caught up to him just as he emerged on the other side. +They struck him on the back of the head with their clubs, and knocked +him down. + +By this time order had been restored about us. The guns remained +silent, and the crowd massed around us again. From where we were we +could see the successful end of the chase after Curtis, and could see +his captors start back with him. Their success was announced with a +roar of applause from the North Side. Both captors and captured were +greatly exhausted, and they were coming back very slowly. Key ordered +the balance up on to the scaffold. They obeyed promptly. The priest +resumed his reading of the service for the condemned. The excitement +seemed to make the doomed ones exceedingly thirsty. I never saw +men drink such inordinate quantities of water. They called for it +continually, gulped down a quart or more at a time, and kept two men +going nearly all the time carrying it to them. + +When Curtis finally arrived, he sat on the ground for a minute or so, +to rest, and then, reeking with filth, slowly and painfully climbed the +steps. Delaney seemed to think he was suffering as much from fright as +anything else, and said to him: + +“Come on up, now, show yourself a man, and die game.” + +Again the priest resumed his reading, but it had no interest to +Delaney, who kept calling out directions to Pete Donelly, who was +standing in the crowd, as to dispositions to be made of certain bits of +stolen property: to give a watch to this one, a ring to another, and so +on. Once the priest stopped and said: + +“My son, let the things of this earth go, and turn your attention +toward those of heaven.” + +Delaney paid no attention to this admonition. The whole six then began +delivering farewell messages to those in the crowd. Key pulled a watch +from his pocket and said: + +“Two minutes more to talk.” + +Delaney said cheerfully: + +“Well, good by, b’ys; if I’ve hurted any of y ez, I hope ye’ll forgive +me. Shpake up, now, any of yez that I’ve hurted, and say yell forgive +me.” + +We called upon Marion Friend, whose throat Delaney had tried to cut +three weeks before while robbing him of forty dollars, to come forward, +but Friend was not in a forgiving mood, and refused with an oath. + +Key said: + +“Time’s up!” put the watch back in his pocket and raised his hand like +an officer commanding a gun. Harris and Payne laid hold of the ropes to +the supports of the planks. Each of the six hangmen tied a condemned +man’s hands, pulled a meal sack down over his head, placed the noose +around his neck, drew it up tolerably close, and sprang to the ground. +The priest began praying aloud. + +Key dropped his hand. Payne and Harris snatched the supports out with +a single jerk. The planks fell with a clatter. Five of the bodies +swung around dizzily in the air. The sixth that of “Mosby,” a large, +powerful, raw-boned man, one of the worst in the lot, and who, among +other crimes, had killed Limber Jim’s brother-broke the rope, and fell +with a thud to the ground. Some of the men ran forward, examined the +body, and decided that he still lived. The rope was cut off his neck, +the meal sack removed, and water thrown in his face until consciousness +returned. At the first instant he thought he was in eternity. He gasped +out: + +“Where am I? Am I in the other world?” + +Limber Jim muttered that they would soon show him where he was, and +went on grimly fixing up the scaffold anew. “Mosby” soon realized what +had happened, and the unrelenting purpose of the Regulator Chiefs. Then +he began to beg piteously for his life, saying: + +“O for God’s sake, do not put me up there again! God has spared my life +once. He meant that you should be merciful to me.” + +Limber Jim deigned him no reply. When the scaffold was rearranged, and +a stout rope had replaced the broken one, he pulled the meal sack once +more over “Mosby’s” head, who never ceased his pleadings. Then picking +up the large man as if he were a baby, he carried him to the scaffold +and handed him up to Tom Larkin, who fitted the noose around his neck +and sprang down. The supports had not been set with the same delicacy +as at first, and Limber Jim had to set his heel and wrench desperately +at them before he could force them out. Then “Mosby” passed away +without a struggle. + +After hanging till life was extinct, the bodies were cut down, the +meal-sacks pulled off their faces, and the Regulators formal two +parallel lines, through which all the prisoners passed and took a look +at the bodies. Pete Donnelly and Dick Allen knelt down and wiped the +froth off Delaney’s lips, and swore vengeance against those who had +done him to death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +AFTER THE EXECUTION--FORMATION OF A POLICE FORCE--ITS FIRST CHIEF +--“SPANKING” AN OFFENDER. + +After the executions Key, knowing that he, and all those prominently +connected with the hanging, would be in hourly danger of assassination +if they remained inside, secured details as nurses and ward-masters in +the hospital, and went outside. In this crowd were Key, Ned Carrigan, +Limber Jim, Dick McCullough, the six hangmen, the two Corporals who +pulled the props from under the scaffold, and perhaps some others whom +I do not now remember. + +In the meanwhile provision had been made for the future maintenance +of order in the prison by the organization of a regular police force, +which in time came to number twelve hundred men. These were divided +into companies, under appropriate officers. Guards were detailed for +certain locations, patrols passed through the camp in all directions +continually, and signals with whistles could summon sufficient +assistance to suppress any disturbance, or carry out any orders from +the chief. + +The chieftainship was first held by Key, but when he went outside he +appointed Sergeant A. R. Hill, of the One Hundredth O. V. I.--now +a resident of Wauseon, Ohio,--his successor. Hill was one of the +notabilities of that immense throng. A great, broad-shouldered, giant, +in the prime of his manhood--the beginning of his thirtieth year--he +was as good-natured as big, and as mild-mannered as brave. He spoke +slowly, softly, and with a slightly rustic twang, that was very +tempting to a certain class of sharps to take him up for a “luberly +greeny.” The man who did so usually repented his error in sack-cloth +and ashes. + +Hill first came into prominence as the victor in the most stubbornly +contested fight in the prison history of Belle Isle. When the squad of +the One Hundredth Ohio--captured at Limestone Station, East Tennessee, +in September, 1863--arrived on Belle Isle, a certain Jack Oliver, of the +Nineteenth Indiana, was the undisputed fistic monarch of the Island. +He did not bear his blushing honors modestly; few of a right arm that +indefinite locality known as “the middle of next week,” is something +that the possessor can as little resist showing as can a girl her first +solitaire ring. To know that one can certainly strike a disagreeable +fellow out of time is pretty sure to breed a desire to do that thing +whenever occasion serves. Jack Oliver was one who did not let his +biceps rust in inaction, but thrashed everybody on the Island whom he +thought needed it, and his ideas as to those who should be included in +this class widened daily, until it began to appear that he would soon +feel it his duty to let no unwhipped man escape, but pound everybody on +the Island. + +One day his evil genius led him to abuse a rather elderly man belonging +to Hill’s mess. As he fired off his tirade of contumely, Hill said with +more than his usual “soft” rusticity: + +“Mister--I--don’t--think--it--just--right--for--a--young--man--to--call +--an--old--one--such--bad names.” + +Jack Oliver turned on him savagely. + +“Well! may be you want to take it up?” + +The grin on Hill’s face looked still more verdant, as he answered with +gentle deliberation: + +“Well--mister--I--don’t--go--around--a--hunting--things--but--I +--ginerally--take--care--of--all--that’s--sent--me!” + +Jack foamed, but his fiercest bluster could not drive that infantile +smile from Hill’s face, nor provoke a change in the calm slowness of +his speech. + +It was evident that nothing would do but a battle-royal, and Jack +had sense enough to see that the imperturbable rustic was likely to +give him a job of some difficulty. He went off and came back with his +clan, while Hill’s comrades of the One Hundredth gathered around to +insure him fair play. Jack pulled off his coat and vest, rolled up his +sleeves, and made other elaborate preparations for the affray. Hill, +without removing a garment, said, as he surveyed him with a mocking +smile: + +“Mister--you--seem--to--be--one--of--them--partick-e-ler--fellers.” + +Jack roared out, + +“By ---, I’ll make you partickeler before I get through with you. Now, +how shall we settle this? Regular stand-up-and knock-down, or rough and +tumble?” + +If anything Hill’s face was more vacantly serene, and his tones blander +than ever, as he answered: + +“Strike--any--gait--that--suits--you,--Mister;--I guess--I--will--be +--able--to--keep--up--with--you.” + +They closed. Hill feinted with his left, and as Jack uncovered to +guard, he caught him fairly on the lower left ribs, by a blow from his +mighty right fist, that sounded--as one of the by-standers expressed +it--“like striking a hollow log with a maul.” + +The color in Jack’s face paled. He did not seem to understand how +he had laid himself open to such a pass, and made the same mistake, +receiving again a sounding blow in the short ribs. This taught him +nothing, either, for again he opened his guard in response to a feint, +and again caught a blow on his luckless left, ribs, that drove the +blood from his face and the breath from his body. He reeled back +among his supporters for an instant to breathe. Recovering his wind, +be dashed at Hill feinted strongly with his right, but delivered a +terrible kick against the lower part of the latter’s abdomen. Both +closed and fought savagely at half-arm’s length for an instant; +during which Hill struck Jack so fairly in the mouth as to break out +three front teeth, which the latter swallowed. Then they clenched and +struggled to throw each other. Hill’s superior strength and skill +crushed his opponent to the ground, and he fell upon him. As they +grappled there, one of Jack’s followers sought to aid his leader by +catching Hill by the hair, intending to kick him in the face. In an +instant he was knocked down by a stalwart member of the One Hundredth, +and then literally lifted out of the ring by kicks. + +Jack was soon so badly beaten as to be unable to cry “enough!” One of +his friends did that service for him, the fight ceased, and thenceforth +Mr. Oliver resigned his pugilistic crown, and retired to the shades of +private life. He died of scurvy and diarrhea, some months afterward, in +Andersonville. + +The almost hourly scenes of violence and crime that marked the days and +nights before the Regulators began operations were now succeeded by the +greatest order. The prison was freer from crime than the best governed +City. There were frequent squabbles and fights, of course, and many +petty larcenies. Rations of bread and of wood, articles of clothing, +and the wretched little cans and half canteens that formed our cooking +utensils, were still stolen, but all these were in a sneak-thief +way. There was an entire absence of the audacious open-day robbery +and murder --the “raiding” of the previous few weeks. The summary +punishment inflicted on the condemned was sufficient to cow even bolder +men than the Raiders, and they were frightened into at least quiescence. + +Sergeant Hill’s administration was vigorous, and secured the best +results. He became a judge of all infractions of morals and law, and +sat at the door of his tent to dispense justice to all comers, like the +Cadi of a Mahometan Village. His judicial methods and punishments also +reminded one strongly of the primitive judicature of Oriental lands. +The wronged one came before him and told his tale: he had his blouse, +or his quart cup, or his shoes, or his watch, or his money stolen +during the night. The suspected one was also summoned, confronted with +his accuser, and sharply interrogated. Hill would revolve the stories +in his mind, decide the innocence or guilt of the accused, and if he +thought the accusation sustained, order the culprit to punishment. He +did not imitate his Mussulman prototypes to the extent of bowstringing +or decapitating the condemned, nor did he cut any thief’s hands off, +nor yet nail his ears to a doorpost, but he introduced a modification +of the bastinado that made those who were punished by it even wish +they were dead. The instrument used was what is called in the South +a “shake” --a split shingle, a yard or more long, and with one end +whittled down to form a handle. The culprit was made to bend down until +he could catch around his ankles with his hands. The part of the body +thus brought into most prominence was denuded of clothing and “spanked” +from one to twenty times, as Hill ordered, by the “shake” in same +strong and willing hand. It was very amusing--to the bystanders. The +“spankee” never seemed to enter very heartily into the mirth of the +occasion. As a rule he slept on his face for a week or so after, and +took his meals standing. + +The fear of the spanking, and Hill’s skill in detecting the guilty +ones, had a very salutary effect upon the smaller criminals. + +The Raiders who had been put into irons were very restive under the +infliction, and begged Hill daily to release them. They professed the +greatest penitence, and promised the most exemplary behavior for the +future. Hill refused to release them, declaring that they should wear +the irons until delivered up to our Government. + +One of the Raiders--named Heffron--had, shortly after his arrest, +turned State’s evidence, and given testimony that assisted materially +in the conviction of his companions. One morning, a week or so after +the hanging, his body was found lying among the other dead at the South +Gate. The impression made by the fingers of the hand that had strangled +him, were still plainly visible about the throat. There was no doubt as +to why he had been killed, or that the Raiders were his murderers, but +the actual perpetrators were never discovered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +JULY--THE PRISON BECOMES MORE CROWDED, THE WEATHER HOTTER, NATIONS +POORER, AND MORTALITY GREATER--SOME OF THE PHENOMENA OF SUFFERING AND +DEATH. + +All during July the prisoners came streaming in by hundreds and +thousands from every portion of the long line of battle, stretching +from the Eastern bank of the Mississippi to the shores of the Atlantic. +Over one thousand squandered by Sturgis at Guntown came in; two +thousand of those captured in the desperate blow dealt by Hood against +the Army of the Tennessee on the 22d of the month before Atlanta; +hundreds from Hunter’s luckless column in the Shenandoah Valley, +thousands from Grant’s lines in front of Petersburg. In all, seven +thousand one hundred and twenty-eight were, during the month, turned +into that seething mass of corrupting humanity to be polluted and +tainted by it, and to assist in turn to make it fouler and deadlier. +Over seventy hecatombs of chosen victims --of fair youths in the +first flush of hopeful manhood, at the threshold of a life of honor +to themselves and of usefulness to the community; beardless boys, +rich in the priceless affections of homes, fathers, mothers, sisters +and sweethearts, with minds thrilling with high aspirations for the +bright future, were sent in as the monthly sacrifice to this Minotaur +of the Rebellion, who, couched in his foul lair, slew them, not with +the merciful delivery of speedy death, as his Cretan prototype did the +annual tribute of Athenian youths and maidens, but, gloating over his +prey, doomed them to lingering destruction. He rotted their flesh with +the scurvy, racked their minds with intolerable suspense, burned their +bodies with the slow fire of famine, and delighted in each separate +pang, until they sank beneath the fearful accumulation. Theseus +[Sherman. D.W.]--the deliverer--was coming. His terrible sword could +be seen gleaming as it rose and fell on the banks of the James, and +in the mountains beyond Atlanta, where he was hewing his way towards +them and the heart of the Southern Confederacy. But he came too late +to save them. Strike as swiftly and as heavily as he would, he could +not strike so hard nor so sure at his foes with saber blow and musket +shot, as they could at the hapless youths with the dreadful armament of +starvation and disease. + +Though the deaths were one thousand eight hundred and seventeen more +than were killed at the battle of Shiloh--this left the number in +the prison at the end of the month thirty-one thousand six hundred +and seventy-eight. Let me assist the reader’s comprehension of the +magnitude of this number by giving the population of a few important +Cities, according to the census of 1870: + +Cambridge, Mass 89,639 +Charleston, S. C. 48,958 +Columbus, O. 31,274 +Dayton, O. 30,473 +Fall River, Mass 26,766 +Kansas City, Mo 32,260 + +The number of prisoners exceeded the whole number of men between +the ages of eighteen and forty-five in several of the States and +Territories in the Union. Here, for instance, are the returns for 1870, +of men of military age in some portions of the country: + +Arizona 5,157 +Colorado 15,166 +Dakota 5,301 +Idaho 9,431 +Montana 12,418 +Nebraska 35,677 +Nevada 24,762 +New Hampshire 60,684 +Oregon 23,959 +Rhode Island 44,377 +Vermont 62,450 +West Virginia 6,832 + +It was more soldiers than could be raised to-day, under strong +pressure, in either Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, +Connecticut, Dakota, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, +Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, +New Medico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont or West +Virginia. + +These thirty-one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight active young +men, who were likely to find the confines of a State too narrow for +them, were cooped up on thirteen acres of ground--less than a farmer +gives for play-ground for a half dozen colts or a small flock of sheep. +There was hardly room for all to lie down at night, and to walk a few +hundred feet in any direction would require an hour’s patient threading +of the mass of men and tents. + +The weather became hotter and hotter; at midday the sand would burn +the hand. The thin skins of fair and auburn-haired men blistered under +the sun’s rays, and swelled up in great watery puffs, which soon +became the breeding grounds of the hideous maggots, or the still more +deadly gangrene. The loathsome swamp grew in rank offensiveness with +every burning hour. The pestilence literally stalked at noon-day, and +struck his victims down on every hand. One could not look a rod in any +direction without seeing at least a dozen men in the last frightful +stages of rotting Death. + +Let me describe the scene immediately around my own tent during the +last two weeks of July, as a sample of the condition of the whole +prison: I will take a space not larger than a good sized parlor or +sitting room. On this were at least fifty of us. Directly in front of +me lay two brothers--named Sherwood--belonging to Company I, of my +battalion, who came originally from Missouri. They were now in the +last stages of scurvy and diarrhea. Every particle of muscle and fat +about their limbs and bodies had apparently wasted away, leaving the +skin clinging close to the bone of the face, arms, hands, ribs and +thighs--everywhere except the feet and legs, where it was swollen tense +and transparent, distended with gallons of purulent matter. Their livid +gums, from which most of their teeth had already fallen, protruded +far beyond their lips. To their left lay a Sergeant and two others +of their company, all three slowly dying from diarrhea, and beyond +was a fair-haired German, young and intelligent looking, whose life +was ebbing tediously away. To my right was a handsome young Sergeant +of an Illinois Infantry Regiment, captured at Kenesaw. His left arm +had been amputated between the shoulder and elbow, and he was turned +into the Stockade with the stump all undressed, save the ligating of +the arteries. Of course, he had not been inside an hour until the +maggot flies had laid eggs in the open wound, and before the day was +gone the worms were hatched out, and rioting amid the inflamed and +super-sensitive nerves, where their every motion was agony. Accustomed +as we were to misery, we found a still lower depth in his misfortune, +and I would be happier could I forget his pale, drawn face, as he +wandered uncomplainingly to and fro, holding his maimed limb with his +right hand, occasionally stopping to squeeze it, as one does a boil, +and press from it a stream of maggots and pus. I do not think he ate or +slept for a week before he died. Next to him staid an Irish Sergeant of +a New York Regiment, a fine soldierly man, who, with pardonable pride, +wore, conspicuously on his left breast, a medal gained by gallantry +while a British soldier in the Crimea. He was wasting away with +diarrhea, and died before the month was out. + +This was what one could see on every square rod of the prison. Where I +was was not only no worse than the rest of the prison, but was probably +much better and healthier, as it was the highest ground inside, +farthest from the Swamp, and having the dead line on two sides, had a +ventilation that those nearer the center could not possibly have. Yet, +with all these conditions in our favor, the mortality was as I have +described. + +Near us an exasperating idiot, who played the flute, had established +himself. Like all poor players, he affected the low, mournful notes, as +plaintive as the distant cooing of the dove in lowering, weather. He +played or rather tooted away in his “blues”-inducing strain hour after +hour, despite our energetic protests, and occasionally flinging a club +at him. There was no more stop to him than to a man with a hand-organ, +and to this day the low, sad notes of a flute are the swiftest reminder +to me of those sorrowful, death-laden days. + +I had an illustration one morning of how far decomposition would +progress in a man’s body before he died. My chum and I found a +treasure-trove in the streets, in the shape of the body of a man who +died during the night. The value of this “find” was that if we took it +to the gate, we would be allowed to carry it outside to the deadhouse, +and on our way back have an opportunity to pick up a chunk of wood, to +use in cooking. While discussing our good luck another party came up +and claimed the body. A verbal dispute led to one of blows, in which +we came off victorious, and I hastily caught hold of the arm near the +elbow to help bear the body away. The skin gave way under my hand, +and slipped with it down to the wrist, like a torn sleeve. It was +sickening, but I clung to my prize, and secured a very good chunk of +wood while outside with it. The wood was very much needed by my mess, +as our squad had then had none for more than a week. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE BATTLE OF THE 22D OF JULY--THE ARMS OF THE TENNESSEE ASSAULTED +FRONT AND REAR--DEATH OF GENERAL MCPHERSON--ASSUMPTION OF COMMAND BY +GENERAL LOGAN--RESULT OF THE BATTLE. + +Naturally, we had a consuming hunger for news of what was being +accomplished by our armies toward crushing the Rebellion. Now, more +than ever, had we reason to ardently wish for the destruction of the +Rebel power. Before capture we had love of country and a natural desire +for the triumph of her flag to animate us. Now we had a hatred of the +Rebels that passed expression, and a fierce longing to see those who +daily tortured and insulted us trampled down in the dust of humiliation. + +The daily arrival of prisoners kept us tolerably well +informed as to the general progress of the campaign, and we +added to the information thus obtained by getting--almost +daily--in some manner or another--a copy of a Rebel paper. +Most frequently these were Atlanta papers, or an issue of the +“Memphis-Corinth-Jackson-Grenada-Chattanooga-Resacca-Marietta-Atlanta +Appeal,” as they used to facetiously term a Memphis paper that left +that City when it was taken in 1862, and for two years fell back from +place to place, as Sherman’s Army advanced, until at last it gave up +the struggle in September, 1864, in a little Town south of Atlanta, +after about two thousand miles of weary retreat from an indefatigable +pursuer. The papers were brought in by “fresh fish,” purchased from +the guards at from fifty cents to one dollar apiece, or occasionally +thrown in to us when they had some specially disagreeable intelligence, +like the defeat of Banks, or Sturgis, or Bunter, to exult over. I was +particularly fortunate in getting hold of these. Becoming installed as +general reader for a neighborhood of several thousand men, everything +of this kind was immediately brought to me, to be read aloud for the +benefit of everybody. All the older prisoners knew me by the nick-name +of “Illinoy” --a designation arising from my wearing on my cap, when +I entered prison, a neat little white metal badge of “ILLS.” When any +reading matter was brought into our neighborhood, there would be a +general cry of: + +“Take it up to ‘Illinoy,’” and then hundreds would mass around my +quarters to bear the news read. + +The Rebel papers usually had very meager reports of the operations of +the armies, and these were greatly distorted, but they were still very +interesting, and as we always started in to read with the expectation +that the whole statement was a mass of perversions and lies, where +truth was an infrequent accident, we were not likely to be much +impressed with it. + +There was a marled difference in the tone of the reports brought in +from the different armies. Sherman’s men were always sanguine. They +had no doubt that they were pushing the enemy straight to the wall, +and that every day brought the Southern Confederacy much nearer its +downfall. Those from the Army of the Potomac were never so hopeful. +They would admit that Grant was pounding Lee terribly, but the shadow +of the frequent defeats of the Army of the Potomac seemed to hang +depressingly over them. + +There came a day, however, when our sanguine hopes as to Sherman were +checked by a possibility that he had failed; that his long campaign +towards Atlanta had culminated in such a reverse under the very walls +of the City as would compel an abandonment of the enterprise, and +possibly a humiliating retreat. We knew that Jeff. Davis and his +Government were strongly dissatisfied with the Fabian policy of Joe +Johnston. The papers had told us of the Rebel President’s visit to +Atlanta, of his bitter comments on Johnston’s tactics; of his going so +far as to sneer about the necessity of providing pontoons at Key West, +so that Johnston might continue his retreat even to Cuba. Then came the +news of Johnston’s Supersession by Hood, and the papers were full of +the exulting predictions of what would now be accomplished “when that +gallant young soldier is once fairly in the saddle.” + +All this meant one supreme effort to arrest the onward course of +Sherman. It indicated a resolve to stake the fate of Atlanta, and +the fortunes of the Confederacy in the West, upon the hazard of one +desperate fight. We watched the summoning up of every Rebel energy for +the blow with apprehension. We dreaded another Chickamauga. + +The blow fell on the 22d of July. It was well planned. The Army of +the Tennessee, the left of Sherman’s forces, was the part struck. +On the night of the 21st Hood marched a heavy force around its left +flank and gained its rear. On the 22d this force fell on the rear with +the impetuous violence of a cyclone, while the Rebels in the works +immediately around Atlanta attacked furiously in front. + +It was an ordeal that no other army ever passed through successfully. +The steadiest troops in Europe would think it foolhardiness to attempt +to withstand an assault in force in front and rear at the same time. +The finest legions that follow any flag to-day must almost inevitably +succumb to such a mode of attack. But the seasoned veterans of the +Army of the Tennessee encountered the shock with an obstinacy which +showed that the finest material for soldiery this planet holds was that +in which undaunted hearts beat beneath blue blouses. Springing over +the front of their breastworks, they drove back with a withering fire +the force assailing them in the rear. This beaten off, they jumped +back to their proper places, and repulsed the assault in front. This +was the way the battle was waged until night compelled a cessation of +operations. Our boys were alternately behind the breastworks firing at +Rebels advancing upon the front, and in front of the works firing upon +those coming up in the rear. Sometimes part of our line would be on one +side of the works, and part on the other. + +In the prison we were greatly excited over the result of the +engagement, of which we were uncertain for many days. A host of new +prisoners perhaps two thousand--was brought in from there, but as they +were captured during the progress of the fight, they could not speak +definitely as to its issue. The Rebel papers exulted without stint +over what they termed “a glorious victory.” They were particularly +jubilant over the death of McPherson, who, they claimed, was the brain +and guiding hand of Sherman’s army. One paper likened him to the +pilot-fish, which guides the shark to his prey. Now that he was gone, +said the paper, Sherman’s army becomes a great lumbering hulk, with no +one in it capable of directing it, and it must soon fall to utter ruin +under the skilfully delivered strokes of the gallant Hood. + +We also knew that great numbers of wounded had been brought to the +prison hospital, and this seemed to confirm the Rebel claim of a +victory, as it showed they retained possession of the battle field. + +About the 1st of August a large squad of Sherman’s men, captured in one +of the engagements subsequent to the 22d, came in. We gathered around +them eagerly. Among them I noticed a bright, curly-haired, blue-eyed +infantryman--or boy, rather, as he was yet beardless. His cap was +marked “68th O. Y. Y. L,” his sleeves were garnished with re-enlistment +stripes, and on the breast of his blouse was a silver arrow. To the +eye of the soldier this said that he was a veteran member of the +Sixty-Eighth Regiment of Ohio Infantry (that is, having already served +three years, he had re-enlisted for the war), and that he belonged +to the Third Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He was so young +and fresh looking that one could hardly believe him to be a veteran, +but if his stripes had not said this, the soldierly arrangement of +clothing and accouterments, and the graceful, self-possessed pose of +limbs and body would have told the observer that he was one of those +“Old Reliables” with whom Sherman and Grant had already subdued a third +of the Confederacy. His blanket, which, for a wonder, the Rebels had +neglected to take from him, was tightly rolled, its ends tied together, +and thrown over his shoulder scarf-fashion. His pantaloons were tucked +inside his stocking tops, that were pulled up as far as possible, +and tied tightly around his ankle with a string. A none-too-clean +haversack, containing the inevitable sooty quart cup, and even blacker +half-canteen, waft slung easily from the shoulder opposite to that on +which the blanket rested. Hand him his faithful Springfield rifle, put +three days’ rations in his haversack, and forty rounds in his cartridge +bog, and he would be ready, without an instant’s demur or question, +to march to the ends of the earth, and fight anything that crossed +his path. He was a type of the honest, honorable, self respecting +American boy, who, as a soldier, the world has not equaled in the sixty +centuries that war has been a profession. I suggested to him that he +was rather a youngster to be wearing veteran chevrons. “Yes,” said he, +“I am not so old as some of the rest of the boys, but I have seen about +as much service and been in the business about as long as any of them. +They call me ‘Old Dad,’ I suppose because I was the youngest boy in the +Regiment, when we first entered the service, though our whole Company, +officers and all, were only a lot of boys, and the Regiment to day, +what’s left of ’em, are about as young a lot of officers and men as +there are in the service. Why, our old Colonel ain’t only twenty-four +years old now, and he has been in command ever since we went into +Vicksburg. I have heard it said by our boys that since we veteranized +the whole Regiment, officers, and men, average less than twenty-four +years old. But they are gray-hounds to march and stayers in a fight, +you bet. Why, the rest of the troops over in West Tennessee used to +call our Brigade ‘Leggett’s Cavalry,’ for they always had us chasing +Old Forrest, and we kept him skedaddling, too, pretty lively. But I +tell you we did get into a red hot scrimmage on the 22d. It just laid +over Champion Hills, or any of the big fights around Vicksburg, and +they were lively enough to amuse any one.” + +“So you were in the affair on the 22d, were you! We are awful anxious +to hear all about it. Come over here to my quarters and tell us all you +know. All we know is that there has been a big fight, with McPherson +killed, and a heavy loss of life besides, and the Rebels claim a great +victory.” + +“O, they be -----. It was the sickest victory they ever got. About one +more victory of that kind would make their infernal old Confederacy +ready for a coroner’s inquest. Well, I can tell you pretty much all +about that fight, for I reckon if the truth was known, our regiment +fired about the first and last shot that opened and closed the fighting +on that day. Well, you see the whole Army got across the river, and +were closing in around the City of Atlanta. Our Corps, the Seventeenth, +was the extreme left of the army, and were moving up toward the City +from the East. The Fifteenth (Logan’s) Corps joined us on the right, +then the Army of the Cumberland further to the right. We run onto the +Rebs about sundown the 21st. They had some breastworks on a ridge in +front of us, and we had a pretty sharp fight before we drove them +off. We went right to work, and kept at it all night in changing and +strengthening the old Rebel barricades, fronting them towards Atlanta, +and by morning had some good solid works along our whole line. During +the night we fancied we could hear wagons or artillery moving away in +front of us, apparently going South, or towards our left. About three +or four o’clock in the morning, while I was shoveling dirt like a +beaver out on the works, the Lieutenant came to me and said the Colonel +wanted to see me, pointing to a large tree in the rear, where I could +find him. I reported and found him with General Leggett, who commanded +our Division, talking mighty serious, and Bob Wheeler, of F Company, +standing there with his Springfield at a parade rest. As soon as I came +up, the Colonel says: + +“Boys, the General wants two level-headed chaps to go out beyond the +pickets to the front and toward the left. I have selected you for the +duty. Go as quietly as possible and as fast as you can; keep your eyes +and ears open; don’t fire a shot if you can help it, and come back and +tell us exactly what you have seen and heard, and not what you imagine +or suspect. I have selected you for the duty.’ + +“He gave us the countersign, and off we started over the breastworks +and through the thick woods. We soon came to our skirmish or pickets, +only a few rods in front of our works, and cautioned them not to fire +on us in going or returning. We went out as much as half a mile or +more, until we could plainly hear the sound of wagons and artillery. +We then cautiously crept forward until we could see the main road +leading south from the City filled with marching men, artillery and +teams. We could hear the commands of the officers and see the flags +and banners of regiment after regiment as they passed us. We got back +quietly and quickly, passed through our picket line all right, and +found the General and our Colonel sitting on a log where we had left +them, waiting for us. We reported what we had seen and heard, and +gave it as our opinion that the Johnnies were evacuating Atlanta. The +General shook his head, and the Colonel says: ‘You may return to your +company.’ Bob says to me: + +“‘The old General shakes his head as though he thought them d---d Rebs +ain’t evacuating Atlanta so mighty sudden, but are up to some devilment +again. I ain’t sure but he’s right. They ain’t going to keep falling +back and falling back to all eternity, but are just agoin’ to give us +a rip-roaring great big fight one o’ these days--when they get a good +ready. You hear me!’ + +“Saying which we both went to our companies, and laid down to get a +little sleep. It was about daylight then, and I must have snoozed +away until near noon, when I heard the order ‘fall in!’ and found the +regiment getting into line, and the boys all tallying about going right +into Atlanta; that the Rebels had evacuated the City during the night, +and that we were going to have a race with the Fifteenth Corps as to +which would get into the City first. We could look away out across a +large field in front of our works, and see the skirmish line advancing +steadily towards the main works around the City. Not a shot was being, +fired on either side. + +“To our surprise, instead of marching to the front and toward the +City, we filed off into a small road cut through the woods and marched +rapidly to the rear. We could not understand what it meant. We marched +at quick time, feeling pretty mad that we had to go to the rear, when +the rest of our Division were going into Atlanta. + +“We passed the Sixteenth Corps lying on their arms, back in some open +fields, and the wagon trains of our Corps all comfortably corralled, +and finally found ourselves out by the Seventeenth Corps headquarters. +Two or three companies were sent out to picket several roads that +seemed to cross at that point, as it was reported ‘Rebel Cavalry’ had +been seen on these roads but a short time before, and this accounted +for our being rushed out in such a great hurry. + +“We had just stacked arms and were going to take a little rest after +our rapid march, when several Rebel prisoners were brought in by some +of the boys who had straggled a little. They found the Rebels on the +road we had just marched out on. Up to this time not a shot had been +fired. All was quiet back at the main works we had just left, when +suddenly we saw several staff officers come tearing up to the Colonel, +who ordered us to ‘fall in!’ ‘Take aims!’ ‘about, face!’ The Lieutenant +Colonel dashed down one of the roads where one of the companies had +gone out on picket. The Major and Adjutant galloped down the others. We +did not wait for them to come back, though, but moved right back on the +road we had just come out, in line of battle, our colors in the road, +and our flanks in open timber. We soon reached a fence enclosing a +large field, and there could see a line of Rebels moving by the flank, +and forming, facing toward Atlanta, but to the left and in the rear of +the position occupied by our Corps. As soon as we reached the fence we +fired a round or two into the backs of these gray coats, who broke into +confusion. + +“Just then the other companies joined us, and we moved off on ‘double +quick by the right flank,’ for you see we were completely cut off from +the troops up at the front, and we had to get well over to the right +to get around the flank of the Rebels. Just about the time we fired on +the rebels the Sixteenth Corps opened up a hot fire of musketry and +artillery on them, some of their shot coming over mighty close to where +we were. We marched pretty fast, and finally turned in through some +open fields to the left, and came out just in the rear of the Sixteenth +Corps, who were fighting like devils along their whole line. + +“Just as we came out into the open field we saw General R. K. Scott, +who used to be our Colonel, and who commanded our brigade, come +tearing toward us with one or two aids or orderlies. He was on his +big clay-bank horse, ‘Old Hatchie,’ as we called him, as we captured +him on the battlefield at the battle of ‘Matamora,’ or ‘Hell on the +Hatchie,’ as our boys always called it. He rode up to the Colonel, said +something hastily, when all at once we heard the all-firedest crash of +musketry and artillery way up at the front where we had built the works +the night before and left the rest of our brigade and Division getting +ready to prance into Atlanta when we were sent off to the rear. Scott +put spurs to his old horse, who was one of the fastest runners in our +Division, and away he went back towards the position where his brigade +and the troops immediately to their left were now hotly engaged. He +rode right along in rear of the Sixteenth Corps, paying no attention +apparently to the shot and shell and bullets that were tearing up +the earth and exploding and striking all around him. His aids and +orderlies vainly tried to keep up with him. We could plainly see the +Rebel lines as they came out of the woods into the open grounds to +attack the Sixteenth Corps, which had hastily formed in the open field, +without any signs of works, and were standing up like men, having a +hand-to-hand fight. We were just far enough in the rear so that every +blasted shot or shell that was fired too high to hit the ranks of the +Sixteenth Corps came rattling over amongst us. All this time we were +marching fast, following in the direction General Scott had taken, who +evidently had ordered the Colonel to join his brigade up at the front. +We were down under the crest of a little hill, following along the bank +of a little creek, keeping under cover of the bank as much as possible +to protect us from the shots of the enemy. We suddenly saw General +Logan and one or two of his staff upon the right bank of the ravine +riding rapidly toward us. As he neared the head of the regiment he +shouted: + +“‘Halt! What regiment is that, and where are you going?’” The Colonel, +in a loud voice, that all could hear, told him: “The Sixty-Eighth Ohio; +going to join our brigade of the Third Division--your old Division, +General, of the Seventeenth Corps.” + +“Logan says, ‘you had better go right in here on the left of Dodge. The +Third Division have hardly ground enough left now to bury their dead. +God knows they need you. But try it on, if you think you can get to +them.’ + +“Just at this moment a staff officer came riding up on the opposite +side of the ravine from where Logan was and interrupted Logan, who was +about telling the Colonel not to try to go to the position held by the +Third Division by the road cut through the woods whence we had come +out, but to keep off to the right towards the Fifteenth Corps, as the +woods referred to were full of Rebels. The officer saluted Logan, and +shouted across: + +“General Sherman directs me to inform you of the death of General +McPherson, and orders you to take command of the Army of the Tennessee; +have Dodge close well up to the Seventeenth Corps, and Sherman will +reinforce you to the extent of the whole army.’ + +“Logan, standing in his stirrups, on his beautiful black horse, formed +a picture against the blue sky as we looked up the ravine at him, his +black eyes fairly blazing and his long black hair waving in the wind. +He replied in a ringing, clear tone that we all could hear: + +“Say to General Sherman I have heard of McPherson’s death, and have +assumed the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and have already +anticipated his orders in regard to closing the gap between Dodge and +the Seventeenth Corps.’ + +“This, of course, all happened in one quarter of the time I have been +telling you. Logan put spurs to his horse and rode in one direction, +the staff officer of General Sherman in another, and we started on +a rapid step toward the front. This was the first we had heard of +McPherson’s death, and it made us feel very bad. Some of the officers +and men cried as though they had lost a brother; others pressed their +lips, gritted their teeth, and swore to avenge his death. He was a +great favorite with all his Army, particularly of our Corps, which he +commanded for a long while. Our company, especially, knew him well, +and loved him dearly, for we had been his Headquarters Guard for over +a year. As we marched along, toward the front, we could see brigades, +and regiments, and batteries of artillery; coming over from the right +of the Army, and taking position in new lines in rear of the Sixteenth +and Seventeenth Corps. Major Generals and their staffs, Brigadier +Generals and their staffs, were mighty thick along the banks of the +little ravine we were following; stragglers and wounded men by the +hundred were pouring in to the safe shelter formed by the broken ground +along which we were rapidly marching; stories were heard of divisions, +brigades and regiments that these wounded or stragglers belonged, +having been all cut to pieces; officers all killed; and the speaker, +the only one of his command not killed, wounded or captured. But you +boys have heard and seen the same cowardly sneaks, probably, in fights +that you were in. The battle raged furiously all this time; part of the +time the Sixteenth Corps seemed to be in the worst; then it would let +up on them and the Seventeenth Corps would be hotly engaged along their +whole front. + +“We had probably marched half an hour since leaving Logan, and were +getting pretty near back to our main line of works, when the Colonel +ordered a halt and knapsacks to be unslung and piled up. I tell you it +was a relief to get them off, for it was a fearful hot day, and we had +been marching almost double quick. We knew that this meant business +though, and that we were stripping for the fight, which we would soon +be in. Just at this moment we saw an ambulance, with the horses on a +dead run, followed by two or three mounted officers and men, coming +right towards us out of the very woods Logan had cautioned the Colonel +to avoid. When the ambulance got to where we were it halted. It was +pretty well out of danger from the bullets and shell of the enemy. +They stopped, and we recognized Major Strong, of McPherson’s Staff, +whom the all knew, as he was the Chief Inspector of our Corps, and +in the ambulance he had the body of General McPherson. Major Strong, +it appears, during a slight lull in the fighting at that part of the +line, having taken an ambulance and driven into the very jaws of death +to recover the remains of his loved commander. It seems he found the +body right by the side of the little road that we had gone out on when +we went to the rear. He was dead when he found him, having been shot +off his horse, the bullet striking him in the back, just below his +heart, probably killing him instantly. There was a young fellow with +him who was wounded also, when Strong found them. He belonged to our +First Division, and recognized General McPherson, and stood by him +until Major Strong came up. He was in the ambulance with the body of +McPherson when they stopped by us. + +“It seems that when the fight opened away back in the rear where we +had been, and at the left of the Sixteenth Corps which was almost +directly in the rear of the Seventeenth Corps, McPherson sent his +staff and orderlies with various orders to different parts of the +line, and started himself to ride over from the Seventeenth Corps to +the Sixteenth Corps, taking exactly the same course our Regiment had, +perhaps an hour before, but the Rebels had discovered there was a gap +between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps, and meeting no opposition +to their advances in this strip of woods, where they were hidden from +view, they had marched right along down in the rear, and with their +line at right angles with the line of works occupied by the left of +the Seventeenth Corps; they were thus parallel and close to the little +road McPherson had taken, and probably he rode right into them and was +killed before he realized the true situation. + +“Having piled our knapsacks, and left a couple of our older men, who +were played out with the heat and most ready to drop with sunstroke, to +guard them, we started on again. The ambulance with the corpse of Gen. +McPherson moved off towards the right of the Army, which was the last +we ever saw of that brave and handsome soldier. + +“We bore off a little to the right of a large open field on top of a +high hill where one of our batteries was pounding away at a tremendous +rate. We came up to the main line of works just about at the left of +the Fifteenth Corps. They seemed to be having an easy time of it just +then --no fighting going on in their front, except occasional shots +from some heavy guns on the main line of Rebel works around the City. +We crossed right over the Fifteenth Corps’ works and filed to the left, +keeping along on the outside of our works. We had not gone far before +the Rebel gunners in the main works around the City discovered us; and +the way they did tear loose at us was a caution. Their aim was rather +bad, however, and most of their shots went over us. We saw one of +them--I think it was a shell--strike an artillery caisson belonging to +one of our-batteries. It exploded as it struck, and then the caisson, +which was full of ammunition, exploded with an awful noise, throwing +pieces of wood and iron and its own load of shot and shell high into +the air, scattering death and destruction to the men and horses +attached to it. We thought we saw arms and legs and parts of bodies of +men flying in every direction; but we were glad to learn afterwards +that it was the contents of the knapsacks of the Battery boys, who had +strapped them on the caissons for transportation. + +“Just after passing the hill where our battery was making things so +lively, they stopped firing to let us pass. We saw General Leggett, +our Division Commander, come riding toward us. He was outside of our +line of works, too. You know how we build breastworks--sort of zigzag +like, you know, so they cannot be enfiladed. Well, that’s just the way +the works were along there, and you never saw such a curious shape +as we formed our Division in. Why, part of them were on one side of +the works, and go along a little further and here was a regiment, or +part of a regiment on the other side, both sets firing in opposite +directions. + +“No sir’ee, they were not demoralized or in confusion, they were cool +and as steady as on parade. But the old Division had, you know, never +been driven from any position they had once taken, in all their long +service, and they did not propose to leave that ridge until they got +orders from some one beside the Rebs. + +“There were times when a fellow did not know which side of the works +was the safest, for the Johnnies were in front of us and in rear of us. +You see, our Fourth Division, which had been to the left of us, had +been forced to quit their works, when the Rebs got into the works in +their rear, so that our Division was now at the point where our line +turned sharply to the left, and rear--in the direction of the Sixteenth +Corps. + +“We got into business before we had been there over three minutes. A +line of the Rebs tried to charge across the open fields in front of +us, but by the help of the old twenty-four pounders (which proved to +be part of Cooper’s Illinois Battery, that we had been alongside of in +many a hard fight before), we drove them back a-flying, only to have to +jump over on the outside of our works the next minute to tackle a heavy +force that came for our rear through that blasted strip of woods. We +soon drove them off, and the firing on both sides seemed to have pretty +much stopped. + +“‘Our Brigade,’ which we discovered, was now commanded by ‘Old +Whiskers’ (Colonel Piles, of the Seventy-Eighth Ohio. I’ll bet he’s +got the longest whiskers of any man in the Army.) You see General +Scott had not been seen or heard of since he had started to the rear +after our regiment when the fighting first commenced. We all believed +that he was either killed or captured, or he would have been with his +command. He was a splendid soldier, and a bull-dog of a fighter. His +absence was a great loss, but we had not much time to think of such +things, for our brigade was then ordered to leave the works and to move +to the right about twenty or thirty rods across a large ravine, where +we were placed in position in an open corn-field, forming a new line +at quite an angle from the line of works we had just left, extending +to the left, and getting us back nearer onto a line with the Sixteenth +Corps. The battery of howitzers, now reinforced by a part of the Third +Ohio heavy guns, still occupied the old works on the highest part of +the hill, just to the right of our new line. We took our position just +on the brow of a hill, and were ordered to lie down, and the rear rank +to go for rails, which we discovered a few rods behind us in the shape +of a good ten-rail fence. Every rear-rank chap came back with all the +rails he could lug, and we barely had time to lay them down in front +of us, forming a little barricade of six to eight or ten inches high, +when we heard the most unearthly Rebel yell directly in front of us. +It grew louder and came nearer and nearer, until we could see a solid +line of the gray coats coming out of the woods and down the opposite +slope, their battle flags flying, officers in front with drawn swords, +arms at right shoulder, and every one of them yelling like so many +Sioux Indians. The line seemed to be massed six or eight ranks deep, +followed closely by the second line, and that by the third, each, if +possible, yelling louder and appearing more desperately reckless than +the one ahead. At their first appearance we opened on them, and so did +the bully old twenty-four-pounders, with canister. + +“On they came; the first line staggered and wavered back on to the +second, which was coming on the double quick. Such a raking as we did +give them. Oh, Lordy, how we did wish that we had the breech loading +Spencers or Winchesters. But we had the old reliable Springfields, +and we poured it in hot and heavy. By the time the charging column +got down the opposite slope, and were struggling through the thicket +of undergrowth in the ravine, they were one confused mass of officers +and men, the three lines now forming one solid column, which made +several desperate efforts to rush up to the top of the hill where we +were punishing them so. One of their first surges came mighty near +going right over the left of our Regiment, as they were lying down +behind their little rail piles. But the boys clubbed their guns and the +officers used their revolvers and swords and drove them back down the +hill. + +“The Seventy-Eighth and Twentieth Ohio, our right and left bowers, who +had been brigaded with us ever since ‘Shiloh,’ were into it as hot and +heavy as we had been, and had lost numbers of their officers and men, +but were hanging on to their little rail piles when the fight was over. +At one time the Rebs were right in on top of the Seventy-Eighth. One +big Reb grabbed their colors, and tried to pull them out of the hands +of the color-bearer. But old Captain Orr, a little, short, dried-up +fellow, about sixty years old, struck him with his sword across the +back of the neck, and killed him deader than a mackerel, right in his +tracks. + +“It was now getting dark, and the Johnnies concluded they had taken a +bigger contract in trying to drive us off that hill in one day than +they had counted on, so they quit charging on us, but drew back under +cover of the woods and along the old line of works that we had left, +and kept up a pecking away and sharp-shooting at us all night long. +They opened fire on us from a number of pieces of artillery from the +front, from the left, and from some heavy guns away over to the right +of us, in the main works around Atlanta. + +“We did not fool away much time that night, either. We got our shovels +and picks, and while part of us were sharpshooting and trying to keep +the Rebels from working up too close to us, the rest of the boys were +putting up some good solid earthworks right where our rail piles had +been, and by morning we were in splendid shape to have received our +friends, no matter which way they had come at us, for they kept up such +an all-fired shelling of us from so many different directions; that the +boys had built traverses and bomb-proofs at all sorts of angles and in +all directions. + +“There was one point off to our right, a few rods up along our old line +of works where there was a crowd of Rebel sharpshooters that annoyed +us more than all the rest, by their constant firing at us through the +night. They killed one of Company H’s boys, and wounded several others. +Finally Captain Williams, of D Company, came along and said he wanted +a couple of good shots out of our company to go with him, so I went +for one. He took about ten of us, and we crawled down into the ravine +in front of where we were building the works, and got behind a large +fallen tree, and we laid there and could just fire right up into the +rear of those fellows as they lay behind a traverse extending back +from our old line of works. It was so dark we could only see where to +fire by the flash of guns, but every time they would shoot, some of us +would let them have one. They staid there until almost daylight, when +they, concluded as things looked, since we were going to stay, they had +better be going. + +“It was an awful night. Down in the ravine below us lay hundreds of +killed and wounded Rebels, groaning and crying aloud for water and for +help. We did do what we could for those right around us--but it was +so dark, and so many shell bursting and bullets flying around that a +fellow could not get about much. I tell you it was pretty tough next +morning to go along to the different companies of our regiment and +hear who were among the killed and wounded, and to see the long row +of graves that were being dug to bury our comrades and our officers. +There was the Captain of Company E, Nelson Skeeles, of Fulton County, +O., one of--the bravest and best officers in the regiment. By his +side lay First Sergeant Lesnit, and next were the two great, powerful +Shepherds--cousins but more like brothers. One, it seems, was killed +while supporting the head of the other, who had just received a death +wound, thus dying in each other’s arms. + +“But I can’t begin to think or tell you the names of all the poor boys +that we laid away to rest in their last, long sleep on that gloomy day. +Our Major was severely wounded, and several other officers had been hit +more or less badly. + +“It was a frightful sight, though, to go over the field in front of +our works on that morning. The Rebel dead and badly wounded laid where +they had fallen. The bottom and opposite side of the ravine showed +how destructive our fire and that of the canister from the howitzers +had been. The underbrush was cut, slashed, and torn into shreds, and +the larger trees were scarred, bruised and broken by the thousands of +bullets and other missiles that had been poured into them from almost +every conceivable direction during the day before. + +“A lot of us boys went way over to the left into Fuller’s Division of +the Sixteenth Corps, to see how some of our boys over there had got +through the scrimmage, for they had about as nasty a fight as any part +of the Army, and if it had not been for their being just where they +were, I am not sure but what the old Seventeenth Corps would have had +a different story to tell now. We found our friends had been way out +by Decatur, where their brigade had got into a pretty lively fight on +their own hook. + +“We got back to camp, and the first thing I knew I was detailed for +picket duty, and we were posted over a few rods across the ravine in +our front. We had not been out but a short time when we saw a flag +of truce, borne by an officer, coming towards us. We halted him, and +made him wait until a report was sent back to Corps headquarters. The +Rebel officer was quite chatty and talkative with our picket officer, +while waiting. He said he was on General Cleburne’s staff, and that the +troops that charged us so fiercely the evening before was Cleburne’s +whole Division, and that after their last repulse, knowing the hill +where we were posted was the most important position along our line, +he felt that if they would keep close to us during the night, and keep +up a show of fight, that we would pull out and abandon the hill before +morning. He said that he, with about fifty of their best men, had +volunteered to keep up the demonstration, and it was his party that had +occupied the traverse in our old works the night before and had annoyed +us and the Battery men by their constant sharpshooting, which we +fellows behind the old tree had finally tired out. He said they staid +until almost daylight, and that he lost more than half his men before +he left. He also told us that General Scott was captured by their +Division, at about the time and almost the same spot as where General +McPherson was killed, and that he was not hurt or wounded, and was now +a prisoner in their hands. + +“Quite a lot of our staff officers soon came out, and as near as we +could learn the Rebels wanted a truce to bury their dead. Our folks +tried to get up an exchange of prisoners that had been taken by both +sides the day before, but for some reason they could not bring it +about. But the truce for burying the dead was agreed to. Along about +dusk some of the boys on my post got to telling about a lot of silver +and brass instruments that belonged to one of the bands of the Fourth +Division, which had been hung up in some small trees a little way over +in front of where we were when the fight was going on the day before, +and that when, a bullet would strike one of the horns they could hear +it go ‘pin-g’ and in a few minutes ‘pan-g’ would go another bullet +through one of them. + +“A new picket was just coming’ on, and I had picked up my blanket and +haversack, and was about ready to start back to camp, when, thinks I, +‘I’ll just go out there and see about them horns.’ I told the boys what +I was going to do. They all seemed to think it was safe enough, so out +I started. I had not gone more than a hundred yards, I should think, +when here I found the horns all hanging around on the trees just as the +boys had described. Some of them had lots of bullet holes in them. But +I saw a beautiful, nice looking silver bugle hanging off to one side a +little. ‘I Thinks,’ says I, ‘I’ll just take that little toot horn in +out of the wet, and take it back to camp.’ I was just reaching up after +it when I heard some one say, + +“‘Halt!’ and I’ll be dog-Boned if there wasn’t two of the meanest +looking Rebels, standing not ten feet from me, with their guns cocked +and pointed at me, and, of course, I knew I was a goner; they walked me +back about one hundred and fifty yards, where their picket line was. +From there I was kept going for an hour or two until we got over to +a place on the railroad called East Point. There I got in with a big +crowd of our prisoners, who were taken the day before, and we have been +fooling along in a lot of old cattle cars getting down here ever since. + +“So this is ‘Andersonville,’ is it! Well, by ----!” + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +CLOTHING: ITS RAPID DETERIORATION, AND DEVICES TO REPLENISH +IT--DESPERATE EFFORTS TO COVER NAKEDNESS--“LITTLE RED CAP” AND HIS +LETTER. + +Clothing had now become an object of real solicitude to us older +prisoners. The veterans of our crowd--the surviving remnant of those +captured at Gettysburg--had been prisoners over a year. The next in +seniority--the Chickamauga boys--had been in ten months. The Mine Run +fellows were eight months old, and my battalion had had seven months’ +incarceration. None of us were models of well-dressed gentlemen when +captured. Our garments told the whole story of the hard campaigning we +had undergone. Now, with months of the wear and tear of prison life, +sleeping on the sand, working in tunnels, digging wells, etc., we were +tattered and torn to an extent that a second-class tramp would have +considered disgraceful. + +This is no reflection upon the quality of the clothes furnished by +the Government. We simply reached the limit of the wear of textile +fabrics. I am particular to say this, because I want to contribute my +little mite towards doing justice to a badly abused part of our Army +organization --the Quartermaster’s Department. It is fashionable to +speak of “shoddy,” and utter some stereotyped sneers about “brown paper +shoes,” and “musketo-netting overcoats,” when any discussion of the +Quartermaster service is the subject of conversation, but I have no +hesitation in asking the indorsement of my comrades to the statement +that we have never found anywhere else as durable garments as those +furnished us by the Government during our service in the Army. The +clothes were not as fine in texture, nor so stylish in cut as those we +wore before or since, but when it came to wear they could be relied on +to the last thread. It was always marvelous to me that they lasted so +well, with the rough usage a soldier in the field must necessarily give +them. + +But to return to my subject. I can best illustrate the way our +clothes dropped off us, piece by piece, like the petals from the last +rose of Summer, by taking my own case as an example: When I entered +prison I was clad in the ordinary garb of an enlisted man of the +cavalry--stout, comfortable boots, woolen pocks, drawers, pantaloons, +with a “reenforcement,” or “ready-made patches,” as the infantry +called them; vest, warm, snug-fitting jacket, under and over shirts, +heavy overcoat, and a forage-cap. First my boots fell into cureless +ruin, but this was no special hardship, as the weather had become +quite warm, and it was more pleasant than otherwise to go barefooted. +Then part of the underclothing retired from service. The jacket and +vest followed, their end being hastened by having their best portions +taken to patch up the pantaloons, which kept giving out at the most +embarrassing places. Then the cape of the overcoat was called upon to +assist in repairing these continually-recurring breaches in the nether +garments. The same insatiate demand finally consumed the whole coat, in +a vain attempt to prevent an exposure of person greater than consistent +with the usages of society. The pantaloons--or what, by courtesy, I +called such, were a monument of careful and ingenious, but hopeless, +patching, that should have called forth the admiration of a Florentine +artist in mosaic. I have been shown--in later years--many table tops, +ornamented in marquetry, inlaid with thousands of little bits of wood, +cunningly arranged, and patiently joined together. I always look at +them with interest, for I know the work spent upon them: I remember my +Andersonville pantaloons. + +The clothing upon the upper part of my body had been reduced to the +remains of a knit undershirt. It had fallen into so many holes that it +looked like the coarse “riddles” through which ashes and gravel are +sifted. Wherever these holes were the sun had burned my back, breast +and shoulders deeply black. The parts covered by the threads and +fragments forming the boundaries of the holes, were still white. When +I pulled my alleged shirt off, to wash or to free it from some of its +teeming population, my skin showed a fine lace pattern in black and +white, that was very interesting to my comrades, and the subject of +countless jokes by them. + +They used to descant loudly on the chaste elegance of the design, the +richness of the tracing, etc., and beg me to furnish them with a copy +of it when I got home, for their sisters to work window curtains or +tidies by. They were sure that so striking a novelty in patterns would +be very acceptable. I would reply to their witticisms in the language +of Portia’s Prince of Morocco: + +Mislike me not for my complexion-- The shadowed livery of the burning +sun. + +One of the stories told me in my childhood by an old negro nurse, was +of a poverty stricken little girl “who slept on the floor and was +covered with the door,” and she once asked-- + +“Mamma how do poor folks get along who haven’t any door?” + +In the same spirit I used to wonder how poor fellows got along who +hadn’t any shirt. + +One common way of keeping up one’s clothing was by stealing mealsacks. +The meal furnished as rations was brought in in white cotton sacks. +Sergeants of detachments were required to return these when the +rations were issued the next day. I have before alluded to the general +incapacity of the Rebels to deal accurately with even simple numbers. +It was never very difficult for a shrewd Sergeant to make nine sacks +count as ten. After awhile the Rebels began to see through this sleight +of hand manipulation, and to check it. Then the Sergeants resorted to +the device of tearing the sacks in two, and turning each half in as a +whole one. The cotton cloth gained in this way was used for patching, +or, if a boy could succeed in beating the Rebels out of enough of +it, he would fabricate himself a shirt or a pair of pantaloons. We +obtained all our thread in the same way. A half of a sack, carefully +raveled out, would furnish a couple of handfuls of thread. Had it not +been for this resource all our sewing and mending would have come to a +standstill. + +Most of our needles were manufactured by ourselves from bones. A piece +of bone, split as near as possible to the required size, was carefully +rubbed down upon a brick, and then had an eye laboriously worked +through it with a bit of wire or something else available for the +purpose. The needles were about the size of ordinary darning needles, +and answered the purpose very well. + +These devices gave one some conception of the way savages provide for +the wants of their lives. Time was with them, as with us, of little +importance. It was no loss of time to them, nor to us, to spend a large +portion of the waking hours of a week in fabricating a needle out of a +bone, where a civilized man could purchase a much better one with the +product of three minutes’ labor. I do not think any red Indian of the +plains exceeded us in the patience with which we worked away at these +minutia of life’s needs. + +Of course the most common source of clothing was the dead, and no body +was carried out with any clothing on it that could be of service to the +survivors. The Plymouth Pilgrims, who were so well clothed on coming +in, and were now dying off very rapidly, furnished many good suits to +cover the nakedness of older, prisoners. Most of the prisoners from the +Army of the Potomac were well dressed, and as very many died within a +month or six weeks after their entrance, they left their clothes in +pretty good condition for those who constituted themselves their heirs, +administrators and assigns. + +For my own part, I had the greatest aversion to wearing dead men’s +clothes, and could only bring myself to it after I had been a year in +prison, and it became a question between doing that and freezing to +death. + +Every new batch of prisoners was besieged with anxious inquiries on the +subject which lay closest to all our hearts: + +“What are they doing about exchange!” + +Nothing in human experience--save the anxious expectancy of a sail by +castaways on a desert island--could equal the intense eagerness with +which this question was asked, and the answer awaited. To thousands now +hanging on the verge of eternity it meant life or death. Between the +first day of July and the first of November over twelve thousand men +died, who would doubtless have lived had they been able to reach our +lines--“get to God’s country,” as we expressed it. + +The new comers brought little reliable news of contemplated exchange. +There was none to bring in the first place, and in the next, soldiers +in active service in the field had other things to busy themselves +with than reading up the details of the negotiations between the +Commissioners of Exchange. They had all heard rumors, however, and by +the time they reached Andersonville, they had crystallized these into +actual statements of fact. A half hour after they entered the Stockade, +a report like this would spread like wildfire: + +“An Army of the Potomac man has just come in, who was captured in front +of Petersburg. He says that he read in the New York Herald, the day +before he was taken, that an exchange had been agreed upon, and that +our ships had already started for Savannah to take us home.” + +Then our hopes would soar up like balloons. We fed ourselves on such +stuff from day to day, and doubtless many lives were greatly prolonged +by the continual encouragement. There was hardly a day when I did not +say to myself that I would much rather die than endure imprisonment +another month, and had I believed that another month would see me +still there, I am pretty certain that I should have ended the matter +by crossing the Dead Line. I was firmly resolved not to die the +disgusting, agonizing death that so many around me were dying. + +One of our best purveyors of information was a bright, blue-eyed, +fair-haired little drummer boy, as handsome as a girl, well-bred as +a lady, and evidently the darling of some refined loving mother. He +belonged, I think, to some loyal Virginia regiment, was captured in +one of the actions in the Shenandoa Valley, and had been with us +in Richmond. We called him “Red Cap,” from his wearing a jaunty, +gold-laced, crimson cap. Ordinarily, the smaller a drummer boy is +the harder he is, but no amount of attrition with rough men could +coarse the ingrained refinement of Red Cap’s manners. He was between +thirteen and fourteen, and it seemed utterly shameful that men, calling +themselves soldier should make war on such a tender boy and drag him +off to prison. + +But no six-footer had a more soldierly heart than little Red Cap, and +none were more loyal to the cause. It was a pleasure to hear him tell +the story of the fights and movements his regiment had been engaged +in. He was a good observer and told his tale with boyish fervor. +Shortly after Wirz assumed command he took Red Cap into his office as +an Orderly. His bright face and winning manner; fascinated the women +visitors at headquarters, and numbers of them tried to adopt him, +but with poor success. Like the rest of us, he could see few charms +in an existence under the Rebel flag, and turned a deaf ear to their +blandishments. He kept his ears open to the conversation of the Rebel +officers around him, and frequently secured permission to visit the +interior of the Stockade, when he would communicate to us all that he +has heard. He received a flattering reception every time he cams in, +and no orator ever secured a more attentive audience than would gather +around him to listen to what he had to say. He was, beyond a doubt, the +best known and most popular person in the prison, and I know all the +survivors of his old admirer; share my great interest in him, and my +curiosity as to whether he yet lives, and whether his subsequent career +has justified the sanguine hopes we all had as to his future. I hope +that if he sees this, or any one who knows anything about him, he will +communicate with me. There are thousands who will be glad to hear from +him. + +A most remarkable coincidence occurred in regard to this comrade. +Several days after the above had been written, and “set up,” but before +it had yet appeared in the paper, I received the following letter: + + ECKHART MINES, + Alleghany County, Md., March 24. + +To the Editor of the BLADE: + +Last evening I saw a copy of your paper, in which was a chapter or +two of a prison life of a soldier during the late war. I was forcibly +struck with the correctness of what he wrote, and the names of several +of my old comrades which he quoted: Hill, Limber Jim, etc., etc. I +was a drummer boy of Company I, Tenth West Virginia Infantry, and was +fifteen years of age a day or two after arriving in Andersonville, +which was in the last of February, 1884. Nineteen of my comrades were +there with me, and, poor fellows, they are there yet. I have no doubt +that I would have remained there, too, had I not been more fortunate. + +I do not know who your soldier correspondent is, but assume to say +that from the following description he will remember having seen me +in Andersonville: I was the little boy that for three or four months +officiated as orderly for Captain Wirz. I wore a red cap, and every +day could be seen riding Wirz’s gray mare, either at headquarters, +or about the Stockade. I was acting in this capacity when the six +raiders --“Mosby,” (proper name Collins) Delaney, Curtis, and--I forget +the other names--were executed. I believe that I was the first that +conveyed the intelligence to them that Confederate General Winder had +approved their sentence. As soon as Wirz received the dispatch to that +effect, I ran down to the stocks and told them. + +I visited Hill, of Wauseon, Fulton County, O., since the war, and found +him hale and hearty. I have not heard from him for a number of years +until reading your correspondent’s letter last evening. It is the only +letter of the series that I have seen, but after reading that one, I +feel called upon to certify that I have no doubts of the truthfulness +of your correspondent’s story. The world will never know or believe the +horrors of Andersonville and other prisons in the South. No living, +human being, in my judgment, will ever be able to properly paint the +horrors of those infernal dens. + +I formed the acquaintance of several Ohio soldiers whilst in +prison. Among these were O. D. Streeter, of Cleveland, who went to +Andersonville about the same time that I did, and escaped, and was the +only man that I ever knew that escaped and reached our lines. After an +absence of several months he was retaken in one of Sherman’s battles +before Atlanta, and brought back. I also knew John L. Richards, of +Fostoria, Seneca County, O. or Eaglesville, Wood County. Also, a man +by the name of Beverly, who was a partner of Charley Aucklebv, of +Tennessee. I would like to hear from all of these parties. They all +know me. + +Mr. Editor, I will close by wishing all my comrades who shared in the +sufferings and dangers of Confederate prisons, a long and useful life. + + Yours truly, + RANSOM T. POWELL + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +SOME FEATURES OF THE MORTALITY--PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS TO THOSE LIVING +--AN AVERAGE MEAN ONLY STANDS THE MISERY THREE MONTHS--DESCRIPTION +OF THE PRISON AND THE CONDITION OF THE MEN THEREIN, BY A LEADING +SCIENTIFIC MAN OF THE SOUTH. + +Speaking of the manner in which the Plymouth Pilgrims were now dying, +I am reminded of my theory that the ordinary man’s endurance of this +prison life did not average over three months. The Plymouth boys +arrived in May; the bulk of those who died passed away in July and +August. The great increase of prisoners from all sources was in May, +June and July. The greatest mortality among these was in August, +September and October. + +Many came in who had been in good health during their service in the +field, but who seemed utterly overwhelmed by the appalling misery they +saw on every hand, and giving way to despondency, died in a few days +or weeks. I do not mean to include them in the above class, as their +sickness was more mental than physical. My idea is that, taking one +hundred ordinarily healthful young soldiers from a regiment in active +service, and putting them into Andersonville, by the end of the third +month at least thirty-three of those weakest and most vulnerable to +disease would have succumbed to the exposure, the pollution of ground +and air, and the insufficiency of the ration of coarse corn meal. After +this the mortality would be somewhat less, say at the end of six months +fifty of them would be dead. The remainder would hang on still more +tenaciously, and at the end of a year there would be fifteen or twenty +still alive. There were sixty-three of my company taken; thirteen +lived through. I believe this was about the usual proportion for those +who were in as long as we. In all there were forty-five thousand six +hundred and thirteen prisoners brought into Andersonville. Of these +twelve thousand nine hundred and twelve died there, to say nothing of +thousands that died in other prisons in Georgia and the Carolinas, +immediately after their removal from Andersonville. One of every +three and a-half men upon whom the gates of the Stockade closed never +repassed them alive. Twenty-nine per cent. of the boys who so much as +set foot in Andersonville died there. Let it be kept in mind all the +time, that the average stay of a prisoner there was not four months. +The great majority came in after the 1st of May, and left before the +middle of September. May 1, 1864, there were ten thousand four hundred +and twenty-seven in the Stockade. August 8 there were thirty-three +thousand one hundred and fourteen; September 30 all these were dead +or gone, except eight thousand two hundred and eighteen, of whom four +thousand five hundred and ninety died inside of the next thirty days. +The records of the world can shove no parallel to this astounding +mortality. + +Since the above matter was first published in the BLADE, a friend has +sent me a transcript of the evidence at the Wirz trial, of Professor +Joseph Jones, a Surgeon of high rank in the Rebel Army, and who +stood at the head of the medical profession in Georgia. He visited +Andersonville at the instance of the Surgeon-General of the Confederate +States’ Army, to make a study, for the benefit of science, of the +phenomena of disease occurring there. His capacity and opportunities +for observation, and for clearly estimating the value of the facts +coming under his notice were, of course, vastly superior to mine, +and as he states the case stronger than I dare to, for fear of being +accused of exaggeration and downright untruth, I reproduce the major +part of his testimony--embodying also his official report to medical +headquarters at Richmond--that my readers may know how the prison +appeared to the eyes of one who, though a bitter Rebel, was still a +humane man and a conscientious observer, striving to learn the truth: + + MEDICAL TESTIMONY. + +[Transcript from the printed testimony at the Wirz Trial, pages 618 to +639, inclusive.] + + OCTOBER 7, 1885. + +Dr. Joseph Jones, for the prosecution: + +By the Judge Advocate: + +Question. Where do you reside + +Answer. In Augusta, Georgia. + +Q. Are you a graduate of any medical college? + +A. Of the University of Pennsylvania. + +Q. How long have you been engaged in the practice of medicine? + +A. Eight years. + +Q. Has your experience been as a practitioner, or rather as an +investigator of medicine as a science? + +A. Both. + +Q. What position do you hold now? + +A. That of Medical Chemist in the Medical College of Georgia, at +Augusta. + +Q. How long have you held your position in that college? + +A. Since 1858. + +Q. How were you employed during the Rebellion? + +A. I served six months in the early part of it as a private in the +ranks, and the rest of the time in the medical department. + +Q. Under the direction of whom? + +A. Under the direction of Dr. Moore, Surgeon General. + +Q. Did you, while acting under his direction, visit Andersonville, +professionally? + +A. Yes, Sir. + +Q. For the purpose of making investigations there? + +A. For the purpose of prosecuting investigations ordered by the Surgeon +General. + +Q. You went there in obedience to a letter of instructions? + +A. In obedience to orders which I received. + +Q. Did you reduce the results of your investigations to the shape of a +report? + +A. I was engaged at that work when General Johnston surrendered his +army. + +(A document being handed to witness.) + +Q. Have you examined this extract from your report and compared it with +the original? + +A. Yes, Sir; I have. + +Q. Is it accurate? + +A. So far as my examination extended, it is accurate.’ + +The document just examined by witness was offered in evidence, and is as +follows: + +Observations upon the diseases of the Federal prisoners, confined to +Camp Sumter, Andersonville, in Sumter County, Georgia, instituted +with a view to illustrate chiefly the origin and causes of hospital +gangrene, the relations of continued and malarial fevers, and the +pathology of camp diarrhea and dysentery, by Joseph Jones; Surgeon P. +A. C. S., Professor of Medical Chemistry in the Medical College of +Georgia, at Augusta, Georgia. + + +Hearing of the unusual mortality among the Federal prisoners confined +at Andersonville; Georgia, in the month of August, 1864, during a visit +to Richmond, Va., I expressed to the Surgeon General, S. P. Moore, +Confederate States of America, a desire to visit Camp Sumter, with +the design of instituting a series of inquiries upon the nature and +causes of the prevailing diseases. Smallpox had appeared among the +prisoners, and I believed that this would prove an admirable field +for the establishment of its characteristic lesions. The condition +of Peyer’s glands in this disease was considered as worthy of minute +investigation. It was believed that a large body of men from the +Northern portion of the United States, suddenly transported to a warm +Southern climate, and confined upon a small portion of land, would +furnish an excellent field for the investigation of the relations of +typhus, typhoid, and malarial fevers. + +The Surgeon General of the Confederate States of America furnished me +with the following letter of introduction to the Surgeon in charge of +the Confederate States Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga.: + + CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, + SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE, RICHMOND, VA., + August 6, 1864. + +SIR:--The field of pathological investigations afforded by the large +collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia, is of great extant and +importance, and it is believed that results of value to the profession +may be obtained by careful investigation of the effects of disease upon +the large body of men subjected to a decided change of climate and +those circumstances peculiar to prison life. The Surgeon in charge of +the hospital for Federal prisoners, together with his assistants, will +afford every facility to Surgeon Joseph Jones, in the prosecution of +the labors ordered by the Surgeon General. Efficient assistance must +be rendered Surgeon Jones by the medical officers, not only in his +examinations into the causes and symptoms of the various diseases, but +especially in the arduous labors of post mortem examinations. + +The medical officers will assist in the performance of such +post-mortems as Surgeon Jones may indicate, in order that this great +field for pathological investigation may be explored for the benefit of +the Medical Department of the Confederate Army. + + S. P. MOORE, Surgeon General. +Surgeon ISAIAH H. WHITE, + + In charge of Hospital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Ga. + + +In compliance with this letter of the Surgeon General, Isaiah H. +White, Chief Surgeon of the post, and R. R. Stevenson, Surgeon in +charge of the Prison Hospital, afforded the necessary facilities for +the prosecution of my investigations among the sick outside of the +Stockade. After the completion of my labors in the military prison +hospital, the following communication was addressed to Brigadier +General John H. Winder, in consequence of the refusal on the part of +the commandant of the interior of the Confederate States Military +Prison to admit me within the Stockade upon the order of the Surgeon +General: + + CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE GA., + September 16, 1864. + +GENERAL:--I respectfully request the commandant of the post of +Andersonville to grant me permission and to furnish the necessary pass +to visit the sick and medical officers within the Stockade of the +Confederate States Prison. I desire to institute certain inquiries +ordered by the Surgeon General. Surgeon Isaiah H. White, Chief Surgeon +of the post, and Surgeon R. R. Stevenson, in charge of the Prison +Hospital, have afforded me every facility for the prosecution of my +labors among the sick outside of the Stockade. + Very respectfully, your obedient servant, + JOSEPH JONES, Surgeon P. A. C. S. + +Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER, +Commandant, Post Andersonville. + + +In the absence of General Winder from the post, Captain Winder furnished +the following order: + + CAMP SUMTER, ANDERSONVILLE; + September 17, 1864. + +CAPTAIN:--You will permit Surgeon Joseph Jones, who has orders from the +Surgeon General, to visit the sick within the Stockade that are under +medical treatment. Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain +investigations which may prove useful to his profession. By direction of +General Winder. + Very respectfully, + W. S. WINDER, A. A. G. + +Captain H. WIRZ, Commanding Prison. + + + Description of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital at + Andersonville. Number of prisoners, physical condition, food, + clothing, habits, moral condition, diseases. + +The Confederate Military Prison at Andersonville, Ga., consists of a +strong Stockade, twenty feet in height, enclosing twenty-seven acres. +The Stockade is formed of strong pine logs, firmly planted in the +ground. The main Stockade is surrounded by two other similar rows of +pine logs, the middle Stockade being sixteen feet high, and the outer +twelve feet. These are intended for offense and defense. If the inner +Stockade should at any time be forced by the prisoners, the second +forms another line of defense; while in case of an attempt to deliver +the prisoners by a force operating upon the exterior, the outer line +forms an admirable protection to the Confederate troops, and a most +formidable obstacle to cavalry or infantry. The four angles of the +outer line are strengthened by earthworks upon commanding eminences, +from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak among the prisoners, may +sweep the entire enclosure; and it was designed to connect these works +by a line of rifle pits, running zig-zag, around the outer Stockade; +those rifle pits have never been completed. The ground enclosed by the +innermost Stockade lies in the form of a parallelogram, the larger +diameter running almost due north and south. This space includes the +northern and southern opposing sides of two hills, between which a +stream of water runs from west to east. The surface soil of these hills +is composed chiefly of sand with varying admixtures of clay and oxide +of iron. The clay is sufficiently tenacious to give a considerable +degree of consistency to the soil. The internal structure of the hills, +as revealed by the deep wells, is similar to that already described. +The alternate layers of clay and sand, as well as the oxide of iron, +which forms in its various combinations a cement to the sand, allow of +extensive tunneling. The prisoners not only constructed numerous dirt +huts with balls of clay and sand, taken from the wells which they have +excavated all over those hills, but they have also, in some cases, +tunneled extensively from these wells. The lower portions of these +hills, bordering on the stream, are wet and boggy from the constant +oozing of water. The Stockade was built originally to accommodate only +ten thousand prisoners, and included at first seventeen acres. Near the +close of the month of June the area was enlarged by the addition of +ten acres. The ground added was situated on the northern slope of the +largest hill. + +The average number of square feet of ground to each prisoner in August +1864: 35.7 + +Within the circumscribed area of the Stockade the Federal prisoners +were compelled to perform all the offices of life--cooking, washing, +the calls of nature, exercise, and sleeping. During the month of March +the prison was less crowded than at any subsequent time, and then the +average space of ground to each prisoner was only 98.7 feet, or less +than seven square yards. The Federal prisoners were gathered from all +parts of the Confederate States east of the Mississippi, and crowded +into the confined space, until in the month of June the average number +of square feet of ground to each prisoner was only 33.2 or less than +four square yards. These figures represent the condition of the +Stockade in a better light even than it really was; for a considerable +breadth of land along the stream, flowing from west to east between +the hills, was low and boggy, and was covered with the excrement of +the men, and thus rendered wholly uninhabitable, and in fact useless +for every purpose except that of defecation. The pines and other small +trees and shrubs, which originally were scattered sparsely over these +hills, were in a short time cut down and consumed by the prisoners +for firewood, and no shade tree was left in the entire enclosure +of the stockade. With their characteristic industry and ingenuity, +the Federals constructed for themselves small huts and caves, and +attempted to shield themselves from the rain and sun and night damps +and dew. But few tents were distributed to the prisoners, and those +were in most cases torn and rotten. In the location and arrangement of +these tents and huts no order appears to have been followed; in fact, +regular streets appear to be out of the question in so crowded an +area; especially too, as large bodies of prisoners were from time to +time added suddenly without any previous preparations. The irregular +arrangement of the huts and imperfect shelters was very unfavorable for +the maintenance of a proper system of police. + +The police and internal economy of the prison was left almost entirely +in the hands of the prisoners themselves; the duties of the Confederate +soldiers acting as guards being limited to the occupation of the +boxes or lookouts ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, +and to the manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison. +Even judicial matters pertaining to themselves, as the detection and +punishment of such crimes as theft and murder appear to have been +in a great measure abandoned to the prisoners. A striking instance +of this occurred in the month of July, when the Federal prisoners +within the Stockade tried, condemned, and hanged six (6) of their own +number, who had been convicted of stealing and of robbing and murdering +their fellow-prisoners. They were all hung upon the same day, and +thousands of the prisoners gathered around to witness the execution. +The Confederate authorities are said not to have interfered with these +proceedings. In this collection of men from all parts of the world, +every phase of human character was represented; the stronger preyed +upon the weaker, and even the sick who were unable to defend themselves +were robbed of their scanty supplies of food and clothing. Dark stories +were afloat, of men, both sick and well, who were murdered at night, +strangled to death by their comrades for scant supplies of clothing or +money. I heard a sick and wounded Federal prisoner accuse his nurse, a +fellow-prisoner of the United States Army, of having stealthily, during +his sleep inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene, that he might +destroy his life and fall heir to his clothing. + + .................................... + +The large number of men confined within the Stockade soon, under a +defective system of police, and with imperfect arrangements, covered +the surface of the low grounds with excrements. The sinks over +the lower portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and +structure, and the excrements were in large measure deposited so near +the borders of the stream as not to be washed away, or else accumulated +upon the low boggy ground. The volume of water was not sufficient to +wash away the feces, and they accumulated in such quantities in the +lower portion of the stream as to form a mass of liquid excrement heavy +rains caused the water of the stream to rise, and as the arrangements +for the passage of the increased amounts of water out of the Stockade +were insufficient, the liquid feces overflowed the low grounds and +covered them several inches, after the subsidence of the waters. +The action of the sun upon this putrefying mass of excrements and +fragments of bread and meat and bones excited most rapid fermentation +and developed a horrible stench. Improvements were projected for the +removal of the filth and for the prevention of its accumulation, but +they were only partially and imperfectly carried out. As the forces of +the prisoners were reduced by confinement, want of exercise, improper +diet, and by scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery, they were unable to +evacuate their bowels within the stream or along its banks, and the +excrements were deposited at the very doors of their tents. The vast +majority appeared to lose all repulsion to filth, and both sick and +well disregarded all the laws of hygiene and personal cleanliness. The +accommodations for the sick were imperfect and insufficient. From the +organization of the prison, February 24, 1864, to May 22, the sick +were treated within the Stockade. In the crowded condition of the +Stockade, and with the tents and huts clustered thickly around the +hospital, it was impossible to secure proper ventilation or to maintain +the necessary police. The Federal prisoners also made frequent forays +upon the hospital stores and carried off the food and clothing of the +sick. The hospital was, on the 22d of May, removed to its present site +without the Stockade, and five acres of ground covered with oaks and +pines appropriated to the use of the sick. + +The supply of medical officers has been insufficient from the +foundation of the prison. + +The nurses and attendants upon the sick have been most generally +Federal prisoners, who in too many cases appear to have been devoid of +moral principle, and who not only neglected their duties, but were also +engaged in extensive robbing of the sick. + +From the want of proper police and hygienic regulations alone it +is not wonderful that from February 24 to September 21, 1864, nine +thousand four hundred and seventy-nine deaths, nearly one-third the +entire number of prisoners, should have been recorded. I found the +Stockade and hospital in the following condition during my pathological +investigations, instituted in the month of September, 1864: + + + STOCKADE, CONFEDERATE STATES MILITARY PRISON. + +At the time of my visit to Andersonville a large number of Federal +prisoners had been removed to Millen, Savannah; Charleston, and other +parts of, the Confederacy, in anticipation of an advance of General +Sherman’s forces from Atlanta, with the design of liberating their +captive brethren; however, about fifteen thousand prisoners remained +confined within the limits of the Stockade and Confederate States +Military Prison Hospital. + +In the Stockade, with the exception of the damp lowlands bordering the +small stream, the surface was covered with huts, and small ragged tents +and parts of blankets and fragments of oil-cloth, coats, and blankets +stretched upon stacks. The tents and huts were not arranged according +to any order, and there was in most parts of the enclosure scarcely +room for two men to walk abreast between the tents and huts. + +If one might judge from the large pieces of corn-bread scattered +about in every direction on the ground the prisoners were either very +lavishly supplied with this article of diet, or else this kind of food +was not relished by them. + +Each day the dead from the Stockade were carried out by their +fellow-prisoners and deposited upon the ground under a bush arbor, just +outside of the Southwestern Gate. From thence they were carried in +carts to the burying ground, one-quarter of a mile northwest, of the +Prison. The dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in trenches +four feet deep. + +The low grounds bordering the stream were covered with human excrements +and filth of all kinds, which in many places appeared to be alive with +working maggots. An indescribable sickening stench arose from these +fermenting masses of human filth. + +There were near five thousand seriously ill Federals in the Stockade +and Confederate States Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths +exceeded one hundred per day, and large numbers of the prisoners +who were walking about, and who had not been entered upon the +sick reports, were suffering from severe and incurable diarrhea, +dysentery, and scurvy. The sick were attended almost entirely by +their fellow-prisoners, appointed as nurses, and as they received but +little attention, they were compelled to exert themselves at all times +to attend to the calls of nature, and hence they retained the power +of moving about to within a comparatively short period of the close +of life. Owing to the slow progress of the diseases most prevalent, +diarrhea, and chronic dysentery, the corpses were as a general rule +emaciated. + +I visited two thousand sick within the Stockade, lying under some long +sheds which had been built at the northern portion for themselves. At +this time only one medical officer was in attendance, whereas at least +twenty medical officers should have been employed. + +Died in the Stockade from its organization, February 24, 186l to +September 2l ....................................................3,254 +Died in Hospital during same time ...............................6,225 + +Total deaths in Hospital and Stockade ...........................9,479 + +Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and hospital gangrene were the prevailing +diseases. I was surprised to find but few cases of malarial fever, and +no well-marked cases either of typhus or typhoid fever. The absence +of the different forms of malarial fever may be accounted for in the +supposition that the artificial atmosphere of the Stockade, crowded +densely with human beings and loaded with animal exhalations, was +unfavorable to the existence and action of the malarial poison. The +absence of typhoid and typhus fevers amongst all the causes which +are supposed to generate these diseases, appeared to be due to the +fact that the great majority of these prisoners had been in captivity +in Virginia, at Belle Island, and in other parts of the Confederacy +for months, and even as long as two years, and during this time they +had been subjected to the same bad influences, and those who had not +had these fevers before either had them during their confinement in +Confederate prisons or else their systems, from long exposure, were +proof against their action. + +The effects of scurvy were manifested on every hand, and in all its +various stages, from the muddy, pale complexion, pale gums, feeble, +languid muscular motions, lowness of spirits, and fetid breath, to the +dusky, dirty, leaden complexion, swollen features, spongy, purple, +livid, fungoid, bleeding gums, loose teeth, oedematous limbs, covered +with livid vibices, and petechiae spasmodically flexed, painful and +hardened extremities, spontaneous hemorrhages from mucous canals, and +large, ill-conditioned, spreading ulcers covered with a dark purplish +fungus growth. I observed that in some of the cases of scurvy the +parotid glands were greatly swollen, and in some instances to such an +extent as to preclude entirely the power to articulate. In several +cases of dropsy of the abdomen and lower extremities supervening upon +scurvy, the patients affirmed that previously to the appearance of the +dropsy they had suffered with profuse and obstinate diarrhea, and that +when this was checked by a change of diet, from Indian corn-bread baked +with the husk, to boiled rice, the dropsy appeared. The severe pains +and livid patches were frequently associated with swellings in various +parts, and especially in the lower extremities, accompanied with +stiffness and contractions of the knee joints and ankles, and often +with a brawny feel of the parts, as if lymph had been effused between +the integuments and apeneuroses, preventing the motion of the skin over +the swollen parts. Many of the prisoners believed that the scurvy was +contagious, and I saw men guarding their wells and springs, fearing +lest some man suffering with the scurvy might use the water and thus +poison them. + +I observed also numerous cases of hospital gangrene, and of spreading +scorbutic ulcers, which had supervened upon slight injuries. The +scorbutic ulcers presented a dark, purple fungoid, elevated surface, +with livid swollen edges, and exuded a thin; fetid, sanious fluid, +instead of pus. Many ulcers which originated from the scorbutic +condition of the system appeared to become truly gangrenous, assuming +all the characteristics of hospital gangrene. From the crowded +condition, filthy habits, bad diet, and dejected, depressed condition +of the prisoners, their systems had become so disordered that the +smallest abrasion of the skin, from the rubbing of a shoe, or from +the effects of the sun, or from the prick of a splinter, or from +scratching, or a musketo bite, in some cases, took on rapid and +frightful ulceration and gangrene. The long use of salt meat, ofttimes +imperfectly cured, as well as the most total deprivation of vegetables +and fruit, appeared to be the chief causes of the scurvy. I carefully +examined the bakery and the bread furnished the prisoners, and found +that they were supplied almost entirely with corn-bread from which the +husk had not been separated. This husk acted as an irritant to the +alimentary canal, without adding any nutriment to the bread. As far as +my examination extended no fault could be found with the mode in which +the bread was baked; the difficulty lay in the failure to separate the +husk from the corn-meal. I strongly urged the preparation of large +quantities of soup made from the cow and calves’ heads with the brains +and tongues, to which a liberal supply of sweet potatos and vegetables +might have been advantageously added. The material existed in abundance +for the preparation of such soup in large quantities with but little +additional expense. Such aliment would have been not only highly +nutritious, but it would also have acted as an efficient remedial +agent for the removal of the scorbutic condition. The sick within the +Stockade lay under several long sheds which were originally built for +barracks. These sheds covered two floors which were open on all sides. +The sick lay upon the bare boards, or upon such ragged blankets as they +possessed, without, as far as I observed, any bedding or even straw. + + ............................ + +The haggard, distressed countenances of these miserable, complaining, +dejected, living skeletons, crying for medical aid and food, and +cursing their Government for its refusal to exchange prisoners, and +the ghastly corpses, with their glazed eye balls staring up into +vacant space, with the flies swarming down their open and grinning +mouths, and over their ragged clothes, infested with numerous lice, +as they lay amongst the sick and dying, formed a picture of helpless, +hopeless misery which it would be impossible to portray bywords or by +the brush. A feeling of disappointment and even resentment on account +of the United States Government upon the subject of the exchange +of prisoners, appeared to be widespread, and the apparent hopeless +nature of the negotiations for some general exchange of prisoners +appeared to be a cause of universal regret and deep and injurious +despondency. I heard some of the prisoners go so far as to exonerate +the Confederate Government from any charge of intentionally subjecting +them to a protracted confinement, with its necessary and unavoidable +sufferings, in a country cut off from all intercourse with foreign +nations, and sorely pressed on all sides, whilst on the other hand they +charged their prolonged captivity upon their own Government, which +was attempting to make the negro equal to the white man. Some hundred +or more of the prisoners had been released from confinement in the +Stockade on parole, and filled various offices as clerks, druggists, +and carpenters, etc., in the various departments. These men were well +clothed, and presented a stout and healthy appearance, and as a general +rule they presented a much more robust and healthy appearance than the +Confederate troops guarding the prisoners. + +The entire grounds are surrounded by a frail board fence, and are +strictly guarded by Confederate soldiers, and no prisoner except the +paroled attendants is allowed to leave the grounds except by a special +permit from the Commandant of the Interior of the Prison. + +The patients and attendants, near two thousand in number, are crowded +into this confined space and are but poorly supplied with old and +ragged tents. Large numbers of them were without any bunks in the +tents, and lay upon the ground, oft-times without even a blanket. +No beds or straw appeared to have been furnished. The tents extend +to within a few yards of the small stream, the eastern portion of +which, as we have before said, is used as a privy and is loaded with +excrements; and I observed a large pile of corn-bread, bones, and +filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter and several feet in hight, +swarming with myriads of flies, in a vacant space near the pots used +for cooking. Millions of flies swarmed over everything, and covered the +faces of the sleeping patients, and crawled down their open mouths, +and deposited their maggots in the gangrenous wounds of the living, +and in the mouths of the dead. Musketos in great numbers also infested +the tents, and many of the patients were so stung by these pestiferous +insects, that they resembled those suffering from a slight attack of +the measles. + +The police and hygiene of the hospital were defective in the extreme; +the attendants, who appeared in almost every instance to have been +selected from the prisoners, seemed to have in many cases but little +interest in the welfare of their fellow-captives. The accusation was +made that the nurses in many cases robbed the sick of their clothing, +money, and rations, and carried on a clandestine trade with the paroled +prisoners and Confederate guards without the hospital enclosure, in +the clothing, effects of the sick, dying, and dead Federals. They +certainly appeared to neglect the comfort and cleanliness of the sick +intrusted to their care in a most shameful manner, even after making +due allowances for the difficulties of the situation. Many of the sick +were literally encrusted with dirt and filth and covered with vermin. +When a gangrenous wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out a +little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which the patient was +lying, and water poured over it, and all the putrescent matter allowed +to soak into the ground floor of the tent. The supply of rags for +dressing wounds was said to be very scant, and I saw the most filthy +rags which had been applied several times, and imperfectly washed, used +in dressing wounds. Where hospital gangrene was prevailing, it was +impossible for any wound to escape contagion under these circumstances. +The results of the treatment of wounds in the hospital were of the +most unsatisfactory character, from this neglect of cleanliness, in +the dressings and wounds themselves, as well as from various other +causes which will be more fully considered. I saw several gangrenous +wounds filled with maggots. I have frequently seen neglected wounds +amongst the Confederate soldiers similarly affected; and as far as my +experience extends, these worms destroy only the dead tissues and do +not injure specially the well parts. I have even heard surgeons affirm +that a gangrenous wound which had been thoroughly cleansed by maggots, +healed more rapidly than if it had been left to itself. This want of +cleanliness on the part of the nurses appeared to be the result of +carelessness and inattention, rather than of malignant design, and +the whole trouble can be traced to the want of the proper police and +sanitary regulations, and to the absence of intelligent organization +and division of labor. The abuses were in a large measure due to the +almost total absence of system, government, and rigid, but wholesome +sanitary regulations. In extenuation of these abuses it was alleged by +the medical officers that the Confederate troops were barely sufficient +to guard the prisoners, and that it was impossible to obtain any number +of experienced nurses from the Confederate forces. In fact the guard +appeared to be too small, even for the regulation of the internal +hygiene and police of the hospital. + +The manner of disposing of the dead was also calculated to depress +the already desponding spirits of these men, many of whom have been +confined for months, and even for nearly two years in Richmond and +other places, and whose strength had been wasted by bad air, bad +food, and neglect of personal cleanliness. The dead-house is merely a +frame covered with old tent cloth and a few bushes, situated in the +southwestern corner of the hospital grounds. When a patient dies, he +is simply laid in the narrow street in front of his tent, until he is +removed by Federal negros detailed to carry off the dead; if a patient +dies during the night, he lies there until the morning, and during the +day even the dead were frequently allowed to remain for hours in these +walks. In the dead-house the corpses lie upon the bare ground, and were +in most cases covered with filth and vermin. + + ............................ + +The cooking arrangements are of the most defective character. Five +large iron pots similar to those used for boiling sugar cane, appeared +to be the only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital for the +cooking of nearly two thousand men; and the patients were dependent in +great measure upon their own miserable utensils. They were allowed to +cook in the tent doors and in the lanes, and this was another source +of filth, and another favorable condition for the generation and +multiplication of flies and other vermin. + +The air of the tents was foul and disagreeable in the extreme, and +in fact the entire grounds emitted a most nauseous and disgusting +smell. I entered nearly all the tents and carefully examined the cases +of interest, and especially the cases of gangrene, upon numerous +occasions, during the prosecution of my pathological inquiries at +Andersonville, and therefore enjoyed every opportunity to judge +correctly of the hygiene and police of the hospital. + +There appeared to be almost absolute indifference and neglect on +the part of the patients of personal cleanliness; their persons and +clothing inmost instances, and especially of those suffering with +gangrene and scorbutic ulcers, were filthy in the extreme and covered +with vermin. It was too often the case that patients were received from +the Stockade in a most deplorable condition. I have seen men brought +in from the Stockade in a dying condition, begrimed from head to foot +with their own excrements, and so black from smoke and filth that they, +resembled negros rather than white men. That this description of the +Stockade and hospital has not been overdrawn, will appear from the +reports of the surgeons in charge, appended to this report. + + ......................... + +We will examine first the consolidated report of the sick and wounded +Federal prisoners. During six months, from the 1st of March to the +31st of August, forty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-six cases of +diseases and wounds were reported. No classified record of the sick in +the Stockade was kept after the establishment of the hospital without +the Prison. This fact, in conjunction with those already presented +relating to the insufficiency of medical officers and the extreme +illness and even death of many prisoners in the tents in the Stockade, +without any medical attention or record beyond the bare number of the +dead, demonstrate that these figures, large as they, appear to be, are +far below the truth. + +As the number of prisoners varied greatly at different periods, the +relations between those reported sick and well, as far as those +statistics extend, can best be determined by a comparison of the +statistics of each month. + +During this period of six months no less than five hundred and +sixty-five deaths are recorded under the head of ‘morbi vanie.’ In +other words, those men died without having received sufficient medical +attention for the determination of even the name of the disease causing +death. + +During the month of August fifty-three cases and fifty-three deaths +are recorded as due to marasmus. Surely this large number of deaths +must have been due to some other morbid state than slow wasting. If +they were due to improper and insufficient food, they should have been +classed accordingly, and if to diarrhea or dysentery or scurvy, the +classification should in like manner have been explicit. + +We observe a progressive increase of the rate of mortality, from +3.11 per cent. in March to 9.09 per cent. of mean strength, sick and +well, in August. The ratio of mortality continued to increase during +September, for notwithstanding the removal of one-half of the entire +number of prisoners during the early portion of the month, one thousand +seven hundred and sixty-seven (1,767) deaths are registered from +September 1 to 21, and the largest number of deaths upon any one day +occurred during this month, on the 16th, viz. one hundred and nineteen. + +The entire number of Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville was +about forty thousand six hundred and eleven; and during the period of +near seven months, from February 24 to September 21, nine thousand four +hundred and seventy-nine (9,479) deaths were recorded; that is, during +this period near one-fourth, or more, exactly one in 4.2, or 13.3 per +cent., terminated fatally. This increase of mortality was due in great +measure to the accumulation of the sources of disease, as the increase +of excrements and filth of all kinds, and the concentration of noxious +effluvia, and also to the progressive effects of salt diet, crowding, +and the hot climate. + + + CONCLUSIONS. + +1st. The great mortality among the Federal prisoners confined in the +military prison at Andersonville was not referable to climatic causes, +or to the nature of the soil and waters. + +2d. The chief causes of death were scurvy and its results and bowel +affections-chronic and acute diarrhea and dysentery. The bowel +affections appear to have been due to the diet, the habits of the +patients, the depressed, dejected state of the nervous system and +moral and intellectual powers, and to the effluvia arising from the +decomposing animal and vegetable filth. The effects of salt meat, and +an unvarying diet of cornmeal, with but few vegetables, and imperfect +supplies of vinegar and syrup, were manifested in the great prevalence +of scurvy. This disease, without doubt, was also influenced to an +important extent in its origin and course by the foul animal emanations. + +3d. From the sameness of the food and form, the action of the poisonous +gases in the densely crowded and filthy Stockade and hospital, the +blood was altered in its constitution, even before the manifestation of +actual disease. In both the well and the sick the red corpuscles were +diminished; and in all diseases uncomplicated with inflammation, the +fibrous element was deficient. In cases of ulceration of the mucous +membrane of the intestinal canal, the fibrous element of the blood was +increased; while in simple diarrhea, uncomplicated with ulceration, it +was either diminished or else remained stationary. Heart clots were +very common, if not universally present, in cases of ulceration of +the intestinal mucous membrane, while in the uncomplicated cases of +diarrhea and scurvy, the blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, +and the heart clots and fibrous concretions were almost universally +absent. From the watery condition of the blood, there resulted various +serous effusions into the pericardium, ventricles of the brain, and +into the abdomen. In almost all the cases which I examined after death, +even the most emaciated, there was more or less serous effusion into +the abdominal cavity. In cases of hospital gangrene of the extremities, +and in cases of gangrene of the intestines, heart clots and fibrous +coagula were universally present. The presence of those clots in the +cases of hospital gangrene, while they were absent in the cases in +which there was no inflammatory symptoms, sustains the conclusion that +hospital gangrene is a species of inflammation, imperfect and irregular +though it may be in its progress, in which the fibrous element and +coagulation of the blood are increased, even in those who are suffering +from such a condition of the blood, and from such diseases as are +naturally accompanied with a decrease in the fibrous constituent. + +4th. The fact that hospital Gangrene appeared in the Stockade first, +and originated spontaneously without any previous contagion, and +occurred sporadically all over the Stockade and prison hospital, was +proof positive that this disease will arise whenever the conditions of +crowding, filth, foul air, and bad diet are present. The exhalations +from the hospital and Stockade appeared to exert their effects to +a considerable distance outside of these localities. The origin of +hospital gangrene among these prisoners appeared clearly to depend in +great measure upon the state of the general system induced by diet, and +various external noxious influences. The rapidity of the appearance +and action of the gangrene depended upon the powers and state of the +constitution, as well as upon the intensity of the poison in the +atmosphere, or upon the direct application of poisonous matter to the +wounded surface. This was further illustrated by the important fact +that hospital gangrene, or a disease resembling it in all essential +respects, attacked the intestinal canal of patients laboring under +ulceration of the bowels, although there were no local manifestations +of gangrene upon the surface of the body. This mode of termination +in cases of dysentery was quite common in the foul atmosphere of the +Confederate States Military Hospital, in the depressed, depraved +condition of the system of these Federal prisoners. + +5th. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the origin +of foul ulcers, which frequently took on true hospital gangrene. Scurvy +and hospital gangrene frequently existed in the same individual. In +such cases, vegetable diet, with vegetable acids, would remove the +scorbutic condition without curing the hospital gangrene. From the +results of the existing war for the establishment of the independence +of the Confederate States, as well as from the published observations +of Dr. Trotter, Sir Gilbert Blane, and others of the English navy +and army, it is evident that the scorbutic condition of the system, +especially in crowded ships and camps, is most favorable to the origin +and spread of foul ulcers and hospital gangrene. As in the present +case of Andersonville, so also in past times when medical hygiene was +almost entirely neglected, those two diseases were almost universally +associated in crowded ships. In many cases it was very difficult to +decide at first whether the ulcer was a simple result of scurvy or of +the action of the prison or hospital gangrene, for there was great +similarity in the appearance of the ulcers in the two diseases. So +commonly have those two diseases been combined in their origin and +action, that the description of scorbutic ulcers, by many authors, +evidently includes also many of the prominent characteristics of +hospital gangrene. This will be rendered evident by an examination +of the observations of Dr. Lind and Sir Gilbert Blane upon scorbutic +ulcers. + +6th. Gangrenous spots followed by rapid destruction of tissue +appeared in some cases where there had been no known wound. Without +such well-established facts, it might be assumed that the disease +was propagated from one patient to another. In such a filthy and +crowded hospital as that of the Confederate States Military Prison +at Andersonville, it was impossible to isolate the wounded from the +sources of actual contact of the gangrenous matter. The flies swarming +over the wounds and over filth of every kind, the filthy, imperfectly +washed and scanty supplies of rags, and the limited supply of washing +utensils, the same wash-bowl serving for scores of patients, were +sources of such constant circulation of the gangrenous matter that +the disease might rapidly spread from a single gangrenous wound. +The fact already stated, that a form of moist gangrene, resembling +hospital gangrene, was quite common in this foul atmosphere, in cases +of dysentery, both with and without the existence of the disease upon +the entire surface, not only demonstrates the dependence of the disease +upon the state of the constitution, but proves in the clearest manner +that neither the contact of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the +direct action of the poisonous atmosphere upon the ulcerated surfaces +is necessary to the development of the disease. + +7th. In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital +gangrene; the disease almost invariably returned. Almost every +amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of +gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhea and dysentery. Nitric acid and +escharotics generally in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious +effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their application +to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently return with +redoubled energy; and even after the gangrene had been completely +removed by local and constitutional treatment, it would frequently +return and destroy the patient. As far as my observation extended, very +few of the cases of amputation for gangrene recovered. The progress of +these cases was frequently very deceptive. I have observed after death +the most extensive disorganization of the structures of the stump, when +during life there was but little swelling of the part, and the patient +was apparently doing well. I endeavored to impress upon the medical +officers the view that in this disease treatment was almost useless, +without an abundant supply of pure, fresh air, nutritious food, and +tonics and stimulants. Such changes, however, as would allow of the +isolation of the cases of hospital gangrene appeared to be out of the +power of the medical officers. + +8th. The gangrenous mass was without true pus, and consisted chiefly of +broken-down, disorganized structures. The reaction of the gangrenous +matter in certain stages was alkaline. + +9th. The best, and in truth the only means of protecting large armies +and navies, as well as prisoners, from the ravages of hospital +gangrene, is to furnish liberal supplies of well-cured meat, together +with fresh beef and vegetables, and to enforce a rigid system of +hygiene. + +10th. Finally, this gigantic mass of human misery calls loudly +for relief, not only for the sake of suffering humanity, but also +on account of our own brave soldiers now captives in the hands of +the Federal Government. Strict justice to the gallant men of the +Confederate Armies, who have been or who may be, so unfortunate as +to be compelled to surrender in battle, demands that the Confederate +Government should adopt that course which will best secure their health +and comfort in captivity; or at least leave their enemies without a +shadow of an excuse for any violation of the rules of civilized warfare +in the treatment of prisoners. + + [End of the Witness’s Testimony.] + + +The variation--from month to month--of the proportion of deaths to the +whole number living is singular and interesting. It supports the theory +I have advanced above, as the following facts, taken from the official +report, will show: + In April one in every sixteen died. + In May one in every twenty-six died. + In June one in every twenty-two died. + In July one in every eighteen died. + In August one in every eleven died. + In September one in every three died. + In October one in every two died. + In November one in every three died. + +Does the reader fully understand that in September one-third of those +in the pen died, that in October one-half of the remainder perished, +and in November one-third of those who still survived, died? Let him +pause for a moment and read this over carefully again; because its +startling magnitude will hardly dawn upon him at first reading. It is +true that the fearfully disproportionate mortality of those months +was largely due to the fact that it was mostly the sick that remained +behind, but even this diminishes but little the frightfulness of the +showing. Did any one ever hear of an epidemic so fatal that one-third +of those attacked by it in one month died; one-half of the remnant the +next month, and one-third of the feeble remainder the next month? If he +did, his reading has been much more extensive than mine. + +The greatest number of deaths in one day is reported to have occurred +on the 23d of August, when one hundred and twenty-seven died, or one +man every eleven minutes. + +The greatest number of prisoners in the Stockade is stated to have +been August 8, when there were thirty-three thousand one hundred and +fourteen. + +I have always imagined both these statements to be short of the truth, +because my remembrance is that one day in August I counted over two +hundred dead lying in a row. As for the greatest number of prisoners, +I remember quite distinctly standing by the ration wagon during the +whole time of the delivery of rations, to see how many prisoners +there really were inside. That day the One Hundred and Thirty-Third +Detachment was called, and its Sergeant came up and drew rations for +a full detachment. All the other detachments were habitually kept +full by replacing those who died with new comers. As each detachment +consisted of two hundred and seventy men, one hundred and thirty-three +detachments would make thirty-five thousand nine hundred and ten, +exclusive of those in the hospital, and those detailed outside as +cooks, clerks, hospital attendants and various other employments--say +from one to two thousand more. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +DIFFICULTY OF EXERCISING--EMBARRASSMENTS OF A MORNING WALK--THE RIALTO +OF THE PRISON--CURSING THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY--THE STORY OF THE +BATTLE OF SPOTTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE. + +Certainly, in no other great community, that ever existed upon the face +of the globe was there so little daily ebb and flow as in this. Dull +as an ordinary Town or City may be; however monotonous, eventless, +even stupid the lives of its citizens, there is yet, nevertheless, a +flow every day of its life-blood--its population towards its heart, +and an ebb of the same, every evening towards its extremities. These +recurring tides mingle all classes together and promote the general +healthfulness, as the constant motion hither and yon of the ocean’s +waters purify and sweeten them. + +The lack of these helped vastly to make the living mass inside the +Stockade a human Dead Sea--or rather a Dying Sea--a putrefying, +stinking lake, resolving itself into phosphorescent corruption, like +those rotting southern seas, whose seething filth burns in hideous +reds, and ghastly greens and yellows. + +Being little call for motion of any kind, and no room to exercise +whatever wish there might be in that direction, very many succumbed +unresistingly to the apathy which was so strongly favored by +despondency and the weakness induced by continual hunger, and lying +supinely on the hot sand, day in and day out, speedily brought +themselves into such a condition as invited the attacks of disease. + +It required both determination and effort to take a little walking +exercise. The ground was so densely crowded with holes and other +devices for shelter that it took one at least ten minutes to pick his +way through the narrow and tortuous labyrinth which served as paths +for communication between different parts of the Camp. Still further, +there was nothing to see anywhere or to form sufficient inducement for +any one to make so laborious a journey. One simply encountered at every +new step the same unwelcome sights that he had just left; there was +a monotony in the misery as in everything else, and consequently the +temptation to sit or lie still in one’s own quarters became very great. + +I used to make it a point to go to some of the remoter parts of the +Stockade once every day, simply for exercise. One can gain some idea of +the crowd, and the difficulty of making one’s way through it, when I +say that no point in the prison could be more than fifteen hundred feet +from where I staid, and, had the way been clear, I could have walked +thither and back in at most a half an hour, yet it usually took me from +two to three hours to make one of these journeys. + +This daily trip, a few visits to the Creek to wash all over, a few +games of chess, attendance upon roll call, drawing rations, cooking +and eating the same, “lousing” my fragments of clothes, and doing some +little duties for my sick and helpless comrades, constituted the daily +routine for myself, as for most of the active youths in the prison. + +The Creek was the great meeting point for all inside the Stockade. All +able to walk were certain to be there at least once during the day, and +we made it a rendezvous, a place to exchange gossip, discuss the latest +news, canvass the prospects of exchange, and, most of all, to curse the +Rebels. Indeed no conversation ever progressed very far without both +speaker and listener taking frequent rests to say bitter things as to +the Rebels generally, and Wirz, Winder and Davis in particular. + +A conversation between two boys--strangers to each other who came +to the Creek to wash themselves or their clothes, or for some other +purpose, would progress thus: + +First Boy--“I belong to the Second Corps,--Hancock’s, [the Army of the +Potomac boys always mentioned what Corps they belonged to, where the +Western boys stated their Regiment.] They got me at Spottsylvania, +when they were butting their heads against our breast-works, trying to +get even with us for gobbling up Johnson in the morning,”--He stops +suddenly and changes tone to say: “I hope to God, that when our folks +get Richmond, they will put old Ben Butler in command of it, with +orders to limb, skin and jayhawk it worse than he did New Orleans.” + +Second Boy, (fervently:) “I wish to God he would, and that he’d catch +old Jeff., and that grayheaded devil, Winder, and the old Dutch +Captain, strip ’em just as we were, put ’em in this pen, with just the +rations they are givin’ us, and set a guard of plantation niggers over +’em, with orders to blow their whole infernal heads off, if they dared +so much as to look at the dead line.” + +First Boy--(returning to the story of his capture.) “Old Hancock caught +the Johnnies that morning the neatest you ever saw anything in your +life. After the two armies had murdered each other for four or five +days in the Wilderness, by fighting so close together that much of the +time you could almost shake hands with the Graybacks, both hauled off +a little, and lay and glowered at each other. Each side had lost about +twenty thousand men in learning that if it attacked the other it would +get mashed fine. So each built a line of works and lay behind them, and +tried to nag the other into coming out and attacking. At Spottsylvania +our lines and those of the Johnnies weren’t twelve hundred yards +apart. The ground was clear and clean between them, and any force that +attempted to cross it to attack would be cut to pieces, as sure as +anything. We laid there three or four days watching each other--just +like boys at school, who shake fists and dare each other. At one place +the Rebel line ran out towards us like the top of a great letter ‘A.’ +The night of the 11th of May it rained very hard, and then came a fog +so thick that you couldn’t see the length of a company. Hancock thought +he’d take advantage of this. We were all turned out very quietly about +four o’clock in the morning. Not a bit of noise was allowed. We even +had to take off our canteens and tin cups, that they might not rattle +against our bayonets. The ground was so wet that our footsteps couldn’t +be heard. It was one of those deathly, still movements, when you think +your heart is making as much noise as a bass drum. + +“The Johnnies didn’t seem to have the faintest suspicion of what was +coming, though they ought, because we would have expected such an +attack from them if we hadn’t made it ourselves. Their pickets were +out just a little ways from their works, and we were almost on to them +before they discovered us. They fired and ran back. At this we raised a +yell and dashed forward at a charge. As we poured over the works, the +Rebels came double-quicking up to defend them. We flanked Johnson’s +Division quicker’n you could say ‘Jack Robinson,’ and had four thousand +of ’em in our grip just as nice as you please. We sent them to the rear +under guard, and started for the next line of Rebel works about a half +a mile away. But we had now waked up the whole of Lee’s army, and they +all came straight for us, like packs of mad wolves. Ewell struck us in +the center; Longstreet let drive at our left flank, and Hill tackled +our right. We fell back to the works we had taken, Warren and Wright +came up to help us, and we had it hot and heavy for the rest of the day +and part of the night. The Johnnies seemed so mad over what we’d done +that they were half crazy. They charged us five times, coming up every +time just as if they were going to lift us right out of the works with +the bayonet. About midnight, after they’d lost over ten thousand men, +they seemed to understand that we had pre-empted that piece of real +estate, and didn’t propose to allow anybody to jump our claim, so they +fell back sullen like to their main works. When they came on the last +charge, our Brigadier walked behind each of our regiments and said: + +“Boys, we’ll send ’em back this time for keeps. Give it to ’em by the +acre, and when they begin to waver, we’ll all jump over the works and +go for them with the bayonet.’ + +“We did it just that way. We poured such a fire on them that the +bullets knocked up the ground in front just like you have seen the +deep dust in a road in the middle of Summer fly up when the first +great big drops of a rain storm strike it. But they came on, yelling +and swearing, officers in front waving swords, and shouting--all that +business, you know. When they got to about one hundred yards from us, +they did not seem to be coming so fast, and there was a good deal of +confusion among them. The brigade bugle sounded: + +“Stop firing.” + +“We all ceased instantly. The rebels looked up in astonishment. Our +General sang out: + +“Fix bayonets!’ but we knew what was coming, and were already executing +the order. You can imagine the crash that ran down the line, as every +fellow snatched his bayonet out and slapped it on the muzzle of his +gun. Then the General’s voice rang out like a bugle: + +“Ready!--FORWARD! CHARGE!’ + +“We cheered till everything seemed to split, and jumped over the works, +almost every man at the same minute. The Johnnies seemed to have been +puzzled at the stoppage of our fire. When we all came sailing over +the works, with guns brought right, down where they meant business, +they were so astonished for a minute that they stood stock still, not +knowing whether to come for us, or run. We did not allow them long +to debate, but went right towards them on the double quick, with the +bayonets looking awful savage and hungry. It was too much for Mr. +Johnny Reb’s nerves. They all seemed to about face’ at once, and they +lit out of there as if they had been sent for in a hurry. We chased +after ’em as fast as we could, and picked up just lots of ’em. Finally +it began to be real funny. A Johnny’s wind would begin to give out +he’d fall behind his comrades; he’d hear us yell and think that we +were right behind him, ready to sink a bayonet through him’; he’d turn +around, throw up his hands, and sing out: + +“I surrender, mister! I surrender!’ and find that we were a hundred +feet off, and would have to have a bayonet as long as one of +McClellan’s general orders to touch him. + +“Well, my company was the left of our regiment, and our regiment was +the left of the brigade, and we swung out ahead of all the rest of +the boys. In our excitement of chasing the Johnnies, we didn’t see +that we had passed an angle of their works. About thirty of us had +become separated from the company and were chasing a squad of about +seventy-five or one hundred. We had got up so close to them that we +hollered: + +“‘Halt there, now, or we’ll blow your heads off.’ + +“They turned round with, ‘halt yourselves; you ---- Yankee ---- ----’ + +“We looked around at this, and saw that we were not one hundred feet +away from the angle of the works, which were filled with Rebels +waiting for our fellows to get to where they could have a good flank +fire upon them. There was nothing to do but to throw down our guns +and surrender, and we had hardly gone inside of the works, until the +Johnnies opened on our brigade and drove it back. This ended the battle +at Spottsylvania Court House.” + +Second Boy (irrelevantly.) “Some day the underpinning will fly out from +under the South, and let it sink right into the middle kittle o’ hell.” + +First Boy (savagely.) “I only wish the whole Southern Confederacy was +hanging over hell by a single string, and I had a knife.” + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +REBEL MUSIC--SINGULAR LACK OF THE CREATIVE POWER AMONG THE SOUTHERNERS +--CONTRAST WITH SIMILAR PEOPLE ELSEWHERE--THEIR FAVORITE MUSIC, AND +WHERE IT WAS BORROWED FROM--A FIFER WITH ONE TUNE. + +I have before mentioned as among the things that grew upon one with +increasing acquaintance with the Rebels on their native heath, was +astonishment at their lack of mechanical skill and at their inability +to grapple with numbers and the simpler processes of arithmetic. +Another characteristic of the same nature was their wonderful lack of +musical ability, or of any kind of tuneful creativeness. + +Elsewhere, all over the world, people living under similar conditions +to the Southerners are exceedingly musical, and we owe the great +majority of the sweetest compositions which delight the ear and +subdue the senses to unlettered song-makers of the Swiss mountains, +the Tyrolese valleys, the Bavarian Highlands, and the minstrels of +Scotland, Ireland and Wales. + +The music of English-speaking people is very largely made up of these +contributions from the folk-songs of dwellers in the wilder and more +mountainous parts of the British Isles. One rarely goes far out of +the way in attributing to this source any air that he may hear that +captivates him with its seductive opulence of harmony. Exquisite +melodies, limpid and unstrained as the carol of a bird in Spring-time, +and as plaintive as the cooing of a turtle-dove seems as natural +products of the Scottish Highlands as the gorse which blazons on their +hillsides in August. Debarred from expressing their aspirations as +people of broader culture do--in painting, in sculpture, in poetry and +prose, these mountaineers make song the flexible and ready instrument +for the communication of every emotion that sweeps across their souls. + +Love, hatred, grief, revenge, anger, and especially war seems to tune +their minds to harmony, and awake the voice of song in them hearts. +The battles which the Scotch and Irish fought to replace the luckless +Stuarts upon the British throne--the bloody rebellions of 1715 and +1745, left a rich legacy of sweet song, the outpouring of loving, +passionate loyalty to a wretched cause; songs which are today esteemed +and sung wherever the English language is spoken, by people who have +long since forgotten what burning feelings gave birth to their favorite +melodies. + +For a century the bones of both the Pretenders have moldered in alien +soil; the names of James Edward, and Charles Edward, which were once +trumpet blasts to rouse armed men, mean as little to the multitude of +today as those of the Saxon Ethelbert, and Danish Hardicanute, yet +the world goes on singing--and will probably as long as the English +language is spoken--“Wha’ll be King but Charlie?” “When Jamie Come +Hame,” “Over the Water to Charlie,” “Charlie is my Darling,” “The Bonny +Blue Bonnets are Over the Border,” “Saddle Your Steeds and Awa,” and a +myriad others whose infinite tenderness and melody no modern composer +can equal. + +Yet these same Scotch and Irish, the same Jacobite English, +transplanted on account of their chronic rebelliousness to the +mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, seem to have lost +their tunefulness, as some fine singing birds do when carried from +their native shores. + +The descendants of those who drew swords for James and Charles at +Preston Pans and Culloden dwell to-day in the dales and valleys of +the Alleganies, as their fathers did in the dales and valleys of the +Grampians, but their voices are mute. + +As a rule the Southerners are fond of music. They are fond of singing +and listening to old-fashioned ballads, most of which have never +been printed, but handed down from one generation to the other, like +the ‘Volklieder’ of Germany. They sing these with the wild, fervid +impressiveness characteristic of the ballad singing of unlettered +people. Very many play tolerably on the violin and banjo, and +occasionally one is found whose instrumentation may be called good. But +above this hight they never soar. The only musician produced by the +South of whom the rest of the country has ever heard, is Blind Tom, +the negro idiot. No composer, no song writer of any kind has appeared +within the borders of Dixie. + +It was a disappointment to me that even the stress of the war, the +passion and fierceness with which the Rebels felt and fought, could +not stimulate any adherent of the Stars and Bars into the production +of a single lyric worthy in the remotest degree of the magnitude of +the struggle, and the depth of the popular feeling. Where two million +Scotch, fighting to restore the fallen fortunes of the worse than +worthless Stuarts, filled the world with immortal music, eleven million +of Southerners, fighting for what they claimed to be individual freedom +and national life, did not produce any original verse, or a bar of +music that the world could recognize as such. This is the fact; and an +undeniable one. Its explanation I must leave to abler analysts than I +am. + +Searching for peculiar causes we find but two that make the South +differ from the ancestral home of these people. These two were Climate +and Slavery. Climatic effects will not account for the phenomenon, +because we see that the peasantry of the mountains of Spain and the +South of France as ignorant as these people, and dwellers in a still +more enervating atmosphere-are very fertile in musical composition, +and their songs are to the Romanic languages what the Scotch and Irish +ballads are to the English. + +Then it must be ascribed to the incubus of Slavery upon the intellect, +which has repressed this as it has all other healthy growths in the +South. Slavery seems to benumb all the faculties except the passions. +The fact that the mountaineers had but few or no slaves, does not seem +to be of importance in the case. They lived under the deadly shadow +of the upas tree, and suffered the consequences of its stunting their +development in all directions, as the ague-smitten inhabitant of +the Roman Campana finds every sense and every muscle clogged by the +filtering in of the insidious miasma. They did not compose songs and +music, because they did not have the intellectual energy for that work. + +The negros displayed all the musical creativeness of that section. +Their wonderful prolificness in wild, rude songs, with strangely +melodious airs that burned themselves into the memory, was one of the +salient characteristics of that down-trodden race. Like the Russian +serfs, and the bondmen of all ages and lands, the songs they made and +sang all had an undertone of touching plaintiveness, born of ages of +dumb suffering. The themes were exceedingly simple, and the range of +subjects limited. The joys, and sorrows, hopes and despairs of love’s +gratification or disappointment, of struggles for freedom, contests +with malign persons and influences, of rage, hatred, jealousy, revenge, +such as form the motifs for the majority of the poetry of free and +strong races, were wholly absent from their lyrics. Religion, hunger +and toil were their main inspiration. They sang of the pleasures of +idling in the genial sunshine; the delights of abundance of food; the +eternal happiness that awaited them in the heavenly future, where the +slave-driver ceased from troubling and the weary were at rest; where +Time rolled around in endless cycles of days spent in basking, harp in +hand, and silken clad, in golden streets, under the soft effulgence of +cloudless skies, glowing with warmth and kindness emanating from the +Creator himself. Had their masters condescended to borrow the music of +the slaves, they would have found none whose sentiments were suitable +for the ode of a people undergoing the pangs of what was hoped to be +the birth of a new nation. + +The three songs most popular at the South, and generally regarded as +distinctively Southern, were “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” “Maryland, My +Maryland,” and “Stonewall Jackson Crossing into Maryland.” The first of +these was the greatest favorite by long odds. Women sang, men whistled, +and the so-called musicians played it wherever we went. While in the +field before capture, it was the commonest of experiences to have +Rebel women sing it at us tauntingly from the house that we passed +or near which we stopped. If ever near enough a Rebel camp, we were +sure to hear its wailing crescendo rising upon the air from the lips +or instruments of some one more quartered there. At Richmond it rang +upon us constantly from some source or another, and the same was true +wherever else we went in the so-called Confederacy. I give the air and words below: + +[Music] + +All familiar with Scotch songs will readily recognize the name and air +as an old friend, and one of the fierce Jacobite melodies that for a +long time disturbed the tranquility of the Brunswick family on the +English throne. The new words supplied by the Rebels are the merest +doggerel, and fit the music as poorly as the unchanged name of the song +fitted to its new use. The flag of the Rebellion was not a bonnie blue +one; but had quite as much red and white as azure. It did not have a +single star, but thirteen. + +Near in popularity was “Maryland, My Maryland.” The versification of +this was of a much higher Order, being fairly respectable. The air is +old, and a familiar one to all college students, and belongs to one of +the most common of German household songs: + + O, Tannenbaum! O, Tannenbaum, wie tru sind deine Blatter! + Da gruenst nicht nur zur Sommerseit, + Nein, auch in Winter, when es Schneit, etc. + +which Longfellow has finely translated, + +O, hemlock tree! O, hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches! +Green not alone in Summer time, +But in the Winter’s float and rime. +O, hemlock tree O, hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches. Etc. + +The Rebel version ran: + + MARYLAND. + +The despot’s heel is on thy shore, + Maryland! +His touch is at thy temple door, + Maryland! +Avenge the patriotic gore +That flecked the streets of Baltimore, +And be the battle queen of yore, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Hark to the wand’ring son’s appeal, + Maryland! +My mother State, to thee I kneel, + Maryland! +For life and death, for woe and weal, +Thy peerless chivalry reveal, +And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Thou wilt not cower in the duet, + Maryland! +Thy beaming sword shall never rust + Maryland! +Remember Carroll’s sacred trust, +Remember Howard’s warlike thrust-- +And all thy slumberers with the just, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Come! ’tis the red dawn of the day, + Maryland! +Come! with thy panoplied array, + Maryland! +With Ringgold’s spirit for the fray, +With Watson’s blood at Monterey, +With fearless Lowe and dashing May, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Comet for thy shield is bright and strong, + Maryland! +Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, + Maryland! +Come! to thins own heroic throng, +That stalks with Liberty along, +And give a new Key to thy song, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Dear Mother! burst the tyrant’s chain, + Maryland! +Virginia should not call in vain, + Maryland! +She meets her sisters on the plain-- +‘Sic semper’ ’tis the proud refrain, +That baffles millions back amain, + Maryland! +Arise, in majesty again, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +I see the blush upon thy cheek, + Maryland! +But thou wast ever bravely meek, + Maryland! +But lo! there surges forth a shriek +From hill to hill, from creek to creek-- +Potomac calls to Chesapeake, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +Thou wilt not yield the vandal toll. + Maryland! +Thou wilt not crook to his control, + Maryland! +Better the fire upon thee roll, +Better the blade, the shot, the bowl, +Than crucifixion of the soul, +Maryland! My Maryland! + +I hear the distant Thunder hem, + Maryland! +The Old Line’s bugle, fife, and drum. + Maryland! +She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-- +Hnzza! she spurns the Northern scum! +She breathes--she burns! she’ll come! she’ll come! +Maryland! My Maryland! + + +“Stonewall Jackson Crossing into Maryland,” was another travesty, of +about the same literary merit, or rather demerit, as “The Bonnie Blue +Flag.” Its air was that of the well-known and popular negro minstrel +song, “Billy Patterson.” For all that, it sounded very martial and +stirring when played by a brass band. + +We heard these songs with tiresome iteration, daily and nightly, during +our stay in the Southern Confederacy. Some one of the guards seemed to +be perpetually beguiling the weariness of his watch by singing in all +keys, in every sort of a voice, and with the wildest latitude as to +air and time. They became so terribly irritating to us, that to this +day the remembrance of those soul-lacerating lyrics abides with me as +one of the chief of the minor torments of our situation. They were, in +fact, nearly as bad as the lice. + +We revenged ourselves as best we could by constructing fearfully +wicked, obscene and insulting parodies on these, and by singing them +with irritating effusiveness in the hearing of the guards who were +inflicting these nuisances upon us. + +Of the same nature was the garrison music. One fife, played by an +asthmatic old fellow whose breathings were nearly as audible as his +notes, and one rheumatic drummer, constituted the entire band for the +post. The fifer actually knew but one tune “The Bonnie Blue Flag” --and +did not know that well. But it was all that he had, and he played it +with wearisome monotony for every camp call--five or six times a day, +and seven days in the week. He called us up in the morning with it for +a reveille; he sounded the “roll call” and “drill call,” breakfast, +dinner and supper with it, and finally sent us to bed, with the same +dreary wail that had rung in our ears all day. I never hated any piece +of music as I came to hate that threnody of treason. It would have +been such a relief if the old asthmatic who played it could have been +induced to learn another tune to play on Sundays, and give us one day +of rest. He did not, but desecrated the Lord’s Day by playing as vilely +as on the rest of the week. The Rebels were fully conscious of their +musical deficiencies, and made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to +induce the musicians among the prisoners to come outside and form a +band. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +AUGUST--NEEDLES STUCK IN PUMPKIN SEEDS--SOME PHENOMENA OF STARVATION +--RIOTING IN REMEMBERED LUXURIES. + +“Illinoy,” said tall, gaunt Jack North, of the One Hundred and +Fourteenth Illinois, to me, one day, as we sat contemplating our naked, +and sadly attenuated underpinning; “what do our legs and feet most look +most like?” + +“Give it up, Jack,” said I. + +“Why--darning needles stuck in pumpkin seeds, of course.” I never heard +a better comparison for our wasted limbs. + +The effects of the great bodily emaciation were sometimes very +startling. Boys of a fleshy habit would change so in a few weeks as +to lose all resemblance to their former selves, and comrades who came +into prison later would utterly fail to recognize them. Most fat men, +as most large men, died in a little while after entering, though there +were exceptions. One of these was a boy of my own company, named George +Hillicks. George had shot up within a few years to over six feet in +hight, and then, as such boys occasionally do, had, after enlisting +with us, taken on such a development of flesh that we nicknamed him +the “Giant,” and he became a pretty good load for even the strongest +horse. George held his flesh through Belle Isle, and the earlier weeks +in Andersonville, but June, July, and August “fetched him,” as the +boys said. He seemed to melt away like an icicle on a Spring day, and +he grew so thin that his hight seemed preternatural. We called him +“Flagstaff,” and cracked all sorts of jokes about putting an insulator +on his head, and setting him up for a telegraph pole, braiding his +legs and using him for a whip lash, letting his hair grow a little +longer, and trading him off to the Rebels for a sponge and staff for +the artillery, etc. We all expected him to die, and looked continually +for the development of the fatal scurvy symptoms, which were to seal +his doom. But he worried through, and came out at last in good shape, a +happy result due as much as to anything else to his having in Chester +Hayward, of Prairie City, Ill.,--one of the most devoted chums I ever +knew. Chester nursed and looked out for George with wife-like fidelity, +and had his reward in bringing him safe through our lines. There were +thousands of instances of this generous devotion to each other by chums +in Andersonville, and I know of nothing that reflects any more credit +upon our boy soldiers. + +There was little chance for any one to accumulate flesh on the rations +we were receiving. I say it in all soberness that I do not believe +that a healthy hen could have grown fat upon them. I am sure that any +good-sized “shanghai” eats more every day than the meager half loaf +that we had to maintain life upon. Scanty as this was, and hungry as +all were, very many could not eat it. Their stomachs revolted against +the trash; it became so nauseous to them that they could not force +it down, even when famishing, and they died of starvation with the +chunks of the so-called bread under their head. I found myself rapidly +approaching this condition. I had been blessed with a good digestion +and a talent for sleeping under the most discouraging circumstances. +These, I have no doubt, were of the greatest assistance to me in my +struggle for existence. But now the rations became fearfully obnoxious +to me, and it was only with the greatest effort--pulling the bread into +little pieces and swallowing each, of these as one would a pill--that +I succeeded in worrying the stuff down. I had not as yet fallen away +very much, but as I had never, up, to that time, weighed so much as one +hundred and twenty-five pounds, there was no great amount of adipose to +lose. It was evident that unless some change occurred my time was near +at hand. + +There was not only hunger for more food, but longing with an intensity +beyond expression for alteration of some kind in the rations. The +changeless monotony of the miserable saltless bread, or worse mush, for +days, weeks and months, became unbearable. If those wretched mule teams +had only once a month hauled in something different--if they had come +in loaded with sweet potatos, green corn or wheat flour, there would be +thousands of men still living who now slumber beneath those melancholy +pines. It would have given something to look forward to, and remember +when past. But to know each day that the gates would open to admit the +same distasteful apologies for food took away the appetite and raised +one’s gorge, even while famishing for something to eat. + +We could for a while forget the stench, the lice, the heat, the +maggots, the dead and dying around us, the insulting malignance of our +jailors; but it was, very hard work to banish thoughts and longings +for food from our minds. Hundreds became actually insane from brooding +over it. Crazy men could be found in all parts of the camp. Numbers of +them wandered around entirely naked. Their babblings and maunderings +about something to eat were painful to hear. I have before mentioned +the case of the Plymouth Pilgrim near me, whose insanity took the form +of imagining that he was sitting at the table with his family, and +who would go through the show of helping them to imaginary viands and +delicacies. The cravings for green food of those afflicted with the +scurvy were, agonizing. Large numbers of watermelons were brought to +the prison, and sold to those who had the money to pay for them at from +one to five dollars, greenbacks, apiece. A boy who had means to buy a +piece of these would be followed about while eating it by a crowd of +perhaps twenty-five or thirty livid-gummed scorbutics, each imploring +him for the rind when he was through with it. + +We thought of food all day, and were visited with torturing dreams +of it at night. One of the pleasant recollections of my pre-military +life was a banquet at the “Planter’s House,” St. Louis, at which I was +a boyish guest. It was, doubtless, an ordinary affair, as banquets +go, but to me then, with all the keen appreciation of youth and first +experience, it was a feast worthy of Lucullus. But now this delightful +reminiscence became a torment. Hundreds of times I dreamed I was +again at the “Planter’s.” I saw the wide corridors, with their mosaic +pavement; I entered the grand dining-room, keeping timidly near the +friend to whose kindness I owed this wonderful favor; I saw again the +mirror-lined walls, the evergreen decked ceilings, the festoons and +mottos, the tables gleaming with cutglass and silver, the buffets with +wines and fruits, the brigade of sleek, black, white-aproned waiters, +headed by one who had presence enough for a major General. Again I +reveled in all the dainties and dishes on the bill-of-fare; calling for +everything that I dared to, just to see what each was like, and to be +able to say afterwards that I had partaken of it; all these bewildering +delights of the first realization of what a boy has read and wondered +much over, and longed for, would dance their rout and reel through +my somnolent brain. Then I would awake to find myself a half-naked, +half-starved, vermin-eaten wretch, crouching in a hole in the ground, +waiting for my keepers to fling me a chunk of corn bread. + +Naturally the boys--and especially the country boys and new prisoners +--talked much of victuals--what they had had, and what they would have +again, when they got out. Take this as a sample of the conversation +which might be heard in any group of boys, sitting together on the +sand, killin lice and talking of exchange: + +Tom--“Well, Bill, when we get back to God’s country, you and Jim and +John must all come to my house and take dinner with me. I want to give +you a square meal. I want to show you just what good livin’ is. You +know my mother is just the best cook in all that section. When she lays +herself out to get up a meal all the other women in the neighborhood +just stand back and admire!” + +Bill--“O, that’s all right; but I’ll bet she can’t hold a candle to my +mother, when it comes to good cooking.” + +Jim--“No, nor to mine.” + +John--(with patronizing contempt.) “O, shucks! None of you fellers were +ever at our house, even when we had one of our common weekday dinners.” + +Tom--(unheedful of the counter claims.) I hev teen studyin’ up the +dinner I’d like, and the bill-of-fare I’d set out for you fellers when +you come over to see me. First, of course, we’ll lay the foundation +like with a nice, juicy loin roast, and some mashed potatos. + +Bill--(interrupting.) “Now, do you like mashed potatos with beef? The +way may mother does is to pare the potatos, and lay them in the pan +along with the beef. Then, you know, they come out just as nice and +crisp, and brown; they have soaked up all the beef gravy, and they +crinkle between your teeth--” + +Jim--“Now, I tell you, mashed Neshannocks with butter on ’em is plenty +good enough for me.” + +John--“If you’d et some of the new kind of peachblows that we raised in +the old pasture lot the year before I enlisted, you’d never say another +word about your Neshannocks.” + +Tom--(taking breath and starting in fresh.) “Then we’ll hev some fried +Spring chickens, of our dominick breed. Them dominicks of ours have the +nicest, tenderest meat, better’n quail, a darned sight, and the way my +mother can fry Spring chickens----” + +Bill--(aside to Jim.) “Every durned woman in the country thinks she can +‘spry ching frickens;’ but my mother---” + +John--“You fellers all know that there’s nobody knows half as much +about chicken doin’s as these ’tinerant Methodis’ preachers. They give +’em chicken wherever they go, and folks do say that out in the new +settlements they can’t get no preachin’, no gospel, nor nothin’, until +the chickens become so plenty that a preacher is reasonably sure of +havin’ one for his dinner wherever he may go. Now, there’s old Peter +Cartwright, who has traveled over Illinoy and Indianny since the Year +One, and preached more good sermons than any other man who ever set on +saddle-bags, and has et more chickens than there are birds in a big +pigeon roost. Well, he took dinner at our house when he came up to +dedicate the big, white church at Simpkin’s Corners, and when he passed +up his plate the third time for more chicken, he sez, sez he:--I’ve et +at a great many hundred tables in the fifty years I have labored in the +vineyard of the Redeemer, but I must say, Mrs. Kiggins, that your way +of frying chickens is a leetle the nicest that I ever knew. I only wish +that the sisters generally would get your reseet.’ Yes, that’s what he +said,--‘a leetle the nicest.’” + +Tom--“An’ then, we’ll hev biscuits an’ butter. I’ll just bet five +hundred dollars to a cent, and give back the cent if I win, that we +have the best butter at our house that there is in Central Illinoy. You +can’t never hev good butter onless you have a spring house; there’s no +use of talkin’--all the patent churns that lazy men ever invented--all +the fancy milk pans an’ coolers, can’t make up for a spring house. +Locations for a spring house are scarcer than hen’s teeth in Illinoy, +but we hev one, and there ain’t a better one in Orange County, New +York. Then you’ll see dome of the biscuits my mother makes.” + +Bill--“Well, now, my mother’s a boss biscuit-maker, too.” + +Jim--“You kin just gamble that mine is.” + +John--“O, that’s the way you fellers ought to think an’ talk, but my +mother----” + +Tom--(coming in again with fresh vigor) “They’re jest as light an’ +fluffy as a dandelion puff, and they melt in your month like a ripe +Bartlett pear. You just pull ’em open--Now you know that I think +there’s nothin’ that shows a person’s raisin’ so well as to see him +eat biscuits an’ butter. If he’s been raised mostly on corn bread, an’ +common doins,’ an’ don’t know much about good things to eat, he’ll most +likely cut his biscuit open with a case knife, an’ make it fall as flat +as one o’ yesterday’s pancakes. But if he is used to biscuits, has had +’em often at his house, he’ll--just pull ’em open, slow an’ easy like, +then he’ll lay a little slice of butter inside, and drop a few drops +of clear honey on this, an’ stick the two halves back, together again, +an--” + +“Oh, for God Almighty’s sake, stop talking that infernal nonsense,” +roar out a half dozen of the surrounding crowd, whose mouths have been +watering over this unctuous recital of the good things of the table. +“You blamed fools, do you want to drive yourselves and everybody else +crazy with such stuff as that. Dry up and try to think of something +else.” + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +SURLY BRITON--THE STOLID COURAGE THAT MAKES THE ENGLISH FLAG A +BANNER OF TRIUMPH--OUR COMPANY BUGLER, HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND HIS +DEATH--URGENT DEMAND FOR MECHANICS--NONE WANT TO GO--TREATMENT OF +A REBEL SHOEMAKER --ENLARGEMENT OF THE STOCKADE--IT IS BROKEN BY A +STORM--THE WONDERFUL SPRING. + +Early in August, F. Marriott, our Company Bugler, died. Previous to +coming to America he had been for many years an English soldier, and +I accepted him as a type of that stolid, doggedly brave class, which +forms the bulk of the English armies, and has for centuries carried +the British flag with dauntless courage into every land under the +sun. Rough, surly and unsocial, he did his duty with the unemotional +steadiness of a machine. He knew nothing but to obey orders, and obeyed +them under all circumstances promptly, but with stony impassiveness. +With the command to move forward into action, he moved forward without +a word, and with face as blank as a side of sole leather. He went +as far as ordered, halted at the word, and retired at command as +phlegmatically as he advanced. If he cared a straw whether he advanced +or retreated, if it mattered to the extent of a pinch of salt whether +we whipped the Rebels or they defeated us, he kept that feeling so +deeply hidden in the recesses of his sturdy bosom that no one ever +suspected it. In the excitement of action the rest of the boys shouted, +and swore, and expressed their tense feelings in various ways, but +Marriott might as well have been a graven image, for all the expression +that he suffered to escape. Doubtless, if the Captain had ordered him +to shoot one of the company through the heart, he would have executed +the command according to the manual of arms, brought his carbine to +a “recover,” and at the word marched back to his quarters without an +inquiry as to the cause of the proceedings. He made no friends, and +though his surliness repelled us, he made few enemies. Indeed, he was +rather a favorite, since he was a genuine character; his gruffness had +no taint of selfish greed in it; he minded his own business strictly, +and wanted others to do the same. When he first came into the company, +it is true, he gained the enmity of nearly everybody in it, but an +incident occurred which turned the tide in his favor. Some annoying +little depredations had been practiced on the boys, and it needed +but a word of suspicion to inflame all their minds against the surly +Englishman as the unknown perpetrator. The feeling intensified, until +about half of the company were in a mood to kill the Bugler outright. +As we were returning from stable duty one evening, some little +occurrence fanned the smoldering anger into a fierce blaze; a couple +of the smaller boys began an attack upon him; others hastened to their +assistance, and soon half the company were engaged in the assault. + +He succeeded in disengaging himself from his assailants, and, squaring +himself off, said, defiantly: + +“Dom yer cowardly heyes; jest come hat me one hat a time, hand hI’ll +wollop the ’ole gang uv ye’s.” + +One of our Sergeants styled himself proudly “a Chicago rough,” and was +as vain of his pugilistic abilities as a small boy is of a father who +plays in the band. We all hated him cordially--even more than we did +Marriott. + +He thought this was a good time to show off, and forcing his way +through the crowd, he said, vauntingly: + +“Just fall back and form a ring, boys, and see me polish off +the---fool.” + +The ring was formed, with the Bugler and the Sergeant in the center. +Though the latter was the younger and stronger the first round showed +him that it would have profited him much more to have let Marriott’s +challenge pass unheeded. As a rule, it is as well to ignore all +invitations of this kind from Englishmen, and especially from those +who, like Marriott, have served a term in the army, for they are likely +to be so handy with their fists as to make the consequences of an +acceptance more lively than desirable. + +So the Sergeant found. “Marriott,” as one of the spectators expressed +it, “went around him like a cooper around a barrel.” He planted his +blows just where he wished, to the intense delight of the boys, who +yelled enthusiastically whenever he got in “a hot one,” and their +delight at seeing the Sergeant drubbed so thoroughly and artistically, +worked an entire revolution in his favor. + +Thenceforward we viewed his eccentricities with lenient eyes, and +became rather proud of his bull-dog stolidity and surliness. The whole +battalion soon came to share this feeling, and everybody enjoyed +hearing his deep-toned growl, which mischievous boys would incite by +some petty annoyances deliberately designed for that purpose. I will +mention incidentally, that after his encounter with the Sergeant no one +ever again volunteered to “polish” him off. + +Andersonville did not improve either his temper or his +communicativeness. He seemed to want to get as far away from the rest +of us as possible, and took up his quarters in a remote corner of +the Stockade, among utter strangers. Those of us who wandered up in +his neighborhood occasionally, to see how he was getting along, were +received with such scant courtesy, that we did not hasten to repeat +the visit. At length, after none of us had seen him for weeks, we +thought that comradeship demanded another visit. We found him in the +last stages of scurvy and diarrhea. Chunks of uneaten corn bread lay +by his head. They were at least a week old. The rations since then had +evidently been stolen from the helpless man by those around him. The +place where he lay was indescribably filthy, and his body was swarming +with vermin. Some good Samaritan had filled his little black oyster +can with water, and placed it within his reach. For a week, at least, +he had not been able to rise from the ground; he could barely reach +for the water near him. He gave us such a glare of recognition as I +remembered to have seen light up the fast-darkening eyes of a savage +old mastiff, that I and my boyish companions once found dying in the +woods of disease and hurts. Had he been able he would have driven us +away, or at least assailed us with biting English epithets. Thus he had +doubtless driven away all those who had attempted to help him. We did +what little we could, and staid with him until the next afternoon, when +he died. We prepared his body, in the customary way: folded the hands +across his breast, tied the toes together, and carried it outside, not +forgetting each of us, to bring back a load of wood. + +The scarcity of mechanics of all kinds in the Confederacy, and the +urgent needs of the people for many things which the war and the +blockade prevented their obtaining, led to continual inducements being +offered to the artizans among us to go outside and work at their +trade. Shoemakers seemed most in demand; next to these blacksmiths, +machinists, molders and metal workers generally. Not a week passed +during my imprisonment that I did not see a Rebel emissary of some kind +about the prison seeking to engage skilled workmen for some purpose +or another. While in Richmond the managers of the Tredegar Iron Works +were brazen and persistent in their efforts to seduce what are termed +“malleable iron workers,” to enter their employ. A boy who was master +of any one of the commoner trades had but to make his wishes known, and +he would be allowed to go out on parole to work. I was a printer, and I +think that at least a dozen times I was approached by Rebel publishers +with offers of a parole, and work at good prices. One from Columbia, S. +C., offered me two dollars and a half a “thousand” for composition. As +the highest price for such work that I had received before enlisting +was thirty cents a thousand, this seemed a chance to accumulate untold +wealth. Since a man working in day time can set from thirty-five +to fifty “thousand” a week, this would make weekly wages run from +eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents to one hundred and twenty-five +dollars--but it was in Confederate money, then worth from ten to twenty +cents on the dollar. + +Still better offers were made to iron workers of all kinds, to +shoemakers, tanners, weavers, tailors, hatters, engineers, machinists, +millers, railroad men, and similar tradesmen. Any of these could +have made a handsome thing by accepting the offers made them almost +weekly. As nearly all in the prison had useful trades, it would have +been of immense benefit to the Confederacy if they could have been +induced to work at them. There is no measuring the benefit it would +have been to the Southern cause if all the hundreds of tanners and +shoemakers in the Stockade could have, been persuaded to go outside +and labor in providing leather and shoes for the almost shoeless +people and soldiery. The machinists alone could have done more good +to the Southern Confederacy than one of our brigades was doing harm, +by consenting to go to the railroad shops at Griswoldville and ply +their handicraft. The lack of material resources in the South was +one of the strongest allies our arms had. This lack of resources was +primarily caused by a lack of skilled labor to develop those resources, +and nowhere could there be found a finer collection of skilled +laborers than in the thirty-three thousand prisoners incarcerated in +Andersonville. + +All solicitations to accept a parole and go outside to work at one’s +trade were treated with the scorn they deserved. If any mechanic +yielded to them, the fact did not come under my notice. The usual reply +to invitations of this kind was: + +“No, Sir! By God, I’ll stay in here till I rot, and the maggots carry +me out through the cracks in the Stockade, before I’ll so much as raise +my little finger to help the infernal Confederacy, or Rebels, in any +shape or form.” + +In August a Macon shoemaker came in to get some of his trade to go +back with him to work in the Confederate shoe factory. He prosecuted +his search for these until he reached the center of the camp on the +North Side, when some of the shoemakers who had gathered around him, +apparently considering his propositions, seized him and threw him into +a well. He was kept there a whole day, and only released when Wirz cut +off the rations of the prison for that day, and announced that no more +would be issued until the man was returned safe and sound to the gate. + +The terrible crowding was somewhat ameliorated by the opening in +July of an addition--six hundred feet long--to the North Side of the +Stockade. This increased the room inside to twenty acres, giving about +an acre to every one thousand seven hundred men,--a preposterously +contracted area still. The new ground was not a hotbed of virulent +poison like the olds however, and those who moved on to it had that +much in their favor. + +The palisades between the new and the old portions of the pen were left +standing when the new portion was opened. We were still suffering a +great deal of inconvenience from lack of wood. That night the standing +timbers were attacked by thousands of prisoners armed with every +species of a tool to cut wood, from a case-knife to an ax. They worked +the live-long night with such energy that by morning not only every +inch of the logs above ground had disappeared, but that below had been +dug up, and there was not enough left of the eight hundred foot wall of +twenty-five-foot logs to make a box of matches. + +One afternoon--early in August--one of the violent rain storms +common to that section sprung up, and in a little while the water +was falling in torrents. The little creek running through the camp +swelled up immensely, and swept out large gaps in the Stockade, both +in the west and east sides. The Rebels noticed the breaches as soon +as the prisoners. Two guns were fired from the Star Tort, and all the +guards rushed out, and formed so as to prevent any egress, if one was +attempted. Taken by surprise, we were not in a condition to profit by +the opportunity until it was too late. + +The storm did one good thing: it swept away a great deal of filth, and +left the camp much more wholesome. The foul stench rising from the +camp made an excellent electrical conductor, and the lightning struck +several times within one hundred feet of the prison. + +Toward the end of August there happened what the religously inclined +termed a Providential Dispensation. The water in the Creek was +indescribably bad. No amount of familiarity with it, no increase of +intimacy with our offensive surroundings, could lessen the disgust +at the polluted water. As I have said previously, before the stream +entered the Stockade, it was rendered too filthy for any use by the +contaminations from the camps of the guards, situated about a half-mile +above. Immediately on entering the Stockade the contamination became +terrible. The oozy seep at the bottom of the hillsides drained directly +into it all the mass of filth from a population of thirty-three +thousand. Imagine the condition of an open sewer, passing through the +heart of a city of that many people, and receiving all the offensive +product of so dense a gathering into a shallow, sluggish stream, a yard +wide and five inches deep, and heated by the burning rays of the sun +in the thirty-second degree of latitude. Imagine, if one can, without +becoming sick at the stomach, all of these people having to wash in and +drink of this foul flow. + +There is not a scintilla of exaggeration in this statement. That +it is within the exact truth is demonstrable by the testimony of +any man--Rebel or Union--who ever saw the inside of the Stockade at +Andersonville. I am quite content to have its truth--as well as that of +any other statement made in this book--be determined by the evidence +of any one, no matter how bitter his hatred of the Union, who had any +personal knowledge of the condition of affairs at Andersonville. No one +can successfully deny that there were at least thirty-three thousand +prisoners in the Stockade, and that the one shallow, narrow creek, +which passed through the prison, was at once their main sewer and their +source of supply of water for bathing, drinking and washing. With these +main facts admitted, the reader’s common sense of natural consequences +will furnish the rest of the details. + +It is true that some of the more fortunate of us had wells; thanks to +our own energy in overcoming extraordinary obstacles; no thanks to our +gaolers for making the slightest effort to provide these necessities +of life. We dug the wells with case and pocket knives, and half +canteens to a depth of from twenty to thirty feet, pulling up the dirt +in pantaloons legs, and running continual risk of being smothered to +death by the caving in of the unwalled sides. Not only did the Rebels +refuse to give us boards with which to wall the wells, and buckets for +drawing the water, but they did all in their power to prevent us from +digging the wells, and made continual forays to capture the digging +tools, because the wells were frequently used as the starting places +for tunnels. Professor Jones lays special stress on this tunnel feature +in his testimony, which I have introduced in a previous chapter. + +The great majority of the prisoners who went to the Creek for water, +went as near as possible to the Dead Line on the West Side, where the +Creek entered the Stockade, that they might get water with as little +filth in it as possible. In the crowds struggling there for their turn +to take a dip, some one nearly every day got so close to the Dead Line +as to arouse a suspicion in the guard’s mind that he was touching it. +The suspicion was the unfortunate one’s death warrant, and also its +execution. As the sluggish brain of the guard conceived it he leveled +his gun; the distance to his victim was not over one hundred feet; +he never failed his aim; the first warning the wretched prisoner got +that he was suspected of transgressing a prison-rule was the charge of +“ball-and-buck” that tore through his body. It was lucky if he was, the +only one of the group killed. More wicked and unjustifiable murders +never were committed than these almost daily assassinations at the +Creek. + +One morning the camp was astonished beyond measure to discover that +during the night a large, bold spring had burst out on the North +Side, about midway between the Swamp and the summit of the hill. It +poured out its grateful flood of pure, sweet water in an apparently +exhaustless quantity. To the many who looked in wonder upon it, it +seemed as truly a heaven-wrought miracle as when Moses’s enchanted rod +smote the parched rock in Sinai’s desert waste, and the living waters +gushed forth. + +The police took charge of the spring, and every one was compelled to +take his regular turn in filling his vessel. This was kept up during +our whole stay in Andersonville, and every morning, shortly after +daybreak, a thousand men could be seen standing in line, waiting their +turns to fill their cans and cups with the precious liquid. + +I am told by comrades who have revisited the Stockade of recent years, +that the spring is yet running as when we left, and is held in most +pious veneration by the negros of that vicinity, who still preserve the +tradition of its miraculous origin, and ascribe to its water wonderful +grace giving and healing properties, similar to those which pious +Catholics believe exist in the holy water of the fountain at Lourdes. + +I must confess that I do not think they are so very far from right. If +I could believe that any water was sacred and thaumaturgic, it would +be of that fountain which appeared so opportunely for the benefit of +the perishing thousands of Andersonville. And when I hear of people +bringing water for baptismal purposes from the Jordan, I say in +my heart, “How much more would I value for myself and friends the +administration of the chrismal sacrament with the diviner flow from +that low sand-hill in Western Georgia.” + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +“SICK CALL,” AND THE SCENES THAT ACCOMPANIED IT--MUSTERING THE LAME, +HALT AND DISEASED AT THE SOUTH GATE--AN UNUSUALLY BAD CASE--GOING OUT +TO THE HOSPITAL--ACCOMMODATION AND TREATMENT OF THE PATIENTS THERE--THE +HORRIBLE SUFFERING IN THE GANGRENE WARD--BUNGLING AMPUTATIONS +BY BLUNDERING PRACTITIONERS--AFFECTION BETWEEN A SAILOR AND HIS +WARD--DEATH OF MY COMRADE. + +Every morning after roll-call, thousands of sick gathered at the South +Gate, where the doctors made some pretense of affording medical relief. +The scene there reminded me of the illustrations in my Sunday-School +lessons of that time when “great multitudes came unto Him,” by the +shores of the Sea of Galilee, “having with them those that were +lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others.” Had the crowds worn the +flouting robes of the East, the picture would have lacked nothing +but the presence of the Son of Man to make it complete. Here were +the burning sands and parching sun; hither came scores of groups of +three or four comrades, laboriously staggering under the weight of a +blanket in which they had carried a disabled and dying friend from some +distant part of the Stockade. Beside them hobbled the scorbutics with +swollen and distorted limbs, each more loathsome and nearer death than +the lepers whom Christ’s divine touch made whole. Dozens, unable to +walk, and having no comrades to carry them, crawled painfully along, +with frequent stops, on their hands and knees. Every form of intense +physical suffering that it is possible for disease to induce in the +human frame was visible at these daily parades of the sick of the +prison. As over three thousand (three thousand and seventy-six) died +in August, there were probably twelve thousand dangerously sick at any +given time daring the month; and a large part of these collected at the +South Gate every morning. + +Measurably-calloused as we had become by the daily sights of horror +around us, we encountered spectacles in these gatherings which +no amount of visible misery could accustom us to. I remember one +especially that burned itself deeply into my memory. It was of a young +man not over twenty-five, who a few weeks ago--his clothes looked +comparatively new --had evidently been the picture of manly beauty +and youthful vigor. He had had a well-knit, lithe form; dark curling +hair fell over a forehead which had once been fair, and his eyes still +showed that they had gleamed with a bold, adventurous spirit. The red +clover leaf on his cap showed that he belonged to the First Division of +the Second Corps, the three chevrons on his arm that he was a Sergeant, +and the stripe at his cuff that he was a veteran. Some kind-hearted +boys had found him in a miserable condition on the North Side, and +carried him over in a blanket to where the doctors could see him. He +had but little clothing on, save his blouse and cap. Ulcers of some +kind had formed in his abdomen, and these were now masses of squirming +worms. It was so much worse than the usual forms of suffering, that +quite a little crowd of compassionate spectators gathered around and +expressed their pity. The sufferer turned to one who lay beside him +with: + +“Comrade: If we were only under the old Stars and Stripes, we wouldn’t +care a G-d d--n for a few worms, would we?” + +This was not profane. It was an utterance from the depths of a brave +man’s heart, couched in the strongest language at his command. It +seemed terrible that so gallant a soul should depart from earth in this +miserable fashion. Some of us, much moved by the sight, went to the +doctors and put the case as strongly as possible, begging them to do +something to alleviate his suffering. They declined to see the case, +but got rid of us by giving us a bottle of turpentine, with directions +to pour it upon the ulcers to kill the maggots. We did so. It must have +been cruel torture, and as absurd remedially as cruel, but our hero set +his teeth and endured, without a groan. He was then carried out to the +hospital to die. + +I said the doctors made a pretense of affording medical relief. It was +hardly that, since about all the prescription for those inside the +Stockade consisted in giving a handful of sumach berries to each of +those complaining of scurvy. The berries might have done some good, had +there been enough of them, and had their action been assisted by proper +food. As it was, they were probably nearly, if not wholly, useless. +Nothing was given to arrest the ravages of dysentery. + +A limited number of the worst cases were admitted to the Hospital +each day. As this only had capacity for about one-quarter of the sick +in the Stockade, new patients could only be admitted as others died. +It seemed, anyway, like signing a man’s death warrant to send him to +the Hospital, as three out of every four who went out there died. The +following from the official report of the Hospital shows this: + +Total number admitted .........................................12,900 +Died ................................................. 8,663 +Exchanged ............................................ 828 +Took the oath of allegiance .......................... 25 +Sent elsewhere ....................................... 2,889 + +Total ................................................12,400 + +Average deaths, 76 per cent. + + +Early in August I made a successful effort to get out to the Hospital. +I had several reasons for this: First, one of my chums, W. W. Watts, +of my own company, had been sent out a little whale before very sick +with scurvy and pneumonia, and I wanted to see if I could do anything +for him, if he still lived: I have mentioned before that for awhile +after our entrance into Andersonville five of us slept on one overcoat +and covered ourselves with one blanket. Two of these had already died, +leaving as possessors of-the blanket and overcoat, W. W. Watts, B. B. +Andrews, and myself. + +Next, I wanted to go out to see if there was any prospect of escape. I +had long since given up hopes of escaping from the Stockade. All our +attempts at tunneling had resulted in dead failures, and now, to make +us wholly despair of success in that direction, another Stockade was +built clear around the prison, at a distance of one hundred and twenty +feet from the first palisades. It was manifest that though we might +succeed in tunneling past one Stockade, we could not go beyond the +second one. + +I had the scurvy rather badly, and being naturally slight in frame, I +presented a very sick appearance to the physicians, and was passed out +to the Hospital. + +While this was a wretched affair, it was still a vast improvement on +the Stockade. About five acres of ground, a little southeast of the +Stockade, and bordering on a creek, were enclosed by a board fence, +around which the guard walked, trees shaded the ground tolerably well. +There were tents and flies to shelter part of the sick, and in these +were beds made of pine leaves. There were regular streets and alleys +running through the grounds, and as the management was in the hands +of our own men, the place was kept reasonably clean and orderly for +Andersonville. + +There was also some improvement in the food. Rice in some degree +replaced the nauseous and innutritious corn bread, and if served in +sufficient quantities, would doubtless have promoted the recovery +of many men dying from dysenteric diseases. We also received small +quantities of “okra,” a plant peculiar to the South, whose pods +contained a mucilaginous matter that made a soup very grateful to those +suffering from scurvy. + +But all these ameliorations of condition were too slight to even arrest +the progress of the disease of the thousands of dying men brought out +from the Stockade. These still wore the same lice-infested garments as +in prison; no baths or even ordinary applications of soap and water +cleaned their dirt-grimed skins, to give their pores an opportunity +to assist in restoring them to health; even their long, lank and +matted hair, swarming with vermin, was not trimmed. The most ordinary +and obvious measures for their comfort and care were neglected. If a +man recovered he did it almost in spite of fate. The medicines given +were scanty and crude. The principal remedial agent--as far as my +observation extended--was a rank, fetid species of unrectified spirits, +which, I was told, was made from sorgum seed. It had a light-green +tinge, and was about as inviting to the taste as spirits of turpentine. +It was given to the sick in small quantities mixed with water. I had +had some experience with Kentucky “apple-jack,” which, it was popularly +believed among the boys, would dissolve a piece of the fattest pork +thrown into it, but that seemed balmy and oily alongside of this. +After tasting some, I ceased to wonder at the atrocities of Wirz and +his associates. Nothing would seem too bad to a man who made that his +habitual tipple. + +[For a more particular description of the Hospital I must refer my +reader to the testimony of Professor Jones, in a previous chapter.] + +Certainly this continent has never seen--and I fervently trust it +will never again see--such a gigantic concentration of misery as that +Hospital displayed daily. The official statistics tell the story of +this with terrible brevity: There were three thousand seven hundred +and nine in the Hospital in August; one thousand four hundred and +eighty-nine--nearly every other man died. The rate afterwards became +much higher than this. + +The most conspicuous suffering was in the gangrene wards. Horrible +sores spreading almost visibly from hour to hour, devoured men’s limbs +and bodies. I remember one ward in which the alterations appeared to be +altogether in the back, where they ate out the tissue between the skin +and the ribs. The attendants seemed trying to arrest the progress of +the sloughing by drenching the sores with a solution of blue vitriol. +This was exquisitely painful, and in the morning, when the drenching +was going on, the whole hospital rang with the most agonizing screams. + +But the gangrene mostly attacked the legs and arms, and the led more +than the arms. Sometimes it killed men inside of a week; sometimes they +lingered on indefinitely. I remember one man in the Stockade who cut +his hand with the sharp corner of a card of corn bread he was lifting +from the ration wagon; gangrene set in immediately, and he died four +days after. + +One form that was quit prevalent was a cancer of the lower one corner +of the mouth, and it finally ate the whole side of the face out. Of +course the sufferer had the greatest trouble in eating and drinking. +For the latter it was customary to whittle out a little wooden tube, +and fasten it in a tin cup, through which he could suck up the water. +As this mouth cancer seemed contagious, none of us would allow any one +afflicted with it to use any of our cooking utensils. The Rebel doctors +at the hospital resorted to wholesale amputations to check the progress +of the gangrene. + +They had a two hours session of limb-lopping every morning, each of +which resulted in quite a pile of severed members. I presume more +bungling operations are rarely seen outside of Russian or Turkish +hospitals. Their unskilfulness was apparent even to non-scientific +observers like myself. The standard of medical education in the +South--as indeed of every other form of education--was quite low. The +Chief Surgeon of the prison, Dr. Isaiah White, and perhaps two or three +others, seemed to be gentlemen of fair abilities and attainments. The +remainder were of that class of illiterate and unlearning quacks who +physic and blister the poor whites and negros in the country districts +of the South; who believe they can stop bleeding of the nose by +repeating a verse from the Bible; who think that if in gathering their +favorite remedy of boneset they cut the stem upwards it will purge +their patients, and if downward it will vomit them, and who hold that +there is nothing so good for “fits” as a black cat, killed in the dark +of the moon, cut open, and bound while yet warm, upon the naked chest +of the victim of the convulsions. + +They had a case of instruments captured from some of our field +hospitals, which were dull and fearfully out of order. With poor +instruments and unskilled hands the operations became mangling. + +In the Hospital I saw an admirable illustration of the affection +which a sailor will lavish on a ship’s boy, whom he takes a fancy to, +and makes his “chicken,” as the phrase is. The United States sloop +“Water Witch” had recently been captured in Ossabaw Sound, and her +crew brought into prison. One of her boys--a bright, handsome little +fellow of about fifteen--had lost one of his arms in the fight. He +was brought into the Hospital, and the old fellow whose “chicken” he +was, was allowed to accompany and nurse him. This “old barnacle-back” +was as surly a growler as ever went aloft, but to his “chicken” he +was as tender and thoughtful as a woman. They found a shady nook in +one corner, and any moment one looked in that direction he could see +the old tar hard at work at something for the comfort and pleasure +of his pet. Now he was dressing the wound as deftly and gently as a +mother caring for a new-born babe; now he was trying to concoct some +relish out of the slender materials he could beg or steal from the +Quartermaster; now trying to arrange the shade of the bed of pine +leaves in a more comfortable manner; now repairing or washing his +clothes, and so on. + +All the sailors were particularly favored by being allowed to bring +their bags in untouched by the guards. This “chicken” had a wonderful +supply of clothes, the handiwork of his protector who, like most good +sailors, was very skillful with the needle. He had suits of fine white +duck, embroidered with blue in a way that would ravish the heart of a +fine lady, and blue suits similarly embroidered with white. No belle +ever kept her clothes in better order than these were. When the duck +came up from the old sailor’s patient washing it was as spotless as +new-fallen snow. + +I found my chum in a very bad condition. His appetite was entirely +gone, but he had an inordinate craving for tobacco--for strong, black +plug --which he smoked in a pipe. He had already traded off all his +brass buttons to the guards for this. I had accumulated a few buttons +to bribe the guard to take me out for wood, and I gave these also +for tobacco for him. When I awoke one morning the man who laid next +to me on the right was dead, having died sometime during the night. +I searched his pockets and took what was in them. These were a silk +pocket handkerchief, a gutta percha finger-ring, a comb, a pencil, and +a leather pocket-book, making in all quite a nice little “find.” I hied +over to the guard, and succeeded in trading the personal estate which +I had inherited from the intestate deceased, for a handful of peaches, +a handful of hardly ripe figs, and a long plug of tobacco. I hastened +back to Watts, expecting that the figs and peaches would do him a world +of good. At first I did not show him the tobacco, as I was strongly +opposed to his using it, thinking that it was making him much worse. +But he looked at the tempting peaches and figs with lack-luster eyes; +he was too far gone to care for them. He pushed them back to me, saying +faintly: + +“No, you take ’em, Mc; I don’t want ’em; I can’t eat ’em!” + +I then produced the tobacco, and his face lighted up. Concluding that +this was all the comfort that he could have, and that I might as well +gratify him, I cut up some of the weed, filled his pipe and lighted it. +He smoked calmly and almost happily all the afternoon, hardly speaking +a word to me. As it grew dark he asked me to bring him a drink. I did +so, and as I raised him up he said: + +“Mc, this thing’s ended. Tell my father that I stood it as long as I +could, and----” + +The death rattle sounded in his throat, and when I laid him back it was +all over. Straightening out his limbs, folding his hands across his +breast, and composing his features as best I could, I lay, down beside +the body and slept till morning, when I did what little else I could +toward preparing for the grave all that was left of my long-suffering +little friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE--DIFFERENT PLANS AND THEIR MERITS--I PREFER THE +APPALACHICOLA ROUTE--PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE--A HOT DAY--THE FENCE +PASSED SUCCESSFULLY PURSUED BY THE HOUNDS--CAUGHT --RETURNED TO THE +STOCKADE. + +After Watt’s death, I set earnestly about seeing what could be done in +the way of escape. Frank Harney, of the First West Virginia Cavalry, a +boy of about my own age and disposition, joined with me in the scheme. +I was still possessed with my original plan of making my way down the +creeks to the Flint River, down the Flint River to where it emptied +into the Appalachicola River, and down that stream to its debauchure +into the bay that connected with the Gulf of Mexico. I was sure of +finding my way by this route, because, if nothing else offered, I could +get astride of a log and float down the current. The way to Sherman, +in the other direction, was long, torturous and difficult, with a +fearful gauntlet of blood-hounds, patrols and the scouts of Hood’s Army +to be run. I had but little difficulty in persuading Harney into an +acceptance of my views, and we began arranging for a solution of the +first great problem--how to get outside of the Hospital guards. As I +have explained before, the Hospital was surrounded by a board fence, +with guards walking their beats on the ground outside. A small creek +flowed through the southern end of the grounds, and at its lower end +was used as a sink. The boards of the fence came down to the surface +of the water, where the Creek passed out, but we found, by careful +prodding with a stick, that the hole between the boards and the bottom +of the Creek was sufficiently large to allow the passage of our bodies, +and there had been no stakes driven or other precautions used to +prevent egress by this channel. A guard was posted there, and probably +ordered to stand at the edge of the stream, but it smelled so vilely in +those scorching days that he had consulted his feelings and probably +his health, by retiring to the top of the bank, a rod or more distant. +We watched night after night, and at last were gratified to find that +none went nearer the Creak than the top of this bank. + +Then we waited for the moon to come right, so that the first part +of the night should be dark. This took several days, but at last we +knew that the next night she would not rise until between 9 and 10 +o’clock, which would give us nearly two hours of the dense darkness of +a moonless Summer night in the South. We had first thought of saving +up some rations for the trip, but then reflected that these would be +ruined by the filthy water into which we must sink to go under the +fence. It was not difficult to abandon the food idea, since it was very +hard to force ourselves to lay by even the smallest portion of our +scanty rations. + +As the next day wore on, our minds were wrought up into exalted tension +by the rapid approach of the supreme moment, with all its chances +and consequences. The experience of the past few months was not such +as to mentally fit us for such a hazard. It prepared us for sullen, +uncomplaining endurance, for calmly contemplating the worst that could +come; but it did not strengthen that fiber of mind that leads to +venturesome activity and daring exploits. Doubtless the weakness of our +bodies reacted upon our spirits. We contemplated all the perils that +confronted us; perils that, now looming up with impending nearness, +took a clearer and more threatening shape than they had ever done +before. + +We considered the desperate chances of passing the guard unseen; or, +if noticed, of escaping his fire without death or severe wounds. But +supposing him fortunately evaded, then came the gauntlet of the hounds +and the patrols hunting deserters. After this, a long, weary journey, +with bare feet and almost naked bodies, through an unknown country +abounding with enemies; the dangers of assassination by the embittered +populace; the risks of dying with hunger and fatigue in the gloomy +depths of a swamp; the scanty hopes that, if we reached the seashore, +we could get to our vessels. + +Not one of all these contingencies failed to expand itself to all its +alarming proportions, and unite with its fellows to form a dreadful +vista, like the valleys filled with demons and genii, dragons and +malign enchantments, which confront the heros of the “Arabian Nights,” +when they set out to perform their exploits. + +But behind us lay more miseries and horrors than a riotous imagination +could conceive; before us could certainly be nothing worse. We would +put life and freedom to the hazard of a touch, and win or lose it all. + +The day had been intolerably hot. The sun’s rays seemed to sear the +earth, like heated irons, and the air that lay on the burning sand was +broken by wavy lines, such as one sees indicate the radiation from a +hot stove. + +Except the wretched chain-gang plodding torturously back and forward on +the hillside, not a soul nor an animal could be seen in motion outside +the Stockade. The hounds were panting in their kennel; the Rebel +officers, half or wholly drunken with villainous sorgum whisky, were +stretched at full length in the shade at headquarters; the half-caked +gunners crouched under the shadow of the embankments of the forts, the +guards hung limply over the Stockade in front of their little perches; +the thirty thousand boys inside the Stockade, prone or supine upon +the glowing sand, gasped for breath--for one draft of sweet, cool, +wholesome air that did not bear on its wings the subtle seeds of rank +corruption and death. Everywhere was the prostration of discomfort--the +inertia of sluggishness. + +Only the sick moved; only the pain-racked cried out; only the dying +struggled; only the agonies of dissolution could make life assert +itself against the exhaustion of the heat. + +Harney and I, lying in the scanty shade of the trunk of a tall pine, +and with hearts filled with solicitude as to the outcome of what the +evening would bring us, looked out over the scene as we had done daily +for long months, and remained silent for hours, until the sun, as if +weary with torturing and slaying, began going down in the blazing West. +The groans of the thousands of sick around us, the shrieks of the +rotting ones in the gangrene wards rang incessantly in our ears. + +As the sun disappeared, and the heat abated, the suspended activity +was restored. The Master of the Hounds came out with his yelping pack, +and started on his rounds; the Rebel officers aroused themselves from +their siesta and went lazily about their duties; the fifer produced +his cracked fife and piped forth his unvarying “Bonnie Blue Flag,” +as a signal for dress parade, and drums beaten by unskilled hands in +the camps of the different regiments, repeated the signal. In time +Stockade the mass of humanity became full of motion as an ant hill, and +resembled it very much from our point of view, with the boys threading +their way among the burrows, tents and holes. + +It was becoming dark quite rapidly. The moments seemed galloping onward +toward the time when we must make the decisive step. We drew from the +dirty rag in which it was wrapped the little piece of corn bread that +we had saved for our supper, carefully divided it into two equal parts, +and each took one and ate it in silence. This done, we held a final +consultation as to our plans, and went over each detail carefully, that +we might fully understand each other under all possible circumstances, +and act in concert. One point we laboriously impressed upon each other, +and that was; that under no circumstances were we to allow ourselves +to be tempted to leave the Creek until we reached its junction with +the Flint River. I then picked up two pine leaves, broke them off to +unequal lengths, rolled them in my hands behind my back for a second, +and presenting them to Harney with their ends sticking out of my closed +hand, said: + +“The one that gets the longest one goes first.” + +Harney reached forth and drew the longer one. + +We made a tour of reconnaissance. Everything seemed as usual, and +wonderfully calm compared with the tumult in our minds. The Hospital +guards were pacing their beats lazily; those on the Stockade were +drawling listlessly the first “call around” of the evening: + +“Post numbah foah! Half-past seven o’clock! and a-l-l’s we-l-ll!” + +Inside the Stockade was a Babel of sounds, above all of which rose the +melody of religious and patriotic songs, sung in various parts of the +camp. From the headquarters came the shouts and laughter of the Rebel +officers having a little “frolic” in the cool of the evening. The +groans of the sick around us were gradually hushing, as the abatement +of the terrible heat let all but the worst cases sink into a brief +slumber, from which they awoke before midnight to renew their outcries. +But those in the Gangrene wards seemed to be denied even this scanty +blessing. Apparently they never slept, for their shrieks never ceased. +A multitude of whip-poor-wills in the woods around us began their usual +dismal cry, which had never seemed so unearthly and full of dreadful +presages as now. + +It was, now quite dark, and we stole noiselessly down to the Creek +and reconnoitered. We listened. The guard was not pacing his beat, as +we could not hear his footsteps. A large, ill-shapen lump against the +trunk of one of the trees on the bank showed that he was leaning there +resting himself. We watched him for several minutes, but he did not +move, and the thought shot into our minds that he might be asleep; but +it seemed impossible: it was too early in the evening. + +Now, if ever, was the opportunity. Harney squeezed my hand, stepped +noiselessly into the Creek, laid himself gently down into the filthy +water, and while my heart was beating so that I was certain it could +be heard some distance from me, began making toward the fence. He +passed under easily, and I raised my eyes toward the guard, while on my +strained ear fell the soft plashing made by Harney as he pulled himself +cautiously forward. It seemed as if the sentinel must hear this; he +could not help it, and every second I expected to see the black lump +address itself to motion, and the musket flash out fiendishly. But he +did not; the lump remained motionless; the musket silent. + +When I thought that Harney had gained a sufficient distance I followed. +It seemed as if the disgusting water would smother me as I laid myself +down into it, and such was my agitation that it appeared almost +impossible that I should escape making such a noise as would attract +the guard’s notice. Catching hold of the roots and limbs at the side +of the stream, I pulled myself slowly along, and as noiselessly as +possible. + +I passed under the fence without difficulty, and was outside, and +within fifteen feet of the guard. I had lain down into the creek upon +my right side, that my face might be toward the guard, and I could +watch him closely all the time. + +As I came under the fence he was still leaning motionless against the +tree, but to my heated imagination he appeared to have turned and be +watching me. I hardly breathed; the filthy water rippling past me +seemed to roar to attract the guard’s attention; I reached my hand out +cautiously to grasp a root to pull myself along by, and caught instead +a dry branch, which broke with a loud crack. My heart absolutely stood +still. The guard evidently heard the noise. The black lump separated +itself from the tree, and a straight line which I knew to be his musket +separated itself from the lump. In a brief instant I lived a year of +mortal apprehension. So certain was I that he had discovered me, and +was leveling his piece to fire, that I could scarcely restrain myself +from springing up and dashing away to avoid the shot. Then I heard him +take a step, and to my unutterable surprise and relief, he walked off +farther from the Creek, evidently to speak to the man whose beat joined +his. + +I pulled away more swiftly, but still with the greatest caution, until +after half-an-hour’s painful effort I had gotten fully one hundred and +fifty yards away from the Hospital fence, and found Harney crouched on +a cypress knee, close to the water’s edge, watching for me. + +We waited there a few minutes, until I could rest, and calm my +perturbed nerves down to something nearer their normal equilibrium, and +then started on. We hoped that if we were as lucky in our next step as +in the first one we would reach the Flint River by daylight, and have a +good long start before the morning roll-call revealed our absence. We +could hear the hounds still baying in the distance, but this sound was +too customary to give us any uneasiness. + +But our progress was terribly slow. Every step hurt fearfully. The +Creek bed was full of roots and snags, and briers, and vines trailed +across it. These caught and tore our bare feet and legs, rendered +abnormally tender by the scurvy. It seemed as if every step was marked +with blood. The vines tripped us, and we frequently fell headlong. We +struggled on determinedly for nearly an hour, and were perhaps a mile +from the Hospital. + +The moon came up, and its light showed that the creek continued its +course through a dense jungle like that we had been traversing, +while on the high ground to our left were the open pine woods I have +previously described. + +We stopped and debated for a few minutes. We recalled our promise to +keep in the Creek, the experience of other boys who had tried to escape +and been caught by the hounds. If we staid in the Creek we were sure +the hounds would not find our trail, but it was equally certain that at +this rate we would be exhausted and starved before we got out of sight +of the prison. It seemed that we had gone far enough to be out of reach +of the packs patrolling immediately around the Stockade, and there +could be but little risk in trying a short walk on the dry ground. We +concluded to take the chances, and, ascending the bank, we walked and +ran as fast as we could for about two miles further. + +All at once it struck me that with all our progress the hounds sounded +as near as when we started. I shivered at the thought, and though +nearly ready to drop with fatigue, urged myself and Harney on. + +An instant later their baying rang out on the still night air right +behind us, and with fearful distinctness. There was no mistake now; +they had found our trail, and were running us down. The change from +fearful apprehension to the crushing reality stopped us stock-still in +our tracks. + +At the next breath the hounds came bursting through the woods in plain +sight, and in full cry. We obeyed our first impulse; rushed back into +the swamp, forced our way for a few yards through the flesh-tearing +impediments, until we gained a large cypress, upon whose great knees +we climbed--thoroughly exhausted--just as the yelping pack reached the +edge of the water, and stopped there and bayed at us. It was a physical +impossibility for us to go another step. + +In a moment the low-browed villain who had charge of the hounds came +galloping up on his mule, tooting signals to his dogs as he came, on +the cow-horn slung from his shoulders. + +He immediately discovered us, covered us with his revolver, and yelled +out: + +“Come ashore, there, quick: you---- ---- ---- ----s!” + +There was no help for it. We climbed down off the knees and started +towards the land. As we neared it, the hounds became almost frantic, +and it seemed as if we would be torn to pieces the moment they could +reach us. But the master dismounted and drove them back. He was surly +--even savage--to us, but seemed in too much hurry to get back to waste +any time annoying us with the dogs. He ordered us to get around in +front of the mule, and start back to camp. We moved as rapidly as our +fatigue and our lacerated feet would allow us, and before midnight were +again in the hospital, fatigued, filthy, torn, bruised and wretched +beyond description or conception. + +The next morning we were turned back into the Stockade as punishment. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +AUGUST--GOOD LUCK IN NOT MEETING CAPTAIN WIRZ--THAT WORTHY’S TREATMENT +OF RECAPTURED PRISONERS--SECRET SOCIETIES IN PRISON--SINGULAR MEETING +AND ITS RESULT--DISCOVERY AND REMOVAL OF THE OFFICERS AMONG THE +ENLISTED MEN. + +Harney and I were specially fortunate in being turned back into the +Stockade without being brought before Captain Wirz. + +We subsequently learned that we owed this good luck to Wirz’s absence +on sick leave--his place being supplied by Lieutenant Davis, a moderate +brained Baltimorean, and one of that horde of Marylanders in the Rebel +Army, whose principal service to the Confederacy consisted in working +themselves into “bomb-proof” places, and forcing those whom they +displaced into the field. Winder was the illustrious head of this crowd +of bomb-proof Rebels from “Maryland, My Maryland!” whose enthusiasm for +the Southern cause and consistency in serving it only in such places +as were out of range of the Yankee artillery, was the subject of many +bitter jibes by the Rebels--especially by those whose secure berths +they possessed themselves of. + +Lieutenant Davis went into the war with great brashness. He was one of +the mob which attacked the Sixth Massachusetts in its passage through +Baltimore, but, like all of that class of roughs, he got his stomach +full of war as soon as the real business of fighting began, and he +retired to where the chances of attaining a ripe old age were better +than in front of the Army of the Potomac’s muskets. We shall hear of +Davis again. + +Encountering Captain Wirz was one of the terrors of an abortive attempt +to escape. When recaptured prisoners were brought before him he would +frequently give way to paroxysms of screaming rage, so violent as +to closely verge on insanity. Brandishing the fearful and wonderful +revolver--of which I have spoken in such a manner as to threaten the +luckless captives with instant death, he would shriek out imprecations, +curses; and foul epithets in French, German and English, until he +fairly frothed at the mouth. There were plenty of stories current in +camp of his having several times given away to his rage so far as to +actually shoot men down in these interviews, and still more of his +knocking boys down and jumping upon them, until he inflicted injuries +that soon resulted in death. How true these rumors were I am unable to +say of my own personal knowledge, since I never saw him kill any one, +nor have I talked with any one who did. There were a number of cases +of this kind testified to upon his trial, but they all happened among +“paroles” outside the Stockade, or among the prisoners inside after we +left, so I knew nothing of them. + +One of the Old Switzer’s favorite ways of ending these seances was to +inform the boys that he would have them shot in an hour or so, and +bid them prepare for death. After keeping them in fearful suspense +for hours he would order them to be punished with the stocks, the +ball-and-chain, the chain-gang, or--if his fierce mood had burned +itself entirely out --as was quite likely with a man of his shallop’ +brain and vacillating temper--to be simply returned to the stockade. + +Nothing, I am sure, since the days of the Inquisition--or still later, +since the terrible punishments visited upon the insurgents of 1848 by +the Austrian aristocrats--has been so diabolical as the stocks and +chain-gangs, as used by Wirz. At one time seven men, sitting in the +stocks near the Star Fort--in plain view of the camp--became objects +of interest to everybody inside. They were never relieved from their +painful position, but were kept there until all of them died. I think +it was nearly two weeks before the last one succumbed. What they +endured in that time even imagination cannot conceive--I do not think +that an Indian tribe ever devised keener torture for its captives. + +The chain-gang consisted of a number of men--varying from twelve to +twenty-five, all chained to one sixty-four pound ball. They were also +stationed near the Star Fort, standing out in the hot sun, without a +particle of shade over them. When one moved they all had to move. They +were scourged with the dysentery, and the necessities of some one of +their number kept them constantly in motion. I can see them distinctly +yet, tramping laboriously and painfully back and forward over that +burning hillside, every moment of the long, weary Summer days. + +A comrade writes to remind me of the beneficent work of the Masonic +Order. I mention it most gladly, as it was the sole recognition on +the part of any of our foes of our claims to human kinship. The +churches of all denominations--except the solitary Catholic priest, +Father Hamilton, --ignored us as wholly as if we were dumb beasts. +Lay humanitarians were equally indifferent, and the only interest +manifested by any Rebel in the welfare of any prisoner was by the +Masonic brotherhood. The Rebel Masons interested themselves in securing +details outside the Stockade in the cookhouse, the commissary, and +elsewhere, for the brethren among the prisoners who would accept such +favors. Such as did not feel inclined to go outside on parole received +frequent presents in the way of food, and especially of vegetables, +which were literally beyond price. Materials were sent inside to build +tents for the Masons, and I think such as made themselves known before +death, received burial according to the rites of the Order. Doctor +White, and perhaps other Surgeons, belonged to the fraternity, and the +wearing of a Masonic emblem by a new prisoner was pretty sure to catch +their eyes, and be the means of securing for the wearer the tender +of their good offices, such as a detail into the Hospital as nurse, +ward-master, etc. + +I was not fortunate enough to be one of the mystic brethren, and +so missed all share in any of these benefits, as well as in any +others, and I take special pride in one thing: that during my whole +imprisonment I was not beholden to a Rebel for a single favor of any +kind. The Rebel does not live who can say that he ever gave me so much +as a handful of meal, a spoonful of salt, an inch of thread, or a +stick of wood. From first to last I received nothing but my rations, +except occasional trifles that I succeeded in stealing from the stupid +officers charged with issuing rations. I owe no man in the Southern +Confederacy gratitude for anything--not even for a kind word. + +Speaking of secret society pins recalls a noteworthy story which has +been told me since the war, of boys whom I knew. At the breaking +out of hostilities there existed in Toledo a festive little secret +society, such as lurking boys frequently organize, with no other +object than fun and the usual adolescent love of mystery. There were a +dozen or so members in it who called themselves “The Royal Reubens,” +and were headed by a bookbinder named Ned Hopkins. Some one started +a branch of the Order in Napoleon, O., and among the members was +Charles E. Reynolds, of that town. The badge of the society was a +peculiarly shaped gold pin. Reynolds and Hopkins never met, and had no +acquaintance with each other. When the war broke out, Hopkins enlisted +in Battery H, First Ohio Artillery, and was sent to the Army of the +Potomac, where he was captured, in the Fall of 1863, while scouting, +in the neighborhood of Richmond. Reynolds entered the Sixty-Eighth +Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was taken in the neighborhood of Jackson, +Miss.,--two thousand miles from the place of Hopkins’s capture. +At Andersonville Hopkins became one of the officers in charge of +the Hospital. One day a Rebel Sergeant, who called the roll in the +Stockade, after studying Hopkins’s pin a minute, said: + +“I seed a Yank in the Stockade to-day a-wearing a pin egzackly like +that ere.” + +This aroused Hopkins’s interest, and he went inside in search of the +other “feller.” Having his squad and detachment there was little +difficulty in finding him. He recognized the pin, spoke to its wearer, +gave him the “grand hailing sign” of the “Royal Reubens,” and it was +duly responded to. The upshot of the matter was that he took Reynolds +out with him as clerk, and saved his life, as the latter was going down +hill very rapidly. Reynolds, in turn, secured the detail of a comrade +of the Sixty-Eighth who was failing fast, and succeeded in saving his +life--all of which happy results were directly attributable to that +insignificant boyish society, and its equally unimportant badge of +membership. + +Along in the last of August the Rebels learned that there were between +two and three hundred Captains and Lieutenants in the Stockade, passing +themselves off as enlisted men. The motive of these officers was +two-fold: first, a chivalrous wish to share the fortunes and fate of +their boys, and second, disinclination to gratify the Rebels by the +knowledge of the rank of their captives. The secret was so well kept +that none of us suspected it until the fact was announced by the Rebels +themselves. They were taken out immediately, and sent to Macon, where +the commissioned officers’ prison was. It would not do to trust such +possible leaders with us another day. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +FOOD--THE MEAGERNESS, INFERIOR QUALITY, AND TERRIBLE SAMENESS --REBEL +TESTIMONY ON THE SUBJECT--FUTILITY OF SUCCESSFUL EXPLANATION. + +I have in other places dwelt upon the insufficiency and the +nauseousness of the food. No words that I can use, no insistence upon +this theme, can give the reader any idea of its mortal importance to us. + +Let the reader consider for a moment the quantity, quality, and variety +of food that he now holds to be necessary for the maintenance of life +and health. I trust that every one who peruses this book--that every +one in fact over whom the Stars and Stripes wave--has his cup of +coffee, his biscuits and his beefsteak for breakfast--a substantial +dinner of roast or boiled--and a lighter, but still sufficient meal in +the evening. In all, certainly not less than fifty different articles +are set before him during the day, for his choice as elements of +nourishment. Let him scan this extended bill-of-fare, which long custom +has made so common-place as to be uninteresting--perhaps even wearisome +to think about --and see what he could omit from it, if necessity +compelled him. After a reluctant farewell to fish, butter, eggs, milk, +sugar, green and preserved fruits, etc., he thinks that perhaps under +extraordinary circumstances he might be able to merely sustain life +for a limited period on a diet of bread and meat three times a day, +washed down with creamless, unsweetened coffee, and varied occasionally +with additions of potatos, onions, beans, etc. It would astonish the +Innocent to have one of our veterans inform him that this was not +even the first stage of destitution; that a soldier who had these was +expected to be on the summit level of contentment. Any of the boys +who followed Grant to Appomattox Court House, Sherman to the Sea, or +“Pap” Thomas till his glorious career culminated with the annihilation +of Hood, will tell him of many weeks when a slice of fat pork on a +piece of “hard tack” had to do duty for the breakfast of beefsteak and +biscuits; when another slice of fat pork and another cracker served for +the dinner of roast beef and vegetables, and a third cracker and slice +of pork was a substitute for the supper of toast and chops. + +I say to these veterans in turn that they did not arrive at the first +stages of destitution compared with the depths to which we were +dragged. The restriction for a few weeks to a diet of crackers and fat +pork was certainly a hardship, but the crackers alone, chemists tell +us, contain all the elements necessary to support life, and in our Army +they were always well made and very palatable. I believe I risk nothing +in saying that one of the ordinary square crackers of our Commissary +Department contained much more real nutriment than the whole of our +average ration. + +I have before compared the size, shape and appearance of the daily half +loaf of corn bread issued to us to a half-brick, and I do not yet know +of a more fitting comparison. At first we got a small piece of rusty +bacon along with this; but the size of this diminished steadily until +at last it faded away entirely, and during the last six months of our +imprisonment I do not believe that we received rations of meat above a +half-dozen times. + +To this smallness was added ineffable badness. The meal was ground +very coarsely, by dull, weakly propelled stones, that imperfectly +crushed the grains, and left the tough, hard coating of the kernels in +large, sharp, mica-like scales, which cut and inflamed the stomach and +intestines, like handfuls of pounded glass. The alimentary canals of +all compelled to eat it were kept in a continual state of irritation +that usually terminated in incurable dysentery. + +That I have not over-stated this evil can be seen by reference to the +testimony of so competent a scientific observer as Professor Jones, and +I add to that unimpeachable testimony the following extract from the +statement made in an attempted defense of Andersonville by Doctor R. +Randolph Stevenson, who styles himself, formerly Surgeon in the Army +of the Confederate States of America, Chief Surgeon of the Confederate +States Military Prison Hospitals, Andersonville, Ga.: + +V. From the sameness of the food, and from the action of the poisonous +gases in the densely crowded and filthy Stockade and Hospital, the +blood was altered in its constitution, even, before the manifestation +of actual disease. + +In both the well and the sick, the red corpuscles were diminished; and +in all diseases uncomplicated with inflammation, the fibrinous element +was deficient. In cases of ulceration of the mucous membrane of the +intestinal canal, the fibrinous element of the blood appeared to be +increased; while in simple diarrhea, uncomplicated with ulceration, and +dependent upon the character of the food and the existence of scurvy, +it was either diminished or remained stationary. Heart-clots were very +common, if not universally present, in the cases of ulceration of +the intestinal mucous membrane; while in the uncomplicated cases of +diarrhea and scurvy, the blood was fluid and did not coagulate readily, +and the heart-clots and fibrinous concretions were almost universally +absent. From the watery condition of the blood there resulted various +serous effusions into the pericardium, into the ventricles of the +brain, and into the abdominal cavity. + +In almost all cases which I examined after death, even in the most +emaciated, there was more or less serous effusion into the abdominal +cavity. In cases of hospital gangrene of the extremities, and in +cases of gangrene of the intestines, heart-clots and firm coagula +were universally present. The presence of these clots in the cases of +hospital gangrene, whilst they were absent in the cases in which there +were no inflammatory symptoms, appears to sustain the conclusion that +hospital gangrene is a species of inflammation (imperfect and irregular +though it may be in its progress), in which the fibrinous element +and coagulability of the blood are increased, even in those who are +suffering from such a condition of the blood and from such diseases as +are naturally accompanied with a decrease in the fibrinous constituent. + + +VI. The impoverished condition of the blood, which led to serous +effusions within the ventricles of the brain, and around the brain +and spinal cord, and into the pericardial and abdominal cavities, was +gradually induced by the action of several causes, but chiefly by the +character of the food. + +The Federal prisoners, as a general rule, had been reared upon wheat +bread and Irish potatos; and the Indian corn so extensively used at +the South, was almost unknown to them as an article of diet previous +to their capture. Owing to the impossibility of obtaining the +necessary sieves in the Confederacy for the separation of the husk +from the corn-meal, the rations of the Confederate soldiers, as well +as of the Federal prisoners, consisted of unbolted corn-flour, and +meal and grist; this circumstance rendered the corn-bread still more +disagreeable and distasteful to the Federal prisoners. While Indian +meal, even when prepared with the husk, is one of the most wholesome +and nutritious forms of food, as has been already shown by the health +and rapid increase of the Southern population, and especially of the +negros, previous to the present war, and by the strength, endurance +and activity of the Confederate soldiers, who were throughout the war +confined to a great extent to unbolted corn-meal; it is nevertheless +true that those who have not been reared upon corn-meal, or who have +not accustomed themselves to its use gradually, become excessively +tired of this kind of diet when suddenly confined to it without a due +proportion of wheat bread. Large numbers of the Federal prisoners +appeared to be utterly disgusted with Indian corn, and immense piles +of corn-bread could be seen in the Stockade and Hospital inclosures. +Those who were so disgusted with this form of food that they had no +appetite to partake of it, except in quantities insufficient to supply +the waste of the tissues, were, of course, in the condition of men +slowly starving, notwithstanding that the only farinaceous form of food +which the Confederate States produced in sufficient abundance for the +maintenance of armies was not withheld from them. In such cases, an +urgent feeling of hunger was not a prominent symptom; and even when it +existed at first, it soon disappeared, and was succeeded by an actual +loathing of food. In this state the muscular strength was rapidly +diminished, the tissues wasted, and the thin, skeleton-like forms moved +about with the appearance of utter exhaustion and dejection. The mental +condition connected with long confinement, with the most miserable +surroundings, and with no hope for the future, also depressed all the +nervous and vital actions, and was especially active in destroying +the appetite. The effects of mental depression, and of defective +nutrition, were manifested not only in the slow, feeble motions of the +wasted, skeleton-like forms, but also in such lethargy, listlessness, +and torpor of the mental faculties as rendered these unfortunate men +oblivious and indifferent to their afflicted condition. In many cases, +even of the greatest apparent suffering and distress, instead of +showing any anxiety to communicate the causes of their distress, or to +relate their privations, and their longings for their homes and their +friends and relatives, they lay in a listless, lethargic, uncomplaining +state, taking no notice either of their own distressed condition, or +of the gigantic mass of human misery by which they were surrounded. +Nothing appalled and depressed me so much as this silent, uncomplaining +misery. It is a fact of great interest, that notwithstanding this +defective nutrition in men subjected to crowding and filth, contagious +fevers were rare; and typhus fever, which is supposed to be generated +in just such a state of things as existed at Andersonville, was +unknown. These facts, established by my investigations, stand in +striking contrast with such a statement as the following by a recent +English writer: + +“A deficiency of food, especially of the nitrogenous part, quickly +leads to the breaking up of the animal frame. Plague, pestilence and +famine are associated with each other in the public mind, and the +records of every country show how closely they are related. The medical +history of Ireland is remarkable for the illustrations of how much +mischief may be occasioned by a general deficiency of food. Always the +habitat of fever, it every now and then becomes the very hot-bed of its +propagation and development. Let there be but a small failure in the +usual imperfect supply of food, and the lurking seeds of pestilence +are ready to burst into frightful activity. The famine of the present +century is but too forcible and illustrative of this. It fostered +epidemics which have not been witnessed in this generation, and gave +rise to scenes of devastation and misery which are not surpassed by +the most appalling epidemics of the Middle Ages. The principal form +of the scourge was known as the contagious famine fever (typhus), +and it spread, not merely from end to end of the country in which it +had originated, but, breaking through all boundaries, it crossed the +broad ocean, and made itself painfully manifest in localities where +it was previously unknown. Thousands fell under the virulence of its +action, for wherever it came it struck down a seventh of the people, +and of those whom it attacked, one out of nine perished. Even those who +escaped the fatal influence of it, were left the miserable victims of +scurvy and low fever.” + +While we readily admit that famine induces that state of the system +which is the most susceptible to the action of fever poisons, and thus +induces the state of the entire population which is most favorable +for the rapid and destructive spread of all contagious fevers, at the +same time we are forced by the facts established by the present war, +as well as by a host of others, both old and new, to admit that we are +still ignorant of the causes necessary for the origin of typhus fever. +Added to the imperfect nature of the rations issued to the Federal +prisoners, the difficulties of their situation were at times greatly +increased by the sudden and desolating Federal raids in Virginia, +Georgia, and other States, which necessitated the sudden transportation +from Richmond and other points threatened of large bodies of prisoners, +without the possibility of much previous preparation; and not only did +these men suffer in transition upon the dilapidated and overburdened +line of railroad communication, but after arriving at Andersonville, +the rations were frequently insufficient to supply the sudden addition +of several thousand men. And as the Confederacy became more and more +pressed, and when powerful hostile armies were plunging through her +bosom, the Federal prisoners of Andersonville suffered incredibly +during the hasty removal to Millen, Savannah, Charleston, and other +points, supposed at the time to be secure from the enemy. Each one of +these causes must be weighed when an attempt is made to estimate the +unusual mortality among these prisoners of war. + +VII. Scurvy, arising from sameness of food and imperfect nutrition, +caused, either directly or indirectly, nine-tenths of the deaths among +the Federal prisoners at Andersonville. + +Not only were the deaths referred to unknown causes, to apoplexy, to +anasarca, and to debility, traceable to scurvy and its effects; and not +only was the mortality in small-pox, pneumonia, and typhoid fever, and +in all acute diseases, more than doubled by the scorbutic taint, but +even those all but universal and deadly bowel affections arose from the +same causes, and derived their fatal character from the same conditions +which produced the scurvy. In truth, these men at Andersonville were +in the condition of a crew at sea, confined in a foul ship upon salt +meat and unvarying food, and without fresh vegetables. Not only so, +but these unfortunate prisoners were men forcibly confined and crowded +upon a ship tossed about on a stormy ocean, without a rudder, without +a compass, without a guiding-star, and without any apparent boundary +or to their voyage; and they reflected in their steadily increasing +miseries the distressed condition and waning fortunes of devastated +and bleeding country, which was compelled, in justice to her own +unfortunate sons, to hold these men in the most distressing captivity. + +I saw nothing in the scurvy which prevailed so universally at +Andersonville, at all different from this disease as described by +various standard writers. The mortality was no greater than that +which has afflicted a hundred ships upon long voyages, and it did not +exceed the mortality which has, upon me than one occasion, and in a +much shorter period of time, annihilated large armies and desolated +beleaguered cities. The general results of my investigations upon +the chronic diarrhea and dysentery of the Federal prisoners of +Andersonville were similar to those of the English surgeons during the +war against Russia. + +IX. Drugs exercised but little influence over the progress and fatal +termination of chronic diarrhea and dysentery in the Military Prison +and Hospital at Andersonville, chiefly because the proper form of +nourishment (milk, rice, vegetables, anti-scorbutics, and nourishing +animal and vegetable soups) was not issued, and could not be procured +in sufficient quantities for the sick prisoners. + +Opium allayed pain and checked the bowels temporarily, but the frail +dam was soon swept away, and the patient appears to be but little +better, if not the worse, for this merely palliative treatment. The +root of the difficulty could not be reached by drugs; nothing short of +the wanting elements of nutrition would have tended in any manner to +restore the tone of the digestive system, and of all the wasted and +degenerated organs and tissues. My opinion to this effect was expressed +most decidedly to the medical officers in charge of these unfortunate +men. The correctness of this view was sustained by the healthy and +robust condition of the paroled prisoners, who received an extra +ration, and who were able to make considerable sums by trading, and who +supplied themselves with a liberal and varied diet. + +X. The fact that hospital gangrene appeared in the Stockade first, +and originated spontaneously, without any previous contagion, and +occurred sporadically all over the Stockade and Prison Hospital, was +proof positive that this disease will arise whenever the conditions of +crowding, filth, foul air, and bad diet are present. + +The exhalations from the Hospital and Stockade appeared to exert their +effects to a considerable distance outside of these localities. The +origin of gangrene among these prisoners appeared clearly to depend in +great measure upon the state of the general system, induced by diet, +exposure, neglect of personal cleanliness; and by various external +noxious influences. The rapidity of the appearance and action of the +gangrene depended upon the powers and state of the constitution, as +well as upon the intensity of the poison in the atmosphere, or upon the +direct application of poisonous matter to the wounded surface. This was +further illustrated by the important fact, that hospital gangrene, or a +disease resembling this form of gangrene, attacked the intestinal canal +of patients laboring under ulceration of the bowels, although there +were no local manifestations of gangrene upon the surface of the body. +This mode of termination in cases of dysentery was quite common in the +foul atmosphere of the Confederate States Military Prison Hospital; and +in the depressed, depraved condition of the system of these Federal +prisoners, death ensued very rapidly after the gangrenous state of the +intestines was established. + +XI. A scorbutic condition of the system appeared to favor the origin of +foul ulcers, which frequently took on true hospital gangrene. + +Scurvy and gangrene frequently existed in the same individual. In such +cases, vegetable diet with vegetable acids would remove the scorbutic +condition without curing the hospital gangrene.. . Scurvy consists +not only in an alteration in the constitution of the blood, which +leads to passive hemorrhages from the bowels, and the effusion into +the various tissues of a deeply-colored fibrinous exudation; but, as +we have conclusively shown by postmortem examination, this state is +attended with consistence of the muscles of the heart, and the mucous +membrane of the alimentary canal, and of solid parts generally. We +have, according to the extent of the deficiency of certain articles +of food, every degree of scorbutic derangement, from the most fearful +depravation of the blood and the perversion of every function +subserved by the blood to those slight derangements which are scarcely +distinguishable from a state of health. We are as yet ignorant of +the true nature of the changes of the blood and tissues in scurvy, +and wide field for investigation is open for the determination the +characteristic changes--physical, chemical, and physiological--of the +blood and tissues, and of the secretions and excretions of scurvy. Such +inquiries would be of great value in their bearing upon the origin +of hospital gangrene. Up to the present war, the results of chemical +investigations upon the pathology of the blood in scurvy were not +only contradictory, but meager, and wanting in that careful detail +of the cases from which the blood was abstracted which would enable +us to explain the cause of the apparent discrepancies in different +analyses. Thus it is not yet settled whether the fibrin is increased +or diminished in this disease; and the differences which exist in the +statements of different writers appear to be referable to the neglect +of a critical examination and record of all the symptoms of the cases +from which the blood was abstracted. The true nature of the changes of +the blood in scurvy can be established only by numerous analyses during +different stages of the disease, and followed up by carefully performed +and recorded postmortem examinations. With such data we could settle +such important questions as whether the increase of fibrin in scurvy +was invariably dependent upon some local inflammation. + +XII. Gangrenous spots, followed by rapid destruction of tissue, +appeared in some cases in which there had been no previous or existing +wound or abrasion; and without such well established facts, it might +be assumed that the disease was propagated from one patient to another +in every case, either by exhalations from the gangrenous surface or by +direct contact. + +In such a filthy and crowded hospital as that of the Confederate, +States Military Prison of Camp Sumter, Andersonville, it was impossible +to isolate the wounded from the sources of actual contact of the +gangrenous matter. The flies swarming over the wounds and over filth of +every description; the filthy, imperfectly washed, and scanty rags; the +limited number of sponges and wash-bowls (the same wash-bowl and sponge +serving for a score or more of patients), were one and all sources of +such constant circulation of the gangrenous matter, that the disease +might rapidly be propagated from a single gangrenous wound. While the +fact already considered, that a form of moist gangrene, resembling +hospital gangrene, was quite common in this foul atmosphere in cases +of dysentery, both with and without the existence of hospital gangrene +upon the surface, demonstrates the dependence of the disease upon the +state of the constitution, and proves in a clear manner that neither +the contact of the poisonous matter of gangrene, nor the direct action +of the poisoned atmosphere upon the ulcerated surface, is necessary +to the development of the disease; on the other hand, it is equally +well-established that the disease may be communicated by the various +ways just mentioned. It is impossible to determine the length of time +which rags and clothing saturated with gangrenous matter will retain +the power of reproducing the disease when applied to healthy wounds. +Professor Brugmans, as quoted by Guthrie in his commentaries on the +surgery of the war in Portugal, Spain, France, and the Netherlands, +says that in 1797, in Holland, ‘charpie,’ composed of linen threads cut +of different lengths, which, on inquiry, it was found had been already +used in the great hospitals in France, and had been subsequently washed +and bleached, caused every ulcer to which it was applied to be affected +by hospital gangrene. Guthrie affirms in the same work, that the fact +that this disease was readily communicated by the application of +instruments, lint, or bandages which had been in contact with infected +parts, was too firmly established by the experience of every one in +Portugal and Spain to be a matter of doubt. There are facts to show +that flies may be the means of communicating malignant pustules. Dr. +Wagner, who has related several cases of malignant pustule produced in +man and beasts, both by contact and by eating the flesh of diseased +animals, which happened in the village of Striessa in Saxony, in 1834, +gives two very remarkable cases which occurred eight days after any +beast had been affected with the disease. Both were women, one of +twenty-six and the other of fifty years, and in them the pustules were +well marked, and the general symptoms similar to the other cases. The +latter patient said she had been bitten by a fly upon the back d the +neck, at which part the carbuncle appeared; and the former, that she +had also been bitten upon the right upper arm by a gnat. Upon inquiry, +Wagner found that the skin of one of the infected beasts had been hung +on a neighboring wall, and thought it very possible that the insects +might have been attracted to them by the smell, and had thence conveyed +the poison. + +[End of Dr. Stevenson’s Statement] + + .......................... + +The old adage says that “Hunger is the best sauce for poor food,” but +hunger failed to render this detestable stuff palatable, and it became +so loathsome that very many actually starved to death because unable to +force their organs of deglutition to receive the nauseous dose and pass +it to the stomach. I was always much healthier than the average of the +boys, and my appetite consequently much better, yet for the last month +that I was in Andersonville, it required all my determination to crowd +the bread down my throat, and, as I have stated before, I could only do +this by breaking off small bits at a time, and forcing each down as I +would a pill. + +A large part of this repulsiveness was due to the coarseness and +foulness of the meal, the wretched cooking, and the lack of salt, +but there was a still more potent reason than all these. Nature does +not intend that man shall live by bread alone, nor by any one kind +of food. She indicates this by the varying tastes and longings that +she gives him. If his body needs one kind of constituents, his tastes +lead him to desire the food that is richest in those constituents. +When he has taken as much as his system requires, the sense of satiety +supervenes, and he “becomes tired” of that particular food. If tastes +are not perverted, but allowed a free but temperate exercise, they are +the surest indicators of the way to preserve health and strength by a +judicious selection of alimentation. + +In this case Nature was protesting by a rebellion of the tastes against +any further use of that species of food. She was saying, as plainly as +she ever spoke, that death could only be averted by a change of diet, +which would supply our bodies with the constituents they so sadly +needed, and which could not be supplied by corn meal. + +How needless was this confinement of our rations to corn meal, and +especially to such wretchedly prepared meal, is conclusively shown by +the Rebel testimony heretofore given. It would have been very little +extra trouble to the Rebels to have had our meal sifted; we would +gladly have done it ourselves if allowed the utensils and opportunity. +It would have been as little trouble to have varied our rations with +green corn and sweet potatos, of which the country was then full. + +A few wagon loads of roasting ears and sweet potatos would have +banished every trace of scurvy from the camp, healed up the wasting +dysentery, and saved thousands of lives. Any day that the Rebels had +chosen they could have gotten a thousand volunteers who would have +given their solemn parole not to escape, and gone any distance into the +country, to gather the potatos and corn, and such other vegetables as +were readily obtainable, and bring, them into the camp. + +Whatever else may be said in defense of the Southern management of +military prisons, the permitting seven thousand men to die of the +scurvy in the Summer time, in the midst of an agricultural region, +filled with all manner of green vegetation, must forever remain +impossible of explanation. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +SOLICITUDE AS TO THE FATE OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN’S ARMY--PAUCITY OF +NEWS --HOW WE HEARD THAT ATLANTA HAD FALLEN--ANNOUNCEMENT OF A GENERAL +EXCHANGE--WE LEAVE ANDERSONVILLE. + +We again began to be exceedingly solicitous over the fate of Atlanta +and Sherman’s Army: we had heard but little directly from that front +for several weeks. Few prisoners had come in since those captured in +the bloody engagements of the 20th, 22d, and 28th of July. In spite +of their confident tones, and our own sanguine hopes, the outlook +admitted of very grave doubts. The battles of the last week of July +had been looked at it in the best light possible--indecisive. Our men +had held their own, it is true, but an invading army can not afford +to simply hold its own. Anything short of an absolute success is to +it disguised defeat. Then we knew that the cavalry column sent out +under Stoneman had been so badly handled by that inefficient commander +that it had failed ridiculously in its object, being beaten in detail, +and suffering the loss of its commander and a considerable portion +of its numbers. This had been followed by a defeat of our infantry +at Etowah Creek, and then came a long interval in which we received +no news save what the Rebel papers contained, and they pretended no +doubt that Sherman’s failure was already demonstrated. Next came +well-authenticated news that Sherman had raised the siege and fallen +back to the Chattahoochee, and we felt something of the bitterness of +despair. For days thereafter we heard nothing, though the hot, close +Summer air seemed surcharged with the premonitions of a war storm about +to burst, even as nature heralds in the same way a concentration of the +mighty force of the elements for the grand crash of the thunderstorm. +We waited in tense expectancy for the decision of the fates whether +final victory or defeat should end the long and arduous campaign. + +At night the guards in the perches around the Stockade called out +every half hour, so as to show the officers that they were awake and +attending to their duty. The formula for this ran thus: + +“Post numbah 1; half-past eight o’clock, and a-l-l’s w-e-l-l!” + +Post No. 2 repeated this cry, and so it went around. + +One evening when our anxiety as to Atlanta was wrought to the highest +pitch, one of the guards sang out: + +“Post numbah foah--half past eight o’clock--and Atlanta’s--gone--t-o +--hell.” + +The heart of every man within hearing leaped to his mouth. We looked +toward each other, almost speechless with glad surprise, and then +gasped out: + +“Did you hear THAT?” + +The next instant such a ringing cheer burst out as wells spontaneously +from the throats and hearts of men, in the first ecstatic moments of +victory--a cheer to which our saddened hearts and enfeebled lungs +had long been strangers. It was the genuine, honest, manly Northern +cheer, as different from the shrill Rebel yell as the honest mastiff’s +deep-voiced welcome is from the howl of the prowling wolf. + +The shout was taken up all over the prison. Even those who had not +heard the guard understood that it meant that “Atlanta was ours and +fairly won,” and they took up the acclamation with as much enthusiasm +as we had begun it. All thoughts of sleep were put to flight: we would +have a season of rejoicing. Little knots gathered together, debated the +news, and indulged in the most sanguine hopes as to the effect upon +the Rebels. In some parts of the Stockade stump speeches were made. I +believe that Boston Corbett and his party organized a prayer and praise +meeting. In our corner we stirred up our tuneful friend “Nosey,” who +sang again the grand old patriotic hymns that set our thin blood to +bounding, and made us remember that we were still Union soldiers, with +higher hopes than that of starving and dying in Andersonville. He sang +the ever-glorious Star Spangled Banner, as he used to sing it around +the camp fire in happier days, when we were in the field. He sang the +rousing “Rally Round the Flag,” with its wealth of patriotic fire and +martial vigor, and we, with throats hoarse from shouting; joined in the +chorus until the welkin rang again. + +The Rebels became excited, lest our exaltation of spirits would lead +to an assault upon the Stockade. They got under arms, and remained so +until the enthusiasm became less demonstrative. + +A few days later--on the evening of the 6th of September--the Rebel +Sergeants who called the roll entered the Stockade, and each assembling +his squads, addressed them as follows: + +“PRISONERS: I am instructed by General Winder to inform you that a +general exchange has been agreed upon. Twenty thousand men will be +exchanged immediately at Savannah, where your vessels are now waiting +for you. Detachments from One to Ten will prepare to leave early +to-morrow morning.” + +The excitement that this news produced was simply indescribable. I +have seen men in every possible exigency that can confront men, and a +large proportion viewed that which impended over them with at least +outward composure. The boys around me had endured all that we suffered +with stoical firmness. Groans from pain-racked bodies could not be +repressed, and bitter curses and maledictions against the Rebels leaped +unbidden to the lips at the slightest occasion, but there was no +murmuring or whining. There was not a day--hardly an hour--in which one +did not see such exhibitions of manly fortitude as made him proud of +belonging to a race of which every individual was a hero. + +But the emotion which pain and suffering and danger could not develop, +joy could, and boys sang, and shouted and cried, and danced as if in +a delirium. “God’s country,” fairer than the sweet promised land of +Canaan appeared to the rapt vision of the Hebrew poet prophet, spread +out in glad vista before the mind’s eye of every one. It had come--at +last it had come that which we had so longed for, wished for, prayed +for, dreamed of; schemed, planned, toiled for, and for which went up +the last earnest, dying wish of the thousands of our comrades who would +now know no exchange save into that eternal “God’s country” where + + Sickness and sorrow, pain and death + Are felt and feared no more. + +Our “preparations,” for leaving were few and simple. When the morning +came, and shortly after the order to move, Andrews and I picked our +well-worn blanket, our tattered overcoat, our rude chessmen, and no +less rude board, our little black can, and the spoon made of hoop-iron, +and bade farewell to the hole-in-the-ground that had been our home for +nearly seven long months. + +My feet were still in miserable condition from the lacerations received +in the attempt to escape, but I took one of our tent poles as a staff +and hobbled away. We re-passed the gates which we had entered on that +February night, ages since, it seemed, and crawled slowly over to the +depot. + +I had come to regard the Rebels around us as such measureless liars +that my first impulse was to believe the reverse of anything they said +to us; and even now, while I hoped for the best, my old habit of mind +was so strongly upon me that I had some doubts of our going to be +exchanged, simply because it was a Rebel who had said so. But in the +crowd of Rebels who stood close to the road upon which we were walking +was a young Second Lieutenant, who said to a Colonel as I passed: + +“Weil, those fellows can sing ‘Homeward Bound,’ can’t they?” + +This set my last misgiving at rest. Now I was certain that we were +going to be exchanged, and my spirits soared to the skies. + +Entering the cars we thumped and pounded toilsomely along, after +the manner of Southern railroads, at the rate of six or eight miles +an hour. Savannah was two hundred and forty miles away, and to our +impatient minds it seemed as if we would never get there. The route +lay the whole distance through the cheerless pine barrens which cover +the greater part of Georgia. The only considerable town on the way was +Macon, which had then a population of five thousand or thereabouts. For +scores of miles there would not be a sign of a human habitation, and in +the one hundred and eighty miles between Macon and Savannah there were +only three insignificant villages. There was a station every ten miles, +at which the only building was an open shed, to shelter from sun and +rain a casual passenger, or a bit of goods. + +The occasional specimens of the poor white “cracker” population that +we saw, seemed indigenous products of the starved soil. They suited +their poverty-stricken surroundings as well as the gnarled and scrubby +vegetation suited the sterile sand. Thin-chested, round-shouldered, +scraggy-bearded, dull-eyed and open-mouthed, they all looked alike--all +looked as ignorant, as stupid, and as lazy as they were poor and +weak. They were “low-downers” in every respect, and made our rough +and simple. minded East Tennesseans look like models of elegant and +cultured gentlemen in contrast. + +We looked on the poverty-stricken land with good-natured contempt, for +we thought we were leaving it forever, and would soon be in one which, +compared to it, was as the fatness at Egypt to the leanness of the +desert of Sinai. + +The second day after leaving Andersonville our train struggled across +the swamps into Savannah, and rolled slowly down the live oak shaded +streets into the center of the City. It seemed like another Deserted +Village, so vacant and noiseless the streets, and the buildings +everywhere so overgrown with luxuriant vegetation: The limbs of the +shade trees crashed along and broke, upon the tops of our cars, as if +no train had passed that way for years. Through the interstices between +the trees and clumps of foliage could be seen the gleaming white marble +of the monuments erected to Greene and Pulaski, looking like giant +tombstones in a City of the Dead. The unbroken stillness--so different +from what we expected on entering the metropolis of Georgia, and a City +that was an important port in Revolutionary days--became absolutely +oppressive. We could not understand it, but our thoughts were more +intent upon the coming transfer to our flag than upon any speculation +as to the cause of the remarkable somnolence of Savannah. + +Finally some little boys straggled out to where our car was standing, +and we opened up a conversation with them: + +“Say, boys, are our vessels down in the harbor yet?” + +The reply came in that piercing treble shriek in which a boy of ten or +twelve makes even his most confidential communications: + +“I don’t know.” + +“Well,” (with our confidence in exchange somewhat dashed,) “they intend +to exchange us here, don’t they?” + +Another falsetto scream, “I don’t know.” + +“Well,” (with something of a quaver in the questioner’s voice,) “what +are they going to do, with us, any way?” + +“O,” (the treble shriek became almost demoniac) “they are fixing up a +place over by the old jail for you.” + +What a sinking of hearts was there then! Andrews and I would not give +up hope so speedily as some others did, and resolved to believe, for +awhile at least, that we were going to be exchanged. + +Ordered out of the cars, we were marched along the street. A crowd +of small boys, full of the curiosity of the animal, gathered around +us as we marched. Suddenly a door in a rather nice house opened; an +angry-faced woman appeared on the steps and shouted out: + +“Boys! BOYS! What are you doin’ there! Come up on the steps immejitely! +Come away from them n-a-s-t-y things!” + +I will admit that we were not prepossessing in appearance; nor were +we as cleanly as young gentlemen should habitually be; in fact, I may +as well confess that I would not now, if I could help it, allow a +tramp, as dilapidated in raiment, as unwashed, unshorn, uncombed, and +populous with insects as we were, to come within several rods of me. +Nevertheless, it was not pleasant to hear so accurate a description +of our personal appearance sent forth on the wings of the wind by a +shrill-voiced Rebel female. + +A short march brought us to the place “they were fixing for us by the +old jail.” It was another pen, with high walls of thick pine plank, +which told us only too plainly how vain were our expectations of +exchange. + +When we were turned inside, and I realized that the gates of another +prison had closed upon me, hope forsook me. I flung our odious little +possessions-our can, chess-board, overcoat, and blanket-upon the +ground, and, sitting down beside them, gave way to the bitterest +despair. I wanted to die, O, so badly. Never in all my life had I +desired anything in the world so much as I did now to get out of it. +Had I had pistol, knife, rope, or poison, I would have ended my prison +life then and there, and departed with the unceremoniousness of a +French leave. I remembered that I could get a quietus from a guard with +very little trouble, but I would not give one of the bitterly hated +Rebels the triumph of shooting me. I longed to be another Samson, with +the whole Southern Confederacy gathered in another Temple of Dagon, +that I might pull down the supporting pillars, and die happy in slaying +thousands of my enemies. + +While I was thus sinking deeper and deeper in the Slough of Despond, +the firing of a musket, and the shriek of the man who was struck, +attracted my attention. Looking towards the opposite end of the pen +I saw a guard bringing his still smoking musket to a “recover arms,” +and, not fifteen feet from him, a prisoner lying on the ground in the +agonies of death. The latter had a pipe in his mouth when he was shot, +and his teeth still clenched its stem. His legs and arms were drawn up +convulsively, and he was rocking backward and forward on his back. The +charge had struck him just above the hip-bone. + +The Rebel officer in command of the guard was sitting on his horse +inside the pen at the time, and rode forward to see what the matter +was. Lieutenant Davis, who had come with us from Andersonville, was +also sitting on a horse inside the prison, and he called out in his +usual harsh, disagreeable voice: + +“That’s all right, Cunnel; the man’s done just as I awdahed him to.” + +I found that lying around inside were a number of bits of plank--each +about five feet long, which had been sawed off by the carpenters +engaged in building the prison. The ground being a bare common, was +destitute of all shelter, and the pieces looked as if they would be +quite useful in building a tent. There may have been an order issued +forbidding the prisoners to touch them, but if so, I had not heard it, +and I imagine the first intimation to the prisoner just killed that the +boards were not to be taken was the bullet which penetrated his vitals. +Twenty-five cents would be a liberal appraisement of the value of the +lumber for which the boy lost his life. + +Half an hour afterward we thought we saw all the guards march out of +the front gate. There was still another pile of these same kind of +pieces of board lying at the further side of the prison. The crowd +around me noticed it, and we all made a rush for it. In spite of my +lame feet I outstripped the rest, and was just in the act of stooping +down to pick the boards up when a loud yell from those behind startled +me. Glancing to my left I saw a guard cocking his gun and bringing +it up to shoot me. With one frightened spring, as quick as a flash, +and before he could cover me, I landed fully a rod back in the crowd, +and mixed with it. The fellow tried hard to draw a bead on me, but I +was too quick for him, and he finally lowered his gun with an oath +expressive of disappointment in not being able to kill a Yankee. + +Walking back to my place the full ludicrousness of the thing dawned +upon me so forcibly that I forgot all about my excitement and scare, +and laughed aloud. Here, not an hour age I was murmuring because I +could find no way to die; I sighed for death as a bridegroom for the +coming of his bride, an yet, when a Rebel had pointed his gun at me, it +had nearly scared me out of a year’s growth, and made me jump farther +than I could possibly do when my feet were well, and I was in good +condition otherwise. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +SAVANNAH--DEVICES TO OBTAIN MATERIALS FOR A TENT--THEIR ULTIMATE +SUCCESS --RESUMPTION OF TUNNELING--ESCAPING BY WHOLESALE AND BEING +RECAPTURED EN MASSE--THE OBSTACLES THAT LAY BETWEEN US AND OUR LINES. + +Andrews and I did not let the fate of the boy who was killed, nor my +own narrow escape from losing the top of my head, deter us from farther +efforts to secure possession of those coveted boards. My readers +remember the story of the boy who, digging vigorously at a hole, +replied to the remark of a passing traveler that there was probably no +ground-hog there, and, even if there was, “ground-hog was mighty poor +eatin’, any way,” with: + +“Mister, there’s got to be a ground-hog there; our family’s out o’ +meat!” + +That was what actuated us: we were out of material for a tent. Our +solitary blanket had rotted and worn full of holes by its long double +duty, as bed-clothes and tent at Andersonville, and there was an +imperative call for a substitute. + +Andrews and I flattered ourselves that when we matched our collective +or individual wits against those of a Johnny his defeat was pretty +certain, and with this cheerful estimate of our own powers to animate +us, we set to work to steal the boards from under the guard’s nose. The +Johnny had malice in his heart and buck-and-ball in his musket, but his +eyes were not sufficiently numerous to adequately discharge all the +duties laid upon him. He had too many different things to watch at the +same time. I would approach a gap in the fence not yet closed as if +I intended making a dash through it for liberty, and when the Johnny +had concentrated all his attention on letting me have the contents of +his gun just as soon as he could have a reasonable excuse for doing +so, Andrews would pick u a couple of boards and slip away with them. +Then I would fall back in pretended (and some real) alarm, and--Andrew +would come up and draw his attention by a similar feint, while I made +off with a couple more pieces. After a few hours c this strategy, we +found ourselves the possessors of some dozen planks, with which we made +a lean-to, that formed a tolerable shelter for our heads and the upper +portion of our bodies. As the boards were not over five feet long, +and the slope reduce the sheltered space to about four-and-one-half +feet, it left the lower part of our naked feet and legs to project +out-of-doors. Andrews used to lament very touchingly the sunburning his +toe-nails were receiving. He knew that his complexion was being ruined +for life, and all the Balm of a Thousand Flowers in the world would +not restore his comely ankles to that condition of pristine loveliness +which would admit of their introduction into good society again. +Another defect was that, like the fun in a practical joke, it was all +on one side; there was not enough of it to go clear round. It was very +unpleasant, when a storm came up in a direction different from that we +had calculated upon, to be compelled to get out in the midst of it, and +build our house over to face the other way. + +Still we had a tent, and were that much better off than three-fourths +of our comrades who had no shelter at all. We were owners of a brown +stone front on Fifth Avenue compared to the other fellows. + +Our tent erected, we began a general survey of our new abiding place. +The ground was a sandy common in the outskirts of Savannah. The sand +was covered with a light sod. The Rebels, who knew nothing of our +burrowing propensities, had neglected to make the plank forming the +walls of the Prison project any distance below the surface of the +ground, and had put up no Dead Line around the inside; so that it +looked as if everything was arranged expressly to invite us to tunnel +out. We were not the boys to neglect such an invitation. By night about +three thousand had been received from Andersonville, and placed inside. +When morning came it looked as if a colony of gigantic rats had been at +work. There was a tunnel every ten or fifteen feet, and at least twelve +hundred of us had gone out through them during the night. I never +understood why all in the pen did not follow our example, and leave the +guards watching a forsaken Prison. There was nothing to prevent it. An +hour’s industrious work with a half-canteen would take any one outside, +or if a boy was too lazy to dig his own tunnel, he could have the use +of one of the hundred others that had been dug. + +But escaping was only begun when the Stockade was passed. The site of +Savannah is virtually an island. On the north is the Savannah River; +to the east, southeast and south, are the two Ogeechee rivers, and a +chain of sounds and lagoons connecting with the Atlantic Ocean. To +the west is a canal connecting the Savannah and Big Ogeechee Rivers. +We found ourselves headed off by water whichever way we went. All the +bridges were guarded, and all the boats destroyed. Early in the morning +the Rebels discovered our absence, and the whole garrison of Savannah +was sent out on patrol after us. They picked up the boys in squads of +from ten to thirty, lurking around the shores of the streams waiting +for night to come, to get across, or engaged in building rafts for +transportation. By evening the whole mob of us were back in the pen +again. As nobody was punished for running away, we treated the whole +affair as a lark, and those brought back first stood around the gate +and yelled derisively as the others came in. + +That night big fires were built all around the Stockade, and a line +of guards placed on the ground inside of these. In spite of this +precaution, quite a number escaped. The next day a Dead Line was put +up inside of the Prison, twenty feet from the Stockade. This only +increased the labor of burrowing, by making us go farther. Instead of +being able to tunnel out in an hour, it now took three or four hours. +That night several hundred of us, rested from our previous performance, +and hopeful of better luck, brought our faithful half canteens--now +scoured very bright by constant use-into requisition again, and before +the morning. dawned we had gained the high reeds of the swamps, where +we lay concealed until night. + +In this way we managed to evade the recapture that came to most of +those who went out, but it was a fearful experience. Having been raised +in a country where venomous snakes abounded, I had that fear and horror +of them that inhabitants of those districts feel, and of which people +living in sections free from such a scourge know little. I fancied +that the Southern swamps were filled with all forms of loathsome and +poisonous reptiles, and it required all my courage to venture into +them barefooted. Besides, the snags and roots hurt our feet fearfully. +Our hope was to find a boat somewhere, in which we could float out to +sea, and trust to being picked up by some of the blockading fleet. But +no boat could we find, with all our painful and diligent search. We +learned afterward that the Rebels made a practice of breaking up all +the boats along the shore to prevent negros and their own deserters +from escaping to the blockading fleet. We thought of making a raft +of logs, but had we had the strength to do this, we would doubtless +have thought it too risky, since we dreaded missing the vessels, and +being carried out to sea to perish of hunger. During the night we came +to the railroad bridge across the Ogeechee. We had some slender hope +that, if we could reach this we might perhaps get across the river, +and find better opportunities for escape. But these last expectations +were blasted by the discovery that it was guarded. There was a post +and a fire on the shore next us, and a single guard with a lantern was +stationed on one of the middle spans. Almost famished with hunger, and +so weary and footsore that we could scarcely move another step, we went +back to a cleared place on the high ground, and laid down to sleep, +entirely reckless as to what became of us. Late in the morning we were +awakened by the Rebel patrol and taken back to the prison. Lieutenant +Davis, disgusted with the perpetual attempts to escape, moved the +Dead Line out forty feet from the Stockade; but this restricted our +room greatly, since the number of prisoners in the pen had now risen +to about six thousand, and, besides, it offered little additional +protection against tunneling. + +It was not much more difficult to dig fifty feet than it had been to +dig thirty feet. Davis soon realized this, and put the Dead Line back +to twenty feet. His next device was a much more sensible one. A crowd +of one hundred and fifty negros dug a trench twenty feet wide and five +feet deep around the whole prison on the outside, and this ditch was +filled with water from the City Water Works. No one could cross this +without attracting the attention of the guards. + +Still we were not discouraged, and Andrews and I joined a crowd that +was constructing a large tunnel from near our quarters on the east side +of the pen. We finished the burrow to within a few inches of the edge +of the ditch, and then ceased operations, to await some stormy night, +when we could hope to get across the ditch unnoticed. + +Orders were issued to guards to fire without warning on men who were +observed to be digging or carrying out dirt after nightfall. They +occasionally did so, but the risk did not keep anyone from tunneling. +Our tunnel ran directly under a sentry box. When carrying dirt away +the bearer of the bucket had to turn his back on the guard and walk +directly down the street in front of him, two hundred or three hundred +feet, to the center of the camp, where he scattered the sand around--so +as to give no indication of where it came from. Though we always +waited till the moon went down, it seemed as if, unless the guard were +a fool, both by nature and training, he could not help taking notice +of what was going on under his eyes. I do not recall any more nervous +promenades in my life, than those when, taking my turn, I received my +bucket of sand at the mouth of the tunnel, and walked slowly away with +it. The most disagreeable part was in turning my back to the guard. +Could I have faced him, I had sufficient confidence in my quickness of +perception, and talents as a dodger, to imagine that I could make it +difficult for him to hit me. But in walling with my back to him I was +wholly at his mercy. Fortune, however, favored us, and we were allowed +to go on with our work--night after night--without a shot. + +In the meanwhile another happy thought slowly gestated in Davis’s +alleged intellect. How he came to give birth to two ideas with no more +than a week between them, puzzled all who knew him, and still more +that he survived this extraordinary strain upon the gray matter of the +cerebrum. His new idea was to have driven a heavily-laden mule cart +around the inside of the Dead Line at least once a day. The wheels or +the mule’s feet broke through the thin sod covering the tunnels and +exposed them. Our tunnel went with the rest, and those of our crowd +who wore shoes had humiliation added to sorrow by being compelled to +go in and spade the hole full of dirt. This put an end to subterranean +engineering. + +One day one of the boys watched his opportunity, got under the ration +wagon, and clinging close to the coupling pole with hands and feet, was +carried outside. He was detected, however, as he came from under the +wagon, and brought back. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +FRANK REVERSTOCK’S ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE--PASSING OFF AS REBEL BOY HE +REACHES GRISWOLDVILLE BY RAIL, AND THEN STRIKES ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR +SHERMAN, BUT IS CAUGHT WITHIN TWENTY MILES OF OUR LINES. + +One of the shrewdest and nearest successful attempts to escape that +came under my notice was that of my friend Sergeant Frank Reverstock, +of the Third West Virginia Cavalry, of whom I have before spoken. +Frank, who was quite small, with a smooth boyish face, had converted +to his own use a citizen’s coat, belonging to a young boy, a Sutler’s +assistant, who had died in Andersonville. He had made himself a pair +of bag pantaloons and a shirt from pieces of meal sacks which he had +appropriated from day to day. He had also the Sutler’s assistant’s +shoes, and, to crown all, he wore on his head one of those hideous +looking hats of quilted calico which the Rebels had taken to wearing +in the lack of felt hats, which they could neither make nor buy. +Altogether Frank looked enough like a Rebel to be dangerous to trust +near a country store or a stable full of horses. When we first arrived +in the prison quite a crowd of the Savannahians rushed in to inspect +us. The guards had some difficulty in keeping them and us separate. +While perplexed with this annoyance, one of them saw Frank standing +in our crowd, and, touching him with his bayonet, said, with some +sharpness: + +“See heah; you must stand back; you musn’t crowd on them prisoners so.” + +Frank stood back. He did it promptly but calmly, and then, as if his +curiosity as to Yankees was fully satisfied, he walked slowly away up +the street, deliberating as he went on a plan for getting out of the +City. He hit upon an excellent one. Going to the engineer of a freight +train making ready to start back to Macon, he told him that his father +was working in the Confederate machine shops at Griswoldville, near +Macon; that he himself was also one of the machinists employed there, +and desired to go thither but lacked the necessary means to pay his +passage. If the engineer would let him ride up on the engine he would +do work enough to pay the fare. Frank told the story ingeniously, the +engineer and firemen were won over, and gave their consent. + +No more zealous assistant ever climbed upon a tender than Frank +proved to be. He loaded wood with a nervous industry, that stood him +in place of great strength. He kept the tender in perfect order, and +anticipated, as far as possible, every want of the engineer and his +assistant. They were delighted with him, and treated him with the +greatest kindness, dividing their food with him, and insisting that +he should share their bed when they “laid by” for the night. Frank +would have gladly declined this latter kindness with thanks, as he was +conscious that the quantity of “graybacks” his clothing contained did +not make him a very desirable sleeping companion for any one, but his +friends were so pressing that he was compelled to accede. + +His greatest trouble was a fear of recognition by some one of the +prisoners that were continually passing by the train load, on their +way from Andersonville to other prisons. He was one of the best known +of the prisoners in Andersonville; bright, active, always cheerful, +and forever in motion during waking hours,--every one in the Prison +speedily became familiar with him, and all addressed him as “Sergeant +Frankie.” If any one on the passing trains had caught a glimpse of him, +that glimpse would have been followed almost inevitably with a shout of: + +“Hello, Sergeant Frankie! What are you doing there?” + +Then the whole game would have been up. Frank escaped this by +persistent watchfulness, and by busying himself on the opposite side of +the engine, with his back turned to the other trains. + +At last when nearing Griswoldville, Frank, pointing to a large white +house at some distance across the fields, said: + +“Now, right over there is where my uncle lives, and I believe I’ll just +run over and see him, and then walk into Griswoldville.” + +He thanked his friends fervently for their kindness, promised to call +and see them frequently, bade them good by, and jumped off the train. + +He walked towards the white house as long as he thought he could be +seen, and then entered a large corn field and concealed himself in a +thicket in the center of it until dark, when he made his way to the +neighboring woods, and began journeying northward as fast as his legs +could carry him. When morning broke he had made good progress, but +was terribly tired. It was not prudent to travel by daylight, so he +gathered himself some ears of corn and some berries, of which he made +his breakfast, and finding a suitable thicket he crawled into it, fell +asleep, and did not wake up until late in the afternoon. + +After another meal of raw corn and berries he resumed his journey, and +that night made still better progress. + +He repeated this for several days and nights--lying in the woods in +the day time, traveling by night through woods, fields, and by-paths +avoiding all the fords, bridges and main roads, and living on what he +could glean from the fields, that he might not take even so much risk +as was involved in going to the negro cabins for food. + +But there are always flaws in every man’s armor of caution--even in so +perfect a one as Frank’s. His complete success so far had the natural +effect of inducing a growing carelessness, which wrought his ruin. One +evening he started off briskly, after a refreshing rest and sleep. He +knew that he must be very near Sherman’s lines, and hope cheered him up +with the belief that his freedom would soon be won. + +Descending from the hill, in whose dense brushwood he had made his +bed all day, he entered a large field full of standing corn, and made +his way between the rows until he reached, on the other side, the +fence that separated it from the main road, across which was another +corn-field, that Frank intended entering. + +But he neglected his usual precautions on approaching a road, and +instead of coming up cautiously and carefully reconnoitering in all +directions before he left cover, he sprang boldly over the fence and +strode out for the other side. As he reached the middle of the road, +his ears were assailed with the sharp click of a musket being cocked, +and the harsh command: + +“Halt! halt, dah, I say!” + +Turning with a start to his left he saw not ten feet from him, a +mounted patrol, the sound of whose approach had been masked by the deep +dust of the road, into which his horse’s hoofs sank noiselessly. + +Frank, of course, yielded without a word, and when sent to the officer +in command he told the old story about his being an employee of the +Griswoldville shops, off on a leave of absence to make a visit to sick +relatives. But, unfortunately, his captors belonged to that section +themselves, and speedily caught him in a maze of cross-questioning from +which he could not extricate himself. It also became apparent from his +language that he was a Yankee, and it was not far from this to the +conclusion that he was a spy--a conclusion to which the proximity of +Sherman’s lines, then less than twenty miles distant-greatly assisted. + +By the next morning this belief had become so firmly fixed in the minds +of the Rebels that Frank saw a halter dangling alarmingly near, and he +concluded the wisest plan was to confess who he really was. + +It was not the smallest of his griefs to realize by how slight a chance +he had failed. Had he looked down the road before he climbed the fence, +or had he been ten minutes earlier or later, the patrol would not have +been there, he could have gained the next field unperceived, and two +more nights of successful progress would have taken him into Sherman’s +lines at Sand Mountain. The patrol which caught him was on the look-out +for deserters and shirking conscripts, who had become unusually +numerous since the fall of Atlanta. + +He was sent back to us at Savannah. As he came into the prison gate +Lieutenant Davis was standing near. He looked sternly at Frank and his +Rebel garments, and muttering, + +“By God, I’ll stop this!” caught the coat by the tails, tore it to the +collar, and took it and his hat away from Frank. + +There was a strange sequel to this episode. A few weeks afterward +a special exchange for ten thousand was made, and Frank succeeded +in being included in this. He was given the usual furlough from the +paroled camp at Annapolis, and went to his home in a little town near +Mansfield, O. + +One day while on the cars going--I think to Newark, O., he saw +Lieutenant Davis on the train, in citizens’ clothes. He had been sent +by the Rebel Government to Canada with dispatches relating to some of +the raids then harassing our Northern borders. Davis was the last man +in the world to successfully disguise himself. He had a large, coarse +mouth, that made him remembered by all who had ever seen him. Frank +recognized him instantly and said: + +“You are Lieutenant Davis?” + +Davis replied: + +“You are totally mistaken, sah, I am -----.” + +Frank insisted that he was right. Davis fumed and blustered, but though +Frank was small, he was as game as a bantam rooster, and he gave Davis +to understand that there had been a vast change in their relative +positions; that the one, while still the same insolent swaggerer, had +not regiments of infantry or batteries of artillery to emphasize his +insolence, and the other was no longer embarrassed in the discussion by +the immense odds in favor of his jailor opponent. + +After a stormy scene Frank called in the assistance of some other +soldiers in the car, arrested Davis, and took him to Camp Chase--near +Columbus, O.,--where he was fully identified by a number of paroled +prisoners. He was searched, and documents showing the nature of his +mission beyond a doubt, were found upon his person. + +A court martial was immediately convened for his trial. + +This found him guilty, and sentenced him to be hanged as a spy. + +At the conclusion of the trial Frank stepped up to the prisoner and +said: + +“Mr. Davis, I believe we’re even on that coat, now.” + +Davis was sent to Johnson’s Island for execution, but influences were +immediately set at work to secure Executive clemency. What they were +I know not, but I am informed by the Rev. Robert McCune, who was then +Chaplain of the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Ohio Infantry and the +Post of Johnson’s Island and who was the spiritual adviser appointed to +prepare Davis for execution, that the sentence was hardly pronounced +before Davis was visited by an emissary, who told him to dismiss his +fears, that he should not suffer the punishment. + +It is likely that leading Baltimore Unionists were enlisted in his +behalf through family connections, and as the Border State Unionists +were then potent at Washington, they readily secured a commutation of +his sentence to imprisonment during the war. + +It seems that the justice of this world is very unevenly dispensed when +so much solicitude is shown for the life of such a man, and none at all +for the much better men whom he assisted to destroy. + +The official notice of the commutation of the sentence was not +published until the day set for the execution, but the certain +knowledge that it would be forthcoming enabled Davis to display a +great deal of bravado on approaching what was supposed to be his end. +As the reader can readily imagine, from what I have heretofore said +of him, Davis was the man to improve to the utmost every opportunity +to strut his little hour, and he did it in this instance. He posed, +attitudinized and vapored, so that the camp and the country were filled +with stories of the wonderful coolness with which he contemplated his +approaching fate. + +Among other things he said to his guard, as he washed himself +elaborately the night before the day announced for the execution: + +“Well, you can be sure of one thing; to-morrow night there will +certainly be one clean corpse on this Island.” + +Unfortunately for his braggadocio, he let it leak out in some way that +he had been well aware all the time that he would not be executed. + +He was taken to Fort Delaware for confinement, and died there some time +after. + +Frank Beverstock went back to his regiment, and served with it until +the close of the war. He then returned home, and, after awhile became +a banker at Bowling Green, O. He was a fine business man and became +very prosperous. But though naturally healthy and vigorous, his system +carried in it the seeds of death, sown there by the hardships of +captivity. He had been one of the victims of the Rebels’ vaccination; +the virus injected into his blood had caused a large part of his right +temple to slough off, and when it healed it left a ghastly cicatrix. + +Two years ago he was taken suddenly ill, and died before his friends +had any idea that his condition was serious. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +SAVANNAH PROVES TO BE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER--ESCAPE FROM THE BRATS +OF GUARDS--COMPARISON BETWEEN WIRZ AND DAVIS--A BRIEF INTERVAL OF GOOD +RATIONS--WINDER, THE MAN WITH THE EVIL EYE--THE DISLOYAL WORK OF A +SHYSTER. + +After all Savannah was a wonderful improvement on Andersonville. +We got away from the pestilential Swamp and that poisonous ground. +Every mouthful of air was not laden with disease germs, nor every cup +of water polluted with the seeds of death. The earth did not breed +gangrene, nor the atmosphere promote fever. As only the more vigorous +had come away, we were freed from the depressing spectacle of every +third man dying. The keen disappointment prostrated very many who had +been of average health, and I imagine, several hundred died, but there +were hospital arrangements of some kind, and the sick were taken away +from among us. Those of us who tunneled out had an opportunity of +stretching our legs, which we had not had for months in the overcrowded +Stockade we had left. The attempts to escape did all engaged in them +good, even though they failed, since they aroused new ideas and hopes, +set the blood into more rapid circulation, and toned up the mind and +system both. I had come away from Andersonville with considerable +scurvy manifesting itself in my gums and feet. Soon these signs almost +wholly disappeared. + +We also got away from those murderous little brats of Reserves, who +guarded us at Andersonville, and shot men down as they would stone +apples out of a tree. Our guards now were mostly, sailors, from the +Rebel fleet in the harbor--Irishmen, Englishmen and Scandinavians, as +free hearted and kindly as sailors always are. I do not think they +ever fired a shot at one of us. The only trouble we had was with that +portion of the guard drawn from the infantry of the garrison. They had +the same rattlesnake venom of the Home Guard crowd wherever we met it, +and shot us down at the least provocation. Fortunately they only formed +a small part of the sentinels. + +Best of all, we escaped for a while from the upas-like shadow of Winder +and Wirz, in whose presence strong men sickened and died, as when near +some malign genii of an Eastern story. The peasantry of Italy believed +firmly in the evil eye. Did they ever know any such men as Winder and +his satellite, I could comprehend how much foundation they could have +for such a belief. + +Lieutenant Davis had many faults, but there was no comparison between +him and the Andersonville commandant. He was a typical young Southern +man; ignorant and bumptious as to the most common matters of school-boy +knowledge, inordinately vain of himself and his family, coarse in +tastes and thoughts, violent in his prejudices, but after all with +some streaks of honor and generosity that made the widest possible +difference between him and Wirz, who never had any. As one of my chums +said to me: + +“Wirz is the most even-tempered man I ever knew; he’s always foaming +mad.” + +This was nearly the truth. I never saw Wirz when he was not angry; if +not violently abusive, he was cynical and sardonic. Never, in my little +experience with him did I detect a glint of kindly, generous humanity; +if he ever was moved by any sight of suffering its exhibition in his +face escaped my eye. If he ever had even a wish to mitigate the pain or +hardship of any man the expression of such wish never fell on my ear. +How a man could move daily through such misery as he encountered, and +never be moved by it except to scorn and mocking is beyond my limited +understanding. + +Davis vapored a great deal, swearing big round oaths in the broadest of +Southern patois; he was perpetually threatening to: + +“Open on ye wid de ahtillery,” but the only death that I knew him to +directly cause or sanction was that I have described in the previous +chapter. He would not put himself out of the way to annoy and oppress +prisoners, as Wirz would, but frequently showed even a disposition to +humor them in some little thing, when it could be done without danger +or trouble to himself. + +By-and-by, however, he got an idea that there was some money to be made +out of the prisoners, and he set his wits to work in this direction. +One day, standing at the gate, he gave one of his peculiar yells that +he used to attract the attention of the camp with: + +“Wh-ah-ye!!” + +We all came to “attention,” and he announced: + +“Yesterday, while I wuz in the camps (a Rebel always says camps,) +some of you prisoners picked my pockets of seventy-five dollars in +greenbacks. Now, I give you notice that I’ll not send in any moah +rations till the money’s returned to me.” + +This was a very stupid method of extortion, since no one believed that +he had lost the money, and at all events he had no business to have +the greenbacks, as the Rebel laws imposed severe penalties upon any +citizen, and still more upon any soldier dealing with, or having in +his possession any of “the money of the enemy.” We did without rations +until night, when they were sent in. There was a story that some of +the boys in the prison had contributed to make up part of the sum, and +Davis took it and was satisfied. I do not know how true the story was. +At another time some of the boys stole the bridle and halter off an +old horse that was driven in with a cart. The things were worth, at a +liberal estimate, one dollar. Davis cut off the rations of the whole +six thousand of us for one day for this. We always imagined that the +proceeds went into his pocket. + +A special exchange was arranged between our Navy Department and +that of the Rebels, by which all seamen and marines among us were +exchanged. Lists of these were sent to the different prisons and +the men called for. About three-fourths of them were dead, but many +soldiers divining, the situation of affairs, answered to the dead men’s +names, went away with the squad and were exchanged. Much of this was +through the connivance of the Rebel officers, who favored those who +had ingratiated themselves with them. In many instances money was paid +to secure this privilege, and I have been informed on good authority +that Jack Huckleby, of the Eighth Tennessee, and Ira Beverly, of the +One Hundredth Ohio, who kept the big sutler shop on the North Side at +Andersonville, paid Davis five hundred dollars each to be allowed to go +with the sailors. As for Andrews and me, we had no friends among the +Rebels, nor money to bribe with, so we stood no show. + +The rations issued to us for some time after our arrival seemed +riotous luxury to what we had been getting at Andersonville. Each +of us received daily a half-dozen rude and coarse imitations of our +fondly-remembered hard tack, and with these a small piece of meat or a +few spoonfuls of molasses, and a quart or so of vinegar, and several +plugs of tobacco for each “hundred.” How exquisite was the taste of the +crackers and molasses! + +It was the first wheat bread I had eaten since my entry into Richmond +--nine months before--and molasses had been a stranger to me for +years. After the corn bread we had so long lived upon, this was manna. +It seems that the Commissary at Savannah labored under the delusion +that he must issue to us the same rations as were served out to +the Rebel soldiers and sailors. It was some little time before the +fearful mistake came to the knowledge of Winder. I fancy that the +news almost threw him into an apoplectic fit. Nothing, save his being +ordered to the front, could have caused him such poignant sorrow as +the information that so much good food had been worse than wasted in +undoing his work by building up the bodies of his hated enemies. + +Without being told, we knew that he had been heard from when the +tobacco, vinegar and molasses failed to come in, and the crackers gave +way to corn meal. Still this was a vast improvement on Andersonville, +as the meal was fine and sweet, and we each had a spoonful of salt +issued to us regularly. + +I am quite sure that I cannot make the reader who has not had an +experience similar to ours comprehend the wonderful importance to us +of that spoonful of salt. Whether or not the appetite for salt be, as +some scientists claim, a purely artificial want, one thing is certain, +and that is, that either the habit of countless generations or some +other cause, has so deeply ingrained it into our common nature, that +it has come to be nearly as essential as food itself, and no amount of +deprivation can accustom us to its absence. Rather, it seemed that the +longer we did without it the more overpowering became our craving. I +could get along to-day and to-morrow, perhaps the whole week, without +salt in my food, since the lack would be supplied from the excess I +had already swallowed, but at the end of that time Nature would begin +to demand that I renew the supply of saline constituent of my tissues, +and she would become more clamorous with every day that I neglected her +bidding, and finally summon Nausea to aid Longing. + +The light artillery of the garrison of Savannah--four batteries, +twenty-four pieces--was stationed around three sides of the prison, the +guns unlimbered, planted at convenient distance, and trained upon us, +ready for instant use. We could see all the grinning mouths through +the cracks in the fence. There were enough of them to send us as high +as the traditional kite flown by Gilderoy. The having at his beck this +array of frowning metal lent Lieutenant Davis such an importance in +his own eyes that his demeanor swelled to the grandiose. It became +very amusing to see him puff up and vaunt over it, as he did on every +possible occasion. For instance, finding a crowd of several hundred +lounging around the gate, he would throw open the wicket, stalk in +with the air of a Jove threatening a rebellious world with the dread +thunders of heaven, and shout: + +“W-h-a-a y-e-e! Prisoners, I give you jist two minutes to cleah away +from this gate, aw I’ll open on ye wid de ahtillery!” + +One of the buglers of the artillery was a superb musician--evidently +some old “regular” whom the Confederacy had seduced into its service, +and his instrument was so sweet toned that we imagined that it was made +of silver. The calls he played were nearly the same as we used in the +cavalry, and for the first few days we became bitterly homesick every +time he sent ringing out the old familiar signals, that to us were +so closely associated with what now seemed the bright and happy days +when we were in the field with our battalion. If we were only back in +the valleys of Tennessee with what alacrity we would respond to that +“assembly;” no Orderly’s patience would be worn out in getting laggards +and lazy ones to “fall in for roll-call;” how eagerly we would attend +to “stable duty;” how gladly mount our faithful horses and ride away to +“water,” and what bareback races ride, going and coming. We would be +even glad to hear “guard” and “drill” sounded; and there would be music +in the disconsolate “surgeon’s call:” + + “Come-get-your-q-n-i-n-i-n-e; come, get your quinine; It’ll make you + sad: It’ll make you sick. Come, come.” + +O, if we were only back, what admirable soldiers we would be! One +morning, about three or four o’clock, we were awakened by the ground +shaking and a series of heavy, dull thumps sounding oft seaward. Our +silver-voiced bugler seemed to be awakened, too. He set the echoes +ringing with a vigorously played “reveille;” a minute later came an +equally earnest “assembly,” and when “boots and saddles” followed, we +knew that all was not well in Denmark; the thumping and shaking now had +a significance. It meant heavy Yankee guns somewhere near. We heard +the gunners hitching up; the bugle signal “forward,” the wheels roll +off, and for a half hour afterwards we caught the receding sound of +the bugle commanding “right turn,” “left turn,” etc., as the batteries +marched away. Of course, we became considerably wrought up over the +matter, as we fancied that, knowing we were in Savannah, our vessels +were trying to pass up to the City and take it. The thumping and +shaking continued until late in the afternoon. + +We subsequently learned that some of our blockaders, finding time +banging heavy upon their hands, had essayed a little diversion by +knocking Forts Jackson and Bledsoe--two small forts defending the +passage of the Savannah--about their defenders’ ears. After capturing +the forts our folks desisted and came no farther. + +Quite a number of the old Raider crowd had come with us from +Andersonville. Among these was the shyster, Peter Bradley. They kept up +their old tactics of hanging around the gates, and currying favor with +the Rebels in every possible way, in hopes to get paroles outside or +other favors. The great mass of the prisoners were so bitter against +the Rebels as to feel that they would rather die than ask or accept +a favor from their hands, and they had little else than contempt for +these trucklers. The raider crowd’s favorite theme of conversation +with the Rebels was the strong discontent of the boys with the manner +of their treatment by our Government. The assertion that there was any +such widespread feeling was utterly false. We all had confidence--as we +continue to have to this day--that our Government would do everything +for us possible, consistent with its honor, and the success of military +operations, and outside of the little squad of which I speak, not +an admission could be extracted from anybody that blame could be +attached to any one, except the Rebels. It was regarded as unmanly and +unsoldier-like to the last degree, as well as senseless, to revile our +Government for the crimes committed by its foes. + +But the Rebels were led to believe that we were ripe for revolt against +our flag, and to side with them. Imagine, if possible, the stupidity +that would mistake our bitter hatred of those who were our deadly +enemies, for any feeling that would lead us to join hands with those +enemies. One day we were surprised to see the carpenters erect a rude +stand in the center of the camp. When it was finished, Bradley appeared +upon it, in company with some Rebel officers and guards. We gathered +around in curiosity, and Bradley began making a speech. + +He said that it had now become apparent to all of us that our +Government had abandoned us; that it cared little or nothing for us, +since it could hire as many more quite readily, by offering a bounty +equal to the pay which would be due us now; that it cost only a few +hundred dollars to bring over a shipload of Irish, “Dutch,” and French, +who were only too glad to agree to fight or do anything else to get +to this country. [The peculiar impudence of this consisted in Bradley +himself being a foreigner, and one who had only come out under one of +the later calls, and the influence of a big bounty.] + +Continuing in this strain he repeated and dwelt upon the old lie, +always in the mouths of his crowd, that Secretary Stanton and General +Halleck had positively refused to enter upon negotiations for exchange, +because those in prison were “only a miserable lot of ‘coffee-boilers’ +and ‘blackberry pickers,’ whom the Army was better off without.” + +The terms “coffee-boiler,” and “blackberry-pickers” were considered +the worst terms of opprobrium we had in prison. They were applied to +that class of stragglers and skulkers, who were only too ready to give +themselves up to the enemy, and who, on coming in, told some gauzy +story about “just having stopped to boil a cup of coffee,” or to do +something else which they should not have done, when they were gobbled +up. It is not risking much to affirm the probability of Bradley and +most of his crowd having belonged to this dishonorable class. + +The assertion that either the great Chief-of-Staff or the still greater +War-Secretary were even capable of applying such epithets to the mass +of prisoners is too preposterous to need refutation, or even denial. +No person outside the raider crowd ever gave the silly lie a moment’s +toleration. + +Bradley concluded his speech in some such language as this: + +“And now, fellow prisoners, I propose to you this: that we unite in +informing our Government that unless we are exchanged in thirty days, +we will be forced by self-preservation to join the Confederate army.” + +For an instant his hearers seemed stunned at the fellow’s audacity, and +then there went up such a roar of denunciation and execration that the +air trembled. The Rebels thought that the whole camp was going to rush +on Bradley and tear him to pieces, and they drew revolvers and leveled +muskets to defend him. The uproar only ceased when Bradley was hurried +out of the prisons but for hours everybody was savage and sullen, and +full of threatenings against him, when opportunity served. We never saw +him afterward. + +Angry as I was, I could not help being amused at the tempestuous rage +of a tall, fine-looking and well educated Irish Sergeant of an Illinois +regiment. He poured forth denunciations of the traitor and the Rebels, +with the vivid fluency of his Hibernian nature, vowed he’d “give a year +of me life, be J---s, to have the handling of the dirty spalpeen for +ten minutes; be G-d,” and finally in his rage, tore off his own shirt +and threw it on the ground and trampled on it. + +Imagine my astonishment, some time after getting out of prison, to find +the Southern papers publishing as a defense against the charges in +regard to Andersonville, the following document, which they claimed to +have been adopted by “a mass meeting of the prisoners:” + +“At a mass meeting held September 28th, 1864, by the Federal prisoners +confined at Savannah, Ga., it was unanimously agreed that the following +resolutions be sent to the President of the United States, in the hope +that he might thereby take such steps as in his wisdom he may think +necessary for our speedy exchange or parole: + +“Resolved, That while we would declare our unbounded love for the +Union, for the home of our fathers, and for the graves of those +we venerate, we would beg most respectfully that our situation as +prisoners be diligently inquired into, and every obstacle consistent +with the honor and dignity of the Government at once removed. + +“Resolved, That while allowing the Confederate authorities all due +praise for the attention paid to prisoners, numbers of our men are +daily consigned to early graves, in the prime of manhood, far from home +and kindred, and this is not caused intentionally by the Confederate +Government, but by force of circumstances; the prisoners are forced to +go without shelter, and, in a great portion of cases, without medicine. + +“Resolved, That, whereas, ten thousand of our brave comrades have +descended into an untimely grave within the last six months, and as +we believe their death was caused by the difference of climate, the +peculiar kind and insufficiency of food, and lack of proper medical +treatment; and, whereas, those difficulties still remain, we would +declare as our firm belief, that unless we are speedily exchanged, we +have no alternative but to share the lamentable fate of our comrades. +Must this thing still go on! Is there no hope? + +“Resolved, That, whereas, the cold and inclement season of the year is +fast approaching, we hold it to be our duty as soldiers and citizens +of the United States, to inform our Government that the majority of +our prisoners ate without proper clothing, in some cases being almost +naked, and are without blankets to protect us from the scorching sun by +day or the heavy dews by night, and we would most respectfully request +the Government to make some arrangement whereby we can be supplied with +these, to us, necessary articles. + +“Resolved, That, whereas, the term of service of many of our comrades +having expired, they, having served truly and faithfully for the +term of their several enlistments, would most respectfully ask their +Government, are they to be forgotten? Are past services to be ignored? +Not having seen their wives and little ones for over three years, they +would most respectfully, but firmly, request the Government to make +some arrangements whereby they can be exchanged or paroled. + +“Resolved, That, whereas, in the fortune of war, it was our lot to +become prisoners, we have suffered patiently, and are still willing to +suffer, if by so doing we can benefit the country; but we must most +respectfully beg to say, that we are not willing to suffer to further +the ends of any party or clique to the detriment of our honor, our +families, and our country, and we beg that this affair be explained to +us, that we may continue to hold the Government in that respect which +is necessary to make a good citizen and soldier. + + “P. BRADLEY, + + “Chairman of Committee in behalf of Prisoners.” + + +In regard to the above I will simply say this, that while I cannot +pretend to know or even much that went on around me, I do not think it +was possible for a mass meeting of prisoners to have been held without +my knowing it, and its essential features. Still less was it possible +for a mass meeting to have been held which would have adopted any such +a document as the above, or anything else that a Rebel would have +found the least pleasure in republishing. The whole thing is a brazen +falsehood. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +WHY WE WERE HURRIED OUT OF ANDERSONVILLE--THE FALL OF ATLANTA +--OUR LONGING TO HEAR THE NEWS--ARRIVAL OF SOME FRESH FISH--HOW WE KNEW +THEY WERE WESTERN BOYS--DIFFERENCE IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOLDIERS OF +THE TWO ARMIES. + +The reason of our being hurried out of Andersonville under the false +pretext of exchange dawned on us before we had been in Savannah long. +If the reader will consult the map of Georgia he will understand this, +too. Let him remember that several of the railroads which now appear +were not built then. The road upon which Andersonville is situated +was about one hundred and twenty miles long, reaching from Macon to +Americus, Andersonville being about midway between these two. It had +no connections anywhere except at Macon, and it was hundreds of miles +across the country from Andersonville to any other road. When Atlanta +fell it brought our folks to within sixty miles of Macon, and any day +they were liable to make a forward movement, which would capture that +place, and have us where we could be retaken with ease. + +There was nothing left undone to rouse the apprehensions of the Rebels +in that direction. The humiliating surrender of General Stoneman +at Macon in July, showed them what our folks were thinking of, and +awakened their minds to the disastrous consequences of such a movement +when executed by a bolder and abler commander. Two days of one of +Kilpatrick’s swift, silent marches would carry his hard-riding troopers +around Hood’s right flank, and into the streets of Macon, where a +half hour’s work with the torch on the bridges across the Ocmulgee +and the creeks that enter it at that point, would have cut all of the +Confederate Army of the Tennessee’s communications. Another day and +night of easy marching would bring his guidons fluttering through the +woods about the Stockade at Andersonville, and give him a reinforcement +of twelve or fifteen thousand able-bodied soldiers, with whom he could +have held the whole Valley of the Chattahoochie, and become the nether +millstone, against which Sherman could have ground Hood’s army to +powder. + +Such a thing was not only possible, but very probable, and doubtless +would have occurred had we remained in Andersonville another week. + +Hence the haste to get us away, and hence the lie about exchange, for, +had it not been for this, one-quarter at least of those taken on the +cars would have succeeded in getting off and attempted to have reached +Sherman’s lines. + +The removal went on with such rapidity that by the end of September +only eight thousand two hundred and eighteen remained at Andersonville, +and these were mostly too sick to be moved; two thousand seven hundred +died in September, fifteen hundred and sixty in October, and four +hundred and eighty-five in November, so that at the beginning of +December there were only thirteen hundred and fifty-nine remaining. +The larger part of those taken out were sent on to Charleston, and +subsequently to Florence and Salisbury. About six or seven thousand of +us, as near as I remember, were brought to Savannah. + + ....................... + + +We were all exceedingly anxious to know how the Atlanta campaign had +ended. So far our information only comprised the facts that a sharp +battle had been fought, and the result was the complete possession of +our great objective point. The manner of accomplishing this glorious +end, the magnitude of the engagement, the regiments, brigades and +corps participating, the loss on both sides, the completeness of the +victories, etc., were all matters that we knew nothing of, and thirsted +to learn. + +The Rebel papers said as little as possible about the capture, and the +facts in that little were so largely diluted with fiction as to convey +no real information. But few new, prisoners were coming in, and none +of these were from Sherman. However, toward the last of September, a +handful of “fresh fish” were turned inside, whom our experienced eyes +instantly told us were Western boys. + +There was never any difficulty in telling, as far as he could be +seen, whether a boy belonged to the East or the west. First, no one +from the Army of the Potomac was ever without his corps badge worn +conspicuously; it was rare to see such a thing on one of Sherman’s men. +Then there was a dressy air about the Army of the Potomac that was +wholly wanting in the soldiers serving west of the Alleghanies. + +The Army, of the Potomac was always near to its base of supplies, +always had its stores accessible, and the care of the clothing and +equipments of the men was an essential part of its discipline. A ragged +or shabbily dressed man was a rarity. Dress coats, paper collars, +fresh woolen shirts, neat-fitting pantaloons, good comfortable shoes, +and trim caps or hats, with all the blazing brass of company letters +an inch long, regimental number, bugle and eagle, according to the +Regulations, were as common to Eastern boys as they were rare among the +Westerners. + +The latter usually wore blouses, instead of dress coats, and as a rule +their clothing had not been renewed since the opening, of the campaign +--and it showed this. Those who wore good boots or shoes generally had +to submit to forcible exchanges by their captors, and the same was true +of head gear. The Rebels were badly off in regard to hats. They did not +have skill and ingenuity enough to make these out of felt or straw, and +the make-shifts they contrived of quilted calico and long-leaved pine, +were ugly enough to frighten horned cattle. + +I never blamed them much for wanting to get rid of these, even if they +did have to commit a sort of highway robbery upon defenseless prisoners +to do so. To be a traitor in arms was bad certainly, but one never +appreciated the entire magnitude of the crime until he saw a Rebel +wearing a calico or a pine-leaf hat. Then one felt as if it would be a +great mistake to ever show such a man mercy. + +The Army of Northern Virginia seemed to have supplied themselves with +head-gear of Yankee manufacture of previous years, and they then quit +taking the hats of their prisoners. Johnston’s Army did not have such +good luck, and had to keep plundering to the end of the war. + +Another thing about the Army of the Potomac was the variety of the +uniforms. There were members of Zouave regiments, wearing baggy +breeches of various hues, gaiters, crimson fezes, and profusely braided +jackets. I have before mentioned the queer garb of the “Lost Ducks.” +(Les Enfants Perdu, Forty-eighth New York.) + +One of the most striking uniforms was that of the “Fourteenth +Brooklyn.” They wore scarlet pantaloons, a blue jacket handsomely +braided, and a red fez, with a white cloth wrapped around the head, +turban-fashion. As a large number of them were captured, they formed +quite a picturesque feature of every crowd. They were generally good +fellows and gallant soldiers. + +Another uniform that attracted much, though not so favorable, attention +was that of the Third New Jersey Cavalry, or First New Jersey Hussars, +as they preferred to call themselves. The designer of the uniform +must have had an interest in a curcuma plantation, or else he was a +fanatical Orangeman. Each uniform would furnish occasion enough for a +dozen New York riots on the 12th of July. Never was such an eruption +of the yellows seen outside of the jaundiced livery of some Eastern +potentate. Down each leg of the pantaloons ran a stripe of yellow braid +one and one-half inches wide. The jacket had enormous gilt buttons, +and was embellished with yellow braid until it was difficult to tell +whether it was blue cloth trimmed with yellow, or yellow adorned with +blue. From the shoulders swung a little, false hussar jacket, lined +with the same flaring yellow. The vizor-less cap was similarly warmed +up with the hue of the perfected sunflower. Their saffron magnificence +was like the gorgeous gold of the lilies of the field, and Solomon in +all his glory could not have beau arrayed like one of them. I hope he +was not. I want to retain my respect for him. We dubbed these daffodil +cavaliers “Butterflies,” and the name stuck to them like a poor +relation. + +Still another distinction that was always noticeable between the two +armies was in the bodily bearing of the men. The Army of the Potomac +was drilled more rigidly than the Western men, and had comparatively +few long marches. Its members had something of the stiffness and +precision of English and German soldiery, while the Western boys had +the long, “reachy” stride, and easy swing that made forty miles a day a +rather commonplace march for an infantry regiment. + +This was why we knew the new prisoners to be Sherman’s boys as soon as +they came inside, and we started for them to hear the news. Inviting +them over to our lean-to, we told them our anxiety for the story of the +decisive blow that gave us the Central Gate of the Confederacy, and +asked them to give it to us. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF ATLANTA--A DISSERTATION UPON AN IMPORTANT +PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM--THE BATTLE OF JONESBORO--WHY IT WAS FOUGHT +--HOW SHERMAN DECEIVED HOOD--A DESPERATE BAYONET CHARGE, AND THE ONLY +SUCCESSFUL ONE IN THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN--A GALLANT COLONEL AND HOW HE +DIED--THE HEROISM OF SOME ENLISTED MEN--GOING CALMLY INTO CERTAIN DEATH. + +An intelligent, quick-eyed, sunburned boy, without an ounce of +surplus flesh on face or limbs, which had been reduced to gray-hound +condition by the labors and anxieties of the months of battling between +Chattanooga and Atlanta, seemed to be the accepted talker of the crowd, +since all the rest looked at him, as if expecting him to answer for +them. He did so: + +“You want to know about how we got Atlanta at last, do you? Well, if +you don’t know, I should think you would want to. If I didn’t, I’d want +somebody to tell me all about it just as soon as he could get to me, +for it was one of the neatest little bits of work that ‘old Billy’ and +his boys ever did, and it got away with Hood so bad that he hardly knew +what hurt him. + +“Well, first, I’ll tell you that we belong to the old Fourteenth +Ohio Volunteers, which, if you know anything about the Army of the +Cumberland, you’ll remember has just about as good a record as any that +trains around old Pap Thomas--and he don’t ’low no slouches of any kind +near him, either--you can bet $500 to a cent on that, and offer to give +back the cent if you win. Ours is Jim Steedman’s old regiment--you’ve +all heard of old Chickamauga Jim, who slashed his division of 7,000 +fresh men into the Rebel flank on the second day at Chickamauga, in a +way that made Longstreet wish he’d staid on the Rappahannock, and never +tried to get up any little sociable with the Westerners. If I do say +it myself, I believe we’ve got as good a crowd of square, stand-up, +trust ’em-every-minute-in-your-life boys, as ever thawed hard-tack and +sowbelly. We got all the grunters and weak sisters fanned out the first +year, and since then we’ve been on a business basis, all the time. +We’re in a mighty good brigade, too. Most of the regiments have been +with us since we formed the first brigade Pap Thomas ever commanded, +and waded with him through the mud of Kentucky, from Wild Cat to Mill +Springs, where he gave Zollicoffer just a little the awfulest thrashing +that a Rebel General ever got. That, you know, was in January, 1862, +and was the first victory gained by the Western Army, and our people +felt so rejoiced over it that--” + +“Yes, yes; we’ve read all about that,” we broke in, “and we’d like to +hear it again, some other time; but tell us now about Atlanta.” + +“All right. Let’s see: where was I? O, yes, talking about our brigade. +It is the Third Brigade, of the Third Division, of the Fourteenth +Corps, and is made up of the Fourteenth Ohio, Thirty-eighth Ohio, Tenth +Kentucky, and Seventy-fourth Indiana. Our old Colonel--George P. Este +--commands it. We never liked him very well in camp, but I tell you +he’s a whole team in a fight, and he’d do so well there that all would +take to him again, and he’d be real popular for a while.” + +“Now, isn’t that strange,” broke in Andrews, who was given to fits of +speculation of psychological phenomena: “None of us yearn to die, but +the surest way to gain the affection of the boys is to show zeal in +leading them into scrapes where the chances of getting shot are the +best. Courage in action, like charity, covers a multitude of sins. I +have known it to make the most unpopular man in the battalion, the most +popular inside of half an hour. Now, M.(addressing himself to me,) +you remember Lieutenant H., of our battalion. You know he was a very +fancy young fellow; wore as snipish’ clothes as the tailor could make, +had gold lace on his jacket wherever the regulations would allow it, +decorated his shoulders with the stunningest pair of shoulder knots I +ever saw, and so on. Well, he did not stay with us long after we went +to the front. He went back on a detail for a court martial, and staid +a good while. When he rejoined us, he was not in good odor, at all, +and the boys weren’t at all careful in saying unpleasant things when +he could hear them, A little while after he came back we made that +reconnaissance up on the Virginia Road. We stirred up the Johnnies with +our skirmish line, and while the firing was going on in front we sat on +our horses in line, waiting for the order to move forward and engage. +You know how solemn such moments are. I looked down the line and saw +Lieutenant H. at the right of Company --, in command of it. I had not +seen him since he came back, and I sung out: + +“‘Hello, Lieutenant, how do you feel?’ + +“The reply came back, promptly, and with boyish cheerfulness: + +“‘Bully, by ----; I’m going to lead seventy men of Company into action +today!’ + +“How his boys did cheer him. When the bugle sounded--‘forward, trot,’ +his company sailed in as if they meant it, and swept the Johnnies off +in short meter. You never heard anybody say anything against Lieutenant +after that.” + +“You know how it was with Captain G., of our regiment,” said one of +the Fourteenth to another. “He was promoted from Orderly Sergeant to +a Second Lieutenant, and assigned to Company D. All the members of +Company D went to headquarters in a body, and protested against his +being put in their company, and he was not. Well, he behaved so well at +Chickamauga that the boys saw that they had done him a great injustice, +and all those that still lived went again to headquarters, and asked to +take all back that they had said, and to have him put into the company.” + +“Well, that was doing the manly thing, sure; but go on about Atlanta.” + +“I was telling about our brigade,” resumed the narrator. “Of course, we +think our regiment’s the best by long odds in the army--every fellow +thinks that of his regiment--but next to it come the other regiments of +our brigade. There’s not a cent of discount on any of them. + +“Sherman had stretched out his right away to the south and west of +Atlanta. About the middle of August our corps, commanded by Jefferson +C. Davis, was lying in works at Utoy Creek, a couple of miles from +Atlanta. We could see the tall steeples and the high buildings of the +City quite plainly. Things had gone on dull and quiet like for about +ten days. This was longer by a good deal than we had been at rest since +we left Resaca in the Spring. We knew that something was brewing, and +that it must come to a head soon. + +“I belong to Company C. Our little mess--now reduced to three by the +loss of two of our best soldiers and cooks, Disbrow and Sulier, killed +behind head-logs in front of Atlanta, by sharpshooters--had one fellow +that we called ‘Observer,’ because he had such a faculty of picking +up news in his prowling around headquarters. He brought us in so much +of this, and it was generally so reliable that we frequently made up +his absence from duty by taking his place. He was never away from a +fight, though. On the night of the 25th of August, ‘Observer’ came in +with the news that something was in the wind. Sherman was getting awful +restless, and we had found out that this always meant lots of trouble +to our friends on the other side. + +“Sure enough, orders came to get ready to move, and the next night we +all moved to the right and rear, out of sight of the Johnnies. Our well +built works were left in charge of Garrard’s Cavalry, who concealed +their horses in the rear, and came up and took our places. The whole +army except the Twentieth Corps moved quietly off, and did it so nicely +that we were gone some time before the enemy suspected it. Then the +Twentieth Corps pulled out towards the North, and fell back to the +Chattahoochie, making quite a shove of retreat. The Rebels snapped up +the bait greedily. They thought the siege was being raised, and they +poured over their works to hurry the Twentieth boys off. The Twentieth +fellows let them know that there was lots of sting in them yet, and the +Johnnies were not long in discovering that it would have been money +in their pockets if they had let that ‘moon-and-star’ (that’s the +Twentieth’s badge, you know) crowd alone. + +“But the Rebs thought the rest of us were gone for good and that +Atlanta was saved. Naturally they felt mighty happy over it; and +resolved to have a big celebration--a ball, a meeting of jubilee, etc. +Extra trains were run in, with girls and women from the surrounding +country, and they just had a high old time. + +“In the meantime we were going through so many different kinds of +tactics that it looked as if Sherman was really crazy this time, sure. +Finally we made a grand left wheel, and then went forward a long way +in line of battle. It puzzled us a good deal, but we knew that Sherman +couldn’t get us into any scrape that Pap Thomas couldn’t get us out of, +and so it was all right. + +“Along on the evening of the 31st our right wing seemed to have run +against a hornet’s nest, and we could hear the musketry and cannon +speak out real spiteful, but nothing came down our way. We had struck +the railroad leading south from Atlanta to Macon, and began tearing +it up. The jollity at Atlanta was stopped right in the middle by the +appalling news that the Yankees hadn’t retreated worth a cent, but had +broken out in a new and much worse spot than ever. Then there was no +end of trouble all around, and Hood started part of his army back after +us. + +“Part of Hardee’s and Pat Cleburne’s command went into position in +front of us. We left them alone till Stanley could come up on our left, +and swing around, so as to cut off their retreat, when we would bag +every one of them. But Stanley was as slow as he always was, and did +not come up until it was too late, and the game was gone. + +“The sun was just going down on the evening of the 1st of September, +when we began to see we were in for it, sure. The Fourteenth Corps +wheeled into position near the railroad, and the sound of musketry and +artillery became very loud and clear on our front and left. We turned +a little and marched straight toward the racket, becoming more excited +every minute. We saw the Carlin’s brigade of regulars, who were some +distance ahead of us, pile knapsacks, form in line, fix bayonets, and +dash off with arousing cheer. + +“The Rebel fire beat upon them like a Summer rain-storm, the ground +shook with the noise, and just as we reached the edge of the cotton +field, we saw the remnant of the brigade come flying back out of the +awful, blasting shower of bullets. The whole slope was covered with +dead and wounded.” + +“Yes,” interrupts one of the Fourteenth; “and they made that charge +right gamely, too, I can tell you. They were good soldiers, and well +led. When we went over the works, I remember seeing the body of a +little Major of one of the regiments lying right on the top. If he +hadn’t been killed he’d been inside in a half-a-dozen steps more. +There’s no mistake about it; those regulars will fight.” + +“When we saw this,” resumed the narrator, “it set our fellows fairly +wild; they became just crying mad; I never saw them so before. The +order came to strip for the charge, and our knapsacks were piled in +half a minute. A Lieutenant of our company, who was then on the staff +of Gen. Baird, our division commander, rode slowly down the line and +gave us our instructions to load our guns, fix bayonets, and hold fire +until we were on top of the Rebel works. Then Colonel Este sang out +clear and steady as a bugle signal: + +“‘Brigade, forward! Guide center! MARCH!!’ + +“And we started. Heavens, how they did let into us, as we came up +into range. They had ten pieces of artillery, and more men behind the +breastworks than we had in line, and the fire they poured on us was +simply withering. We walked across the hundreds of dead and dying of +the regular brigade, and at every step our own men fell down among +them. General Baud’s horse was shot down, and the General thrown far +over his head, but he jumped up and ran alongside of us. Major Wilson, +our regimental commander, fell mortally wounded; Lieutenant Kirk was +killed, and also Captain Stopfard, Adjutant General of the brigade. +Lieutenants Cobb and Mitchell dropped with wounds that proved fatal in +a few days. Captain Ugan lost an arm, one-third of the enlisted men +fell, but we went straight ahead, the grape and the musketry becoming +worse every step, until we gained the edge of the hill, where we were +checked a minute by the brush, which the Rebels had fixed up in the +shape of abattis. Just then a terrible fire from a new direction, +our left, swept down the whole length of our line. The Colonel of +the Seventeenth New York--as gallant a man as ever lived saw the new +trouble, took his regiment in on the run, and relieved us of this, but +he was himself mortally wounded. If our boys were half-crazy before, +they were frantic now, and as we got out of the entanglement of the +brush, we raised a fearful yell and ran at the works. We climbed the +sides, fired right down into the defenders, and then began with the +bayonet and sword. For a few minutes it was simply awful. On both sides +men acted like infuriated devils. They dashed each other’s brains out +with clubbed muskets; bayonets were driven into men’s bodies up to the +muzzle of the gun; officers ran their swords through their opponents, +and revolvers, after being emptied into the faces of the Rebels, were +thrown with desperate force into the ranks. In our regiment was a +stout German butcher named Frank Fleck. He became so excited that he +threw down his sword, and rushed among the Rebels with his bare fists, +knocking down a swath of them. He yelled to the first Rebel he met: + +“Py Gott, I’ve no patience mit you,’ and knocked him sprawling. He +caught hold of the commander of the Rebel Brigade, and snatched him +back over the works by main strength. Wonderful to say, he escaped +unhurt, but the boys will probably not soon let him hear the last of, + +“Py Gott, I’ve no patience mit you.’ + +“The Tenth Kentucky, by the queerest luck in the world, was matched +against the Rebel Ninth Kentucky. The commanders of the two regiments +were brothers-in-law, and the men relatives, friends, acquaintances and +schoolmates. They hated each other accordingly, and the fight between +them was more bitter, if possible, than anywhere else on the line. The +Thirty-Eighth Ohio and Seventy-fourth Indiana put in some work that was +just magnificent. We hadn’t time to look at it then, but the dead and +wounded piled up after the fight told the story. + +“We gradually forced our way over the works, but the Rebels were game +to the last, and we had to make them surrender almost one at a time. +The artillerymen tried to fire on us when we were so close we could lay +our hands on the guns. + +“Finally nearly all in the works surrendered, and were disarmed and +marched back. Just then an aid came dashing up with the information +that we must turn the works, and get ready to receive Hardee, who was +advancing to retake the position. We snatched up some shovels lying +near, and began work. We had no time to remove the dead and dying +Rebels on the works, and the dirt we threw covered them up. It proved +a false alarm. Hardee had as much as he could do to save his own hide, +and the affair ended about dark. + +“When we came to count up what we had gained, we found that we had +actually taken more prisoners from behind breastworks than there +were in our brigade when we started the charge. We had made the only +really successful bayonet charge of the campaign. Every other time +since we left Chattanooga the party standing on the defensive had been +successful. Here we had taken strong double lines, with ten guns, +seven battle flags, and over two thousand prisoners. We had lost +terribly--not less than one-third of the brigade, and many of our best +men. Our regiment went into the battle with fifteen officers; nine of +these were killed or wounded, and seven of the nine lost either their +limbs or lives. The Thirty-Eighth Ohio, and the other regiments of the +brigade lost equally heavy. We thought Chickamauga awful, but Jonesboro +discounted it.” + +“Do you know,” said another of the Fourteenth, “I heard our Surgeon +telling about how that Colonel Grower, of the Seventeenth New York, who +came in so splendidly on our left, died? They say he was a Wall Street +broker, before the war. He was hit shortly after he led his regiment +in, and after the fight, was carried back to the hospital. While our +Surgeon was going the rounds Colonel Grower called him, and said +quietly, ‘When you get through with the men, come and see me, please.’ + +“The Doctor would have attended to him then, but Grower wouldn’t let +him. After he got through he went back to Grower, examined his wound, +and told him that he could only live a few hours. Grower received the +news tranquilly, had the Doctor write a letter to his wife, and gave +him his things to send her, and then grasping the Doctor’s hand, he +said: + +“Doctor, I’ve just one more favor to ask; will you grant it?’ + +“The Doctor said, ‘Certainly; what is it?’ + +“You say I can’t live but a few hours?’ + +“Yes; that is true.’ + +“And that I will likely be in great pain!’ + +“I am sorry to say so.’ + +“Well, then, do give me morphia enough to put me to sleep, so that I +will wake up only in another world.’ + +“The Doctor did so; Colonel Grower thanked him; wrung his hand, bade +him good-by, and went to sleep to wake no more.” + +“Do you believe in presentiments and superstitions?” said another of +the Fourteenth. There was Fisher Pray, Orderly Sergeant of Company I. +He came from Waterville, O., where his folks are now living. The day +before we started out he had a presentiment that we were going into +a fight, and that he would be killed. He couldn’t shake it off. He +told the Lieutenant, and some of the boys about it, and they tried +to ridicule him out of it, but it was no good. When the sharp firing +broke out in front some of the boys said, ‘Fisher, I do believe you +are right,’ and he nodded his head mournfully. When we were piling +knapsacks for the charge, the Lieutenant, who was a great friend of +Fisher’s, said: + +“Fisher, you stay here and guard the knapsacks.’ + +“Fisher’s face blazed in an instant. + +“No, sir,’ said he; I never shirked a fight yet, and I won’t begin now.’ + +“So he went into the fight, and was killed, as he knew he would be. +Now, that’s what I call nerve.” + +“The same thing was true of Sergeant Arthur Tarbox, of Company A,” said +the narrator; “he had a presentiment, too; he knew he was going to be +killed, if he went in, and he was offered an honorable chance to stay +out, but he would not take it, and went in and was killed.” + +“Well, we staid there the next day, buried our dead, took care of our +wounded, and gathered up the plunder we had taken from the Johnnies. +The rest of the army went off, ‘hot blocks,’ after Hardee and the +rest of Hood’s army, which it was hoped would be caught outside of +entrenchments. But Hood had too much the start, and got into the works +at Lovejoy, ahead of our fellows. The night before we heard several +very loud explosions up to the north. We guessed what that meant, and +so did the Twentieth Corps, who were lying back at the Chattahoochee, +and the next morning the General commanding--Slocum--sent out a +reconnaissance. It was met by the Mayor of Atlanta, who said that the +Rebels had blown up their stores and retreated. The Twentieth Corps +then came in and took possession of the City, and the next day--the +3d--Sherman came in, and issued an order declaring the campaign at an +end, and that we would rest awhile and refit. + +“We laid around Atlanta a good while, and things quieted down so +that it seemed almost like peace, after the four months of continual +fighting we had gone through. We had been under a strain so long that +now we boys went in the other direction, and became too careless, and +that’s how we got picked up. We went out about five miles one night +after a lot of nice smoked hams that a nigger told us were stored in +an old cotton press, and which we knew would be enough sight better +eating for Company C, than the commissary pork we had lived on so long. +We found the cotton press, and the hams, just as the nigger told us, +and we hitched up a team to take them into camp. As we hadn’t seen any +Johnny signs anywhere, we set our guns down to help load the meat, and +just as we all came stringing out to the wagon with as much meat as we +could carry, a company of Ferguson’s Cavalry popped out of the woods +about one hundred yards in front of us and were on top of us before we +could say I scat. You see they’d heard of the meat, too.” + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +A FAIR SACRIFICE--THE STORY OF ONE BOY WHO WILLINGLY GAVE HIS YOUNG +LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY. + +Charley Barbour was one of the truest-hearted and best-liked of my +school-boy chums and friends. For several terms we sat together on +the same uncompromisingly uncomfortable bench, worried over the same +boy-maddening problems in “Ray’s Arithmetic-Part III.,” learned the +same jargon of meaningless rules from “Greene’s Grammar,” pondered over +“Mitchell’s Geography and Atlas,” and tried in vain to understand why +Providence made the surface of one State obtrusively pink and another +ultramarine blue; trod slowly and painfully over the rugged road +“Bullion” points out for beginners in Latin, and began to believe we +should hate ourselves and everybody else, if we were gotten up after +the manner shown by “Cutter’s Physiology.” We were caught together in +the same long series of school-boy scrapes--and were usually ferruled +together by the same strong-armed teacher. We shared nearly everything +--our fun and work; enjoyment and annoyance--all were generally +meted out to us together. We read from the same books the story of +the wonderful world we were going to see in that bright future “when +we were men;” we spent our Saturdays and vacations in the miniature +explorations of the rocky hills and caves, and dark cedar woods around +our homes, to gather ocular helps to a better comprehension of that +magical land which we were convinced began just beyond our horizon, and +had in it, visible to the eye of him who traveled through its enchanted +breadth, all that “Gulliver’s Fables,” the “Arabian Nights,” and a +hundred books of travel and adventure told of. + +We imagined that the only dull and commonplace spot on earth was that +where we lived. Everywhere else life was a grand spectacular drama, +full of thrilling effects. + +Brave and handsome young men were rescuing distressed damsels, +beautiful as they were wealthy; bloody pirates and swarthy murderers +were being foiled by quaint spoken backwoodsmen, who carried unerring +rifles; gallant but blundering Irishmen, speaking the most delightful +brogue, and making the funniest mistakes, were daily thwarting cool +and determined villains; bold tars were encountering fearful sea +perils; lionhearted adventurers were cowing and quelling whole tribes +of barbarians; magicians were casting spells, misers hoarding gold, +scientists making astonishing discoveries, poor and unknown boys +achieving wealth and fame at a single bound, hidden mysteries coming +to light, and so the world was going on, making reams of history with +each diurnal revolution, and furnishing boundless material for the most +delightful books. + +At the age of thirteen a perusal of the lives of Benjamin Franklin and +Horace Greeley precipitated my determination to no longer hesitate in +launching my small bark upon the great ocean. I ran away from home +in a truly romantic way, and placed my foot on what I expected to be +the first round of the ladder of fame, by becoming “devil boy” in a +printing office in a distant large City. Charley’s attachment to his +mother and his home was too strong to permit him to take this step, +and we parted in sorrow, mitigated on my side by roseate dreams of the +future. + +Six years passed. One hot August morning I met an old acquaintance +at the Creek, in Andersonville. He told me to come there the next +morning, after roll-call, and he would take me to see some person who +was very anxious to meet me. I was prompt at the rendezvous, and was +soon joined by the other party. He threaded his way slowly for over +half an hour through the closely-jumbled mass of tents and burrows, +and at length stopped in front of a blanket-tent in the northwestern +corner. The occupant rose and took my hand. For an instant I was +puzzled; then the clear, blue eyes, and well-remembered smile recalled +to me my old-time comrade, Charley Barbour. His story was soon told. +He was a Sergeant in a Western Virginia cavalry regiment--the Fourth, +I think. At the time Hunter was making his retreat from the Valley of +Virginia, it was decided to mislead the enemy by sending out a courier +with false dispatches to be captured. There was a call for a volunteer +for this service. Charley was the first to offer, with that spirit of +generous self-sacrifice that was one of his pleasantest traits when +a boy. He knew what he had to expect. Capture meant imprisonment at +Andersonville; our men had now a pretty clear understanding of what +this was. Charley took the dispatches and rode into the enemy’s lines. +He was taken, and the false information produced the desired effect. +On his way to Andersonville he was stripped of all his clothing +but his shirt and pantaloons, and turned into the Stockade in this +condition. When I saw him he had been in a week or more. He told his +story quietly--almost diffidently--not seeming aware that he had done +more than his simple duty. I left him with the promise and expectation +of returning the next day, but when I attempted to find him again, I +was lost in the maze of tents and burrows. I had forgotten to ask the +number of his detachment, and after spending several days in hunting +for him, I was forced to give the search up. He knew as little of my +whereabouts, and though we were all the time within seventeen hundred +feet of each other, neither we nor our common acquaintance could ever +manage to meet again. This will give the reader an idea of the throng +compressed within the narrow limits of the Stockade. After leaving +Andersonville, however, I met this man once more, and learned from him +that Charley had sickened and died within a month after his entrance to +prison. + +So ended his day-dream of a career in the busy world. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + +WE LEAVE SAVANNAH--MORE HOPES OF EXCHANGE--SCENES AT DEPARTURE +--“FLANKERS”--ON THE BACK TRACK TOWARD ANDERSONVILLE--ALARM THEREAT +--AT THE PARTING OF TWO WAYS--WE FINALLY BRING UP AT CAMP LAWTON. + +On the evening of the 11th of October there came an order for one +thousand prisoners to fall in and march out, for transfer to some other +point. + +Of course, Andrews and I “flanked” into this crowd. That was our +usual way of doing. Holding that the chances were strongly in favor +of every movement of prisoners being to our lines, we never failed +to be numbered in the first squad of prisoners that were sent out. +The seductive mirage of “exchange” was always luring us on. It must +come some time, certainly, and it would be most likely to come to +those who were most earnestly searching for it. At all events, we +should leave no means untried to avail ourselves of whatever seeming +chances there might be. There could be no other motive for this move, +we argued, than exchange. The Confederacy was not likely to be at +the trouble and expense of hauling us about the country without some +good reason--something better than a wish to make us acquainted with +Southern scenery and topography. It would hardly take us away from +Savannah so soon after bringing us there for any other purpose than +delivery to our people. + +The Rebels encouraged this belief with direct assertions of its truth. +They framed a plausible lie about there having arisen some difficulty +concerning the admission of our vessels past the harbor defenses of +Savannah, which made it necessary to take us elsewhere--probably to +Charleston--for delivery to our men. + +Wishes are always the most powerful allies of belief. There is +little difficulty in convincing a man of that of which he wants to +be convinced. We forgot the lie told us when we were taken from +Andersonville, and believed the one which was told us now. + +Andrews and I hastily snatched our worldly possessions--our overcoat, +blanket, can, spoon, chessboard and men, yelled to some of our +neighbors that they could have our hitherto much-treasured house, and +running down to the gate, forced ourselves well up to the front of the +crowd that was being assembled to go out. + +The usual scenes accompanying the departure of first squads were being +acted tumultuously. Every one in the camp wanted to be one of the +supposed-to-be-favored few, and if not selected at first, tried to +“flank in”--that is, slip into the place of some one else who had had +better luck. This one naturally resisted displacement, ‘vi et armis,’ +and the fights would become so general as to cause a resemblance to the +famed Fair of Donnybrook. The cry would go up: + +“Look out for flankers!” + +The lines of the selected would dress up compactly, and outsiders +trying to force themselves in would get mercilessly pounded. + +We finally got out of the pen, and into the cars, which soon rolled +away to the westward. We were packed in too densely to be able to lie +down. We could hardly sit down. Andrews and I took up our position in +one corner, piled our little treasures under us, and trying to lean +against each other in such a way as to afford mutual support and rest, +dozed fitfully through a long, weary night. + +When morning came we found ourselves running northwest through a poor, +pine-barren country that strongly resembled that we had traversed in +coming to Savannah. The more we looked at it the more familiar it +became, and soon there was no doubt we were going back to Andersonville. + +By noon we had reached Millen--eighty miles from Savannah, and +fifty-three from Augusta. It was the junction of the road leading to +Macon and that running to Augusta. We halted a little while at the “Y,” +and to us the minutes were full of anxiety. If we turned off to the +left we were going back to Andersonville. If we took the right hand +road we were on the way to Charleston or Richmond, with the chances in +favor of exchange. + +At length we started, and, to our joy, our engine took the right hand +track. We stopped again, after a run of five miles, in the midst of one +of the open, scattering forests of long leaved pine that I have before +described. We were ordered out of the cars, and marching a few rods, +came in sight of another of those hateful Stockades, which seemed to +be as natural products of the Sterile sand of that dreary land as its +desolate woods and its breed of boy murderers and gray-headed assassins. + +Again our hearts sank, and death seemed more welcome than incarceration +in those gloomy wooden walls. We marched despondently up to the gates +of the Prison, and halted while a party of Rebel clerks made a list of +our names, rank, companies, and regiments. As they were Rebels it was +slow work. Reading and writing never came by nature, as Dogberry would +say, to any man fighting for Secession. As a rule, he took to them as +reluctantly as if, he thought them cunning inventions of the Northern +Abolitionist to perplex and demoralize him. What a half-dozen boys +taken out of our own ranks would have done with ease in an hour or so, +these Rebels worried over all of the afternoon, and then their register +of us was so imperfect, badly written and misspelled, that the Yankee +clerks afterwards detailed for the purpose, never could succeed in +reducing it to intelligibility. + +We learned that the place at which we had arrived was Camp Lawton, but +we almost always spoke of it as “Millen,” the same as Camp Sumter is +universally known as Andersonville. + +Shortly after dark we were turned inside the Stockade. Being the first +that had entered, there was quite a quantity of wood--the offal from +the timber used in constructing the Stockade--lying on the ground. The +night was chilly one we soon had a number of fires blazing. Green pitch +pine, when burned, gives off a peculiar, pungent odor, which is never +forgotten by one who has once smelled it. I first became acquainted +with it on entering Andersonville, and to this day it is the most +powerful remembrance I can have of the opening of that dreadful Iliad +of woes. On my journey to Washington of late years the locomotives +are invariably fed with pitch pine as we near the Capital, and as the +well-remembered smell reaches me, I grow sick at heart with the flood +of saddening recollections indissolubly associated with it. + +As our fires blazed up the clinging, penetrating fumes diffused +themselves everywhere. The night was as cool as the one when we arrived +at Andersonville, the earth, meagerly sodded with sparse, hard, +wiry grass, was the same; the same piney breezes blew in from the +surrounding trees, the same dismal owls hooted at us; the same mournful +whip-poor-will lamented, God knows what, in the gathering twilight. +What we both felt in the gloomy recesses of downcast hearts Andrews +expressed as he turned to me with: + +“My God, Mc, this looks like Andersonville all over again.” + +A cupful of corn meal was issued to each of us. I hunted up some water. +Andrews made a stiff dough, and spread it about half an inch thick on +the back of our chessboard. He propped this up before the fire, and +when the surface was neatly browned over, slipped it off the board +and turned it over to brown the other side similarly. This done, we +divided it carefully between us, swallowed it in silence, spread our +old overcoat on the ground, tucked chess-board, can, and spoon under +far enough to be out of the reach of thieves, adjusted the thin blanket +so as to get the most possible warmth out of it, crawled in close +together, and went to sleep. This, thank Heaven, we could do; we could +still sleep, and Nature had some opportunity to repair the waste of the +day. We slept, and forgot where we were. + + + + +CHAPTER LIX. + +OUR NEW QUARTERS AT CAMP LAWTON--BUILDING A HUT--AN EXCEPTIONAL +COMMANDANT--HE IS a GOOD MAN, BUT WILL TAKE BRIBES--RATIONS. + +In the morning we took a survey of our new quarters, and found that +we were in a Stockade resembling very much in construction and +dimensions that at Andersonville. The principal difference was that +the upright logs were in their rough state, whereas they were hewed at +Andersonville, and the brook running through the camp was not bordered +by a swamp, but had clean, firm banks. + +Our next move was to make the best of the situation. We were divided +into hundreds, each commanded by a Sergeant. Ten hundreds constituted +a division, the head of which was also a Sergeant. I was elected by my +comrades to the Sergeantcy of the Second Hundred of the First Division. +As soon as we were assigned to our ground, we began constructing +shelter. For the first and only time in my prison experience, we found +a full supply of material for this purpose, and the use we made of it +showed how infinitely better we would have fared if in each prison the +Rebels had done even so slight a thing as to bring in a few logs from +the surrounding woods and distribute them to us. A hundred or so of +these would probably have saved thousands of lives at Andersonville and +Florence. + +A large tree lay on the ground assigned to our hundred. Andrews and I +took possession of one side of the ten feet nearest the butt. Other +boys occupied the rest in a similar manner. One of our boys had +succeeded in smuggling an ax in with him, and we kept it in constant +use day and night, each group borrowing it for an hour or so at a time. +It was as dull as a hoe, and we were very weak, so that it was slow +work “niggering off”--(as the boys termed it) a cut of the log. It +seemed as if beavers could have gnawed it off easier and more quickly. +We only cut an inch or so at a time, and then passed the ax to the next +users. Making little wedges with a dull knife, we drove them into the +log with clubs, and split off long, thin strips, like the weatherboards +of a house, and by the time we had split off our share of the log in +this slow and laborious way, we had a fine lot of these strips. We were +lucky enough to find four forked sticks, of which we made the corners +of our dwelling, and roofed it carefully with our strips, held in place +by sods torn up from the edge of the creek bank. The sides and ends +were enclosed; we gathered enough pine tops to cover the ground to a +depth of several inches; we banked up the outside, and ditched around +it, and then had the most comfortable abode we had during our prison +career. It was truly a house builded with our own hands, for we had no +tools whatever save the occasional use of the aforementioned dull axe +and equally dull knife. + +The rude little hut represented as much actual hard, manual labor as +would be required to build a comfortable little cottage in the North, +but we gladly performed it, as we would have done any other work to +better our condition. + +For a while wood was quite plentiful, and we had the luxury daily of +warm fires, which the increasing coolness of the weather made important +accessories to our comfort. + +Other prisoners kept coming in. Those we left behind at Savannah +followed us, and the prison there was broken up. Quite a number also +came in from--Andersonville, so that in a little while we had between +six and seven thousand in the Stockade. The last comers found all the +material for tents and all the fuel used up, and consequently did not +fare so well as the earlier arrivals. + +The commandant of the prison--one Captain Bowes--was the best of his +class it was my fortune to meet. Compared with the senseless brutality +of Wirz, the reckless deviltry of Davis, or the stupid malignance of +Barrett, at Florence, his administration was mildness and wisdom itself. + +He enforced discipline better than any of those named, but has what +they all lacked--executive ability--and he secured results that they +could not possibly attain, and without anything, like the friction that +attended their efforts. I do not remember that any one was shot during +our six weeks’ stay at Millen--a circumstance simply remarkable, since +I do not recall a single week passed anywhere else without at least one +murder by the guards. + +One instance will illustrate the difference of his administration +from that of other prison commandants. He came upon the grounds +of our division one morning, accompanied by a pleasant-faced, +intelligent-appearing lad of about fifteen or sixteen. He said to us: + +“Gentlemen: (The only instance during our imprisonment when we received +so polite a designation.) This is my son, who will hereafter call your +roll. He will treat you as gentlemen, and I know you will do the same +to him.” + +This understanding was observed to the letter on both sides. Young +Bowes invariably spoke civilly to us, and we obeyed his orders with a +prompt cheerfulness that left him nothing to complain of. + +The only charge I have to make against Bowes is made more in detail in +another chapter, and that is, that he took money from well prisoners +for giving them the first chance to go through on the Sick Exchange. +How culpable this was I must leave each reader to decide for himself. +I thought it very wrong at the time, but possibly my views might have +been colored highly by my not having any money wherewith to procure my +own inclusion in the happy lot of the exchanged. + +Of one thing I am certain: that his acceptance of money to bias his +official action was not singular on his part. I am convinced that every +commandant we had over us--except Wirz--was habitually in the receipt +of bribes from prisoners. I never heard that any one succeeded in +bribing Wirz, and this is the sole good thing I can say of that fellow. +Against this it may be said, however, that he plundered the boys so +effectually on entering the prison as to leave them little of the +wherewithal to bribe anybody. + +Davis was probably the most unscrupulous bribe-taker of the lot. He +actually received money for permitting prisoners to escape to our +lines, and got down to as low a figure as one hundred dollars for this +sort of service. I never heard that any of the other commandants went +this far. + +The rations issued to us were somewhat better than those of +Andersonville, as the meal was finer and better, though it was +absurdedly insufficient in quantity, and we received no salt. On +several occasions fresh beef was dealt out to us, and each time the +excitement created among those who had not tasted fresh meat for weeks +and months was wonderful. On the first occasion the meat was simply the +heads of the cattle killed for the use of the guards. Several wagon +loads of these were brought in and distributed. We broke them up so +that every man got a piece of the bone, which was boiled and reboiled, +as long as a single bubble of grease would rise to the surface of the +water; every vestige of meat was gnawed and scraped from the surface +and then the bone was charred until it crumbled, when it was eaten. +No one who has not experienced it can imagine the inordinate hunger +for animal food of those who had eaten little else than corn bread +for so long. Our exhausted bodies were perishing for lack of proper +sustenance. Nature indicated fresh beef as the best medium to repair +the great damage already done, and our longing for it became beyond +description. + + + + +CHAPTER LX. + +THE RAIDERS REAPPEAR ON THE SCENE--THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THOSE WHO +WERE CONCERNED IN THE EXECUTION--A COUPLE OF LIVELY FIGHTS, IN WHICH +THE RAIDERS ARE DEFEATED--HOLDING AN ELECTION. + +Our old antagonists--the Raiders--were present in strong force +in Millen. Like ourselves, they had imagined the departure from +Andersonville was for exchange, and their relations to the Rebels were +such that they were all given a chance to go with the first squads. A +number had been allowed to go with the sailors on the Special Naval +Exchange from Savannah, in the place of sailors and marines who had +died. On the way to Charleston a fight had taken place between them +and the real sailors, during which one of their number--a curly-headed +Irishman named Dailey, who was in such high favor with the Rebels that +he was given the place of driving the ration wagon that came in the +North Side at Andersonville --was killed, and thrown under the wheels +of the moving train, which passed over him. + +After things began to settle into shape at Millen, they seemed +to believe that they were in such ascendancy as to numbers and +organization that they could put into execution their schemes of +vengeance against those of us who had been active participants in the +execution of their confederates at Andersonville. + +After some little preliminaries they settled upon Corporal “Wat” Payne, +of my company, as their first victim. The reader will remember Payne as +one of the two Corporals who pulled the trigger to the scaffold at the +time of the execution. + +Payne was a very good man physically, and was yet in fair condition. +The Raiders came up one day with their best man--Pete Donnelly--and +provoked a fight, intending, in the course of it, to kill Payne. We, +who knew Payee, felt reasonably confident of his ability to handle +even so redoubtable a pugilist as Donnelly, and we gathered together a +little squad of our friends to see fair play. + +The fight began after the usual amount of bad talk on both sides, and +we were pleased to see our man slowly get the better of the New York +plug-ugly. After several sharp rounds they closed, and still Payne was +ahead, but in an evil moment he spied a pine knot at his feet, which he +thought he could reach, and end the fight by cracking Donnelly’s head +with it. Donnelly took instant advantage of the movement to get it, +threw Payne heavily, and fell upon him. His crowd rushed in to finish +our man by clubbing him over the head. We sailed in to prevent this, +and after a rattling exchange of blows all around, succeeded in getting +Payne away. + +The issue of the fight seemed rather against us, however, and the +Raiders were much emboldened. Payne kept close to his crowd after +that, and as we had shown such an entire willingness to stand by him, +the Raiders --with their accustomed prudence when real fighting was +involved--did not attempt to molest him farther, though they talked +very savagely. + +A few days after this Sergeant Goody and Corporal Ned Carrigan, both of +our battalion, came in. I must ask the reader to again recall the fact +that Sergeant Goody was one of the six hangmen who put the meal-sacks +over the heads, and the ropes around the necks of the condemned. +Corporal Carrigan was the gigantic prize fighter, who was universally +acknowledged to be the best man physically among the whole thirty-four +thousand in Andersonville. The Raiders knew that Goody had come in +before we of his own battalion did. They resolved to kill him then and +there, and in broad daylight. He had secured in some way a shelter +tent, and was inside of it fixing it up. The Raider crowd, headed by +Pete Donnelly, and Dick Allen, went up to his tent and one of them +called to him: + +“Sergeant, come out; I want to see you.” + +Goody, supposing it was one of us, came crawling out on his hands and +knees. As he did so their heavy clubs crashed down upon his head. +He was neither killed nor stunned, as they had reason to expect. He +succeeded in rising to his feet, and breaking through the crowd of +assassins. He dashed down the side of the hill, hotly pursued by them. +Coming to the Creek, he leaped it in his excitement, but his pursuers +could not, and were checked. One of our battalion boys, who saw and +comprehended the whole affair, ran over to us, shouting: + +“Turn out! turn out, for God’s sake! the Raiders are killing Goody!” + +We snatched up our clubs and started after the Raiders, but before we +could reach them, Ned Carrigan, who also comprehended what the trouble +was, had run to the side of Goody, armed with a terrible looking +club. The sight of Ned, and the demonstration that he was thoroughly +aroused, was enough for the Raider crew, and they abandoned the field +hastily. We did not feel ourselves strong enough to follow them on to +their own dung hill, and try conclusions with them, but we determined +to report the matter to the Rebel Commandant, from whom we had reason +to believe we could expect assistance. We were right. He sent in a +squad of guards, arrested Dick Allen, Pete Donnelly, and several other +ringleaders, took them out and put them in the stocks in such a manner +that they were compelled to lie upon their stomachs. A shallow tin +vessel containing water was placed under their faces to furnish them +drink. + +They staid there a day and night, and when released, joined the Rebel +Army, entering the artillery company that manned the guns in the fort +covering the prison. I used to imagine with what zeal they would send +us over; a round of shell or grape if they could get anything like an +excuse. + +This gave us good riddance--of our dangerous enemies, and we had little +further trouble with any of them. + +The depression in the temperature made me very sensible of the +deficiencies in my wardrobe. Unshod feet, a shirt like a fishing net, +and pantaloons as well ventilated as a paling fence might do very well +for the broiling sun at Andersonville and Savannah, but now, with +the thermometer nightly dipping a little nearer the frost line, it +became unpleasantly evident that as garments their office was purely +perfunctory; one might say ornamental simply, if he wanted to be very +sarcastic. They were worn solely to afford convenient quarters for +multitudes of lice, and in deference to the prejudice which has existed +since the Fall of Man against our mingling with our fellow creatures in +the attire provided us by Nature. Had I read Darwin then I should have +expected that my long exposure to the weather would start a fine suit +of fur, in the effort of Nature to adapt, me to my environment. But no +more indications of this appeared than if I had been a hairless dog of +Mexico, suddenly transplanted to more northern latitudes. Providence +did not seem to be in the tempering-the-wind-to-the-shorn-lamb +business, as far as I was concerned. I still retained an almost +unconquerable prejudice against stripping the dead to secure clothes, +and so unless exchange or death came speedily, I was in a bad fix. + +One morning about day break, Andrews, who had started to go to another +part of the camp, came slipping back in a state of gleeful excitement. +At first I thought he either had found a tunnel or had heard some good +news about exchange. It was neither. He opened his jacket and handed +me an infantry man’s blouse, which he had found in the main street, +where it had dropped out of some fellow’s bundle. We did not make any +extra exertion to find the owner. Andrews was in sore need of clothes +himself, but my necessities were so much greater that the generous +fellow thought of my wants first. We examined the garment with as much +interest as ever a belle bestowed on a new dress from Worth’s. It was +in fair preservation, but the owner had cut the buttons off to trade to +the guard, doubtless for a few sticks of wood, or a spoonful of salt. +We supplied the place of these with little wooden pins, and I donned +the garment as a shirt and coat and vest, too, for that matter. The +best suit I ever put on never gave me a hundredth part the satisfaction +that this did. Shortly after, I managed to subdue my aversion so far as +to take a good shoe which a one-legged dead man had no farther use for, +and a little later a comrade gave me for the other foot a boot bottom +from which he had cut the top to make a bucket. + + ........................... + +The day of the Presidential election of 1864 approached. The Rebels +were naturally very much interested in the result, as they believed +that the election of McClellan meant compromise and cessation of +hostilities, while the re-election of Lincoln meant prosecution of +the War to the bitter end. The toadying Raiders, who were perpetually +hanging around the gate to get a chance to insinuate themselves into +the favor of the Rebel officers, persuaded them that we were all so +bitterly hostile to our Government for not exchanging us that if we +were allowed to vote we would cast an overwhelming majority in favor of +McClellan. + +The Rebels thought that this might perhaps be used to advantage as +political capital for their friends in the North. They gave orders +that we might, if we chose, hold an election on the same day of the +Presidential election. They sent in some ballot boxes, and we elected +Judges of the Election. + +About noon of that day Captain Bowes, and a crowd of tightbooted, +broad-hatted Rebel officers, strutted in with the peculiar +“Ef-yer-don’t-b’lieve--I’m-a-butcher-jest-smell-o’-mebutes” swagger +characteristic of the class. They had come in to see us all voting for +McClellan. Instead, they found the polls surrounded with ticket pedlers +shouting: + +“Walk right up here now, and get your +Unconditional-Union-Abraham-Lincoln-tickets!” + +“Here’s your straight-haired prosecution-of-the-war ticket.” + +“Vote the Lincoln ticket; vote to whip the Rebels, and make peace with +them when they’ve laid down their arms.” + +“Don’t vote a McClellan ticket and gratify Rebels, everywhere,” etc. + +The Rebel officers did not find the scene what their fancy painted it, +and turning around they strutted out. + +When the votes came to be counted out there were over seven thousand +for Lincoln, and not half that many hundred for McClellan. The latter +got very few votes outside the Raider crowd. The same day a similar +election was held in Florence, with like result. Of course this did not +indicate that there was any such a preponderance of Republicans among +us. It meant simply that the Democratic boys, little as they might have +liked Lincoln, would have voted for him a hundred times rather than do +anything to please the Rebels. + +I never heard that the Rebels sent the result North. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + +THE REBELS FORMALLY PROPOSE TO US TO DESERT TO THEM--CONTUMELIOUS +TREATMENT OF THE PROPOSITION--THEIR RAGE--AN EXCITING TIME--AN OUTBREAK +THREATENED--DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING DESERTION TO THE REBELS. + +One day in November, some little time after the occurrences narrated +in the last chapter, orders came in to make out rolls of all those who +were born outside of the United States, and whose terms of service had +expired. + +We held a little council among ourselves as to the meaning of this, and +concluded that some partial exchange had been agreed on, and the Rebels +were going to send back the class of boys whom they thought would be +of least value to the Government. Acting on this conclusion the great +majority of us enrolled ourselves as foreigners, and as having served +out our terms. I made out the roll of my hundred, and managed to give +every man a foreign nativity. Those whose names would bear it were +assigned to England, Ireland, Scotland France and Germany, and the +balance were distributed through Canada and the West Indies. After +finishing the roll and sending it out, I did not wonder that the Rebels +believed the battles for the Union were fought by foreign mercenaries. +The other rolls were made out in the same way, and I do not suppose +that they showed five hundred native Americans in the Stockade. + +The next day after sending out the rolls, there came an order that all +those whose names appeared thereon should fall in. We did so, promptly, +and as nearly every man in camp was included, we fell in as for other +purposes, by hundreds and thousands. We were then marched outside, +and massed around a stump on which stood a Rebel officer, evidently +waiting to make us a speech. We awaited his remarks with the greatest +impatience, but He did not begin until the last division had marched +out and came to a parade rest close to the stump. + +It was the same old story: + +“Prisoners, you can no longer have any doubt that your Government has +cruelly abandoned you; it makes no efforts to release you, and refuses +all our offers of exchange. We are anxious to get our men back, and +have made every effort to do so, but it refuses to meet us on any +reasonable grounds. Your Secretary of War has said that the Government +can get along very well without you, and General Halleck has said that +you were nothing but a set of blackberry pickers and coffee boilers +anyhow. + +“You’ve already endured much more than it could expect of you; you +served it faithfully during the term you enlisted for, and now, when it +is through with you, it throws you aside to starve and die. You also +can have no doubt that the Southern Confederacy is certain to succeed +in securing its independence. It will do this in a few months. It now +offers you an opportunity to join its service, and if you serve it +faithfully to the end, you will receive the same rewards as the rest of +its soldiers. You will be taken out of here, be well clothed and fed, +given a good bounty, and, at the conclusion of the War receive a land +warrant for a nice farm. If you”-- + +But we had heard enough. The Sergeant of our division--a man with a +stentorian voice sprang out and shouted: + +“Attention, first Division!” + +We Sergeants of hundreds repeated the command down the line. Shouted he: + +“First Division, about--” + +Said we: + +“First Hundred, about--” + +“Second Hundred, about--” + +“Third Hundred, about--” + +“Fourth Hundred, about--” etc., etc. + +Said he:-- + +“FACE!!” + +Ten Sergeants repeated “Face!” one after the other, and each man in the +hundreds turned on his heel. Then our leader commanded-- + +“First Division, forward! MARCH!” and we strode back into the Stockade, +followed immediately by all the other divisions, leaving the orator +still standing on the stump. + +The Rebels were furious at this curt way of replying. We had scarcely +reached our quarters when they came in with several companies, with +loaded guns and fixed bayonets. They drove us out of our tents and +huts, into one corner, under the pretense of hunting axes and spades, +but in reality to steal our blankets, and whatever else they could find +that they wanted, and to break down and injure our huts, many of which, +costing us days of patient labor, they destroyed in pure wantonness. + +We were burning with the bitterest indignation. A tall, slender man +named Lloyd, a member of the Sixty-First Ohio--a rough, uneducated +fellow, but brim full of patriotism and manly common sense, jumped +up on a stump and poured out his soul in rude but fiery eloquence: +“Comrades,” he said, “do not let the blowing of these Rebel whelps +discourage you; pay no attention to the lies they have told you +to-day; you know well that our Government is too honorable and just to +desert any one who serves it; it has not deserted us; their hell-born +Confederacy is not going to succeed. I tell you that as sure as there +is a God who reigns and judges in Israel, before the Spring breezes +stir the tops of these blasted old pines their Confederacy and all the +lousy graybacks who support it will be so deep in hell that nothing +but a search warrant from the throne of God Almighty can ever find it +again. And the glorious old Stars and Stripes--” + +Here we began cheering tremendously. A Rebel Captain came running up, +said to the guard, who was leaning on his gun, gazing curiously at +Lloyd: + +“What in ---- are you standing gaping there for? Why don’t you shoot +the ---- ---- Yankee son---- --- -----?” and snatching the gun away +from him, cocked and leveled it at Lloyd, but the boys near jerked the +speaker down from the stump and saved his life. + +We became fearfully, wrought up. Some of the more excitable shouted +out to charge on the line of guards, snatch they guns away from them, +and force our way through the gate The shouts were taken up by others, +and, as if in obedience to the suggestion, we instinctively formed in +line-of-battle facing the guards. A glance down the line showed me an +array of desperate, tensely drawn faces, such as one sees who looks a +men when they are summoning up all their resolution for some deed of +great peril. The Rebel officers hastily retreated behind the line of +guards, whose faces blanched, but they leveled the muskets and prepared +to receive us. + +Captain Bowes, who was overlooking the prison from an elevation +outside, had, however, divined the trouble at the outset, an was +preparing to meet it. The gunners, who had shotted the pieces and +trained them upon us when we came out to listen t the speech, had again +covered us with them, and were ready to sweep the prison with grape +and canister at the instant of command. The long roll was summoning +the infantry regiments back into line, and some of the cooler-headed +among us pointed these facts out and succeeded in getting the line to +dissolve again into groups of muttering, sullen-faced men. When this +was done, the guards marched out, by a cautious indirect maneuver, so +as not to turn their backs to us. + +It was believed that we had some among us who would like to avail +themselves of the offer of the Rebels, and that they would try to +inform the Rebels of their desires by going to the gate during +the night and speaking to the Officer-of-the-Guard. A squad armed +themselves with clubs and laid in wait for these. They succeeded in +catching several --snatching some of then back even after they had +told the guard their wishes in a tone so loud that all near could hear +distinctly. The Officer-of-the-Guard rushed in two or three times in a +vain attempt to save the would be deserter from the cruel hands that +clutched him and bore him away to where he had a lesson in loyalty +impressed upon the fleshiest part of his person by a long, flexible +strip of pine wielded by very willing hands. + +After this was kept up for several nights different ideas began I to +prevail. It was felt that if a man wanted to join the Rebels, the +best way was to let him go and get rid of him. He was of no benefit +to the Government, and would be of none to the Rebels. After this no +restriction was put upon any one who desired to go outside and take the +oath. But very few did so, however, and these were wholly confined to +the Raider crowd. + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +SERGEANT LEROY L. KEY--HIS ADVENTURES SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXECUTIONS +--HE GOES OUTSIDE AT ANDERSONVILLE ON PAROLE--LABORS IN THE COOK-HOUSE +--ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE--IS RECAPTURED AND TAKEN TO MACON--ESCAPES FROM +THERE, BUT IS COMPELLED TO RETURN--IS FINALLY EXCHANGED AT SAVANNAH. + +Leroy L. Key, the heroic Sergeant of Company M, Sixteenth Illinois +Cavalry, who organized and led the Regulators at Andersonville in their +successful conflict with and defeat of the Raiders, and who presided at +the execution of the six condemned men on the 11th of July, furnishes, +at the request of the author, the following story of his prison career +subsequent to that event: + +On the 12th day of July, 1864, the day after the hanging of the six +Raiders, by the urgent request of my many friends (of whom you were +one), I sought and obtained from Wirz a parole for myself and the six +brave men who assisted as executioners of those desperados. It seemed +that you were all fearful that we might, after what had been done, +be assassinated if we remained in the Stockade; and that we might be +overpowered, perhaps, by the friends of the Raiders we had hanged, at a +time possibly, when you would not be on hand to give us assistance, and +thus lose our lives for rendering the help we did in getting rid of the +worst pestilence we had to contend with. + +On obtaining my parole I was very careful to have it so arranged and +mutually understood, between Wirz and myself, that at any time that my +squad (meaning the survivors of my comrades, with whom I was originally +captured) was sent away from Andersonville, either to be exchanged or +to go to another prison, that I should be allowed to go with them. +This was agreed to, and so written in my parole which I carried until +it absolutely wore out. I took a position in the cook-house, and the +other boys either went to work there, or at the hospital or grave-yard +as occasion required. I worked here, and did the best I could for the +many starving wretches inside, in the way of preparing their food, +until the eighth day of September, at which time, if you remember, +quite a train load of men were removed, as many of us thought, for the +purpose of exchange; but, as we afterwards discovered, to be taken to +another prison. Among the crowd so removed was my squad, or, at least, +a portion of them, being my intimate mess-mates while in the Stockade. +As soon as I found this to be the case I waited on Wirz at his office, +and asked permission to go with them, which he refused, stating that +he was compelled to have men at the cookhouse to cook for those in the +Stockade until they were all gone or exchanged. I reminded him of the +condition in my parole, but this only had the effect of making him +mad, and he threatened me with the stocks if I did not go back and +resume work. I then and there made up my mind to attempt my escape, +considering that the parole had first been broken by the man that +granted it. + +On inquiry after my return to the cook-house, I found four other boys +who were also planning an escape, and who were only too glad to get me +to join them and take charge of the affair. Our plans were well laid +and well executed, as the sequel will prove, and in this particular +my own experience in the endeavor to escape from Andersonville is not +entirely dissimilar from yours, though it had different results. I very +much regret that in the attempt I lost my penciled memorandum, in which +it was my habit to chronicle what went on around me daily, and where I +had the names of my brave comrades who made the effort to escape with +me. Unfortunately, I cannot now recall to memory the name of one of +them or remember to what commands they belonged. + +I knew that our greatest risk was run in eluding the guards, and that +in the morning we should be compelled to cheat the blood-hounds. The +first we managed to do very well, not without many hairbreadth escapes, +however; but we did succeed in getting through both lines of guards, +and found ourselves in the densest pine forest I ever saw. We traveled, +as nearly as we could judge, due north all night until daylight. From +our fatigue and bruises, and the long hours that had elapsed since 8 +o’clock, the time of our starting, we thought we had come not less than +twelve or fifteen miles. Imagine our surprise and mortification, then, +when we could plainly hear the reveille, and almost the Sergeant’s +voice calling the roll, while the answers of “Here!” were perfectly +distinct. We could not possibly have been more than a mile, or a +mile-and-a-half at the farthest, from the Stockade. + +Our anxiety and mortification were doubled when at the usual hour--as +we supposed--we heard the well-known and long-familiar sound of the +hunter’s horn, calling his hounds to their accustomed task of making +the circuit of the Stockade, for the purpose of ascertaining whether +or not any “Yankee” had had the audacity to attempt an escape. The +hounds, anticipating, no doubt, this usual daily work, gave forth glad +barks of joy at being thus called forth to duty. We heard them start, +as was usual, from about the railroad depot (as we imagined), but the +sounds growing fainter and fainter gave us a little hope that our trail +had been missed. Only a short time, however, were we allowed this +pleasant reflection, for ere long--it could not have been more than an +hour--we could plainly see that they were drawing nearer and nearer. +They finally appeared so close that I advised the boys to climb a tree +or sapling in order to keep the dogs from biting them, and to be ready +to surrender when the hunters came up, hoping thus to experience as +little misery as possible, and not dreaming but that we were caught. +On, on came the hounds, nearer and nearer still, till we imagined +that we could see the undergrowth in the forest shaking by coming in +contact with their bodies. Plainer and plainer came the sound of the +hunter’s voice urging them forward. Our hearts were in our throats, +and in the terrible excitement we wondered if it could be possible for +Providence to so arrange it that the dogs would pass us. This last +thought, by some strange fancy, had taken possession of me, and I here +frankly acknowledge that I believed it would happen. Why I believed +it, God only knows. My excitement was so great, indeed, that I almost +lost sight of our danger, and felt like shouting to the dogs myself, +while I came near losing my hold on the tree in which I was hidden. By +chance I happened to look around at my nearest neighbor in distress. +His expression was sufficient to quell any enthusiasm I might have had, +and I, too, became despondent. In a very few minutes our suspense was +over. The dogs came within not less than three hundred yards of us, +and we could even see one of them, God in Heaven can only imagine what +great joy was then, brought to our aching hearts, for almost instantly +upon coming into sight, the hounds struck off on a different trail, and +passed us. Their voices became fainter and fainter, until finally we +could hear them no longer. About noon, however, they were called back +and taken to camp, but until that time not one of us left our position +in the trees. + +When we were satisfied that we were safe for the present, we descended +to the ground to get what rest we could, in order to be prepared for +the night’s march, having previously agreed to travel at night and +sleep in the day time. “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” etc., were the +first words that escaped my lips, and the first thoughts that came +to my mind as I landed on terra firma. Never before, or since, had I +experienced such a profound reverence for Almighty God, for I firmly +believe that only through some mighty invisible power were we at that +time delivered from untold tortures. Had we been found, we might have +been torn and mutilated by the dogs, or, taken back to Andersonville, +have suffered for days or perhaps weeks in the stocks or chain gang, +as the humor of Wirz might have dictated at the time--either of which +would have been almost certain death. + +It was very fortunate for us that before our escape from Andersonville +we were detailed at the cook-house, for by this means we were enabled +to bring away enough food to live for several days without the +necessity of theft. Each one of us had our haversacks full of such +small delicacies as it was possible for us to get when we started, +these consisting of corn bread and fat bacon--nothing less, nothing +more. Yet we managed to subsist comfortably until our fourth day out, +when we happened to come upon a sweet potato patch, the potatos in +which had not been dug. In a very short space of time we were all well +supplied with this article, and lived on them raw during that day and +the next night. + +Just at evening, in going through a field, we suddenly came across +three negro men, who at first sight of us showed signs of running, +thinking, as they told us afterward, that we were the “patrols.” After +explaining to them who we were and our condition, they took us to a +very quiet retreat in the woods, and two of them went off, stating +that they would soon be back. In a very short time they returned laden +with well cooked provisions, which not only gave us a good supper, but +supplied us for the next day with all that we wanted. They then guided +us on our way for several miles, and left us, after having refused +compensation for what they had done. + +We continued to travel in this way for nine long weary nights, and on +the morning of the tenth day, as we were going into the woods to hide +as usual, a little before daylight, we came to a small pond at which +there was a negro boy watering two mules before hitching them to a cane +mill, it then being cane grinding time in Georgia. He saw us at the +same time we did him, and being frightened put whip to the animals and +ran off. We tried every way to stop him, but it was no use. He had the +start of us. We were very fearful of the consequences of this mishap, +but had no remedy, and being very tired, could do nothing else but go +into the woods, go to sleep and trust to luck. + +The next thing I remembered was being punched in the ribs by my comrade +nearest to me, and aroused with the remark, “We are gone up.” On +opening my eyes, I saw four men, in citizens’ dress, each of whom had a +shot gun ready for use. We were ordered to get up. The first question +asked us was: + +“Who are you.” + +This was spoken in so mild a tone as to lead me to believe that we +might possibly be in the hands of gentlemen, if not indeed in those of +friends. It was some time before any one answered. The boys, by their +looks and the expression of their countenances, seemed to appeal to +me for a reply to get them out of their present dilemma, if possible. +Before I had time to collect my thoughts, we were startled by these +words, coming from the same man that had asked the original question: + +“You had better not hesitate, for we have an idea who you are, and +should it prove that we are correct, it will be the worse for you.” + +“‘Who do you think we are?’ I inquired.” + +“‘Horse thieves and moss-backs,’ was the reply.” + +I jumped at the conclusion instantly that in order to save our lives, +we had better at once own the truth. In a very few words I told them +who we were, where we were from, how long we had been on the road, +etc. At this they withdrew a short distance from us for consultation, +leaving us for the time in terrible suspense as to what our fate might +be. Soon, how ever, they returned and informed us that they would +be compelled to take us to the County Jail, to await further orders +from the Military Commander of the District. While they were talking +together, I took a hasty inventory of what valuables we had on hand. +I found in the crowd four silver watches, about three hundred dollars +in Confederate money, and possibly, about one hundred dollars in +greenbacks. Before their return, I told the boys to be sure not to +refuse any request I should make. Said I: + +“‘Gentlemen, we have here four silver watches and several hundred +dollars in Confederate money and greenbacks, all of which we now offer +you, if you will but allow us to proceed on our journey, we taking our +own chances in the future.’” + +This proposition, to my great surprise, was refused. I thought then +that possibly I had been a little indiscreet in exposing our valuables, +but in this I was mistaken, for we had, indeed, fallen into the hands +of gentlemen, whose zeal for the Lost Cause was greater than that for +obtaining worldly wealth, and who not only refused the bribe, but took +us to a well-furnished and well-supplied farm house close by, gave us +an excellent breakfast, allowing us to sit at the table in a beautiful +dining-room, with a lady at the head, filled our haversacks with good, +wholesome food, and allowed us to keep our property, with an admonition +to be careful how we showed it again. We were then put into a wagon and +taken to Hamilton, a small town, the county seat of Hamilton County, +Georgia, and placed in jail, where we remained for two days and nights +--fearing, always, that the jail would be burned over our heads, as we +heard frequent threats of that nature, by the mob on the streets. But +the same kind Providence that had heretofore watched over us, seemed +not to have deserted us in this trouble. + +One of the days we were confined at this place was Sunday, and some +kind-hearted lady or ladies (I only wish I knew their names, as well +as those of the gentlemen who had us first in charge, so that I could +chronicle them with honor here) taking compassion upon our forlorn +condition, sent us a splendid dinner on a very large china platter. +Whether it was done intentionally or not, we never learned, but it was +a fact, however, that there was not a knife, fork or spoon upon the +dish, and no table to set it upon. It was placed on the floor, around +which we soon gathered, and, with grateful hearts, we “got away” with +it all, in an incredibly short space of time, while many men and boys +looked on, enjoying our ludicrous attitudes and manners. + +From here we were taken to Columbus, Ga., and again placed in jail, +and in the charge of Confederate soldiers. We could easily see that we +were gradually getting into hot water again, and that, ere many days, +we would have to resume our old habits in prison. Our only hope now +was that we would not be returned to Andersonville, knowing well that +if we got back into the clutches of Wirz our chances for life would be +slim indeed. From Columbus we were sent by rail to Macon, where we were +placed in a prison somewhat similar to Andersonville, but of nothing +like its pretensions to security. I soon learned that it was only used +as a kind of reception place for the prisoners who were captured in +small squads, and when they numbered two or three hundred, they would +be shipped to Andersonville, or some other place of greater dimensions +and strength. What became of the other boys who were with me, after +we got to Macon, I do not know, for I lost sight of them there. The +very next day after our arrival, there were shipped to Andersonville +from this prison between two and three hundred men. I was called on +to go with the crowd, but having had a sufficient experience of the +hospitality of that hotel, I concluded to play “old soldier,” so I +became too sick to travel. In this way I escaped being sent off four +different times. + +Meanwhile, quite a large number of commissioned officers had been +sent up from Charleston to be exchanged at Rough and Ready. With them +were about forty more than the cartel called for, and they were left +at Macon for ten days or two weeks. Among these officers were several +of my acquaintance, one being Lieut. Huntly of our regiment (I am not +quite sure that I am right in the name of this officer, but I think I +am), through whose influence I was allowed to go outside with them on +parole. It was while enjoying this parole that I got more familiarly +acquainted with Captain Hurtell, or Hurtrell, who was in command of the +prison at Macon, and to his honor, I here assert, that he was the only +gentleman and the only officer that had the least humane feeling in his +breast, who ever had charge of me while a prisoner of war after we were +taken out of the hands of our original captors at Jonesville, Va. + +It now became very evident that the Rebels were moving the prisoners +from Andersonville and elsewhere, so as to place them beyond the reach +of Sherman and Stoneman. At my present place of confinement the fear +of our recapture had also taken possession of the Rebel authorities, +so the prisoners were sent off in much smaller squads than formerly, +frequently not more than ten or fifteen in a gang, whereas, before, +they never thought of dispatching less than two or three hundred +together. I acknowledge that I began to get very uneasy, fearful that +the “old soldier” dodge would not be much longer successful, and I +would be forced back to my old haunts. It so happened, however, that I +managed to make it serve me, by getting detailed in the prison hospital +as nurse, so that I was enabled to play another “dodge” upon the Rebel +officers. At first, when the Sergeant would come around to find out who +were able to walk, with assistance, to the depot, I was shaking with +a chill, which, according to my representation, had not abated in the +least for several hours. My teeth were actually chattering at the time, +for I had learned how to make them do so. I was passed. The next day +the orders for removal were more stringent than had yet been issued, +stating that all who could stand it to be removed on stretchers must +go. I concluded at once that I was gone, so as soon as I learned how +matters were, I got out from under my dirty blanket, stood up and found +I was able to walk, to my great astonishment, of course. An officer +came early in the morning to muster us into ranks preparatory for +removal. I fell in with the rest. We were marched out and around to the +gate of the prison. + +Now, it so happened that just as we neared the gate of the prison, +the prisoners were being marched from the Stockade. The officer in +charge of us--we numbering possibly about ten--undertook to place us +at the head of the column coming out, but the guard in charge of that +squad refused to let him do so. We were then ordered to stand at one +side with no guard over us but the officer who had brought us from the +Hospital. + +Taking this in at a glance, I concluded that now was my chance to make +my second attempt to escape. I stepped behind the gate office (a small +frame building with only one room), which was not more than six feet +from me, and as luck (or Providence) would have it, the negro man whose +duty it was, as I knew, to wait on and take care of this office, and +who had taken quite a liking for me, was standing at the back door. I +winked at him and threw him my blanket and the cup, at the same time +telling him in a whisper to hide them away for me until he heard from +me again. With a grin and a nod, he accepted the trust, and I started +down along the walls of the Stockade alone. In order to make this +more plain, and to show what a risk I was running at the time, I will +state that between the Stockade and a brick wall, fully as high as the +Stockade fence that was parallel with it, throughout its entire length +on that side, there was a space of not more than thirty feet. On the +outside of this Stockade was a platform, built for the guards to walk +on, sufficiently clear the top to allow them to look inside with ease, +and on this side, on the platform, were three guards. I had traveled +about fifty feet only, from the gate office, when I heard the command +to “Halt!” I did so, of course. + +“Where are you going, you d---d Yank?” said the guard. + +“Going after my clothes, that are over there in the wash,” pointing to +a small cabin just beyond the Stockade, where I happened to know that +the officers had their washing done. + +“Oh, yes,” said he; “you are one of the Yank’s that’s been on, parole, +are you?” + +“Yes.” + +“Well, hurry up, or you will get left.” + +The other guards heard this conversation and thinking it all right I +was allowed to pass without further trouble. I went to the cabin in +question--for I saw the last guard on the line watching me, and boldly +entered. I made a clear statement to the woman in charge of it about +how I had made my escape, and asked her to secrete me in the house +until night. I was soon convinced, however, from what she told me, +as well as from my own knowledge of how things were managed in the +Confederacy, that it would not be right for me to stay there, for if +the house was searched and I found in it, it would be the worse for +her. Therefore, not wishing to entail misery upon another, I begged her +to give me something to eat, and going to the swamp near by, succeeded +in getting well without detection. + +I lay there all day, and during the time had a very severe chill and +afterwards a burning fever, so that when night came, knowing I could +not travel, I resolved to return to the cabin and spend the night, and +give myself up the next morning. There was no trouble in returning. I +learned that my fears of the morning had not been groundless, for the +guards had actually searched the house for me. The woman told them +that I had got my clothes and left the house shortly after my entrance +(which was the truth except the part about the clothes), I thanked +her very kindly and begged to be allowed to stay in the cabin till +morning, when I would present myself at Captain H.’s office and suffer +the consequences. This she allowed me to do. I shall ever feel grateful +to this woman for her protection. She was white and her given name was +“Sallie,” but the other I have forgotten. + +About daylight I strolled over near the office and looked around there +until I saw the Captain take his seat at his desk. I stepped into the +door as soon as I saw that he was not occupied and saluted him “a la +militaire.” + +“Who are you?” he asked; “you look like a Yank.” + +“Yes, sir,” said I, “I am called by that name since I was captured in +the Federal Army.” + +“Well, what are you doing here, and what is your name?” + +I told him. + +“Why didn’t you answer to your name when it was called at the gate +yesterday, sir?” + +“I never heard anyone call my name. Where were you?” + +“I ran away down into the swamp.” + +“Were you re-captured and brought back?” + +“No, sir, I came back of my own accord.” + +“What do you mean by this evasion?” + +“I am not trying to evade, sir, or I might not have been here now. The +truth is, Captain, I have been in many prisons since my capture, and +have been treated very badly in all of them, until I came here.” + +“I then explained to him freely my escape from Andersonville, and my +subsequent re-capture, how it was that I had played ‘old soldier’ etc.” + +“Now,” said I, “Captain, as long as I am a prisoner of war, I wish to +stay with you, or under your command. This is my reason for running +away yesterday, when I felt confident that if I did not do so I would +be returned under Wirz’s command, and, if I had been so returned, I +would have killed myself rather than submit to the untold tortures +which he would have put me to, for having the audacity to attempt an +escape from him.” + +The Captain’s attention was here called to some other matters in hand, +and I was sent back into the Stockade with a command very pleasantly +given, that I should stay there until ordered out, which I very +gratefully promised to do, and did. This was the last chance I ever +had to talk to Captain Hurtrell, to my great sorrow, for I had really +formed a liking for the man, notwithstanding the fact that he was a +Rebel, and a commander of prisoners. + +The next day we all had to leave Macon. Whether we were able or not, +the order was imperative. Great was my joy when I learned that we were +on the way to Savannah and not to Andersonville. We traveled over the +same road, so well described in one of your articles on Andersonville, +and arrived in Savannah sometime in the afternoon of the 21st day of +November, 1864. Our squad was placed in some barracks and confined +there until the next day. I was sick at the time, so sick in fact, +that I could hardly hold my head up. Soon after, we were taken to the +Florida depot, as they told us, to be shipped to some prison in those +dismal swamps. I came near fainting when this was told to us, for I was +confident that I could not survive another siege of prison life, if it +was anything to compare to-what I had already suffered. When we arrived +at the depot, it was raining. The officer in charge of us wanted to +know what train to put us on, for there were two, if not three, trains +waiting orders to start. He was told to march us on to a certain flat +car, near by, but before giving the order he demanded a receipt for us, +which the train officer refused. We were accordingly taken back to our +quarters, which proved to be a most fortunate circumstance. + +On the 23d day of November, to our great relief, we were called upon to +sign a parole preparatory to being sent down the river on the flat-boat +to our exchange ships, then lying in the harbor. When I say we, I mean +those of us that had recently come from Macon, and a few others, who +had also been fortunate in reaching Savannah in small squads. The other +poor fellows, who had already been loaded on the trains, were taken +away to Florida, and many of them never lived to return. On the 24th +those of us who had been paroled were taken on board our ships, and +were once more safely housed under that great, glorious and beautiful +Star Spangled Banner. Long may she wave. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + +DREARY WEATHER--THE COLD RAINS DISTRESS ALL AND KILL HUNDREDS--EXCHANGE +OF TEN THOUSAND SICK--CAPTAIN BOWES TURNS A PRETTY, BUT NOT VERY +HONEST, PENNY. + +As November wore away long-continued, chill, searching rains desolated +our days and nights. The great, cold drops pelted down slowly, +dismally, and incessantly. Each seemed to beat through our emaciated +frames against the very marrow of our bones, and to be battering its +way remorselessly into the citadel of life, like the cruel drops that +fell from the basin of the inquisitors upon the firmly-fastened head of +their victim, until his reason fled, and the death-agony cramped his +heart to stillness. + +The lagging, leaden hours were inexpressibly dreary. Compared with +many others, we were quite comfortable, as our hut protected us from +the actual beating of the rain upon our bodies; but we were much more +miserable than under the sweltering heat of Andersonville, as we lay +almost naked upon our bed of pine leaves, shivering in the raw, rasping +air, and looked out over acres of wretches lying dumbly on the sodden +sand, receiving the benumbing drench of the sullen skies without a +groan or a motion. + +It was enough to kill healthy, vigorous men, active and resolute, +with bodies well-nourished and well clothed, and with minds vivacious +and hopeful, to stand these day-and-night-long solid drenchings. No +one can imagine how fatal it was to boys whose vitality was sapped by +long months in Andersonville, by coarse, meager, changeless food, by +groveling on the bare earth, and by hopelessness as to any improvement +of condition. + +Fever, rheumatism, throat and lung diseases and despair now came +to complete the work begun by scurvy, dysentery and gangrene, in +Andersonville. + +Hundreds, weary of the long struggle, and of hoping against hope, laid +themselves down and yielded to their fate. In the six weeks that we +were at Millen, one man in every ten died. The ghostly pines there sigh +over the unnoted graves of seven hundred boys, for whom life’s morning +closed in the gloomiest shadows. As many as would form a splendid +regiment--as many as constitute the first born of a populous City--more +than three times as many as were slain outright on our side in the +bloody battle of Franklin, succumbed to this new hardship. The country +for which they died does not even have a record of their names. They +were simply blotted out of existence; they became as though they had +never been. + +About the middle of the month the Rebels yielded to the importunities +of our Government so far as to agree to exchange ten thousand sick. +The Rebel Surgeons took praiseworthy care that our Government should +profit as little as possible by this, by sending every hopeless case, +every man whose lease of life was not likely to extend much beyond his +reaching the parole boat. If he once reached our receiving officers it +was all that was necessary; he counted to them as much as if he had +been a Goliath. A very large portion of those sent through died on the +way to our lines, or within a few hours after their transports at being +once more under the old Stars and Stripes had moderated. + +The sending of the sick through gave our commandant--Captain Bowes--a +fine opportunity to fill his pockets, by conniving at the passage +of well men. There was still considerable money in the hands of a +few prisoners. All this, and more, too, were they willing to give +for their lives. In the first batch that went away were two of the +leading sutlers at Andersonville, who had accumulated perhaps one +thousand dollars each by their shrewd and successful bartering. It was +generally believed that they gave every cent to Bowes for the privilege +of leaving. I know nothing of the truth of this, but I am reasonably +certain that they paid him very handsomely. + +Soon we heard that one hundred and fifty dollars each had been +sufficient to buy some men out; then one hundred, seventy-five, fifty, +thirty, twenty, ten, and at last five dollars. Whether the upright +Bowes drew the line at the latter figure, and refused to sell his honor +for less than the ruling rates of a street-walker’s virtue, I know not. +It was the lowest quotation that came to my knowledge, but he may have +gone cheaper. I have always observed that when men or women begin to +traffic in themselves, their price falls as rapidly as that of a piece +of tainted meat in hot weather. If one could buy them at the rate they +wind up with, and sell them at their first price, there would be room +for an enormous profit. + +The cheapest I ever knew a Rebel officer to be bought was some weeks +after this at Florence. The sick exchange was still going on. I have +before spoken of the Rebel passion for bright gilt buttons. It used +to be a proverbial comment upon the small treasons that were of daily +occurrence on both sides, that you could buy the soul of a mean man +in our crowd for a pint of corn meal, and the soul of a Rebel guard +for a half dozen brass buttons. A boy of the Fifth-fourth Ohio, +whose home was at or near Lima, O., wore a blue vest, with the gilt, +bright-trimmed buttons of a staff officer. The Rebel Surgeon who was +examining the sick for exchange saw the buttons and admired them very +much. The boy stepped back, borrowed a knife from a comrade, cut the +buttons off, and handed them to the Doctor. + +“All right, sir,” said he as his itching palm closed over the coveted +ornaments; “you can pass,” and pass he did to home and friends. + +Captain Bowes’s merchandizing in the matter of exchange was as open as +the issuing of rations. His agent in conducting the bargaining was a +Raider--a New York gambler and stool-pigeon--whom we called “Mattie.” +He dealt quite fairly, for several times when the exchange was +interrupted, Bowes sent the money back to those who had paid him, and +received it again when the exchange was renewed. + +Had it been possible to buy our way out for five cents each Andrews and +I would have had to stay back, since we had not had that much money for +months, and all our friends were in an equally bad plight. Like almost +everybody else we had spent the few dollars we happened to have on +entering prison, in a week or so, and since then we had been entirely +penniless. + +There was no hope left for us but to try to pass the Surgeons as +desperately sick, and we expended our energies in simulating this +condition. Rheumatism was our forte, and I flatter myself we got up +two cases that were apparently bad enough to serve as illustrations +for a patent medicine advertisement. But it would not do. Bad as we +made our condition appear, there were so many more who were infinitely +worse, that we stood no show in the competitive examination. I doubt +if we would have been given an average of “50” in a report. We had to +stand back, and see about one quarter of our number march out and away +home. We could not complain at this--much as we wanted to go ourselves, +since there could be no question that these poor fellows deserved +the precedence. We did grumble savagely, however, at Captain Bowes’s +venality, in selling out chances to moneyed men, since these were +invariably those who were best prepared to withstand the hardships of +imprisonment, as they were mostly new men, and all had good clothes and +blankets. We did not blame the men, however, since it was not in human +nature to resist an opportunity to get away--at any cost-from that +accursed place. “All that a man hath he will give for his life,” and I +think that if I had owned the City of New York in fee simple, I would +have given it away willingly, rather than stand in prison another month. + +The sutlers, to whom I have alluded above, had accumulated sufficient +to supply themselves with all the necessaries and some of the comforts +of life, during any probable term of imprisonment, and still have a +snug amount left, but they, would rather give it all up and return to +service with their regiments in the field, than take the chances of any +longer continuance in prison. + +I can only surmise how much Bowes realized out of the prisoners by his +venality, but I feel sure that it could not have been less than three +thousand dollars, and I would not be astonished to learn that it was +ten thousand dollars in green. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + +ANOTHER REMOVAL--SHERMAN’S ADVANCE SCARES THE REBELS INTO RUNNING +US AWAY FROM MILLEN--WE ARE TAKEN TO SAVANNAH, AND THENCE DOWN THE +ATLANTIC & GULF ROAD TO BLACKSHEAR + +One night, toward the last of November, there was a general alarm +around the prison. A gun was fired from the Fort, the long-roll was +beaten in the various camps of the guards, and the regiments answered +by getting under arms in haste, and forming near the prison gates. + +The reason for this, which we did not learn until weeks later, was that +Sherman, who had cut loose from Atlanta and started on his famous March +to the Sea, had taken such a course as rendered it probable that Millen +was one of his objective points. It was, therefore, necessary that we +should be hurried away with all possible speed. As we had had no news +from Sherman since the end of the Atlanta campaign, and were ignorant +of his having begun his great raid, we were at an utter loss to account +for the commotion among our keepers. + +About 3 o’clock in the morning the Rebel Sergeants, who called the +roll, came in and ordered us to turn out immediately and get ready to +move. + +The morning was one of the most cheerless I ever knew. A cold rain +poured relentlessly down upon us half-naked, shivering wretches, as +we groped around in the darkness for our pitiful little belongings of +rags and cooking utensils, and huddled together in groups, urged on +continually by the curses and abuse of the Rebel officers sent in to +get us ready to move. + +Though roused at 3 o’clock, the cars were not ready to receive us till +nearly noon. In the meantime we stood in ranks--numb, trembling, and +heart-sick. The guards around us crouched over fires, and shielded +themselves as best they could with blankets and bits of tent cloth. We +had nothing to build fires with, and were not allowed to approach those +of the guards. + +Around us everywhere was the dull, cold, gray, hopeless desolation of +the approach of minter. The hard, wiry grass that thinly covered the +once and sand, the occasional stunted weeds, and the sparse foliage +of the gnarled and dwarfish undergrowth, all were parched brown and +sere by the fiery heat of the long Summer, and now rattled drearily +under the pitiless, cold rain, streaming from lowering clouds that +seemed to have floated down to us from the cheerless summit of some +great iceberg; the tall, naked pines moaned and shivered; dead, sapless +leaves fell wearily to the sodden earth, like withered hopes drifting +down to deepen some Slough of Despond. + +Scores of our crowd found this the culmination of their misery. They +laid down upon the ground and yielded to death as s welcome relief, and +we left them lying there unburied when we moved to the cars. + +As we passed through the Rebel camp at dawn, on our way to the cars, +Andrews and I noticed a nest of four large, bright, new tin pans--a +rare thing in the Confederacy at that time. We managed to snatch them +without the guard’s attention being attracted, and in an instant had +them wrapped up in our blanket. But the blanket was full of holes, and +in spite of all our efforts, it would slip at the most inconvenient +times, so as to show a broad glare of the bright metal, just when it +seemed it could not help attracting the attention of the guards or +their officers. A dozen times at least we were on the imminent brink of +detection, but we finally got our treasures safely to the cars, and sat +down upon them. + +The cars were open flats. The rain still beat down unrelentingly. +Andrews and I huddled ourselves together so as to make our bodies +afford as much heat as possible, pulled our faithful old overcoat +around us as far as it would go, and endured the inclemency as best we +could. + +Our train headed back to Savannah, and again our hearts warmed up with +hopes of exchange. It seemed as if there could be no other purpose of +taking us out of a prison so recently established and at such cost as +Millen. + +As we approached the coast the rain ceased, but a piercing cold wind +set in, that threatened to convert our soaked rags into icicles. + +Very many died on the way. When we arrived at Savannah almost, if +not quite, every car had upon it one whom hunger no longer gnawed +or disease wasted; whom cold had pinched for the last time, and for +whom the golden portals of the Beyond had opened for an exchange that +neither Davis nor his despicable tool, Winder, could control. + +We did not sentimentalize over these. We could not mourn; the thousands +that we had seen pass away made that emotion hackneyed and wearisome; +with the death of some friend and comrade as regularly an event of each +day as roll call and drawing rations, the sentiment of grief had become +nearly obsolete. We were not hardened; we had simply come to look upon +death as commonplace and ordinary. To have had no one dead or dying +around us would have been regarded as singular. + +Besides, why should we feel any regret at the passing away of those +whose condition would probably be bettered thereby! It was difficult +to see where we who still lived were any better off than they who were +gone before and now “forever at peace, each in his windowless palace +of rest.” If imprisonment was to continue only another month, we would +rather be with them. + +Arriving at Savannah, we were ordered off the cars. A squad from each +car carried the dead to a designated spot, and land them in a row, +composing their limbs as well as possible, but giving no other funeral +rites, not even making a record of their names and regiments. Negro +laborers came along afterwards, with carts, took the bodies to some +vacant ground, and sunk them out of sight in the sand. + +We were given a few crackers each--the same rude imitation of “hard +tack” that had been served out to us when we arrived at Savannah +the first time, and then were marched over and put upon a train on +the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad, running from Savannah along the sea +coast towards Florida. What this meant we had little conception, but +hope, which sprang eternal in the prisoner’s breast, whispered that +perhaps it was exchange; that there was some difficulty about our +vessels coming to Savannah, and we were being taken to some other more +convenient sea port; probably to Florida, to deliver us to our folks +there. We satisfied ourselves that we were running along the sea coast +by tasting the water in the streams we crossed, whenever we could get +an opportunity to dip up some. As long as the water tasted salty we +knew we were near the sea, and hope burned brightly. + +The truth was--as we afterwards learned--the Rebels were terribly +puzzled what to do with us. We were brought to Savannah, but that did +not solve the problem; and we were sent down the Atlantic & Gulf road +as a temporary expedient. + +The railroad was the worst of the many bad ones which it was my +fortune to ride upon in my excursions while a guest of the Southern +Confederacy. It had run down until it had nearly reached the worn-out +condition of that Western road, of which an employee of a rival route +once said, “that all there was left of it now was two streaks of rust +and the right of way.” As it was one of the non-essential roads to the +Southern Confederacy, it was stripped of the best of its rolling-stock +and machinery to supply the other more important lines. + +I have before mentioned the scarcity of grease in the South, and the +difficulty of supplying the railroads with lubricants. Apparently there +had been no oil on the Atlantic & Gulf since the beginning of the war, +and the screeches of the dry axles revolving in the worn-out boxes were +agonizing. Some thing would break on the cars or blow out on the engine +every few miles, necessitating a long stop for repairs. Then there was +no supply of fuel along the line. When the engine ran out of wood it +would halt, and a couple of negros riding on the tender would assail +a panel of fence or a fallen tree with their axes, and after an hour +or such matter of hard chopping, would pile sufficient wood upon the +tender to enable us to renew our journey. + +Frequently the engine stopped as if from sheer fatigue or inanition. +The Rebel officers tried to get us to assist it up the grade by +dismounting and pushing behind. We respectfully, but firmly, declined. +We were gentlemen of leisure, we said, and decidedly averse to manual +labor; we had been invited on this excursion by Mr. Jeff. Davis and his +friends, who set themselves up as our entertainers, and it would be a +gross breach of hospitality to reflect upon our hosts by working our +passage. If this was insisted upon, we should certainly not visit them +again. Besides, it made no difference to us whether the train got along +or not. We were not losing anything by the delay; we were not anxious +to go anywhere. One part of the Southern Confederacy was just as good +as another to us. So not a finger could they persuade any of us to +raise to help along the journey. + +The country we were traversing was sterile and poor--worse even than +that in the neighborhood of Andersonville. Farms and farmhouses were +scarce, and of towns there were none. Not even a collection of houses +big enough to justify a blacksmith shop or a store appeared along the +whole route. But few fields of any kind were seen, and nowhere was +there a farm which gave evidence of a determined effort on the part of +its occupants to till the soil and to improve their condition. + +When the train stopped for wood, or for repairs, or from exhaustion, +we were allowed to descend from the cars and stretch our numbed limbs. +It did us good in other ways, too. It seemed almost happiness to be +outside of those cursed Stockades, to rest our eyes by looking away +through the woods, and seeing birds and animals that were free. They +must be happy, because to us to be free once more was the summit of +earthly happiness. + +There was a chance, too, to pick up something green to eat, and we +were famishing for this. The scurvy still lingered in our systems, +and we were hungry for an antidote. A plant grew rather plentifully +along the track that looked very much as I imagine a palm leaf fan +does in its green state. The leaf was not so large as an ordinary palm +leaf fan, and came directly out of the ground. The natives called +it “bull-grass,” but anything more unlike grass I never saw, so we +rejected that nomenclature, and dubbed them “green fans.” They were +very hard to pull up, it being usually as much as the strongest of us +could do to draw them out of the ground. When pulled up there was found +the smallest bit of a stock--not as much as a joint of one’s little +finger--that was eatable. It had no particular taste, and probably +little nutriment, still it was fresh and green, and we strained our +weak muscles and enfeebled sinews at every opportunity, endeavoring to +pull up a “green fan.” + +At one place where we stopped there was a makeshift of a garden, one of +those sorry “truck patches,” which do poor duty about Southern cabins +for the kitchen gardens of the Northern, farmers, and produce a few +coarse cow peas, a scanty lot of collards (a coarse kind of cabbage, +with a stalk about a yard long) and some onions to vary the usual +side-meat and corn pone, diet of the Georgia “cracker.” Scanning the +patch’s ruins of vine and stalk, Andrews espied a handful of onions, +which had; remained ungathered. They tempted him as the apple did Eve. +Without stopping to communicate his intention to me, he sprang from +the car, snatched the onions from their bed, pulled up, half a dozen +collard stalks and was on his way back before the guard could make +up his mind to fire upon him. The swiftness of his motions saved his +life, for had he been more deliberate the guard would have concluded he +was trying to, escape, and shot him down. As it was he was returning +back before the guard could get his gun up. The onions he had, secured +were to us more delicious than wine upon the lees. They seemed to find +their way into every fiber of our bodies, and invigorate every organ. +The collard stalks he had snatched up, in the expectation of finding +in them something resembling the nutritious “heart” that we remembered +as children, seeking and, finding in the stalks of cabbage. But we +were disappointed. The stalks were as dry and rotten as the bones of +Southern, society. Even hunger could find no meat in them. + +After some days of this leisurely journeying toward the South, we +halted permanently about eighty-six miles from Savannah. There was +no reason why we should stop there more than any place else where we +had been or were likely to go. It seemed as if the Rebels had simply +tired of hauling us, and dumped us, off. We had another lot of dead, +accumulated since we left Savannah, and the scenes at that place were +repeated. + +The train returned for another load of prisoners. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + +BLACKSHEAR AND PIERCE COUNTRY--WE TAKE UP NEW QUARTERS, BUT ARE CALLED +OUT FOR EXCHANGE--EXCITEMENT OVER SIGNING THE PAROLE--A HAPPY JOURNEY +TO SAVANNAH--GRIEVOUS DISAPPOINTMENT + +We were informed that the place we were at was Blackshear, and that it +was the Court House, i. e., the County seat of Pierce County. Where +they kept the Court House, or County seat, is beyond conjecture to +me, since I could not see a half dozen houses in the whole clearing, +and not one of them was a respectable dwelling, taking even so low a +standard for respectable dwellings as that afforded by the majority of +Georgia houses. + +Pierce County, as I have since learned by the census report, is one +of the poorest Counties of a poor section of a very poor State. A +population of less than two thousand is thinly scattered over its five +hundred square miles of territory, and gain a meager subsistence by a +weak simulation of cultivating patches of its sandy dunes and plains in +“nubbin” corn and dropsical sweet potatos. A few “razor-back” hogs --a +species so gaunt and thin that I heard a man once declare that he had +stopped a lot belonging to a neighbor from crawling through the cracks +of a tight board fence by simply tying a knot in their tails--roam the +woods, and supply all the meat used. + +Andrews used to insist that some of the hogs which we saw were so thin +that the connection between their fore and hindquarters was only a +single thickness of skin, with hair on both sides--but then Andrews +sometimes seemed to me to have a tendency to exaggerate. + +The swine certainly did have proportions that strongly resembled those +of the animals which children cut out of cardboard. They were like the +geometrical definition of a superfice--all length and breadth, and no +thickness. A ham from them would look like a palm-leaf fan. + +I never ceased to marvel at the delicate adjustment of the development +of animal life to the soil in these lean sections of Georgia. The poor +land would not maintain anything but lank, lazy men, with few wants, +and none but lank, lazy men, with few wants, sought a maintenance from +it. I may have tangled up cause and effect, in this proposition, but if +so, the reader can disentangle them at his leisure. + +I was not astonished to learn that it took five hundred square miles of +Pierce County land to maintain two thousand “crackers,” even as poorly +as they lived. I should want fully that much of it to support one +fair-sized Northern family as it should be. + +After leaving the cars we were marched off into the pine woods, by the +side of a considerable stream, and told that this was to be our camp. A +heavy guard was placed around us, and a number of pieces of artillery +mounted where they would command the camp. + +We started in to make ourselves comfortable, as at Millen, by building +shanties. The prisoners we left behind followed us, and we soon had +our old crowd of five or six thousand, who had been our companions at +Savannah and Millers, again with us. The place looked very favorable +for escape. We knew we were still near the sea coast--really not more +than forty miles away--and we felt that if we could once get there we +should be safe. Andrews and I meditated plans of escape, and toiled +away at our cabin. + +About a week after our arrival we were startled by an order for the one +thousand of us who had first arrived to get ready to move out. In a few +minutes we were taken outside the guard line, massed close together, +and informed in a few words by a Rebel officer that we were about to be +taken back to Savannah for exchange. + +The announcement took away our breath. For an instant the rush of +emotion made us speechless, and when utterance returned, the first use +we made of it was to join in one simultaneous outburst of acclamation. +Those inside the guard line, understanding what our cheer meant, +answered us with a loud shout of congratulation--the first real, +genuine, hearty cheering that had been done since receiving the +announcement of the exchange at Andersonville, three months before. + +As soon as the excitement had subsided somewhat, the Rebel proceeded to +explain that we would all be required to sign a parole. This set us to +thinking. After our scornful rejection of the proposition to enlist in +the Rebel army, the Rebels had felt around among us considerably as to +how we were disposed toward taking what was called the “Non-Combatant’s +Oath;” that is, the swearing not to take up arms against the Southern +Confederacy again during the war. To the most of us this seemed only a +little less dishonorable than joining the Rebel army. We held that our +oaths to our own Government placed us at its disposal until it chose to +discharge us, and we could not make any engagements with its enemies +that might come in contravention of that duty. In short, it looked very +much like desertion, and this we did not feel at liberty to consider. + +There were still many among us, who, feeling certain that they could +not survive imprisonment much longer, were disposed to look favorably +upon the Non-Combatant’s Oath, thinking that the circumstances of +the case would justify their apparent dereliction from duty. Whether +it would or not I must leave to more skilled casuists than myself to +decide. It was a matter I believed every man must settle with his own +conscience. The opinion that I then held and expressed was, that if a +boy, felt that he was hopelessly sick, and that he could not live if he +remained in prison, he was justified in taking the Oath. In the absence +of our own Surgeons he would have to decide for himself whether he was +sick enough to be warranted in resorting to this means of saving his +life. If he was in as good health as the majority of us were, with a +reasonable prospect of surviving some weeks longer, there was no excuse +for taking the Oath, for in that few weeks we might be exchanged, be +recaptured, or make our escape. I think this was the general opinion of +the prisoners. + +While the Rebel was talking about our signing the parole, there flashed +upon all of us at the same moment, a suspicion that this was a trap to +delude us into signing the Non-Combatant’s Oath. Instantly there went +up a general shout: + +“Read the parole to us.” + +The Rebel was handed a blank parole by a companion, and he read over +the printed condition at the top, which was that those signing agreed +not to bear arms against the Confederates in the field, or in garrison, +not to man any works, assist in any expedition, do any sort of guard +duty, serve in any military constabulary, or perform any kind of +military service until properly exchanged. + +For a minute this was satisfactory; then their ingrained distrust of +any thing a Rebel said or did returned, and they shouted: + +“No, no; let some of us read it; let Ilinoy’ read it--” + +The Rebel looked around in a puzzled manner. + +“Who the h--l is ‘Illinoy!’ Where is he?” said he. + +I saluted and said: + +“That’s a nickname they give me.” + +“Very well,” said he, “get up on this stump and read this parole to +these d---d fools that won’t believe me.” + +I mounted the stump, took the blank from his hand and read it over +slowly, giving as much emphasis as possible to the all-important clause +at the end--“until properly exchanged.” I then said: + +“Boys, this seems all right to me,” and they answered, with almost one +voice: + +“Yes, that’s all right. We’ll sign that.” + +I was never so proud of the American soldier-boy as at that moment. +They all felt that signing that paper was to give them freedom and +life. They knew too well from sad experience what the alternative was. +Many felt that unless released another week would see them in their +graves. All knew that every day’s stay in Rebel hands greatly lessened +their chances of life. Yet in all that thousand there was not one +voice in favor of yielding a tittle of honor to save life. They would +secure their freedom honorably, or die faithfully. Remember that this +was a miscellaneous crowd of boys, gathered from all sections of the +country, and from many of whom no exalted conceptions of duty and honor +were expected. I wish some one would point out to me, on the brightest +pages of knightly record, some deed of fealty and truth that equals the +simple fidelity of these unknown heros. I do not think that one of them +felt that he was doing anything especially meritorious. He only obeyed +the natural promptings of his loyal heart. + +The business of signing the paroles was then begun in earnest. We +were separated into squads according to the first letters of our +names, all those whose name began with A being placed in one squad, +those beginning with B, in another, and so on. Blank paroles for each +letter were spread out on boxes and planks at different places, and +the signing went on under the superintendence of a Rebel Sergeant and +one of the prisoners. The squad of M’s selected me to superintend the +signing for us, and I stood by to direct the boys, and sign for the +very few who could not write. After this was done we fell into ranks +again, called the roll of the signers, and carefully compared the +number of men with the number of signatures so that nobody should pass +unparoled. The oath was then administered to us, and two day’s rations +of corn meal and fresh beef were issued. + +This formality removed the last lingering doubt that we had of the +exchange being a reality, and we gave way to the happiest emotions. We +cheered ourselves hoarse, and the fellows still inside followed our +example, as they expected that they would share our good fortune in a +day or two. + +Our next performance was to set to work, cook our two days’ rations at +once and eat them. This was not very difficult, as the whole supply +for two days would hardly make one square meal. That done, many of the +boys went to the guard line and threw their blankets, clothing, cooking +utensils, etc., to their comrades who were still inside. No one thought +they would have any further use for such things. + +“To-morrow, at this time, thank Heaven,” said a boy near me, as he +tossed his blanket and overcoat back to some one inside, “we’ll be in +God’s country, and then I wouldn’t touch them d---d lousy old rags with +a ten-foot pole.” + +One of the boys in the M squad was a Maine infantryman, who had been +with me in the Pemberton building, in Richmond, and had fashioned +himself a little square pan out of a tin plate of a tobacco press, such +as I have described in an earlier chapter. He had carried it with him +ever since, and it was his sole vessel for all purposes--for cooking, +carrying water, drawing rations, etc. He had cherished it as if it were +a farm or a good situation. But now, as he turned away from signing +his name to the parole, he looked at his faithful servant for a minute +in undisguised contempt; on the eve of restoration to happier, better +things, it was a reminder of all the petty, inglorious contemptible +trials and sorrows he had endured; he actually loathed it for its +remembrances, and flinging it upon the ground he crushed it out of +all shape and usefulness with his feet, trampling upon it as he would +everything connected with his prison life. Months afterward I had to +lend this man my little can to cook his rations in. + +Andrews and I flung the bright new tin pans we had stolen at Millen +inside the line, to be scrambled for. It was hard to tell who were the +most surprised at their appearance--the Rebels or our own boys--for +few had any idea that there were such things in the whole Confederacy, +and certainly none looked for them in the possession of two such +poverty-stricken specimens as we were. We thought it best to retain +possession of our little can, spoon, chess-board, blanket, and overcoat. + +As we marched down and boarded the train, the Rebels confirmed their +previous action by taking all the guards from around us. Only some +eight or ten were sent to the train, and these quartered themselves in +the caboose, and paid us no further attention. + +The train rolled away amid cheering by ourselves and those we left +behind. One thousand happier boys than we never started on a journey. +We were going home. That was enough to wreathe the skies with glory, +and fill the world with sweetness and light. The wintry sun had +something of geniality and warmth, the landscape lost some of its +repulsiveness, the dreary palmettos had less of that hideousness which +made us regard them as very fitting emblems of treason. We even began +to feel a little good-humored contempt for our hateful little Brats of +guards, and to reflect how much vicious education and surroundings were +to be held responsible for their misdeeds. + +We laughed and sang as we rolled along toward Savannah--going back much +faster than the came. We re-told old stories, and repeated old jokes, +that had become wearisome months and months ago, but were now freshened +up and given their olden pith by the joyousness of the occasion. We +revived and talked over old schemes gotten up in the earlier days +of prison life, of what “we would do when we got out,” but almost +forgotten since, in the general uncertainty of ever getting out. We +exchanged addresses, and promised faithfully to write to each other and +tell how we found everything at home. + +So the afternoon and night passed. We were too excited to sleep, and +passed the hours watching the scenery, recalling the objects we had +passed on the way to Blackshear, and guessing how near we were to +Savannah. + +Though we were running along within fifteen or twenty miles of the +coast, with all our guards asleep in the caboose, no one thought of +escape. We could step off the cars and walk over to the seashore as +easily as a man steps out of his door and walks to a neighboring town, +but why should we? Were we not going directly to our vessels in the +harbor of Savannah, and was it not better to do this, than to take the +chances of escaping, and encounter the difficulties of reaching our +blockaders! We thought so, and we staid on the cars. + +A cold, gray Winter morning was just breaking as we reached Savannah. +Our train ran down in the City, and then whistled sharply and ran back +a mile or so; it repeated this maneuver two or three times, the evident +design being to keep us on the cars until the people were ready to +receive us. Finally our engine ran with all the speed she was capable +of, and as the train dashed into the street we found ourselves between +two heavy lines of guards with bayonets fixed. + +The whole sickening reality was made apparent by one glance at the +guard line. Our parole was a mockery, its only object being to get us +to Savannah as easily as possible, and to prevent benefit from our +recapture to any of Sherman’s Raiders, who might make a dash for the +railroad while we were in transit. There had been no intention of +exchanging us. There was no exchange going on at Savannah. + +After all, I do not think we felt the disappointment as keenly as the +first time we were brought to Savannah. Imprisonment had stupefied us; +we were duller and more hopeless. + +Ordered down out of the cars, we were formed in line in the street. + +Said a Rebel officer: + +“Now, any of you fellahs that ah too sick to go to Chahlston, step +fohwahd one pace.” + +We looked at each other an instant, and then the whole line stepped +forward. We all felt too sick to go to Charleston, or to do anything +else in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + +SPECIMEN CONVERSATION WITH AN AVERAGE NATIVE GEORGIAN--WE LEARN THAT +SHERMAN IS HEADING FOR SAVANNAH--THE RESERVES GET A LITTLE SETTLING +DOWN. + +As the train left the northern suburbs of Savannah we came upon a scene +of busy activity, strongly contrasting with the somnolent lethargy that +seemed to be the normal condition of the City and its inhabitants. +Long lines of earthworks were being constructed, gangs of negros were +felling trees, building forts and batteries, making abatis, and toiling +with numbers of huge guns which were being moved out and placed in +position. + +As we had had no new prisoners nor any papers for some weeks--the +papers being doubtless designedly kept away from us--we were at a loss +to know what this meant. We could not understand this erection of +fortifications on that side, because, knowing as we did how well the +flanks of the City were protected by the Savannah and Ogeeche Rivers, +we could not see how a force from the coast--whence we supposed an +attack must come, could hope to reach the City’s rear, especially as we +had just come up on the right flank of the City, and saw no sign of our +folks in that direction. + +Our train stopped for a few minutes at the edge of this line of works, +and an old citizen who had been surveying the scene with senile +interest, tottered over to our car to take a look at us. He was a type +of the old man of the South of the scanty middle class, the small +farmer. Long white hair and beard, spectacles with great round, staring +glasses, a broad-brimmed hat of ante-Revolutionary pattern, clothes +that had apparently descended to him from some ancestor who had come +over with Oglethorpe, and a two-handed staff with a head of buckhorn, +upon which he leaned as old peasants do in plays, formed such an image +as recalled to me the picture of the old man in the illustrations in +“The Dairyman’s Daughter.” He was as garrulous as a magpie, and as +opinionated as a Southern white always is. Halting in front of our car, +he steadied himself by planting his staff, clasping it with both lean +and skinny hands, and leaning forward upon it, his jaws then addressed +themselves to motion thus: + +“Boys, who mout these be that ye got?” + +One of the Guards:--“O, these is some Yanks that we’ve bin hivin’ down +at Camp Sumter.” + +“Yes?” (with an upward inflection of the voice, followed by a close +scrutiny of us through the goggle-eyed glasses,) “Wall, they’re a +powerful ornary lookin’ lot, I’ll declah.” + +It will be seen that the old, gentleman’s perceptive powers were much +more highly developed than his politeness. + +“Well, they ain’t what ye mout call purty, that’s a fack,” said the +guard. + +“So yer Yanks, air ye?” said the venerable Goober-Grabber, (the +nick-name in the South for Georgians), directing his conversation to +me. “Wall, I’m powerful glad to see ye, an’ ’specially whar ye can’t do +no harm; I’ve wanted to see some Yankees ever sence the beginnin’ of +the wah, but hev never had no chance. Whah did ye cum from?” + +I seemed called upon to answer, and said: “I came from Illinois; most +of the boys in this car are from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and +Iowa.” + +“’Deed! All Westerners, air ye? Wall, do ye know I alluz liked the +Westerners a heap sight better than them blue-bellied New England +Yankees.” + +No discussion with a Rebel ever proceeded very far without his making +an assertion like this. It was a favorite declaration of theirs, but +its absurdity was comical, when one remembered that the majority of +them could not for their lives tell the names of the New England +States, and could no more distinguish a Downeaster from an Illinoisan +than they could tell a Saxon from a Bavarian. One day, while I was +holding a conversation similar to the above with an old man on guard, +another guard, who had been stationed near a squad made up of Germans, +that talked altogether in the language of the Fatherland, broke in with: + +“Out there by post numbah foahteen, where I wuz yesterday, there’s a +lot of Yanks who jest jabbered away all the hull time, and I hope I may +never see the back of my neck ef I could understand ary word they said, +Are them the regular blue-belly kind?” + +The old gentleman entered upon the next stage of the invariable routine +of discussion with a Rebel: + +“Wall, what air you’uns down heah, a-fightin’ we’uns foh?” + +As I had answered this question several hundred times, I had found the +most extinguishing reply to be to ask in return: + +“What are you’uns coming up into our country to fight we’uns for?” + +Disdaining to notice this return in kind, the old man passed on to the +next stage: + +“What are you’uns takin’ ouah niggahs away from us foh?” + +Now, if negros had been as cheap as oreoide watches, it is doubtful +whether the speaker had ever had money enough in his possession at one +time to buy one, and yet he talked of taking away “ouah niggahs,” as if +they were as plenty about his place as hills of corn. As a rule, the +more abjectly poor a Southerner was, the more readily he worked himself +into a rage over the idea of “takin’ away ouah niggahs.” + +I replied in burlesque of his assumption of ownership: + +“What are you coming up North to burn my rolling mills and rob my +comrade here’s bank, and plunder my brother’s store, and burn down my +uncle’s factories?” + +No reply, to this counter thrust. The old man passed to the third +inevitable proposition: + +“What air you’uns puttin’ ouah niggahs in the field to fight we’uns +foh?” + +Then the whole car-load shouted back at him at once: + +“What are you’uns putting blood-hounds on our trails to hunt us down, +for?” + +Old Man--(savagely), “Waal, ye don’t think ye kin ever lick us; +leastways sich fellers as ye air?” + +Myself--“Well, we warmed it to you pretty lively until you caught us. +There were none of us but what were doing about as good work as any +stock you fellows could turn out. No Rebels in our neighborhood had +much to brag on. We are not a drop in the bucket, either. There’s +millions more better men than we are where we came from, and they are +all determined to stamp out your miserable Confederacy. You’ve got +to come to it, sooner or later; you must knock under, sure as white +blossoms make little apples. You’d better make up your mind to it.” + +Old Man--“No, sah, nevah. Ye nevah kin conquer us! We’re the bravest +people and the best fighters on airth. Ye nevah kin whip any people +that’s a fightin’ fur their liberty an’ their right; an’ ye nevah can +whip the South, sah, any way. We’ll fight ye until all the men air +killed, and then the wimmen’ll fight ye, sah.” + +Myself--“Well, you may think so, or you may not. From the way our boys +are snatching the Confederacy’s real estate away, it begins to look as +if you’d not have enough to fight anybody on pretty soon. What’s the +meaning of all this fortifying?” + +Old Man--“Why, don’t you know? Our folks are fixin’ up a place foh Bill +Sherman to butt his brains out gain’.” + +“Bill Sherman!” we all shouted in surprise: “Why he ain’t within two +hundred miles of this place, is he?” + +Old Man--“Yes, but he is, tho’. He thinks he’s played a sharp Yankee +trick on Hood. He found out he couldn’t lick him in a squar’ fight, +nohow; he’d tried that on too often; so he just sneaked ’round behind +him, and made a break for the center of the State, where he thought +there was lots of good stealin’ to be done. But we’ll show him. We’ll +soon hev him just whar we want him, an’ we’ll learn him how to go +traipesin’ ’round the country, stealin’ nigahs, burnin’ cotton, an’ +runnin’ off folkses’ beef critters. He sees now the scrape he’s got +into, an’ he’s tryin’ to get to the coast, whar the gun-boats’ll help +’im out. But he’ll nevah git thar, sah; no sah, nevah. He’s mouty nigh +the end of his rope, sah, and we’ll purty’ soon hev him jist whar you +fellows air, sah.” + +Myself--“Well, if you fellows intended stopping him, why didn’t you do +it up about Atlanta? What did you let him come clear through the State, +burning and stealing, as you say? It was money in your pockets to head +him off as soon as possible.” + +Old Man--“Oh, we didn’t set nothing afore him up thar except Joe +Brown’s Pets, these sorry little Reserves; they’re powerful little +account; no stand-up to’em at all; they’d break their necks runnin’ +away ef ye so much as bust a cap near to ’em.” + +Our guards, who belonged to these Reserves, instantly felt that the +conversation had progressed farther than was profitable and one of them +spoke up roughly: + +“See heah, old man, you must go off; I can’t hev ye talkin’ to these +prisoners; hits agin my awdahs. Go ’way now!” + +The old fellow moved off, but as he did he flung this Parthian arrow: + +“When Sherman gits down deep, he’ll find somethin’ different from the +little snots of Reserves he ran over up about Milledgeville; he’ll find +he’s got to fight real soldiers.” + +We could not help enjoying the rage of the guards, over the low +estimate placed upon the fighting ability of themselves and comrades, +and as they raved, around about what they would do if they were only +given an opportunity to go into a line of battle against Sherman, we +added fuel to the flames of their anger by confiding to each other that +we always “knew that little Brats whose highest ambition was to murder +a defenseless prisoner, could be nothing else than cowards end skulkers +in the field.” + +“Yaas--sonnies,” said Charlie Burroughs, of the Third Michigan, in +that nasal Yankee drawl, that he always assumed, when he wanted to say +anything very cutting; “you--trundle--bed--soldiers--who’ve never--seen +--a--real--wild--Yankee--don’t--know--how--different--they--are--from +--the kind--that--are--starved--down--to tameness. They’re--jest--as +--different--as--a--lion in--a--menagerie--is--from--his--brother--in +--the woods--who--has--a--nigger--every day--for-dinner. You--fellows +--will--go--into--a--circus--tent--and--throw--tobacco--quids in--the +--face--of--the--lion--in--the--cage--when--you--haven’t--spunk enough +--to--look--a woodchuck--in--the--eye--if--you--met--him--alone. It’s +--lots--o’--fun--to you--to--shoot--down--a--sick--and--starving-man +--in--the--Stockade, but--when--you--see--a--Yank with--a--gun--in--his +--hand--your--livers get--so--white--that--chalk--would--make--a--black +--mark--on--’em.” + +A little later, a paper, which some one had gotten hold of, in some +mysterious manner, was secretly passed to me. I read it as I could find +opportunity, and communicated its contents to the rest of the boys. +The most important of these was a flaming proclamation by Governor Joe +Brown, setting forth that General Sherman was now traversing the State, +committing all sorts of depredations; that he had prepared the way for +his own destruction, and the Governor called upon all good citizens to +rise en masse, and assist in crushing the audacious invader. Bridges +must be burned before and behind him, roads obstructed, and every inch +of soil resolutely disputed. + +We enjoyed this. It showed that the Rebels were terribly alarmed, and +we began to feel some of that confidence that “Sherman will come out +all right,” which so marvelously animated all under his command. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +OFF TO CHARLESTON--PASSING THROUGH THE RICE SWAMPS--TWO EXTREMES OF +SOCIETY--ENTRY INTO CHARLESTON--LEISURELY WARFARE--SHELLING THE CITY AT +REGULAR INTERVALS--WE CAMP IN A MASS OF RUINS--DEPARTURE FOR FLORENCE. + +The train started in a few minutes after the close of the conversation +with the old Georgian, and we soon came to and crossed the Savannah +River into South Carolina. The river was wide and apparently deep; the +tide was setting back in a swift, muddy current; the crazy old bridge +creaked and shook, and the grinding axles shrieked in the dry journals, +as we pulled across. It looked very much at times as if we were to all +crash down into the turbid flood--and we did not care very much if we +did, if we were not going to be exchanged. + +The road lay through the tide swamp region of South Carolina, a +peculiar and interesting country. Though swamps and fens stretched in +all directions as far as the eye could reach, the landscape was more +grateful to the eye than the famine-stricken, pine-barrens of Georgia, +which had become wearisome to the sight. The soil where it appeared, +was rich, vegetation was luxuriant; great clumps of laurel showed +glossy richness in the greenness of its verdure, that reminded us of +the fresh color of the vegetation of our Northern homes, so different +from the parched and impoverished look of Georgian foliage. Immense +flocks of wild fowl fluttered around us; the Georgian woods were almost +destitute of living creatures; the evergreen live-oak, with its queer +festoons of Spanish moss, and the ugly and useless palmettos gave +novelty and interest to the view. + +The rice swamps through which we were passing were the princely +possessions of the few nabobs who before the war stood at the head +of South Carolina aristocracy--they were South Carolina, in fact, as +absolutely as Louis XIV. was France. In their hands--but a few score +in number--was concentrated about all there was of South Carolina +education, wealth, culture, and breeding. They represented a pinchbeck +imitation of that regime in France which was happily swept out of +existence by the Revolution, and the destruction of which more than +compensated for every drop of blood shed in those terrible days. Like +the provincial ‘grandes seigneurs’ of Louis XVI’s reign, they were +gay, dissipated and turbulent; “accomplished” in the superficial +acquirements that made the “gentleman” one hundred years ago, but are +grotesquely out of place in this sensible, solid age, which demands +that a man shall be of use, and not merely for show. They ran horses +and fought cocks, dawdled through society when young, and intrigued +in politics the rest of their lives, with frequent spice-work of +duels. Esteeming personal courage as a supreme human virtue, and +never wearying of prating their devotion to the highest standard of +intrepidity, they never produced a General who was even mediocre; nor +did any one ever hear of a South Carolina regiment gaining distinction. +Regarding politics and the art of government as, equally with arms, +their natural vocations, they have never given the Nation a statesman, +and their greatest politicians achieved eminence by advocating ideas +which only attracted attention by their balefulness. + +Still further resembling the French ‘grandes seigneurs’ of the +eighteenth century, they rolled in wealth wrung from the laborer by +reducing the rewards of his toil to the last fraction that would +support his life and strength. The rice culture was immensely +profitable, because they had found the secret for raising it more +cheaply than even the pauper laborer of the of world could. Their lands +had cost them nothing originally, the improvements of dikes and ditches +were comparatively, inexpensive, the taxes were nominal, and their +slaves were not so expensive to keep as good horses in the North. + +Thousands of the acres along the road belonged to the Rhetts, +thousands to the Heywards, thousands to the Manigault the Lowndes, the +Middletons, the Hugers, the Barnwells, and the Elliots--all names too +well known in the history of our country’s sorrows. Occasionally one +of their stately mansions could be seen on some distant elevation, +surrounded by noble old trees, and superb grounds. Here they lived +during the healthy part of the year, but fled thence to summer resort +in the highlands as the miasmatic season approached. + +The people we saw at the stations along our route were melancholy +illustrations of the evils of the rule of such an oligarchy. There was +no middle class visible anywhere--nothing but the two extremes. A man +was either a “gentleman,” and wore white shirt and city-made clothes, +or he was a loutish hind, clad in mere apologies for garments. We +thought we had found in the Georgia “cracker” the lowest substratum of +human society, but he was bright intelligence compared to the South +Carolina “clay-eater” and “sand-hiller.” The “cracker” always gave +hopes to one that if he had the advantage of common schools, and could +be made to understand that laziness was dishonorable, he might develop +into something. There was little foundation for such hope in the +average low South Carolinian. His mind was a shaking quagmire, which +did not admit of the erection of any superstructure of education upon +it. The South Carolina guards about us did not know the name of the +next town, though they had been raised in that section. They did not +know how far it was there, or to any place else, and they did not care +to learn. They had no conception of what the war was being waged for, +and did not want to find out; they did not know where their regiment +was going, and did not remember where it had been; they could not tell +how long they had been in service, nor the time they had enlisted for. +They only remembered that sometimes they had had “sorter good times,” +and sometimes “they had been powerful bad,” and they hoped there would +be plenty to eat wherever they went, and not too much hard marching. +Then they wondered “whar a feller’d be likely to make a raise of a +canteen of good whisky?” + +Bad as the whites were, the rice plantation negros were even worse, +if that were possible. Brought to the country centuries ago, as +brutal savages from Africa, they had learned nothing of Christian +civilization, except that it meant endless toil, in malarious swamps, +under the lash of the taskmaster. They wore, possibly, a little more +clothing than their Senegambian ancestors did; they ate corn meal, yams +and rice, instead of bananas, yams and rice, as their forefathers did, +and they had learned a bastard, almost unintelligible, English. These +were the sole blessings acquired by a transfer from a life of freedom +in the jungles of the Gold Coast, to one of slavery in the swamps of +the Combahee. + +I could not then, nor can I now, regret the downfall of a system of +society which bore such fruits. + +Towards night a distressingly cold breeze, laden with a penetrating +mist, set in from the sea, and put an end to future observations by +making us too uncomfortable to care for scenery or social conditions. +We wanted most to devise a way to keep warm. Andrews and I pulled our +overcoat and blanket closely about us, snuggled together so as to make +each one’s meager body afford the other as much heat as possible--and +endured. + +We became fearfully hungry. It will be recollected that we ate the +whole of the two days’ rations issued to us at Blackshear at once, and +we had received nothing since. We reached the sullen, fainting stage +of great hunger, and for hours nothing was said by any one, except an +occasional bitter execration on Rebels and Rebel practices. + +It was late at night when we reached Charleston. The lights of the +City, and the apparent warmth and comfort there cheered us up somewhat +with the hopes that we might have some share in them. Leaving the +train, we were marched some distance through well-lighted streets, in +which were plenty of people walking to and fro. There were many stores, +apparently stocked with goods, and the citizens seemed to be going +about their business very much as was the custom up North. + +At length our head of column made a “right turn,” and we marched away +from the lighted portion of the City, to a part which I could see +through the shadows was filled with ruins. An almost insupportable +odor of gas, escaping I suppose from the ruptured pipes, mingled with +the cold, rasping air from the sea, to make every breath intensely +disagreeable. + +As I saw the ruins, it flashed upon me that this was the burnt district +of the city, and they were putting us under the fire of our own guns. +At first I felt much alarmed. Little relish as I had on general +principles, for being shot I had much less for being killed by our own +men. Then I reflected that if they put me there--and kept me--a guard +would have to be placed around us, who would necessarily be in as much +clanger as we were, and I knew I could stand any fire that a Rebel +could. + +We were halted in a vacant lot, and sat down, only to jump up the next +instant, as some one shouted: + +“There comes one of ’em!” + +It was a great shell from the Swamp Angel Battery. Starting from a +point miles away, where, seemingly, the sky came down to the sea, was +a narrow ribbon of fire, which slowly unrolled itself against the +star-lit vault over our heads. On, on it came, and was apparently +following the sky down to the horizon behind us. As it reached the +zenith, there came to our ears a prolonged, but not sharp, + +“Whish--ish-ish-ish-ish!” + +We watched it breathlessly, and it seemed to be long minutes in running +its course; then a thump upon the ground, and a vibration, told that +it had struck. For a moment there was a dead silence. Then came a loud +roar, and the crash of breaking timber and crushing walls. The shell +had bursted. + +Ten minutes later another shell followed, with like results. For awhile +we forgot all about hunger in the excitement of watching the messengers +from “God’s country.” What happiness to be where those shells came +from. Soon a Rebel battery of heavy guns somewhere near and in front +of us, waked up, and began answering with dull, slow thumps that made +the ground shudder. This continued about an hour, when it quieted +down again, but our shells kept coming over at regular intervals with +the same slow deliberation, the same prolonged warning, and the same +dreadful crash when they struck. They had already gone on this way for +over a year, and were to keep it up months longer until the City was +captured. + +The routine was the same from day to day, month in, and month out, +from early in August, 1863, to the middle of April, 1865. Every few +minutes during the day our folks would hurl a great shell into the +beleaguered City, and twice a day, for perhaps an hour each time, the +Rebel batteries would talk back. It must have been a lesson to the +Charlestonians of the persistent, methodical spirit of the North. They +prided themselves on the length of the time they were holding out +against the enemy, and the papers each day had a column headed: + + “390th DAY OF THE SIEGE,” + +or 391st, 393d, etc., as the number might be since our people opened +fire upon the City. The part where we lay was a mass of ruins. Many +large buildings had been knocked down; very many more were riddled +with shot holes and tottering to their fall. One night a shell passed +through a large building about a quarter of a mile from us. It had +already been struck several times, and was shaky. The shell went +through with a deafening crash. All was still for an instant; then it +exploded with a dull roar, followed by more crashing of timber and +walls. The sound died away and was succeeded by a moment of silence. +Finally the great building fell, a shapeless heap of ruins, with +a noise like that of a dozen field pieces. We wanted to cheer but +restrained ourselves. This was the nearest to us that any shell came. + +There was only one section of the City in reach of our guns and this +was nearly destroyed. Fires had come to complete the work begun by +the shells. Outside of the boundaries of this region, the people felt +themselves as safe as in one of our northern Cities to-day. They had +an abiding faith that they were clear out of reach of any artillery +that we could mount. I learned afterwards from some of the prisoners, +who went into Charleston ahead of us, and were camped on the race +course outside of the City, that one day our fellows threw a shell +clear over the City to this race course. There was an immediate and +terrible panic among the citizens. They thought we had mounted some +new guns of increased range, and now the whole city must go. But the +next shell fell inside the established limits, and those following +were equally well behaved, so that the panic abated. I have never +heard any explanation of the matter. It may have been some freak of +the gun-squad, trying the effect of an extra charge of powder. Had our +people known of its signal effect, they could have depopulated the +place in a few hours. + +The whole matter impressed me queerly. The only artillery I had ever +seen in action were field pieces. They made an earsplitting crash when +they were discharged, and there was likely to be oceans of trouble for +everybody in that neighborhood about that time. I reasoned from this +that bigger guns made a proportionally greater amount of noise, and +bred an infinitely larger quantity of trouble. Now I was hearing the +giants of the world’s ordnance, and they were not so impressive as a +lively battery of three-inch rifles. Their reports did not threaten +to shatter everything, but had a dull resonance, something like that +produced by striking an empty barrel with a wooden maul. Their shells +did not come at one in that wildly, ferocious way, with which a missile +from a six-pounder convinces every fellow in a long line of battle +that he is the identical one it is meant for, but they meandered over +in a lazy, leisurely manner, as if time was no object and no person +would feel put out at having to wait for them. Then, the idea of firing +every quarter of an hour for a year--fixing up a job for a lifetime, +as Andrews expressed it,--and of being fired back at for an hour at +9 o’clock every morning and evening; of fifty thousand people going +on buying and selling, eating, drinking and sleeping, having dances, +drives and balls, marrying and giving in marriage, all within a few +hundred yards of where the shells were falling-struck me as a most +singular method of conducting warfare. + +We received no rations until the day after our arrival, and then they +were scanty, though fair in quality. We were by this time so hungry +and faint that we could hardly move. We did nothing for hours but lie +around on the ground and try to forget how famished we were. At the +announcement of rations, many acted as if crazy, and it was all that +the Sergeants could do to restrain the impatient mob from tearing +the food away and devouring it, when they were trying to divide it +out. Very many--perhaps thirty--died during the night and morning. No +blame for this is attached to the Charlestonians. They distinguished +themselves from the citizens of every other place in the Southern +Confederacy where we had been, by making efforts to relieve our +condition. They sent quite a quantity of food to us, and the Sisters of +Charity came among us, seeking and ministering to the sick. I believe +our experience was the usual one. The prisoners who passed through +Charleston before us all spoke very highly of the kindness shown them +by the citizens there. + +We remained in Charleston but a few days. One night we were marched +down to a rickety depot, and put aboard a still more rickety train. +When morning came we found ourselves running northward through a pine +barren country that resembled somewhat that in Georgia, except that the +pine was short-leaved, there was more oak and other hard woods, and the +vegetation generally assumed a more Northern look. We had been put into +close box cars, with guards at the doors and on top. During the night +quite a number of the boys, who had fabricated little saws out of case +knives and fragments of hoop iron, cut holes through the bottoms of the +cars, through which they dropped to the ground and escaped, but were +mostly recaptured after several days. There was no hole cut in our car, +and so Andrews and I staid in. + +Just at dusk we came to the insignificant village of Florence, the +junction of the road leading from Charleston to Cheraw with that +running from Wilmington to Kingsville. It was about one hundred and +twenty miles from Charleston, and the same distance from Wilmington. +As our train ran through a cut near the junction a darky stood by the +track gazing at us curiously. When the train had nearly passed him he +started to run up the bank. In the imperfect light the guards mistook +him for one of us who had jumped from the train. They all fired, and +the unlucky negro fell, pierced by a score of bullets. + +That night we camped in the open field. When morning came we saw, a few +hundred yards from us, a Stockade of rough logs, with guards stationed +around it. It was another prison pen. They were just bringing the dead +out, and two men were tossing the bodies up into the four-horse wagon +which hauled them away for burial. The men were going about their +business as coolly as if loading slaughtered hogs. One of them would +catch the body by the feet, and the other by the arms. They would give +it a swing--“One, two, three,” and up it would go into the wagon. This +filled heaping full with corpses, a negro mounted the wheel horse, +grasped the lines, and shouted to his animals: + +“Now, walk off on your tails, boys.” + +The horses strained, the wagon moved, and its load of what were once +gallant, devoted soldiers, was carted off to nameless graves. This was +a part of the daily morning routine. + +As we stood looking at the sickeningly familiar architecture of the +prison pen, a Seventh Indianian near me said, in tones of wearisome +disgust: + +“Well, this Southern Confederacy is the d---dest country to stand logs +on end on God Almighty’s footstool.” + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + +FIRST DAYS AT FLORENCE--INTRODUCTION TO LIEUTENANT BARRETT, THE +RED-HEADED KEEPER--A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR NEW QUARTERS--WINDERS +MALIGN INFLUENCE MANIFEST. + +It did not require a very acute comprehension to understand that the +Stockade at which we were gazing was likely to be our abiding place for +some indefinite period in the future. + +As usual, this discovery was the death-warrant of many whose lives had +only been prolonged by the hoping against hope that the movement would +terminate inside our lines. When the portentous palisades showed to +a fatal certainty that the word of promise had been broken to their +hearts, they gave up the struggle wearily, lay back on the frozen +ground, and died. + +Andrews and I were not in the humor for dying just then. The long +imprisonment, the privations of hunger, the scourging by the elements, +the death of four out of every five of our number had indeed dulled and +stupefied us--bred an indifference to our own suffering and a seeming +callosity to that of others, but there still burned in our hearts, and +in the hearts of every one about us, a dull, sullen, smoldering fire of +hate and defiance toward everything Rebel, and a lust for revenge upon +those who had showered woes upon our heads. There was little fear of +death; even the King of Terrors loses most of his awful character upon +tolerably close acquaintance, and we had been on very intimate terms +with him for a year now. He was a constant visitor, who dropped in upon +us at all hours of the day and night, and would not be denied to any +one. + +Since my entry into prison fully fifteen thousand boys had died around +me, and in no one of them had I seen the least, dread or reluctance to +go. I believe this is generally true of death by disease, everywhere. +Our ever kindly mother, Nature, only makes us dread death when she +desires us to preserve life. When she summons us hence she tenderly +provides that we shall willingly obey the call. + +More than for anything else, we wanted to live now to triumph over +the Rebels. To simply die would be of little importance, but to die +unrevenged would be fearful. If we, the despised, the contemned, the +insulted, the starved and maltreated; could live to come back to our +oppressors as the armed ministers of retribution, terrible in the +remembrance of the wrongs of ourselves and comrade’s, irresistible as +the agents of heavenly justice, and mete out to them that Biblical +return of seven-fold of what they had measured out to us, then we +would be content to go to death afterwards. Had the thrice-accursed +Confederacy and our malignant gaolers millions of lives, our great +revenge would have stomach for them all. + +The December morning was gray and leaden; dull, somber, snow-laden +clouds swept across the sky before the soughing wind. + +The ground, frozen hard and stiff, cut and hurt our bare feet at every +step; an icy breeze drove in through the holes in our rags, and smote +our bodies like blows from sticks. The trees and shrubbery around were +as naked and forlorn as in the North in the days of early Winter before +the snow comes. + +Over and around us hung like a cold miasma the sickening odor peculiar +to Southern forests in Winter time. + +Out of the naked, repelling, unlovely earth rose the Stockade, in +hideous ugliness. At the gate the two men continued at their monotonous +labor of tossing the dead of the previous day into the wagon-heaving +into that rude hearse the inanimate remains that had once tempted +gallant, manly hearts, glowing with patriotism and devotion to +country--piling up listlessly and wearily, in a mass of nameless, +emaciated corpses, fluttering with rags, and swarming with vermin, the +pride, the joy of a hundred fair Northern homes, whose light had now +gone out forever. + +Around the prison walls shambled the guards, blanketed like Indians, +and with faces and hearts of wolves. Other Rebels--also clad in dingy +butternut--slouched around lazily, crouched over diminutive fires, +and talked idle gossip in the broadest of “nigger” dialect. Officers +swelled and strutted hither and thither, and negro servants loitered +around, striving to spread the least amount of work over the greatest +amount of time. + +While I stood gazing in gloomy silence at the depressing surroundings +Andrews, less speculative and more practical, saw a good-sized pine +stump near by, which had so much of the earth washed away from it +that it looked as if it could be readily pulled up. We had had bitter +experience in other prisons as to the value of wood, and Andrews +reasoned that as we would be likely to have a repetition of this in the +Stockade we were about to enter, we should make an effort to secure +the stump. We both attacked it, and after a great deal of hard work, +succeeded in uprooting it. It was very lucky that we did, since it was +the greatest help in preserving our lives through the three long months +that we remained at Florence. + +While we were arranging our stump so as to carry it to the best +advantage, a vulgar-faced man, with fiery red hair, and wearing on his +collar the yellow bars of a Lieutenant, approached. This was Lieutenant +Barrett, commandant of the interior of the prison, and a more inhuman +wretch even than Captain Wirz, because he had a little more brains than +the commandant at Andersonville, and this extra intellect was wholly +devoted to cruelty. As he came near he commanded, in loud, brutal tones: + +“Attention, Prisoners!” + +We all stood up and fell in in two ranks. Said he: + +“By companies, right wheel, march!” + +This was simply preposterous. As every soldier knows, wheeling by +companies is one of the most difficult of manuvers, and requires +some preparation of a battalion before attempting to execute it. Our +thousand was made up of infantry, cavalry and artillery, representing, +perhaps, one hundred different regiments. We had not been divided off +into companies, and were encumbered with blankets, tents, cooking +utensils, wood, etc., which prevented our moving with such freedom as +to make a company wheel, even had we been divided up into companies +and drilled for the maneuver. The attempt to obey the command was, of +course, a ludicrous failure. The Rebel officers standing near Barrett +laughed openly at his stupidity in giving such an order, but he was +furious. He hurled at us a torrent of the vilest abuse the corrupt +imagination of man can conceive, and swore until he was fairly black in +the face. He fired his revolver off over our heads, and shrieked and +shouted until he had to stop from sheer exhaustion. Another officer +took command then, and marched us into prison. + +We found this a small copy of Andersonville. There was a stream running +north and south, on either side of which was a swamp. A Stockade of +rough logs, with the bark still on, inclosed several acres. The front +of the prison was toward the West. A piece of artillery stood before +the gate, and a platform at each corner bore a gun, elevated high +enough to rake the whole inside of the prison. A man stood behind each +of these guns continually, so as to open with them at any moment. +The earth was thrown up against the outside of the palisades in a +high embankment, along the top of which the guards on duty walked, it +being high enough to elevate their head, shoulders and breasts above +the tops of the logs. Inside the inevitable dead-line was traced by +running a furrow around the prison-twenty feet from the Stockade--with +a plow. In one respect it was an improvement on Andersonville: regular +streets were laid off, so that motion about the camp was possible, and +cleanliness was promoted. Also, the crowd inside was not so dense as at +Camp Sumter. + +The prisoners were divided into hundreds and thousands, with Sergeants +at the heads of the divisions. A very good police force-organized and +officered by the prisoners--maintained order and prevented crime. +Thefts and other offenses were punished, as at Andersonville, by the +Chief of Police sentencing the offenders to be spanked or tied up. + +We found very many of our Andersonville acquaintances inside, and for +several days comparisons of experience were in order. They had left +Andersonville a few days after us, but were taken to Charleston instead +of Savannah. The same story of exchange was dinned into their ears +until they arrived at Charleston, when the truth was told them, that +no exchange was contemplated, and that they had been deceived for the +purpose of getting them safely out of reach of Sherman. + +Still they were treated well in Charleston--better than they had been +anywhere else. Intelligent physicians had visited the sick, prescribed +for them, furnished them with proper medicines, and admitted the worst +cases to the hospital, where they were given something of the care that +one would expect in such an institution. Wheat bread, molasses and rice +were issued to them, and also a few spoonfuls of vinegar, daily, which +were very grateful to them in their scorbutic condition. The citizens +sent in clothing, food and vegetables. The Sisters of Charity were +indefatigable in ministering to the sick and dying. Altogether, their +recollections of the place were quite pleasant. + +Despite the disagreeable prominence which the City had in the Secession +movement, there was a very strong Union element there, and many men +found opportunity to do favors to the prisoners and reveal to them how +much they abhorred Secession. + +After they had been in Charleston a fortnight or more, the yellow fever +broke out in the City, and soon extended its ravages to the prisoners, +quite a number dying from it. + +Early in October they had been sent away from the City to their +present location, which was then a piece of forest land. There was no +stockade or other enclosure about them, and one night they forced the +guard-line, about fifteen hundred escaping, under a pretty sharp fire +from the guards. After getting out they scattered, each group taking +a different route, some seeking Beaufort, and other places along the +seaboard, and the rest trying to gain the mountains. The whole State +was thrown into the greatest perturbation by the occurrence. The +papers magnified the proportion of the outbreak, and lauded fulsomely +the gallantry of the guards in endeavoring to withstand the desperate +assaults of the frenzied Yankees. The people were wrought up into +the highest alarm as to outrages and excesses that these flying +desperados might be expected to commit. One would think that another +Grecian horse, introduced into the heart of the Confederate Troy, had +let out its fatal band of armed men. All good citizens were enjoined +to turn out and assist in arresting the runaways. The vigilance of +all patrolling was redoubled, and such was the effectiveness of the +measures taken that before a month nearly every one of the fugitives +had been retaken and sent back to Florence. Few of these complained +of any special ill-treatment by their captors, while many reported +frequent acts of kindness, especially when their captors belonged to +the middle and upper classes. The low-down class--the clay-eaters--on +the other hand, almost always abused their prisoners, and sometimes, it +is pretty certain, murdered them in cold blood. + +About this time Winder came on from Andersonville, and then everything +changed immediately to the complexion of that place. He began the +erection of the Stockade, and made it very strong. The Dead Line was +established, but instead of being a strip of plank upon the top of +low posts, as at Andersonville, it was simply a shallow trench, which +was sometimes plainly visible, and sometimes not. The guards always +resolved matters of doubt against the prisoners, and fired on them when +they supposed them too near where the Dead Line ought to be. Fifteen +acres of ground were enclosed by the palisades, of which five were +taken up by the creek and swamp, and three or four more by the Dead +Line; main streets, etc., leaving about seven or eight for the actual +use of the prisoners, whose number swelled to fifteen thousand by the +arrivals from Andersonville. This made the crowding together nearly +as bad as at the latter place, and for awhile the same fatal results +followed. The mortality, and the sending away of several thousand on +the sick exchange, reduced the aggregate number at the time of our +arrival to about eleven thousand, which gave more room to all, but was +still not one-twentieth of the space which that number of men should +have had. + +No shelter, nor material for constructing any, was furnished. The +ground was rather thickly wooded, and covered with undergrowth, when +the Stockade was built, and certainly no bit of soil was ever so +thoroughly cleared as this was. The trees and brush were cut down and +worked up into hut building materials by the same slow and laborious +process that I have described as employed in building our huts at +Millen. + +Then the stumps were attacked for fuel, and with such persistent +thoroughness that after some weeks there was certainly not enough +woody material left in that whole fifteen acres of ground to kindle a +small kitchen fire. The men would begin work on the stump of a good +sized tree, and chip and split it off painfully and slowly until they +had followed it to the extremity of the tap root ten or fifteen feet +below the surface. The lateral roots would be followed with equal +determination, and trenches thirty feet long, and two or three feet +deep were dug with case-knives and half-canteens, to get a root as +thick as one’s wrist. The roots of shrubs and vines were followed up +and gathered with similar industry. The cold weather and the scanty +issues of wood forced men to do this. + +The huts constructed were as various as the materials and the tastes of +the builders. Those who were fortunate enough to get plenty of timber +built such cabins as I have described at Millen. Those who had less +eked out their materials in various ways. Most frequently all that a +squad of three or four could get would be a few slender poles and some +brush. They would dig a hole in the ground two feet deep and large +enough for them all to lie in. Then putting up a stick at each end +and laying a ridge pole across, they, would adjust the rest of their +material so as to form sloping sides capable of supporting earth enough +to make a water-tight roof. The great majority were not so well off as +these, and had absolutely, nothing of which to build. They had recourse +to the clay of the swamp, from which they fashioned rude sun-dried +bricks, and made adobe houses, shaped like a bee hive, which lasted +very well until a hard rain came, when they dissolved into red mire +about the bodies of their miserable inmates. + +Remember that all these makeshifts were practiced within a half-a-mile +of an almost boundless forest, from which in a day’s time the camp +could have been supplied with material enough to give every man a +comfortable hut. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + +BARRETT’S INSANE CRUELTY--HOW HE PUNISHED THOSE ALLEGED TO BE ENGAGED +IN TUNNELING--THE MISERY IN THE STOCKADE--MEN’S LIMBS ROTTING OFF WITH +DRY GANGRENE. + +Winder had found in Barrett even a better tool for his cruel purposes +than Wirz. The two resembled each other in many respects. Both were +absolutely destitute of any talent for commanding men, and could no +more handle even one thousand men properly than a cabin boy could +navigate a great ocean steamer. Both were given to the same senseless +fits of insane rage, coming and going without apparent cause, during +which they fired revolvers and guns or threw clubs into crowds of +prisoners, or knocked down such as were within reach of their fists. +These exhibitions were such as an overgrown child might be expected to +make. They did not secure any result except to increase the prisoners’ +wonder that such ill-tempered fools could be given any position of +responsibility. + +A short time previous to our entry Barrett thought he had reason to +suspect a tunnel. He immediately announced that no more rations should +be issued until its whereabouts was revealed and the ringleaders in the +attempt to escape delivered up to him. The rations at that time were +very scanty, so that the first day they were cut off the sufferings +were fearful. The boys thought he would surely relent the next day, but +they did not know their man. He was not suffering any, why should he +relax his severity? He strolled leisurely out from his dinner table, +picking his teeth with his penknife in the comfortable, self-satisfied +way of a coarse man who has just filled his stomach to his entire +content--an attitude and an air that was simply maddening to the +famishing wretches, of whom he inquired tantalizingly: + +“Air ye’re hungry enough to give up them G-d d d s--s of b----s yet?” + +That night thirteen thousand men, crazy, fainting with hunger, walked +hither and thither, until exhaustion forced them to become quiet, sat +on the ground and pressed their bowels in by leaning against sticks of +wood laid across their thighs; trooped to the Creek and drank water +until their gorges rose and they could swallow no more--did everything +in fact that imagination could suggest--to assuage the pangs of the +deadly gnawing that was consuming their vitals. All the cruelties of +the terrible Spanish Inquisition, if heaped together, would not sum +up a greater aggregate of anguish than was endured by them. The third +day came, and still no signs of yielding by Barrett. The Sergeants +counseled together. Something must be done. The fellow would starve +the whole camp to death with as little compunction as one drowns blind +puppies. It was necessary to get up a tunnel to show Barrett, and to +get boys who would confess to being leaders in the work. A number of +gallant fellows volunteered to brave his wrath, and save the rest of +their comrades. It required high courage to do this, as there was no +question but that the punishment meted out would be as fearful as the +cruel mind of the fellow could conceive. The Sergeants decided that +four would be sufficient to answer the purpose; they selected these by +lot, marched them to the gate and delivered them over to Barrett, who +thereupon ordered the rations to be sent in. He was considerate enough, +too, to feed the men he was going to torture. + +The starving men in the Stockade could not wait after the rations were +issued to cook them, but in many instances mixed the meal up with +water, and swallowed it raw. Frequently their stomachs, irritated by +the long fast, rejected the mess; any very many had reached the stage +where they loathed food; a burning fever was consuming them, and +seething their brains with delirium. Hundreds died within a few days, +and hundreds more were so debilitated by the terrible strain that they +did not linger long afterward. + +The boys who had offered themselves as a sacrifice for the rest were +put into a guard house, and kept over night that Barrett might make a +day of the amusement of torturing them. After he had laid in a hearty +breakfast, and doubtless fortified himself with some of the villainous +sorgum whisky, which the Rebels were now reduced to drinking, he set +about his entertainment. + +The devoted four were brought out--one by one--and their hands tied +together behind their backs. Then a noose of a slender, strong hemp +rope was slipped over the first one’s thumbs and drawn tight, after +which the rope was thrown over a log projecting from the roof of the +guard house, and two or three Rebels hauled upon it until the miserable +Yankee was lifted from the ground, and hung suspended by the thumbs, +while his weight seemed tearing his limbs from his shoulder blades. The +other three were treated in the same manner. + +The agony was simply excruciating. The boys were brave, and had +resolved to stand their punishment without a groan, but this was too +much for human endurance. Their will was strong, but Nature could not +be denied, and they shrieked aloud so pitifully that a young Reserve +standing near fainted. Each one screamed: + +“For God’s sake, kill me! kill me! Shoot me if--you want to, but let me +down from here!” The only effect of this upon Barrett was to light up +his brutal face with a leer of fiendish satisfaction. He said to the +guards with a gleeful wink: + +“By God, I’ll learn these Yanks to be more afeard of me than of the old +devil himself. They’ll soon understand that I’m not the man to fool +with. I’m old pizen, I am, when I git started. Jest hear ’em squeal, +won’t yer?” + +Then walking from one prisoner to another, he said: + +“D---n yer skins, ye’ll dig tunnels, will ye? Ye’ll try to git out, and +run through the country stealin’ and carryin’ off niggers, and makin’ +more trouble than yer d----d necks are worth. I’ll learn ye all about +that. If I ketch ye at this sort of work again, d----d ef I don’t kill +ye ez soon ez I ketch ye.” + +And so on, ad infinitum. How long the boys were kept up there +undergoing this torture can not be said. Perhaps it was an hour or +more. To the locker-on it seemed long hours, to the poor fellows +themselves it was ages. When they were let down at last, all fainted, +and were carried away to the hospital, where they were weeks in +recovering from the effects. Some of them were crippled for life. + +When we came into the prison there were about eleven thousand there. +More uniformly wretched creatures I had never before seen. Up to the +time of our departure from Andersonville the constant influx of new +prisoners had prevented the misery and wasting away of life from +becoming fully realized. Though thousands were continually dying, +thousands more of healthy, clean, well-clothed men were as continually +coming in from the front, so that a large portion of those inside +looked in fairly good condition. Put now no new prisoners had come in +for months; the money which made such a show about the sutler shops of +Andersonville had been spent; and there was in every face the same look +of ghastly emaciation, the same shrunken muscles and feeble limbs, the +same lack-luster eyes and hopeless countenances. + +One of the commonest of sights was to see men whose hands and feet +were simply rotting off. The nights were frequently so cold that ice +a quarter of an inch thick formed on the water. The naked frames of +starving men were poorly calculated to withstand this frosty rigor, and +thousands had their extremities so badly frozen as to destroy the life +in those parts, and induce a rotting of the tissues by a dry gangrene. +The rotted flesh frequently remained in its place for a long time --a +loathsome but painless mass, that gradually sloughed off, leaving the +sinews that passed through it to stand out like shining, white cords. + +While this was in some respects less terrible than the hospital +gangrene at Andersonville, it was more generally diffused, and dreadful +to the last degree. The Rebel Surgeons at Florence did not follow +the habit of those at Andersonville, and try to check the disease by +wholesale amputation, but simply let it run its course, and thousands +finally carried their putrefied limbs through our lines, when the +Confederacy broke up in the Spring, to be treated by our Surgeons. + +I had been in prison but a little while when a voice called out from a +hole in the ground, as I was passing: + +“S-a-y, Sergeant! Won’t you please take these shears and cut my toes +off?” + +“What?” said I, in amazement, stopping in front of the dugout. + +“Just take these shears, won’t you, and cut my toes off?” answered the +inmate, an Indiana infantryman--holding up a pair of dull shears in his +hand, and elevating a foot for me to look at. + +I examined the latter carefully. All the flesh of the toes, except +little pads at the ends, had rotted off, leaving the bones as clean as +if scraped. The little tendons still remained, and held the bones to +their places, but this seemed to hurt the rest of the feet and annoy +the man. + +“You’d better let one of the Rebel doctors see this,” I said, after +finishing my survey, “before you conclude to have them off. May be they +can be saved.” + +“No; d----d if I’m going to have any of them Rebel butchers fooling +around me. I’d die first, and then I wouldn’t,” was the reply. “You can +do it better than they can. It’s just a little snip. Just try it.” + +“I don’t like to,” I replied. “I might lame you for life, and make you +lots of trouble.” + +“O, bother! what business is that of yours? They’re my toes, and I want +’em off. They hurt me so I can’t sleep. Come, now, take the shears and +cut ’em off.” + +I yielded, and taking the shears, snipped one tendon after another, +close to the feet, and in a few seconds had the whole ten toes lying in +a heap at the bottom of the dug-out. I picked them up and handed them +to their owner, who gazed at them, complacently, and remarked: + +“Well, I’m darned glad they’re off. I won’t be bothered with corns any +more, I flatter myself.” + + + + +CHAPTER LXX. + +HOUSE AND CLOTHES--EFFORTS TO ERECT A SUITABLE RESIDENCE--DIFFICULTIES +ATTENDING THIS--VARIETIES OF FLORENTINE ARCHITECTURE--WAITING FOR DEAD +MEN’S CLOTHES--CRAVING FOR TOBACCO. + +We were put into the old squads to fill the places of those who had +recently died, being assigned to these vacancies according to the +initials of our surnames, the same rolls being used that we had signed +as paroles. This separated Andrews and me, for the “A’s” were taken to +fill up the first hundreds of the First Thousand, while the “M’s,” to +which I belonged, went into the next Thousand. + +I was put into the Second Hundred of the Second Thousand, and its +Sergeant dying shortly after, I was given his place, and commanded the +hundred, drew its rations, made out its rolls, and looked out for its +sick during the rest of our stay there. + +Andrews and I got together again, and began fixing up what little we +could to protect ourselves against the weather. Cold as this was we +decided that it was safer to endure it and risk frost-biting every +night than to build one of the mud-walled and mud-covered holes that +so many, lived in. These were much warmer than lying out on the frozen +ground, but we believed that they were very unhealthy, and that no one +lived long who inhabited them. + +So we set about repairing our faithful old blanket--now full of great +holes. We watched the dead men to get pieces of cloth from their +garments to make patches, which we sewed on with yarn raveled from +other fragments of woolen cloth. Some of our company, whom we found in +the prison, donated us the three sticks necessary to make tent-poles +--wonderful generosity when the preciousness of firewood is remembered. +We hoisted our blanket upon these; built a wall of mud bricks at one +end, and in it a little fireplace to economize our scanty fuel to the +last degree, and were once more at home, and much better off than most +of our neighbors. + +One of these, the proprietor of a hole in the ground covered with an +arch of adobe bricks, had absolutely no bed-clothes except a couple of +short pieces of board--and very little other clothing. He dug a trench +in the bottom of what was by courtesy called his tent, sufficiently +large to contain his body below his neck. At nightfall he would crawl +into this, put his two bits of board so that they joined over his +breast, and then say: “Now, boys, cover me over;” whereupon his friends +would cover him up with dry sand from the sides of his domicile, in +which he would slumber quietly till morning, when he would rise, shake +the sand from his garments, and declare that he felt as well refreshed +as if he had slept on a spring mattress. + +There has been much talk of earth baths of late years in scientific +and medical circles. I have been sorry that our Florence comrade if he +still lives--did not contribute the results of his experience. + +The pinching cold cured me of my repugnance to wearing dead men’s +clothes, or rather it made my nakedness so painful that I was glad +to cover it as best I could, and I began foraging among the corpses +for garments. For awhile my efforts to set myself up in the mortuary +second-hand clothing business were not all successful. I found that +dying men with good clothes were as carefully watched over by sets +of fellows who constituted themselves their residuary legatees as if +they were men of fortune dying in the midst of a circle of expectant +nephews and nieces. Before one was fairly cold his clothes would be +appropriated and divided, and I have seen many sharp fights between +contesting claimants. + +I soon perceived that my best chance was to get up very early in the +morning, and do my hunting. The nights were so cold that many could +not sleep, and they would walk up and down the streets, trying to keep +warm by exercise. Towards morning, becoming exhausted, they would lie +down on the ground almost anywhere, and die. I have frequently seen so +many as fifty of these. My first “find” of any importance was a young +Pennsylvania Zouave, who was lying dead near the bridge that crossed +the Creek. His clothes were all badly worn, except his baggy, dark +trousers, which were nearly new. I removed these, scraped out from each +of the dozens of great folds in the legs about a half pint of lice, +and drew the garments over my own half-frozen limbs, the first real +covering those members had had for four or five months. The pantaloons +only came down about half-way between my knees and feet, but still +they were wonderfully comfortable to what I had been--or rather not +been--wearing. I had picked up a pair of boot bottoms, which answered +me for shoes, and now I began a hunt for socks. This took several +morning expeditions, but on one of them I was rewarded with finding a +corpse with a good brown one --army make--and a few days later I got +another, a good, thick genuine one, knit at home, of blue yarn, by some +patient, careful housewife. Almost the next morning I had the good +fortune to find a dead man with a warm, whole, infantry dress-coat, a +most serviceable garment. As I still had for a shirt the blouse Andrews +had given me at Millen, I now considered my wardrobe complete, and left +the rest of the clothes to those who were more needy than I. + +Those who used tobacco seemed to suffer more from a deprivation of +the weed than from lack of food. There were no sacrifices they would +not make to obtain it, and it was no uncommon thing for boys to trade +off half their rations for a chew of “navy plug.” As long as one had +anything--especially buttons--to trade, tobacco could be procured from +the guards, who were plentifully supplied with it. When means of barter +were gone, chewers frequently became so desperate as to beg the guards +to throw them a bit of the precious nicotine. Shortly after our arrival +at Florence, a prisoner on the East Side approached one of the Reserves +with the request: + +“Say, Guard, can’t you give a fellow a chew of tobacco?” + +To which the guard replied: + +“Yes; come right across the line there and I’ll drop you down a bit.” + +The unsuspecting prisoner stepped across the Dead Line, and the +guard--a boy of sixteen--raised his gun and killed him. + +At the North Side of the prison, the path down to the Creek lay right +along side of the Dead Line, which was a mere furrow in the ground. + +At night the guards, in their zeal to kill somebody, were very likely +to imagine that any one going along the path for water was across the +Dead Line, and fire upon him. It was as bad as going upon the skirmish +line to go for water after nightfall. Yet every night a group of boys +would be found standing at the head of the path crying out: + +“Fill your buckets for a chew of tobacco.” + +That is, they were willing to take all the risk of running that +gauntlet for this moderate compensation. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. + +DECEMBER--RATIONS OF WOOD AND FOOD GROW LESS DAILY--UNCERTAINTY AS TO +THE MORTALITY AT FLORENCE--EVEN THE GOVERNMENT’S STATISTICS ARE VERY +DEFICIENT--CARE FOB THE SICK. + +The rations of wood grew smaller as the weather grew colder, +until at last they settled down to a piece about the size of a +kitchen rolling-pin per day for each man. This had to serve for +all purposes--cooking, as well as warming. We split the rations up +into slips about the size of a carpenter’s lead pencil, and used +them parsimoniously, never building a fire so big that it could +not be covered with a half-peck measure. We hovered closely over +this--covering it, in fact, with our hands and bodies, so that not a +particle of heat was lost. Remembering the Indian’s sage remark, “That +the white man built a big fire and sat away off from it; the Indian +made a little fire and got up close to it,” we let nothing in the +way of caloric be wasted by distance. The pitch-pine produced great +quantities of soot, which, in cold and rainy days, when we hung over +the fires all the time, blackened our faces until we were beyond the +recognition of intimate friends. + +There was the same economy of fuel in cooking. Less than half as much +as is contained in a penny bunch of kindling was made to suffice in +preparing our daily meal. If we cooked mush we elevated our little can +an inch from the ground upon a chunk of clay, and piled the little +sticks around it so carefully that none should burn without yielding +all its heat to the vessel, and not one more was burned than absolutely +necessary. If we baked bread we spread the dough upon our chessboard, +and propped it up before the little fire-place, and used every particle +of heat evolved. We had to pinch and starve ourselves thus, while +within five minutes’ walk from the prison-gate stood enough timber to +build a great city. + +The stump Andrews and I had the foresight to save now did us excellent +service. It was pitch pine, very fat with resin, and a little piece +split off each day added much to our fires and our comfort. + +One morning, upon examining the pockets of an infantryman of my hundred +who had just died, I had the wonderful luck to find a silver quarter. +I hurried off to tell Andrews of our unexpected good fortune. By an +effort he succeeded in calming himself to the point of receiving the +news with philosophic coolness, and we went into Committee of the +Whole Upon the State of Our Stomachs, to consider how the money could +be spent to the best advantage. At the south side of the Stockade on +the outside of the timbers, was a sutler shop, kept by a Rebel, and +communicating with the prison by a hole two or three feet square, +cut through the logs. The Dead Line was broken at this point, so as +to permit prisoners to come up to the hole to trade. The articles +for sale were corn meal and bread, flour and wheat bread, meat, +beaus, molasses, honey, sweet potatos, etc. I went down to the place, +carefully inspected the stock, priced everything there, and studied +the relative food value of each. I came back, reported my observations +and conclusions to Andrews, and then staid at the tent while he went +on a similar errand. The consideration of the matter was continued +during the day and night, and the next morning we determined upon +investing our twenty-five cents in sweet potatos, as we could get +nearly a half-bushel of them, which was “more fillin’ at the price,” to +use the words of Dickens’s Fat Boy, than anything else offered us. We +bought the potatos, carried them home in our blanket, buried them in +the bottom of our tent, to keep them from being stolen, and restricted +ourselves to two per day until we had eaten them all. + +The Rebels did something more towards properly caring for the sick than +at Andersonville. A hospital was established in the northwestern corner +of the Stockade, and separated from the rest of the camp by a line of +police, composed of our own men. In this space several large sheds +were erected, of that rude architecture common to the coarser sort of +buildings in the South. There was not a nail or a bolt used in their +entire construction. Forked posts at the ends and sides supported poles +upon which were laid the long “shakes,” or split shingles, forming the +roofs, and which were held in place by other poles laid upon them. The +sides and ends were enclosed by similar “shakes,” and altogether they +formed quite a fair protection against the weather. Beds of pine leaves +were provided for the sick, and some coverlets, which our Sanitary +Commission had been allowed to send through. But nothing was done to +bathe or cleanse them, or to exchange their lice-infested garments +for others less full of torture. The long tangled hair and whiskers +were not cut, nor indeed were any of the commonest suggestions for +the improvement of the condition of the sick put into execution. Men +who had laid in their mud hovels until they had become helpless and +hopeless, were admitted to the hospital, usually only to die. + +The diseases were different in character from those which swept off the +prisoners at Andersonville. There they were mostly of the digestive +organs; here of the respiratory. The filthy, putrid, speedily fatal +gangrene of Andersonville became here a dry, slow wasting away of +the parts, which continued for weeks, even months, without being +necessarily fatal. Men’s feet and legs, and less frequently their hands +and arms, decayed and sloughed off. The parts became so dead that a +knife could be run through them without causing a particle of pain. The +dead flesh hung on to the bones and tendons long after the nerves and +veins had ceased to perform their functions, and sometimes startled one +by dropping off in a lump, without causing pain or hemorrhage. + +The appearance of these was, of course, frightful, or would have been, +had we not become accustomed to them. The spectacle of men with their +feet and legs a mass of dry ulceration, which had reduced the flesh +to putrescent deadness, and left the tendons standing out like cords, +was too common to excite remark or even attention. Unless the victim +was a comrade, no one specially heeded his condition. Lung diseases +and low fevers ravaged the camp, existing all the time in a more or +less virulent condition, according to the changes of the weather, +and occasionally ragging in destructive epidemics. I am unable to +speak with any degree of definiteness as to the death rate, since I +had ceased to interest myself about the number dying each day. I had +now been a prisoner a year, and had become so torpid and stupefied, +mentally and physically, that I cared comparatively little for anything +save the rations of food and of fuel. The difference of a few spoonfuls +of meal, or a large splinter of wood in the daily issues to me, were +of more actual importance than the increase or decrease of the death +rate by a half a score or more. At Andersonville I frequently took the +trouble to count the number of dead and living, but all curiosity of +this kind had now died out. + +Nor can I find that anybody else is in possession of much more than +my own information on the subject. Inquiry at the War Department has +elicited the following letters: + + +I. + +The prison records of Florence, S. C., have never come to light, +and therefore the number of prisoners confined there could not be +ascertained from the records on file in this office; nor do I think +that any statement purporting to show that number has ever been made. + +In the report to Congress of March 1, 1869, it was shown from records +as follows: + + +Escaped, fifty-eight; paroled, one; died, two thousand seven hundred +and ninety-three. Total, two thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. + +Since date of said report there have been added to the records as +follows: + +Died, two hundred and twelve; enlisted in Rebel army, three hundred and +twenty-six. Total, five hundred and thirty-eight. + +Making a total disposed of from there, as shown by records on file, of +three thousand three hundred and ninety. + +This, no doubt, is a small proportion of the number actually confined +there. + +The hospital register on file contains that part only of the alphabet +subsequent to, and including part of the letter S, but from this +register, it is shown that the prisoners were arranged in hundreds +and thousands, and the hundred and thousand to which he belonged is +recorded opposite each man’s name on said register. Thus: + +“John Jones, 11th thousand, 10th hundred.” + +Eleven thousand being the highest number thus recorded, it is fair to +presume that not less than that number were confined there on a certain +date, and that more than that number were confined there during the +time it was continued as a prison. + + +II + +Statement showing the whole number of Federals and Confederates +captured, (less the number paroled on the field), the number who died +while prisoners, and the percentage of deaths, 1861-1865 + + FEDERALS +Captured .................................................. 187,818 +Died, (as shown by prison and hospital records on file).... 30,674 +Percentage of deaths ...................................... 16.375 + + CONFEDERATES +Captured .................................................. 227,570 +Died ...................................................... 26,774 +Percentage of deaths ...................................... 11.768 + + +In the detailed statement prepared for Congress dated March 1, 1869, +the whole number of deaths given as shown by Prisoner of War records +was twenty-six thousand three hundred and twenty-eight, but since that +date evidence of three thousand six hundred and twenty-eight additional +deaths has been obtained from the captured Confederate records, making +a total of twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-six as above +shown. This is believed to be many thousands less than the actual +number of Federal prisoners who died in Confederate prisons, as we have +no records from those at Montgomery Ala., Mobile, Ala., Millen, Ga., +Marietta, Ga., Atlanta, Ga., Charleston, S. C., and others. The records +of Florence, S. C., and Salisbury, N. C., are very incomplete. It also +appears from Confederate inspection reports of Confederate prisons, +that large percentage of the deaths occurred in prison quarter without +the care or knowledge of the Surgeon. For the month of December, 1864 +alone, the Confederate “burial report”; Salisbury, N. C., show that +out, of eleven hundred and fifty deaths, two hundred and twenty-three, +or twenty per cent., died in prison quarters and are not accounted +for in the report of the Surgeon, and therefore not taken into +consideration in the above report, as the only records of said prisons +on file (with one exception) are the Hospital records. Calculating the +percentage of deaths on this basis would give the number of deaths at +thirty-seven thousand four hundred and forty-five and percentage of +deaths at 20.023. + + [End of the Letters from the War Department.] + +If we assume that the Government’s records of Florence as correct, it +will be apparent that one man in every three die there, since, while +there might have been as high as fifty thousand at one time in the +prison, during the last three months of its existence I am quite sure +that the number did not exceed seven thousand. This would make the +mortality much greater than at Andersonville, which it undoubtedly +was, since the physical condition of the prisoners confined there +had been greatly depressed by their long confinement, while the bulk +c the prisoners at Andersonville were those who had been brought +thither directly from the field. I think also that all who experienced +confinement in the two places are united in pronouncing Florence to be, +on the whole, much the worse place and more fatal to life. + +The medicines furnished the sick were quite simple in nature and +mainly composed of indigenous substances. For diarrhea red pepper and +decoctions of blackberry root and of pine leave were given. For coughs +and lung diseases, a decoction of wild cherry bark was administered. +Chills and fever were treated with decoctions of dogwood bark, and +fever patients who craved something sour, were given a weak acid drink, +made by fermenting a small quantity of meal in a barrel of water. All +these remedies were quite good in their way, and would have benefitted +the patients had they been accompanied by proper shelter, food and +clothing. But it was idle to attempt to arrest with blackberry root the +diarrhea, or with wild cherry bark the consumption of a man lying in a +cold, damp, mud hovel, devoured by vermin, and struggling to maintain +life upon less than a pint of unsalted corn meal per diem. + +Finding that the doctors issued red pepper for diarrhea, and an +imitation of sweet oil made from peanuts, for the gangrenous sores +above described, I reported to them an imaginary comrade in my tent, +whose symptoms indicated those remedies, and succeeded in drawing a +small quantity of each, two or three times a week. The red pepper I +used to warm up our bread and mush, and give some different taste to +the corn meal, which had now become so loathsome to us. The peanut +oil served to give a hint of the animal food we hungered for. It was +greasy, and as we did not have any meat for three months, even this +flimsy substitute was inexpressibly grateful to palate and stomach. But +one morning the Hospital Steward made a mistake, and gave me castor oil +instead, and the consequences were unpleasant. + +A more agreeable remembrance is that of two small apples, about the +size of walnuts, given me by a boy named Henry Clay Montague Porter, of +the Sixteenth Connecticut. He had relatives living in North Carolina, +who sent him a small packs of eatables, out of which, in the fulness +of his generous heart he gave me this share--enough to make me always +remember him with kindness. + +Speaking of eatables reminds me of an incident. Joe Darling, of the +First Maine, our Chief of Police, had a sister living at Augusta, +Ga., who occasionally came to Florence with basket of food and other +necessaries for her brother. On one of these journeys, while sitting +in Colonel Iverson’s tent, waiting for her brother to be brought out +of prison, she picked out of her basket a nicely browned doughnut and +handed it to the guard pacing in front of the tent, with: + +“Here, guard, wouldn’t you like a genuine Yankee doughnut?” + +The guard-a lank, loose-jointed Georgia cracker--who in all his life +seen very little more inviting food than the his hominy and molasses, +upon which he had been raised, took the cake, turned it over and +inspected it curiously for some time without apparently getting the +least idea of what it was for, and then handed it back to the donor, +saying: + +“Really, mum, I don’t believe I’ve got any use for it” + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. + +DULL WINTER DAYS--TOO WEAK AND TOO STUPID To AMUSE OURSELVES--ATTEMPTS +OF THE REBELS TO RECRUIT US INTO THEIR ARMY--THE CLASS OF MEN THEY +OBTAINED --VENGEANCE ON “THE GALVANIZED”--A SINGULAR EXPERIENCE--RARE +GLIMPSES OF FUN--INABILITY OF THE REBELS TO COUNT. + +The Rebels continued their efforts to induce prisoners to enlist in +their army, and with much better success than at any previous time. +Many men had become so desperate that they were reckless as to what +they did. Home, relatives, friends, happiness--all they had remembered +or looked forward to, all that had nerved them up to endure the present +and brave the future--now seemed separated from them forever by a +yawning and impassable chasm. For many weeks no new prisoners had come +in to rouse their drooping courage with news of the progress of our +arms towards final victory, or refresh their remembrances of home, and +the gladsomeness of “God’s Country.” Before them they saw nothing but +weeks of slow and painful progress towards bitter death. The other +alternative was enlistment in the Rebel army. + +Another class went out and joined, with no other intention than to +escape at the first opportunity. They justified their bad faith to the +Rebels by recalling the numberless instances of the Rebels’ bad faith +to us, and usually closed their arguments in defense of their course +with: + +“No oath administered by a Rebel can have any binding obligation. These +men are outlaws who have not only broken their oaths to the Government, +but who have deserted from its service, and turned its arms against +it. They are perjurers and traitors, and in addition, the oath they +administer to us is under compulsion and for that reason is of no +account.” + +Still another class, mostly made up from the old Raider crowd, enlisted +from natural depravity. They went out more than for anything else +because their hearts were prone to evil and they did that which was +wrong in preference to what was right. By far the largest portion of +those the Rebels obtained were of this class, and a more worthless +crowd of soldiers has not been seen since Falstaff mustered his famous +recruits. + +After all, however, the number who deserted their flag was +astonishingly small, considering all the circumstances. The official +report says three hundred and twenty-six, but I imaging this is +under the truth, since quite a number were turned back in after +their utter uselessness had been demonstrated. I suppose that five +hundred “galvanized,” as we termed it, but this was very few when the +hopelessness of exchange, the despair of life, and the wretchedness of +the condition of the eleven or twelve thousand inside the Stockade is +remembered. + +The motives actuating men to desert were not closely analyzed by us, +but we held all who did so as despicable scoundrels, too vile to be +adequately described in words. It was not safe for a man to announce +his intention of “galvanizing,” for he incurred much danger of being +beaten until he was physically unable to reach the gate. Those who went +over to the enemy had to use great discretion in letting the Rebel +officer, know so much of their wishes as would secure their being +taker outside. Men were frequently knocked down and dragged away while +telling the officers they wanted to go out. + +On one occasion one hundred or more of the raider crowd who had +galvanized, were stopped for a few hours in some little Town, on +their way to the front. They lost no time in stealing everything they +could lay their hands upon, and the disgusted Rebel commander ordered +them to be returned to the Stockade. They came in in the evening, all +well rigged out in Rebel uniforms, and carrying blankets. We chose to +consider their good clothes and equipments an aggravation of their +offense and an insult to ourselves. We had at that time quite a squad +of negro soldiers inside with us. Among them was a gigantic fellow with +a fist like a wooden beetle. Some of the white boys resolved to use +these to wreak the camp’s displeasure on the Galvanized. The plan was +carried out capitally. The big darky, followed by a crowd of smaller +and nimbler “shades,” would approach one of the leaders among them with: + +“Is you a Galvanized?” + +The surly reply would be, + +“Yes, you ---- black ----. What the business is that of yours?” + +At that instant the bony fist of the darky, descending like a +pile-driver, would catch the recreant under the ear, and lift him about +a rod. As he fell, the smaller darkies would pounce upon him, and in an +instant despoil him of his blanket and perhaps the larger portion of +his warm clothing. The operation was repeated with a dozen or more. The +whole camp enjoyed it as rare fun, and it was the only time that I saw +nearly every body at Florence laugh. + +A few prisoners were brought in in December, who had been taken +in Foster’s attempt to cut the Charleston & Savannah Railroad at +Pocataligo. Among them we were astonished to find Charley Hirsch, +a member of Company I’s of our battalion. He had had a strange +experience. He was originally a member of a Texas regiment and was +captured at Arkansas Post. He then took the oath of allegiance and +enlisted with us. While we were at Savannah he approached a guard one +day to trade for tobacco. The moment he spoke to the man he recognized +him as a former comrade in the Texas regiment. The latter knew him +also, and sang out, + +“I know you; you’re Charley Hirsch, that used to be in my company.” + +Charley backed into the crowd as quickly as possible; to elude the +fellow’s eyes, but the latter called for the Corporal of the Guard, +had himself relieved, and in a few minutes came in with an officer +in search of the deserter. He found him with little difficulty, and +took him out. The luckless Charley was tried by court martial, found, +guilty, sentenced to be shot, and while waiting execution was confined +in the jail. Before the sentence could be carried into effect Sherman +came so close to the City that it was thought best to remove the +prisoners. In the confusion Charley managed to make his escape, and +at the moment the battle of Pocataligo opened, was lying concealed +between the two lines of battle, without knowing, of course, that he +was in such a dangerous locality. After the firing opened, he thought +it better to lie still than run the risk from the fire of both sides, +especially as he momentarily expected our folks to advance and drive +the Rebels away. But the reverse happened; the Johnnies drove our +fellows, and, finding Charley in his place of concealment, took him for +one of Foster’s men, and sent him to Florence, where he staid until we +went through to our lines. + +Our days went by as stupidly and eventless as can be conceived. We had +grown too spiritless and lethargic to dig tunnels or plan escapes. We +had nothing to read, nothing to make or destroy, nothing to work with, +nothing to play with, and even no desire to contrive anything for +amusement. All the cards in the prison were worn out long ago. Some of +the boys had made dominos from bones, and Andrews and I still had our +chessmen, but we were too listless to play. The mind, enfeebled by the +long disuse of it except in a few limited channels, was unfitted for +even so much effort as was involved in a game for pastime. + +Nor were there any physical exercises, such as that crowd of young +men would have delighted in under other circumstances. There was no +running, boxing, jumping, wrestling, leaping, etc. All were too weak +and hungry to make any exertion beyond that absolutely necessary. +On cold days everybody seemed totally benumbed. The camp would be +silent and still. Little groups everywhere hovered for hours, moody +and sullen, over diminutive, flickering fires, made with one poor +handful of splinters. When the sun shone, more activity was visible. +Boys wandered around, hunted up their friends, and saw what gaps +death--always busiest during the cold spells--had made in the ranks +of their acquaintances. During the warmest part of the day everybody +disrobed, and spent an hour or more killing the lice that had waxed and +multiplied to grievous proportions during the few days of comparative +immunity. + +Besides the whipping of the Galvanized by the darkies, I remember but +two other bits of amusement we had while at Florence. One of these was +in hearing the colored soldiers sing patriotic songs, which they did +with great gusto when the weather became mild. The other was the antics +of a circus clown--a member, I believe, of a Connecticut or a New York +regiment, who, on the rare occasions when we were feeling not exactly +well so much as simply better than we had been, would give us an hour +or two of recitations of the drolleries with which he was wont to set +the crowded canvas in a roar. One of his happiest efforts, I remember, +was a stilted paraphrase of “Old Uncle Ned” a song very popular a +quarter of a century ago, and which ran something like this: + +There was an old darky, an’ his name was Uncle Ned, +But he died long ago, long ago +He had no wool on de top of his head, +De place whar de wool ought to grouw. + + CHORUS + Den lay down de shubel an’ de hoe, + Den hang up de fiddle an’ de bow; + For dere’s no more hard work for poor Uncle Ned + He’s gone whar de good niggahs go. + +His fingers war long, like de cane in de brake, +And his eyes war too dim for to see; +He had no teeth to eat de corn cake, +So he had to let de corn cake be. + + CHORUS. + +His legs were so bowed dat he couldn’t lie still. +An’ he had no nails on his toes; + +His neck was so crooked dot he couldn’t take a pill, +So he had to take a pill through his nose. + + CHORUS. + +One cold frosty morning old Uncle Ned died, +An’ de tears ran down massa’s cheek like rain, +For he knew when Uncle Ned was laid in de groun’, +He would never see poor Uncle Ned again, + + CHORUS. + + +In the hands of this artist the song became-- + +There was an aged and indigent African whose cognomen was Uncle Edward, +But he is deceased since a remote period, a very remote period; +He possessed no capillary substance on the summit of his cranium, +The place designated by kind Nature for the capillary substance to +vegetate. + +CHORUS. +Then let the agricultural implements rest recumbent upon the ground; +And suspend the musical instruments in peace neon the wall, +For there’s no more physical energy to be displayed by our Indigent + Uncle Edward +He has departed to that place set apart by a beneficent Providence for + the reception of the better class of Africans. + + +And so on. These rare flashes of fun only served to throw the +underlying misery out in greater relief. It was like lightning playing +across the surface of a dreary morass. + +I have before alluded several times to the general inability of Rebels +to count accurately, even in low numbers. One continually met phases +of this that seemed simply incomprehensible to us, who had taken in +the multiplication table almost with our mother’s milk, and knew the +Rule of Three as well as a Presbyterian boy does the Shorter Catechism. +A cadet--an undergraduate of the South Carolina Military Institute +--called our roll at Florence, and though an inborn young aristocrat, +who believed himself made of finer clay than most mortals, he was +not a bad fellow at all. He thought South Carolina aristocracy the +finest gentry, and the South Carolina Military Institute the greatest +institution of learning in the world; but that is common with all South +Carolinians. + +One day he came in so full of some matter of rare importance that we +became somewhat excited as to its nature. Dismissing our hundred after +roll-call, he unburdened his mind: + +“Now you fellers are all so d---d peart on mathematics, and such +things, that you want to snap me up on every opportunity, but I guess +I’ve got something this time that’ll settle you. Its something that a +fellow gave out yesterday, and Colonel Iverson, and all the officers +out there have been figuring on it ever since, and none have got the +right answer, and I’m powerful sure that none of you, smart as you +think you are, can do it.” + +“Heavens, and earth, let’s hear this wonderful problem,” said we all. + +“Well,” said he, “what is the length of a pole standing in a river, +one-fifth of which is in the mud, two-thirds in the water, and +one-eighth above the water, while one foot and three inches of the top +is broken off?” + +In a minute a dozen answered, “One hundred and fifty feet.” + +The cadet could only look his amazement at the possession of such an +amount of learning by a crowd of mudsills, and one of our fellows said +contemptuously: + +“Why, if you South Carolina Institute fellows couldn’t answer such +questions as that they wouldn’t allow you in the infant class up North.” + +Lieutenant Barrett, our red-headed tormentor, could not, for the life +of him, count those inside in hundreds and thousands in such a manner +as to be reasonably certain of correctness. As it would have cankered +his soul to feel that he was being beaten out of a half-dozen rations +by the superior cunning of the Yankees, he adopted a plan which he must +have learned at some period of his life when he was a hog or sheep +drover. Every Sunday morning all in the camp were driven across the +Creek to the East Side, and then made to file slowly back--one at a +time--between two guards stationed on the little bridge that spanned +the Creek. By this means, if he was able to count up to one hundred, he +could get our number correctly. + +The first time this was done after our arrival he gave us a display +of his wanton malevolence. We were nearly all assembled on the East +Side, and were standing in ranks, at the edge of the swamp, facing the +west. Barrett was walking along the opposite edge of the swamp, and, +coming to a little gully jumped, it. He was very awkward, and came near +falling into the mud. We all yelled derisively. He turned toward us in +a fury, shook his fist, and shouted curses and imprecations. We yelled +still louder. He snatched out his revolver, and began firing at our +line. The distance was considerable--say four or five hundred feet--and +the bullets struck in the mud in advance of the line. We still yelled. +Then he jerked a gun from a guard and fired, but his aim was still bad, +and the bullet sang over our heads, striking in the bank above us. He +posted of to get another gun, but his fit subsided before he obtained +it. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. + +CHRISTMAS--AND THE WAY THE WAS PASSED--THE DAILY ROUTINE OF RATION +DRAWING--SOME PECULIARITIES OF LIVING AND DYING. + +Christmas, with its swelling flood of happy memories,--memories now +bitter because they marked the high tide whence our fortunes had +receded to this despicable state--came, but brought no change to +mark its coming. It is true that we had expected no change; we had +not looked forward to the day, and hardly knew when it arrived, so +indifferent were we to the lapse of time. + +When reminded that the day was one that in all Christendom was sacred +to good cheer and joyful meetings; that wherever the upraised cross +proclaimed followers of Him who preached “Peace on Earth and good will +to men,” parents and children, brothers and sisters, long-time friends, +and all congenial spirits were gathering around hospitable boards to +delight in each other’s society, and strengthen the bonds of unity +between them, we listened as to a tale told of some foreign land from +which we had parted forever more. + +It seemed years since we had known anything of the kind. The experience +we had had of it belonged to the dim and irrevocable past. It could not +come to us again, nor we go to it. Squalor, hunger, cold and wasting +disease had become the ordinary conditions of existence, from which +there was little hope that we would ever be exempt. + +Perhaps it was well, to a certain degree, that we felt so. It softened +the poignancy of our reflections over the difference in the condition +of ourselves and our happier comrades who were elsewhere. + +The weather was in harmony with our feelings. The dull, gray, leaden +sky was as sharp a contrast with the crisp, bracing sharpness of a +Northern Christmas morning, as our beggarly little ration of saltless +corn meal was to the sumptuous cheer that loaded the dinner-tables of +our Northern homes. + +We turned out languidly in the morning to roll-call, endured silently +the raving abuse of the cowardly brute Barrett, hung stupidly over the +flickering little fires, until the gates opened to admit the rations. +For an hour there was bustle and animation. All stood around and +counted each sack of meal, to get an idea of the rations we were likely +to receive. + +This was a daily custom. The number intended for the day’s issue were +all brought in and piled up in the street. Then there was a division +of the sacks to the thousands, the Sergeant of each being called up in +turn, and allowed to pick out and carry away one, until all were taken. +When we entered the prison each thousand received, on an average, ten +or eleven sacks a day. Every week saw a reduction in the number, until +by midwinter the daily issue to a thousand averaged four sacks. Let +us say that one of these sacks held two bushels, or the four, eight +bushels. As there are thirty-two quarts in a bushel, one thousand men +received two hundred and fifty-six quarts, or less than a half pint +each. + +We thought we had sounded the depths of misery at Andersonville, but +Florence showed us a much lower depth. Bad as was parching under the +burning sun whose fiery rays bred miasma and putrefaction, it was still +not so bad as having one’s life chilled out by exposure in nakedness +upon the frozen ground to biting winds and freezing sleet. Wretched as +the rusty bacon and coarse, maggot-filled bread of Andersonville was, +it would still go much farther towards supporting life than the handful +of saltless meal at Florence. + +While I believe it possible for any young man, with the forces of life +strong within him, and healthy in every way, to survive, by taking due +precautions, such treatment as we received in Andersonville, I cannot +understand how anybody could live through a month of Florence. That +many did live is only an astonishing illustration of the tenacity of +life in some individuals. + +Let the reader imagine--anywhere he likes--a fifteen-acre field, with +a stream running through the center. Let him imagine this inclosed +by a Stockade eighteen feet high, made by standing logs on end. +Let him conceive of ten thousand feeble men, debilitated by months +of imprisonment, turned inside this inclosure, without a yard of +covering given them, and told to make their homes there. One quarter +of them--two thousand five hundred--pick up brush, pieces of rail, +splits from logs, etc., sufficient to make huts that will turn the rain +tolerably. The huts are in no case as good shelter as an ordinarily +careful farmer provides for his swine. Half of the prisoners--five +thousand--who cannot do so well, work the mud up into rude bricks, +with which they build shelters that wash down at every hard rain. +The remaining two thousand five hundred do not do even this, but lie +around on the ground, on old blankets and overcoats, and in day-time +prop these up on sticks, as shelter from the rain and wind. Let them +be given not to exceed a pint of corn meal a day, and a piece of wood +about the size of an ordinary stick for a cooking stove to cook it +with. Then let such weather prevail as we ordinarily have in the North +in November--freezing cold rains, with frequent days and nights when +the ice forms as thick as a pane of glass. How long does he think men +could live through that? He will probably say that a week, or at most +a fortnight, would see the last and strongest of these ten thousand +lying dead in the frozen mire where he wallowed. He will be astonished +to learn that probably not more than four or five thousand of those who +underwent this in Florence died there. How many died after release--in +Washington, on the vessels coming to Annapolis, in hospital and camp at +Annapolis, or after they reached home, none but the Recording Angel can +tell. All that I know is we left a trail of dead behind us, wherever we +moved, so long as I was with the doleful caravan. + +Looking back, after these lapse of years, the most salient +characteristic seems to be the ease with which men died. There, was +little of the violence of dissolution so common at Andersonville. The +machinery of life in all of us, was running slowly and feebly; it would +simply grow still slower and feebler in some, and then stop without a +jar, without a sensation to manifest it. Nightly one of two or three +comrades sleeping together would die. The survivors would not know it +until they tried to get him to “spoon” over, when they would find him +rigid and motionless. As they could not spare even so little heat as +was still contained in his body, they would not remove this, but lie up +the closer to it until morning. Such a thing as a boy making an outcry +when he discovered his comrade dead, or manifesting any, desire to get +away from the corpse, was unknown. + +I remember one who, as Charles II. said of himself, was --“an +unconscionable long time in dying.” His name was Bickford; he belonged +to the Twenty-First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, lived, I think, near +Findlay, O., and was in my hundred. His partner and he were both in a +very bad condition, and I was not surprised, on making my rounds, one +morning, to find them apparently quite dead. I called help, and took +his partner away to the gate. When we picked up Bickford we found he +still lived, and had strength enough to gasp out: + +“You fellers had better let me alone.” We laid him back to die, as we +supposed, in an hour or so. + +When the Rebel Surgeon came in on his rounds, I showed him Bickford, +lying there with his eyes closed, and limbs motionless. The Surgeon +said: + +“O, that man’s dead; why don’t you have him taken out?” + +I replied: “No, he isn’t. Just see.” Stooping, I shook the boy sharply, +and said: + +“Bickford! Bickford!! How do you feel?” + +The eyes did not unclose, but the lips opened slowly, and said with a +painful effort: + +“F-i-r-s-t R-a-t-e!” + +This scene was repeated every morning for over a week. Every day the +Rebel Surgeon would insist that the man should betaken out, and every +morning Bickford would gasp out with troublesome exertion that he felt: + +“F-i-r-s-t R-a-t-e!” + +It ended one morning by his inability, to make his usual answer, and +then he was carried out to join the two score others being loaded into +the wagon. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. + +NEW YEAR’S DAY--DEATH OF JOHN H. WINDER--HE DIES ON HIS WAY TO A DINNER +--SOMETHING AS TO CHARACTER AND CAREER--ONE OF THE WORST MEN THAT EVER +LIVED. + +On New Year’s Day we were startled by the information that our old-time +enemy--General John H. Winder--was dead. It seemed that the Rebel +Sutler of the Post had prepared in his tent a grand New Year’s dinner +to which all the officers were invited. Just as Winder bent his head +to enter the tent he fell, and expired shortly after. The boys said it +was a clear case of Death by Visitation of the Devil, and it was always +insisted that his last words were: + +“My faith is in Christ; I expect to be saved. Be sure and cut down the +prisoners’ rations.” + +Thus passed away the chief evil genius of the Prisoners-of-War. +American history has no other character approaching his in vileness. +I doubt if the history of the world can show another man, so +insignificant in abilities and position, at whose door can be laid such +a terrible load of human misery. There have been many great conquerors +and warriors who have + + Waded through slaughter to a throne, + And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, + +but they were great men, with great objects, with grand plans to carry +out, whose benefits they thought would be more than an equivalent for +the suffering they caused. The misery they inflicted was not the motive +of their schemes, but an unpleasant incident, and usually the sufferers +were men of other races and religions, for whom sympathy had been +dulled by long antagonism. + +But Winder was an obscure, dull old man--the commonplace descendant of +a pseudo-aristocrat whose cowardly incompetence had once cost us the +loss of our National Capital. More prudent than his runaway father, he +held himself aloof from the field; his father had lost reputation and +almost his commission, by coming into contact with the enemy; he would +take no such foolish risks, and he did not. When false expectations +of the ultimate triumph of Secession led him to cast his lot with the +Southern Confederacy, he did not solicit a command in the field, but +took up his quarters in Richmond, to become a sort of Informer-General, +High-Inquisitor and Chief Eavesdropper for his intimate friend, +Jefferson Davis. He pried and spied around into every man’s bedroom and +family circle, to discover traces of Union sentiment. The wildest tales +malice and vindictiveness could concoct found welcome reception in his +ears. He was only too willing to believe, that he might find excuse for +harrying and persecuting. He arrested, insulted, imprisoned, banished, +and shot people, until the patience even of the citizens of Richmond +gave way, and pressure was brought upon Jefferson Davis to secure the +suppression of his satellite. For a long while Davis resisted, but +at last yielded, and transferred Winder to the office of Commissary +General of Prisoners. The delight of the Richmond people was great. One +of the papers expressed it in an article, the key note of which was: + +“Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of old Winder. God have mercy +upon those to whom he has been sent.” + +Remorseless and cruel as his conduct of the office of Provost Marshal +General was, it gave little hint of the extent to which he would go +in that of Commissary General of Prisoners. Before, he was restrained +somewhat by public opinion and the laws of the land. These no longer +deterred him. From the time he assumed command of all the Prisons east +of the Mississippi--some time in the Fall of 1863--until death removed +him, January 1, 1865--certainly not less than twenty-five thousand +incarcerated men died in the most horrible manner that the mind can +conceive. He cannot be accused of exaggeration, when, surveying the +thousands of new graves at Andersonville, he could say with a quiet +chuckle that he was “doing more to kill off the Yankees than twenty +regiments at the front.” No twenty regiments in the Rebel Army ever +succeeded in slaying anything like thirteen thousand Yankees in six +months, or any other time. His cold blooded cruelty was such as to +disgust even the Rebel officers. Colonel D. T. Chandler, of the Rebel +War Department, sent on a tour of inspection to Andersonville, reported +back, under date of August 5, 1864: + +“My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a change in the officer +in command of the post, Brigadier General John H. Winder, and the +substitution in his place of some one who unites both energy and good +judgment with some feelings of humanity and consideration for the +welfare and comfort, as far as is consistent with their safe keeping, +of the vast number of unfortunates placed under his control; some one +who, at least, will not advocate deliberately, and in cold blood, the +propriety of leaving them in their present condition until their number +is sufficiently reduced by death to make the present arrangements +suffice for their accommodation, and who will not consider it a matter +of self-laudation and boasting that he has never been inside of the +Stockade--a place the horrors of which it is difficult to describe, and +which is a disgrace to civilization--the condition of which he might, +by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, even with the limited +means at his command, have considerably improved.” + +In his examination touching this report, Colonel Chandler says: + +“I noticed that General Winder seemed very indifferent to the welfare +of the prisoners, indisposed to do anything, or to do as much as I +thought he ought to do, to alleviate their sufferings. I remonstrated +with him as well as I could, and he used that language which I +reported to the Department with reference to it--the language stated +in the report. When I spoke of the great mortality existing among the +prisoners, and pointed out to him that the sickly season was coming on, +and that it must necessarily increase unless something was done for +their relief--the swamp, for instance, drained, proper food furnished, +and in better quantity, and other sanitary suggestions which I made to +him--he replied to me that he thought it was better to see half of them +die than to take care of the men.” + +It was he who could issue such an order as this, when it was supposed +that General Stoneman was approaching Andersonville: + + HEADQUARTERS MILITARY PRISON, + ANDERSONVILLE, Ga., July 27, 1864. +The officers on duty and in charge of the Battery of Florida Artillery +at the time will, upon receiving notice that the enemy has approached +within seven miles of this post, open upon the Stockade with grapeshot, +without reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense. + + JOHN H. WINDER, + Brigadier General Commanding. + + +This man was not only unpunished, but the Government is to-day +supporting his children in luxury by the rent it pays for the use of +his property --the well-known Winder building, which is occupied by one +of the Departments at Washington. + +I confess that all my attempts to satisfactorily analyze Winder’s +character and discover a sufficient motive for his monstrous conduct +have been futile. Even if we imagine him inspired by a hatred of the +people of the North that rose to fiendishness, we can not understand +him. It seems impossible for the mind of any man to cherish so deep and +insatiable an enmity against his fellow-creatures that it could not be +quenched and turned to pity by the sight of even one day’s misery at +Andersonville or Florence. No one man could possess such a grievous +sense of private or national wrongs as to be proof against the daily +spectacle of thousands of his own fellow citizens, inhabitants of the +same country, associates in the same institutions, educated in the same +principles, speaking the same language--thousands of his brethren in +race, creed, and all that unite men into great communities, starving, +rotting and freezing to death. + +There is many a man who has a hatred so intense that nothing but +the death of the detested one will satisfy it. A still fewer number +thirst for a more comprehensive retribution; they would slay perhaps +a half-dozen persons; and there may be such gluttons of revenge as +would not be satisfied with the sacrifice of less than a score or two, +but such would be monsters of whom there have been very few, even in +fiction. How must they all bow their diminished heads before a man who +fed his animosity fat with tens of thousands of lives. + +But, what also militates greatly against the presumption that either +revenge or an abnormal predisposition to cruelty could have animated +Winder, is that the possession of any two such mental traits so +strongly marked would presuppose a corresponding activity of other +intellectual faculties, which was not true of him, as from all I can +learn of him his mind was in no respect extraordinary. + +It does not seem possible that he had either the brain to conceive, or +the firmness of purpose to carry out so gigantic and long-enduring a +career of cruelty, because that would imply superhuman qualities in a +man who had previously held his own very poorly in the competition with +other men. + +The probability is that neither Winder nor his direct superiors--Howell +Cobb and Jefferson Davis--conceived in all its proportions the gigantic +engine of torture and death they were organizing; nor did they +comprehend the enormity of the crime they were committing. But they +were willing to do much wrong to gain their end; and the smaller crimes +of to-day prepared them for greater ones to-morrow, and still greater +ones the day following. Killing ten men a day on Belle Isle in January, +by starvation and hardship, led very easily to killing one hundred men +a day in Andersonville, in July, August and September. Probably at +the beginning of the war they would have felt uneasy at slaying one +man per day by such means, but as retribution came not, and as their +appetite for slaughter grew with feeding, and as their sympathy with +human misery atrophied from long suppression, they ventured upon ever +widening ranges of destructiveness. Had the war lasted another year, +and they lived, five hundred deaths a day would doubtless have been +insufficient to disturb them. + +Winder doubtless went about his part of the task of slaughter coolly, +leisurely, almost perfunctorily. His training in the Regular Army +was against the likelihood of his displaying zeal in anything. He +instituted certain measures, and let things take their course. That +course was a rapid transition from bad to worse, but it was still in +the direction of his wishes, and, what little of his own energy was +infused into it was in the direction of impetus,-not of controlling +or improving the course. To have done things better would have +involved soma personal discomfort. He was not likely to incur personal +discomfort to mitigate evils that were only afflicting someone else. +By an effort of one hour a day for two weeks he could have had every +man in Andersonville and Florence given good shelter through his own +exertions. He was not only too indifferent and too lazy to do this, +but he was too malignant; and this neglect to allow--simply allow, +remember--the prisoners to protect their lives by providing their own +shelter, gives the key to his whole disposition, and would stamp his +memory with infamy, even if there were no other charges against him. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. + +ONE INSTANCE OF A SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE--THE ADVENTURES OF SERGEANT WALTER +HARTSOUGH, OF COMPANY K, SIXTEENTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY--HE GETS AWAY FROM +THE REBELS AT THOMASVILLE, AND AFTER A TOILSOME AND DANGEROUS JOURNEY +OF SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES, REACHES OUR LINES IN FLORIDA. + +While I was at Savannah I got hold of a primary geography in possession +of one of the prisoners, and securing a fragment of a lead pencil from +one comrade, and a sheet of note paper from another, I made a copy of +the South Carolina and Georgia sea coast, for the use of Andrews and +myself in attempting to escape. The reader remembers the ill success of +all our efforts in that direction. When we were at Blackshear we still +had the map, and intended to make another effort, “as soon as the sign +got right.” One day while we were waiting for this, Walter Hartsough, a +Sergeant of Company g, of our battalion, came to me and said: + +“Mc., I wish you’d lend me your map a little while. I want to make a +copy.” + +I handed it over to him, and never saw him more, as almost immediately +after we were taken out “on parole” and sent to Florence. I heard from +other comrades of the battalion that he had succeeded in getting past +the guard line and into the Woods, which was the last they ever heard +of him. Whether starved to death in some swamp, whether torn to pieces +by dogs, or killed by the rifles of his pursuers, they knew not. The +reader can judge of my astonishment as well as pleasure, at receiving +among the dozens of letters which came to me every day while this +account was appearing in the BLADE, one signed “Walter Hartsough, late +of Co. K, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry.” It was like one returned from +the grave, and the next mail took a letter to him, inquiring eagerly +of his adventures after we separated. I take pleasure in presenting +the reader with his reply, which was only intended as a private +communication to myself. The first part of the letter I omit, as it +contains only gossip about our old comrades, which, however interesting +to myself, would hardly be so to the general reader. + + GENOA, WAYNE COUNTY, IA., + May 27, 1879. + +Dear Comrade Mc.: + ..................... +I have been living in this town for ten years, running a general +store, under the firm name of Hartsough & Martin, and have been more +successful than I anticipated. + +I made my escape from Thomasville, Ga., Dec. 7, 1864, by running the +guards, in company with Frank Hommat, of Company M, and a man by the +name of Clipson, of the Twenty-First Illinois Infantry. I had heard +the officers in charge of us say that they intended to march us across +to the other road, and take us back to Andersonville. We concluded +we would take a heavy risk on our lives rather than return there. By +stinting ourselves we had got a little meal ahead, which we thought we +would bake up for the journey, but our appetites got the better of us, +and we ate it all up before starting. We were camped in the woods then, +with no Stockade--only a line of guards around us. We thought that by +a little strategy and boldness we could pass these. We determined to +try. Clipson was to go to the right, Hommat in the center, and myself +to the left. We all slipped through, without a shot. Our rendezvous was +to be the center of a small swamp, through which flowed a small stream +that supplied the prisoners with water. Hommat and I got together soon +after passing the guard lines, and we began signaling for Clipson. We +laid down by a large log that lay across the stream, and submerged +our limbs and part of our bodies in the water, the better to screen +ourselves from observation. Pretty soon a Johnny came along with a +bunch of turnip tops, that he was taking up to the camp to trade to the +prisoners. As he passed over the log I could have caught him by the +leg, which I intended to do if he saw us, but he passed along, heedless +of those concealed under his very feet, which saved him a ducking at +least, for we were resolved to drown him if he discovered us. Waiting +here a little longer we left our lurking place and made a circuit of +the edge of the swamp, still signaling for Clipson. But we could find +nothing of him, and at last had to give him up. + +We were now between Thomasville and the camp, and as Thomasville +was the end of the railroad, the woods were full of Rebels waiting +transportation, and we approached the road carefully, supposing that it +was guarded to keep their own men from going to town. We crawled up to +the road, but seeing no one, started across it. At that moment a guard +about thirty yards to our left, who evidently supposed that we were +Rebels, sang out: + +“Whar ye gwine to thar boys?” + +I answered: + +“Jest a-gwine out here a little ways.” + +Frank whispered me to run, but I said, “No; wait till he halts us, +and then run.” He walked up to where we had crossed his beat--looked +after us a few minutes, and then, to our great relief, walked back to +his post. After much trouble we succeeded in getting through all the +troops, and started fairly on our way. We tried to shape our course +toward Florida. The country was very swampy, the night rainy and dark, +no stars were out to guide us, and we made such poor progress that +when daylight came we were only eight miles from our starting place, +and close to a road leading from Thomasville to Monticello. Finding a +large turnip patch, we filled our pockets, and then hunted a place to +lie concealed in during the day. We selected a thicket in the center +of a large pasture. We crawled into this and laid down. Some negros +passed close to us, going to their work in an adjoining field. They had +a bucket of victuals with them for dinner, which they hung on the fence +in such a way that we could have easily stolen it without detection. +The temptation to hungry men was very great, but we concluded that it +was best and safest to let it alone. + +As the negros returned from work in the evening they separated, one +old man passing on the opposite side of the thicket from the rest. We +halted him and told him that we were Rebs, who had taken a French leave +of Thomasville; that we were tired of guarding Yanks, and were going +home; and further, that we were hungry, and wanted something to eat. +He told us that he was the boss on the plantation. His master lived in +Thomasville. He, himself, did not have much to eat, but he would show +us where to stay, and when the folks went to bed he would bring us some +food. Passing up close to the negro quarters we got over the fence and +lay down behind it, to wait for our supper. + +We had been there but a short time when a young negro came out, and +passing close by us, went into a fence corner a few panels distant +and, kneeling down, began praying aloud, and very, earnestly, and +stranger still, the burden of his supplication was for the success of +our armies. I thought it the best prayer I ever listened to. Finishing +his devotions he returned to the house, and shortly after the old man +came with a good supper of corn bread, molasses and milk. He said that +he had no meat, and that he had done the best he could for us. After +we had eaten, he said that as the young people had gone to bed, we had +better come into his cabin and rest awhile, which we did. + +Hommat had a full suit of Rebel clothes, and I had stolen sacks enough +at Andersonville, when they were issuing rations, to make me a shirt +and pantaloons, which a sailor fabricated for me. I wore these over +what was left of my blue clothes. The old negro lady treated us very +coolly. In a few minutes a young negro came in, whom the old gentleman +introduced as his son, and whom I immediately recognized as our friend +of the prayerful proclivities. He said that he had been a body servant +to his young master, who was an officer in the Rebel army. + +“Golly!” says he, “if you ’uns had stood a little longer at Stone +River, our men would have run.” + +I turned to him sharply with the question of what he meant by calling +us “You ’uns,” and asked him if he believed we were Yankees. He +surveyed us carefully for a few seconds, and then said: + +“Yes; I bleav you is Yankees.” + +He paused a second, and added: + +“Yes, I know you is.” + +I asked him how he knew it, and he said that we neither looked nor +talked like their men. I then acknowledged that we were Yankee +prisoners, trying to make our escape to our lines. This announcement +put new life into the old lady, and, after satisfying herself that we +were really Yankees, she got up from her seat, shook hands with us, +and declared we must have a better supper than we had had. She set +immediately about preparing it for us. Taking up a plank in the floor, +she pulled out a nice flitch of bacon, from which she cut as much as +we could eat, and gave us some to carry with us. She got up a real +substantial supper, to which we did full justice, in spite of the meal +we had already eaten. + +They gave us a quantity of victuals to take with us, and instructed us +as well as possible as to our road. They warned us to keep away from +the young negros, but trust the old ones implicitly. Thanking them +over and over for their exceeding kindness, we bade them good-by, and +started again on our journey. Our supplies lasted two days, during +which time we made good progress, keeping away from the roads, and +flanking the towns, which were few and insignificant. We occasionally +came across negros, of whom we cautiously inquired as to the route +and towns, and by the assistance of our map and the stars, got along +very well indeed, until we came to the Suwanee River. We had intended +to cross this at Columbus or Alligator. When within six miles of the +river we stopped at some negro huts to get some food. The lady who +owned the negros was a widow, who was born and raised in Massachusetts. +Her husband had died before the war began. An old negro woman told her +mistress that we were at the quarters, and she sent for us to come to +the house. She was a very nice-looking lady, about thirty-five years +of age, and treated us with great kindness. Hommat being barefooted, +she pulled off her own shoes and stockings and gave them to him, saying +that she would go to Town the next day and get herself another pair. +She told us not to try to cross the river near Columbus, as their +troops had been deserting in great numbers, and the river was closely +picketed to catch the runaways. She gave us directions how to go so +as to cross the river about fifty miles below Columbus. We struck the +river again the next night, and I wanted to swim it, but Hommat was +afraid of alligators, and I could not induce him to venture into the +water. + +We traveled down the river until we came to Moseley’s Ferry, where we +stole an old boat about a third full of water, and paddled across. +There was quite a little town at that place, but we walked right down +the main street without meeting any one. Six miles from the river we +saw an old negro woman roasting sweet potatos in the back yard of a +house. We were very hungry, and thought we would risk something to get +food. Hommat went around near her, and asked her for something to eat. +She told him to go and ask the white folks. This was the answer she +made to every question. He wound up by asking her how far it was to +Mossley’s Ferry, saying that he wanted to go there, and get something +to eat. She at last ran into the house, and we ran away as fast as +we could. We had gone but a short distance when we heard a horn, and +soon-the-cursed hounds began bellowing. We did our best running, but +the hounds circled around the house a few times and then took our +trail. For a little while it seemed all up with us, as the sound of the +baying came closer and closer. But our inquiry about the distance to +Moseley’s Ferry seems to have saved us. They soon called the hounds in, +and started them on the track we had come, instead of that upon which +we were going. The baying shortly died away in the distance. We did not +waste any time congratulating ourselves over our marvelous escape, but +paced on as fast as we could for about eight miles farther. On the way +we passed over the battle ground of Oolustee, or Ocean Pond. + +Coming near to Lake City we fell in with some negros who had been +brought from Maryland. We stopped over one day with them, to rest, and +two of them concluded to go with us. We were furnished with a lot of +cooked provisions, and starting one night made forty-two miles before +morning. We kept the negros in advance. I told Hommat that it was a +poor command that could not afford an advance guard. After traveling +two nights with the negros, we came near Baldwin. Here I was very much +afraid of recapture, and I did not want the negros with us, if we were, +lest we should be shot for slave-stealing. About daylight of the second +morning we gave them the slip. + +We had to skirt Baldwin closely, to head the St. Mary’s River, or cross +it where that was easiest. After crossing the river we came to a very +large swamp, in the edge of which we lay all day. Before nightfall we +started to go through it, as there was no fear of detection in these +swamps. We got through before it was very dark, and as we emerged +from it we discovered a dense cloud of smoke to our right and quite +close. We decided this was a camp, and while we were talking the band +began to play. This made us think that probably our forces had come +out from Fernandina, and taken the place. I proposed to Hommat that +we go forward and reconnoiter. He refused, and leaving him alone, I +started forward. I had gone but a short distance when a soldier came +out from the camp with a bucket. He began singing, and the song he +sang convinced me that he was a Rebel. Rejoining Hommat, we held a +consultation and decided to stay where we were until it became darker, +before trying to get out. It was the night of the 22d of December, and +very cold for that country. The camp guard had small fires built, which +we could see quite plainly. After starting we saw that the pickets also +had fires, and that we were between the two lines. This discovery saved +us from capture, and keeping about an equal distance between the two, +we undertook to work our way out. + +We first crossed a line of breastworks, then in succession the +Fernandina Railroad, the Jacksonville Railroad, and pike, moving all +the time nearly parallel with the picket line. Here we had to halt. +Hommat was suffering greatly with his feet. The shoes that had been +given him by the widow lady were worn out, and his feet were much torn +and cut by the terribly rough road we had traveled through swamps, etc. +We sat down on a log, and I, pulling off the remains of my army shirt, +tore it into pieces, and Hommat wrapped his feet up in them. A part I +reserved and tore into strips, to tie up the rents in our pantaloons. +Going through the swamps and briers had torn them into tatters, from +waistband to hem, leaving our skins bare to be served in the same way. + +We started again, moving slowly and bearing towards the picket fires, +which we could see for a distance on our left. After traveling some +little time the lights on our left ended, which puzzled us for a while, +until we came to a fearful big swamp, that explained it all, as this, +considered impassable, protected the right of the camp. We had an awful +time in getting through. In many places we had to lie down and crawl +long distances through the paths made in the brakes by hogs and other +animals. As we at length came out, Hommat turned to me and whispered +that in the morning we would have some Lincoln coffee. He seemed to +think this must certainly end our troubles. + +We were now between the Jacksonville Railroad and the St. John’s River. +We kept about four miles from the railroad, for fear of running into +the Rebel outposts. We had traveled but a few miles when Hommat said he +could go no farther, as his feet and legs were so swelled and numb that +he could not tell when he set them upon the ground. I had some matches +that a negro had given me, and gathering together a few pine knots +we made a fire--the first that we had lighted on the trip--and laid +down with it between us. We had slept but a few minutes when I awoke +and found Hommat’s clothes on fire. Rousing him we put out the flames +before he was badly burned, but the thing had excited him so as to give +him new life, and be proposed to start on again. + +By sunrise we were within eight miles of our lines, and concluding that +it would be safe to travel in the daytime, we went ahead, walking along +the railroad. The excitement being over, Hommat began to move very +slowly again. His feet and legs were so swollen that he could scarcely +walk, and it took us a long while to pass over those eight miles. + +At last we came in sight of our pickets. They were negros. They halted +us, and Hommat went forward to speak to them. They called for the +Officer of the Guard, who came, passed us inside, and shook hands +cordially with us. His first inquiry was if we knew Charley Marseilles, +whom you remember ran that little bakery at Andersonville. + +We were treated very kindly at Jacksonville. General Scammon was in +command of the post, and had only been released but a short time from +prison, so he knew how it was himself. I never expect to enjoy as happy +a moment on earth as I did when I again got under the protection of the +old flag. Hommat went to the hospital a few days, and was then sent +around to New York by sea. + +Oh, it was a fearful trip through those Florida swamps. We would very +often have to try a swamp in three or four different places before +we could get through. Some nights we could not travel on account +of its being cloudy and raining. There is not money enough in the +United States to induce me to undertake the trip again under the same +circumstances. Our friend Clipson, that made his escape when we did, +got very nearly through to our lines, but was taken sick, and had to +give himself up. He was taken back to Andersonville and kept until the +next Spring, when he came through all right. There were sixty-one of +Company K captured at Jonesville, and I think there was only seventeen +lived through those horrible prisons. + +You have given the best description of prison life that I have ever +seen written. The only trouble is that it cannot be portrayed so that +persons can realize the suffering and abuse that our soldiers endured +in those prison hells. Your statements are all correct in regard to +the treatment that we received, and all those scenes you have depicted +are as vivid in my mind today as if they had only occurred yesterday. +Please let me hear from you again. Wishing you success in all your +undertakings, I remain your friend, + + WALTER, HARTSOUGH, + Late of K Company, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer of Infantry. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. + +THE PECULIAR TYPE OF INSANITY PREVALENT AT FLORENCE--BARRETT’S +WANTONNESS OF CRUELTY--WE LEARN OF SHERMAN’S ADVANCE INTO SOUTH +CAROLINA--THE REBELS BEGIN MOVING THE PRISONERS AWAY--ANDREWS AND I +CHANGE OUR TACTICS, AND STAY BEHIND--ARRIVAL OF FIVE PRISONERS FROM +SHERMAN’S COMMAND--THEIR UNBOUNDED CONFIDENCE IN SHERMAN’S SUCCESS, AND +ITS BENEFICIAL EFFECT UPON US. + +One terrible phase of existence at Florence was the vast increase of +insanity. We had many insane men at Andersonville, but the type of the +derangement was different, partaking more of what the doctors term +melancholia. Prisoners coming in from the front were struck aghast by +the horrors they saw everywhere. Men dying of painful and repulsive +diseases lined every step of whatever path they trod; the rations given +them were repugnant to taste and stomach; shelter from the fiery sun +there was none, and scarcely room enough for them to lie down upon. +Under these discouraging circumstances, home-loving, kindly-hearted +men, especially those who had passed out of the first flush of youth, +and had left wife and children behind when they entered the service, +were speedily overcome with despair of surviving until released; their +hopelessness fed on the same germs which gave it birth, until it became +senseless, vacant-eyed, unreasoning, incurable melancholy, when the +victim would lie for hours, without speaking a word, except to babble +of home, or would wander aimlessly about the camp--frequently stark +naked--until he died or was shot for coming too near the Dead Line. +Soldiers must not suppose that this was the same class of weaklings +who usually pine themselves into the Hospital within three months +after their regiment enters the field. They were as a rule, made up of +seasoned soldiery, who had become inured to the dangers and hardships +of active service, and were not likely to sink down under any ordinary +trials. + +The insane of Florence were of a different class; they were the boys +who had laughed at such a yielding to adversity in Andersonville, +and felt a lofty pity for the misfortunes of those who succumbed so. +But now the long strain of hardship, privation and exposure had done +for them what discouragement had done for those of less fortitude in +Andersonville. The faculties shrank under disuse and misfortune, until +they forgot their regiments, companies, places and date of capture, +and finally, even their names. I should think that by the middle of +January, at least one in every ten had sunk to this imbecile condition. +It was not insanity so much as mental atrophy--not so much aberration +of the mind, as a paralysis of mental action. The sufferers became +apathetic idiots, with no desire or wish to do or be anything. If they +walked around at all they had to be watched closely, to prevent their +straying over the Dead Line, and giving the young brats of guards the +coveted opportunity of killing them. Very many of such were killed, +and one of my Midwinter memories of Florence was that of seeing one of +these unfortunate imbeciles wandering witlessly up to the Dead Line +from the Swamp, while the guard--a boy of seventeen--stood with gun in +hand, in the attitude of a man expecting a covey to be flushed, waiting +for the poor devil to come so near the Dead Line as to afford an excuse +for killing him. Two sane prisoners, comprehending the situation, +rushed up to the lunatic, at the risk of their own lives, caught him by +the arms, and drew him back to safety. + +The brutal Barrett seemed to delight in maltreating these demented +unfortunates. He either could not be made to understand their +condition, or willfully disregarded it, for it was one of the commonest +sights to see him knock down, beat, kick or otherwise abuse them +for not instantly obeying orders which their dazed senses could not +comprehend, or their feeble limbs execute, even if comprehended. + +In my life I have seen many wantonly cruel men. I have known numbers +of mates of Mississippi river steamers--a class which seems carefully +selected from ruffians most proficient in profanity, obscenity and +swift-handed violence; I have seen negro-drivers in the slave marts of +St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans, and overseers on the plantations +of Mississippi and Louisiana; as a police reporter in one of the +largest cities in America, I have come in contact with thousands of +the brutalized scoundrels--the thugs of the brothel, bar-room and +alley--who form the dangerous classes of a metropolis. I knew Captain +Wirz. But in all this exceptionally extensive and varied experience, I +never met a man who seemed to love cruelty for its own sake as well as +Lieutenant Barrett. He took such pleasure in inflicting pain as those +Indians who slice off their prisoners’ eyelids, ears, noses and hands, +before burning them at the stake. + +That a thing hurt some one else was always ample reason for his doing +it. The starving, freezing prisoners used to collect in considerable +numbers before the gate, and stand there for hours gazing vacantly +at it. There was no special object in doing this, only that it was a +central point, the rations came in there, and occasionally an officer +would enter, and it was the only place where anything was likely to +occur to vary the dreary monotony of the day, and the boys went there +because there was nothing else to offer any occupation to their minds. +It became a favorite practical joke of Barrett’s to slip up to the gate +with an armful of clubs, and suddenly opening the wicket, fling them +one after another, into the crowd, with all the force he possessed. +Many were knocked down, and many received hurts which resulted in fatal +gangrene. If he had left the clubs lying where thrown, there would have +been some compensation for his meanness, but he always came in and +carefully gathered up such as he could get, as ammunition for another +time. + +I have heard men speak of receiving justice--even favors from Wirz. I +never heard any one saying that much of Barrett. Like Winder, if he had +a redeeming quality it was carefully obscured from the view of all that +I ever met who knew him. + +Where the fellow came from, what State was entitled to the discredit of +producing and raising him, what he was before the War, what became of +him after he left us, are matters of which I never heard even a rumor, +except a very vague one that he had been killed by our cavalry, some +returned prisoner having recognized and shot him. + +Colonel Iverson, of the Fifth Georgia, was the Post Commander. He was a +man of some education, but had a violent, ungovernable temper, during +fits of which he did very brutal things. At other times he would show +a disposition towards fairness and justice. The worst point in my +indictment against him is that he suffered Barrett to do as he did. + +Let the reader understand that I have no personal reasons for my +opinion of these men. They never did anything to me, save what they did +to all of my companions. I held myself aloof from them, and shunned +intercourse so effectually that during my whole imprisonment I did not +speak as many words to Rebel officers as are in this and the above +paragraphs, and most of those were spoken to the Surgeon who visited +my hundred. I do not usually seek conversation with people I do not +like, and certainly did not with persons for whom I had so little love +as I had for Turner, Ross, Winder, Wirz, Davis, Iverson, Barrett, et +al. Possibly they felt badly over my distance and reserve, but I must +confess that they never showed it very palpably. + +As January dragged slowly away into February, rumors of the astonishing +success of Sherman began to be so definite and well authenticated as to +induce belief. We knew that the Western Chieftain had marched almost +unresisted through Georgia, and captured Savannah with comparatively +little difficulty. We did not understand it, nor did the Rebels around +us, for neither of us comprehended the Confederacy’s near approach to +dissolution, and we could not explain why a desperate attempt was not +made somewhere to arrest the onward sweep of the conquering armies of +the West. It seemed that if there was any vitality left in Rebeldom it +would deal a blow that would at least cause the presumptuous invader +to pause. As we knew nothing of the battles of Franklin and Nashville, +we were ignorant of the destruction of Hood’s army, and were at a loss +to account for its failure to contest Sherman’s progress. The last we +had heard of Hood, he had been flanked out of Atlanta, but we did not +understand that the strength or morale of his force had been seriously +reduced in consequence. + +Soon it drifted in to us that Sherman had cut loose from Savannah, as +from Atlanta, and entered South Carolina, to repeat there the march +through her sister State. Our sources of information now were confined +to the gossip which our men--working outside on parole,--could overhear +from the Rebels, and communicate to us as occasion served. These +occasions were not frequent, as the men outside were not allowed to +come in except rarely, or stay long then. Still we managed to know +reasonably, soon that Sherman was sweeping resistlessly across the +State, with Hardee, Dick Taylor, Beauregard, and others, vainly trying +to make head against him. It seemed impossible to us that they should +not stop him soon, for if each of all these leaders had any command +worthy the name the aggregate must make an army that, standing on the +defensive, would give Sherman a great deal of trouble. That he would be +able to penetrate into the State as far as we were never entered into +our minds. + +By and by we were astonished at the number of the trains that we +could hear passing north on the Charleston & Cheraw Railroad. Day +and night for two weeks there did not seem to be more than half an +hour’s interval at any time between the rumble and whistles of the +trains as they passed Florence Junction, and sped away towards Cheraw, +thirty-five miles north of us. We at length discovered that Sherman had +reached Branchville, and was singing around toward Columbia, and other +important points to the north; that Charleston was being evacuated, +and its garrison, munitions and stores were being removed to Cheraw, +which the Rebel Generals intended to make their new base. As this news +was so well confirmed as to leave no doubt of it, it began to wake up +and encourage all the more hopeful of us. We thought we could see some +premonitions of the glorious end, and that we were getting vicarious +satisfaction at the hands of our friends under the command of Uncle +Billy. + +One morning orders came for one thousand men to get ready to move. +Andrews and I held a council of war on the situation, the question +before the house being whether we would go with that crowd, or stay +behind. The conclusion we came to was thus stated by Andrews: + +“Now, Mc., we’ve flanked ahead every time, and see how we’ve come +out. We flanked into the first squad that left Richmond, and we were +consequently in the first that got into Andersonville. May be if +we’d staid back we’d got into that squad that was exchanged. We were +in the first squad that left Andersonville. We were the first to +leave Savannah and enter Millen. May be if we’d staid back, we’d got +exchanged with the ten thousand sick. We were the first to leave Millen +and the first to reach Blackshear. We were again the first to leave +Blackshear. Perhaps those fellows we left behind then are exchanged. +Now, as we’ve played ahead every time, with such infernal luck, let’s +play backward this time, and try what that brings us.” + +“But, Lale,” (Andrews’s nickname--his proper name being Bezaleel), said +I, “we made something by going ahead every time--that is, if we were +not going to be exchanged. By getting into those places first we picked +out the best spots to stay, and got tent-building stuff that those who +came after us could not. And certainly we can never again get into as +bad a place as this is. The chances are that if this does not mean +exchange, it means transfer to a better prison.” + +But we concluded, as I said above, to reverse our usual order of +procedure and flank back, in hopes that something would favor our +escape to Sherman. Accordingly, we let the first squad go off without +us, and the next, and the next, and so on, till there were only eleven +hundred --mostly those sick in the Hospital--remaining behind. Those +who went away--we afterwards learned, were run down on the cars to +Wilmington, and afterwards up to Goldsboro, N. C. + +For a week or more we eleven hundred tenanted the Stockade, and by +burning up the tents of those who had gone had the only decent, +comfortable fires we had while in Florence. In hunting around through +the tents for fuel we found many bodies of those who had died as their +comrades were leaving. As the larger portion of us could barely walk, +the Rebels paroled us to remain inside of the Stockade or within a few +hundred yards of the front of it, and took the guards off. While these +were marching down, a dozen or more of us, exulting in even so much +freedom as we had obtained, climbed on the Hospital shed to see what +the outlook was, and perched ourselves on the ridgepole. Lieutenant +Barrett came along, at a distance of two hundred yards, with a squad of +guards. Observing us, he halted his men, faced them toward us, and they +leveled their guns as if to fire. He expected to see us tumble down +in ludicrous alarm, to avoid the bullets. But we hated him and them +so bad, that we could not give them the poor satisfaction of scaring +us. Only one of our party attempted to slide down, but the moment we +swore at him he came back and took his seat with folded arms alongside +of us. Barrett gave the order to fire, and the bullets shrieked aver +our heads, fortunately not hitting anybody. We responded with yells of +derision, and the worst abuse we could think of. + +Coming down after awhile, I walked to the now open gate, and looped +through it over the barren fields to the dense woods a mile away, and a +wild desire to run off took possession of me. It seemed as if I could +not resist it. The woods appeared full of enticing shapes, beckoning me +to come to them, and the winds whispered in my ears: + +“Run! Run! Run!” + +But the words of my parole were still fresh in my mind, and I stilled +my frenzy to escape by turning back into the Stockade and looking away +from the tempting view. + +Once five new prisoners, the first we had seen in a long time, were +brought in from Sherman’s army. They were plump, well-conditioned, +well-dressed, healthy, devil-may-care young fellows, whose confidence +in themselves and in Sherman was simply limitless, and their contempt +for all Rebels and especially those who terrorized over us, enormous. + +“Come up here to headquarters,” said one of the Rebel officers to them +as they stood talking to us; “and we’ll parole you.” + +“O go to h--- with your parole,” said the spokesman of the crowd, with +nonchalant contempt; “we don’t want none of your paroles. Old Billy’ll +parole us before Saturday.” + +To us they said: + +“Now, you boys want to cheer right up; keep a stiff upper lip. This +thing’s workin’ all right. Their old Confederacy’s goin’ to pieces like +a house afire. Sherman’s promenadin’ through it just as it suits him, +and he’s liable to pay a visit at any hour. We’re expectin’ him all the +time, because it was generally understood all through the Army that we +were to take the prison pen here in on our way.” + +I mentioned my distrust of the concentration of Rebels at Cheraw, and +their faces took on a look of supreme disdain. + +“Now, don’t let that worry you a minute,” said the confident spokesman. +“All the Rebels between here and Lee’s Army can’t prevent Sherman from +going just where he pleases. Why, we’ve quit fightin’ ’em except with +the Bummers advance. We haven’t had to go into regular line of battle +against them for I don’t know how long. Sherman would like anything +better than to have ’em make a stand somewhere so that he could get a +good fair whack at ’em.” + +No one can imagine the effect of all this upon us. It was better than +a carload of medicines and a train load of provisions would have +been. From the depths of despondency we sprang at once to tip-toe on +the mountain-tops of expectation. We did little day and night but +listen for the sound of Sherman’s guns and discuss what we would do +when he came. We planned schemes of terrible vengeance on Barrett and +Iverson, but these worthies had mysteriously disappeared--whither no +one knew. There was hardly an hour of any night passed without some +one of us fancying that he heard the welcome sound of distant firing. +As everybody knows, by listening intently at night, one can hear just +exactly what he is intent upon hearing, and so was with us. In the +middle of the night boys listening awake with strained ears, would say: + +“Now, if ever I heard musketry firing in my life, that’s a heavy +skirmish line at work, and sharply too, and not more than three miles +away, neither.” + +Then another would say: + +“I don’t want to ever get out of here if that don’t sound just as the +skirmishing at Chancellorsville did the first day to us. We were lying +down about four miles off, when it began pattering just as that is +doing now.” + +And so on. + +One night about nine or ten, there came two short, sharp peals of +thunder, that sounded precisely like the reports of rifled field +pieces. We sprang up in a frenzy of excitement, and shouted as if our +throats would split. But the next peal went off in the usual rumble, +and our excitement had to subside. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVII. + +FRUITLESS WAITING FOR SHERMAN--WE LEAVE FLORENCE--INTELLIGENCE OF THE +FALL OF WILMINGTON COMMUNICATED TO US BY A SLAVE--THE TURPENTINE REGION +OF NORTH CAROLINA--WE COME UPON A REBEL LINE OF BATTLE--YANKEES AT BOTH +ENDS OF THE ROAD. + +Things had gone on in the way described in the previous chapter until +past the middle of February. For more than a week every waking hour +was spent in anxious expectancy of Sherman--listening for the far-off +rattle of his guns--straining our ears to catch the sullen boom of his +artillery--scanning the distant woods to see the Rebels falling back in +hopeless confusion before the pursuit of his dashing advance. Though we +became as impatient as those ancient sentinels who for ten long years +stood upon the Grecian hills to catch the first glimpse of the flames +of burning Troy, Sherman came not. We afterwards learned that two +expeditions were sent down towards us from Cheraw, but they met with +unexpected resistance, and were turned back. + +It was now plain to us that the Confederacy was tottering to its fall, +and we were only troubled by occasional misgivings that we might in +some way be caught and crushed under the toppling ruins. It did not +seem possible that with the cruel tenacity with which the Rebels had +clung to us they would be willing to let us go free at last, but +would be tempted in the rage of their final defeat to commit some +unparalleled atrocity upon us. + +One day all of us who were able to walk were made to fall in and march +over to the railroad, where we were loaded into boxcars. The sick +--except those who were manifestly dying--were loaded into wagons and +hauled over. The dying were left to their fate, without any companions +or nurses. + +The train started off in a northeasterly direction, and as we went +through Florence the skies were crimson with great fires, burning in +all directions. We were told these were cotton and military stores +being destroyed in anticipation of a visit from, a part of Sherman’s +forces. + +When morning came we were still running in the same direction that we +started. In the confusion of loading us upon the cars the previous +evening, I had been allowed to approach too near a Rebel officer’s +stock of rations, and the result was his being the loser and myself +the gainer of a canteen filled with fairly good molasses. Andrews and +I had some corn bread, and we, breakfasted sumptuously upon it and the +molasses, which was certainly none-the-less sweet from having been +stolen. + +Our meal over, we began reconnoitering, as much for employment as +anything else. We were in the front end of a box car. With a saw made +on the back of a case-knife we cut a hole through the boards big enough +to permit us to pass out, and perhaps escape. We found that we were +on the foremost box car of the train--the next vehicle to us being a +passenger coach, in which were the Rebel officers. On the rear platform +of this car was seated one of their servants--a trusty old slave, well +dressed, for a negro, and as respectful as his class usually was. Said +I to him: + +“Well, uncle, where are they taking us?” + +He replied: + +“Well, sah, I couldn’t rightly say.” + +“But you could guess, if you tried, couldn’t you?” + +“Yes sah.” + +He gave a quick look around to see if the door behind him was so +securely shut that he could not be overheard by the Rebels inside the +car, his dull, stolid face lighted up as a negro’s always does in the +excitement of doing something cunning, and he said in a loud whisper: + +“Dey’s a-gwine to take you to Wilmington--ef dey kin get you dar!” + +“Can get us there!” said I in astonishment. “Is there anything to +prevent them taking us there?” + +The dark face filled with inexpressible meaning. I asked: + +“It isn’t possible that there are any Yankees down there to interfere, +is it?” + +The great eyes flamed up with intelligence to tell me that I guessed +aright; again he glanced nervously around to assure himself that no one +was eavesdropping, and then he said in a whisper, just loud enough to +be heard above the noise of the moving train: + +“De Yankees took Wilmington yesterday mawning.” + +The news startled me, but it was true, our troops having driven out the +Rebel troops, and entered Wilmington, on the preceding day--the 22d of +February, 1865, as I learned afterwards. How this negro came to know +more of what was going on than his masters puzzled me much. That he did +know more was beyond question, since if the Rebels in whose charge we +were had known of Wilmington’s fall, they would not have gone to the +trouble of loading us upon the cars and hauling us one, hundred miles +in the direction of a City which had come into the hands of our men. + +It has been asserted by many writers that the negros had some occult +means of diffusing important news among the mass of their people, +probably by relays of swift runners who traveled at night, going +twenty-five or thirty miles and back before morning. Very astonishing +stories are told of things communicated in this way across the length +or breadth of the Confederacy. It is said that our officers in the +blockading fleet in the Gulf heard from the negros in advance of the +publication in the Rebel papers of the issuance of the Proclamation +of Emancipation, and of several of our most important Victories. The +incident given above prepares me to believe all that has been told +of the perfection to which the negros had brought their “grapevine +telegraph,” as it was jocularly termed. + +The Rebels believed something of it, too. In spite of their rigorous +patrol, an institution dating long before the war, and the severe +punishments visited upon negros found off their master’s premises +without a pass, none of them entertained a doubt that the young +negro men were in the habit of making long, mysterious journeys at +night, which had other motives than love-making or chicken-stealing. +Occasionally a young man would get caught fifty or seventy-five miles +from his “quarters,” while on some errand of his own, the nature +of which no punishment could make him divulge. His master would be +satisfied that he did not intend running away, because he was likely +going in the wrong direction, but beyond this nothing could be +ascertained. It was a common belief among overseers, when they saw an +active, healthy young “buck” sleepy and languid about his work, that he +had spent the night on one of these excursions. + +The country we were running through--if such straining, toilsome +progress as our engine was making could be called running--was a rich +turpentine district. We passed by forests where all the trees were +marked with long scores through the bark, and extended up to a hight +of twenty feet or more. Into these, the turpentine and rosin, running +down, were caught, and conveyed by negros to stills near by, where it +was prepared for market. The stills were as rude as the mills we had +seen in Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, and were as liable to fiery +destruction as a powder-house. Every few miles a wide space of ground, +burned clean of trees and underbrush, and yet marked by a portion of +the stones which had formed the furnace, showed where a turpentine +still, managed by careless and ignorant blacks, had been licked +up by the breath of flame. They never seemed to re-build on these +spots--whether from superstition or other reasons, I know not. + +Occasionally we came to great piles of barrels of turpentine, rosin +and tar, some of which had laid there since the blockade had cut off +communication with the outer world. Many of the barrels of rosin had +burst, and their contents melted in the heat of the sun, had run over +the ground like streams of lava, covering it to a depth of many inches. +At the enormous price rosin, tar and turpentine were commanding in the +markets of the world, each of these piles represented a superb fortune. +Any one of them, if lying upon the docks of New York, would have +yielded enough to make every one of us upon the train comfortable for +life. But a few months after the blockade was raised, and they sank to +one-thirtieth of their present value. + +These terebinthine stores were the property of the plantation lords +of the lowlands of North Carolina, who correspond to the pinchbeck +barons of the rice districts of South Carolina. As there, the whites +and negros we saw were of the lowest, most squalid type of humanity. +The people of the middle and upland districts of North Carolina are a +much superior race to the same class in South Carolina. They are mostly +of Scotch-Irish descent, with a strong infusion of English-Quaker +blood, and resemble much the best of the Virginians. They make an +effort to diffuse education, and have many of the virtues of a simple, +non-progressive, tolerably industrious middle class. It was here that +the strong Union sentiment of North Carolina numbered most of its +adherents. The people of the lowlands were as different as if belonging +to another race. The enormous mass of ignorance--the three hundred and +fifty thousand men and women who could not read or write--were mostly +black and white serfs of the great landholders, whose plantations lie +within one hundred miles of the Atlantic coast. + +As we approached the coast the country became swampier, and our old +acquaintances, the cypress, with their malformed “knees,” became more +and more numerous. + +About the middle of the afternoon our train suddenly stopped. Looking +out to ascertain the cause, we were electrified to see a Rebel line +of battle stretched across the track, about a half mile ahead of the +engine, and with its rear toward us. It was as real a line as was ever +seen on any field. The double ranks of “Butternuts,” with arms gleaming +in the afternoon sun, stretched away out through the open pine woods, +farther than we could see. Close behind the motionless line stood the +company officers, leaning on their drawn swords. Behind these still, +were the regimental officers on their horses. On a slight rise of the +ground, a group of horsemen, to whom other horsemen momentarily dashed +up to or sped away from, showed the station of the General in command. +On another knoll, at a little distance, were several-field pieces, +standing “in battery,” the cannoneers at the guns, the postillions +dismounted and holding their horses by the bits, the caisson men +standing in readiness to serve out ammunition. Our men were evidently +close at hand in strong force, and the engagement was likely to open at +any instant. + +For a minute we were speechless with astonishment. Then came a surge +of excitement. What should we do? What could we do? Obviously nothing. +Eleven hundred, sick, enfeebled prisoners could not even overpower +their guards, let alone make such a diversion in the rear of a +line-of-battle as would assist our folks to gain a victory. But while +we debated the engine whistled sharply--a frightened shriek it sounded +to us--and began pushing our train rapidly backward over the rough and +wretched track. Back, back we went, as fast as rosin and pine knots +could force the engine to move us. The cars swayed continually back and +forth, momentarily threatening to fly the crazy roadway, and roll over +the embankment or into one of the adjacent swamps. We would have hailed +such a catastrophe, as it would have probably killed more of the guards +than of us, and the confusion would have given many of the survivors +opportunity to escape. But no such accident happened, and towards +midnight we reached the bridge across the Great Pedee River, where +our train was stopped by a squad of Rebel cavalrymen, who brought the +intelligence that as Kilpatrick was expected into Florence every hour, +it would not do to take us there. + +We were ordered off the cars, and laid down on the banks of the Great +Pedee, our guards and the cavalry forming a line around us, and taking +precautions to defend the bridge against Kilpatrick, should he find out +our whereabouts and come after us. + +“Well, Mc,” said Andrews, as we adjusted our old overcoat and blanket +on the ground for a bed; “I guess we needn’t care whether school keeps +or not. Our fellows have evidently got both ends of the road, and are +coming towards us from each way. There’s no road--not even a wagon +road --for the Johnnies to run us off on, and I guess all we’ve got to +do is to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Bad as these +hounds are, I don’t believe they will shoot us down rather than let our +folks retake us. At least they won’t since old Winder’s dead. If he was +alive, he’d order our throats cut--one by one--with the guards’ pocket +knives, rather than give us up. I’m only afraid we’ll be allowed to +starve before our folks reach us.” + +I concurred in this view. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVIII. + +RETURN TO FLORENCE AND A SHORT SOJOURN THERE--OFF TOWARDS WILMINGTON +AGAIN--CRUISING A REBEL OFFICER’S LUNCH--SIGNS OF APPROACHING OUR LINES +--TERROR OF OUR RASCALLY GUARDS--ENTRANCE INTO GOD’S COUNTRY AT LAST. + +But Kilpatrick, like Sherman, came not. Perhaps he knew that all the +prisoners had been removed from the Stockade; perhaps he had other +business of more importance on hand; probably his movement was only +a feint. At all events it was definitely known the next day that he +had withdrawn so far as to render it wholly unlikely that he intended +attacking Florence, so we were brought back and returned to our old +quarters. For a week or more we loitered about the now nearly-abandoned +prison; skulked and crawled around the dismal mud-tents like the +ghostly denizens of some Potter’s Field, who, for some reason had been +allowed to return to earth, and for awhile creep painfully around the +little hillocks beneath which they had been entombed. + +A few score, whose vital powers were strained to the last degree of +tension, gave up the ghost, and sank to dreamless rest. It mattered +now little to these when Sherman came, or when Kilpatrick’s guidons +should flutter through the forest of sighing pines, heralds of life, +happiness, and home-- + + After life’s fitful fever they slept well + Treason had done its worst. Nor steel nor poison: + Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing + Could touch them farther. + +One day another order came for us to be loaded on the cars, and over +to the railroad we went again in the same fashion as before. The +comparatively few of us who were still able to walk at all well, loaded +ourselves down with the bundles and blankets of our less fortunate +companions, who hobbled and limped--many even crawling on their hands +and knees--over the hard, frozen ground, by our sides. + +Those not able to crawl even, were taken in wagons, for the orders were +imperative not to leave a living prisoner behind. + +At the railroad we found two trains awaiting us. On the front of each +engine were two rude white flags, made by fastening the halves of meal +sacks to short sticks. The sight of these gave us some hope, but our +belief that Rebels were constitutional liars and deceivers was so firm +and fixed, that we persuaded ourselves that the flags meant nothing +more than some wilful delusion for us. + +Again we started off in the direction of Wilmington, and traversed the +same country described in the previous chapter. Again Andrews and I +found ourselves in the next box car to the passenger coach containing +the Rebel officers. Again we cut a hole through the end, with our saw, +and again found a darky servant sitting on the rear platform. Andrews +went out and sat down alongside of him, and found that he was seated +upon a large gunny-bag sack containing the cooked rations of the Rebel +officers. + +The intelligence that there was something there worth taking Andrews +communicated to me by an expressive signal, of which soldiers +campaigning together as long as he and I had, always have an extensive +and well understood code. + +I took a seat in the hole we had made in the end of the car, in reach +of Andrews. Andrews called the attention of the negro to some feature +of the country near by, and asked him a question in regard to it. As he +looked in the direction indicated, Andrews slipped his hand into the +mouth of the bag, and pulled out a small sack of wheat biscuits, which +he passed to me and I concealed. The darky turned and told Andrews all +about the matter in regard to which the interrogation had been made. +Andrews became so much interested in what was being told him, that he +sat up closer and closer to the darky, who in turn moved farther away +from the sack. + +Next we ran through a turpentine plantation, and as the darky was +pointing out where the still, the master’s place, the “quarters,” etc., +were, Andrews managed to fish out of that bag and pass to me three +roasted chickens. Then a great swamp called for description, and before +we were through with it, I had about a peck of boiled sweet potatos. + +Andrews emptied the bag as the darky was showing him a great peanut +plantation, taking from it a small frying-pan, a canteen of molasses, +and a half-gallon tin bucket, which had been used to make coffee in. We +divided up our wealth of eatables with the rest of the boys in the car, +not forgetting to keep enough to give ourselves a magnificent meal. + +As we ran along we searched carefully for the place where we had seen +the line-of-battle, expecting that it would now be marked with signs of +a terrible conflict, but we could see nothing. We could not even fix +the locality where the line stood. + +As it became apparent that we were going directly toward Wilmington, +as fast as our engines could pull us, the excitement rose. We had +many misgivings as to whether our folks still retained possession of +Wilmington, and whether, if they did, the Rebels could not stop at a +point outside of our lines, and transfer us to some other road. + +For hours we had seen nobody in the country through which we were +passing. What few houses were visible were apparently deserted, +and there were no Towns or stations anywhere. We were very anxious +to see some one, in hopes of getting a hint of what the state of +affairs was in the direction we were going. At length we saw a young +man--apparently a scout--on horseback, but his clothes were equally +divided between the blue and the butternut, as to give no clue to which +side he belonged. + +An hour later we saw two infantrymen, who were evidently out foraging. +They had sacks of something on their backs, and wore blue clothes. This +was a very hopeful sign of a near approach to our lines, but bitter +experience in the past warned us against being too sanguine. + +About 4 o’clock P. M., the trains stopped and whistled long and loud. +Looking out I could see--perhaps half-a-mile away--a line of rifle pits +running at right angles with the track. Guards, whose guns flashed as +they turned, were pacing up and down, but they were too far away for me +to distinguish their uniforms. + +The suspense became fearful. + +But I received much encouragement from the singular conduct of our +guards. First I noticed a Captain, who had been especially mean to us +while at Florence. + +He was walking on the ground by the train. His face was pale, his teeth +set, and his eyes shone with excitement. He called out in a strange, +forced voice to his men and boys on the roof of the cars: + +“Here, you fellers git down off’en thar and form a line.” + +The fellows did so, in a slow, constrained, frightened ways and huddled +together, in the most unsoldierly manner. + +The whole thing reminded me of a scene I once saw in our line, +where a weak-kneed Captain was ordered to take a party of rather +chicken-hearted recruits out on the skirmish-line. + +We immediately divined what was the matter. The lines in front of us +were really those of our people, and the idiots of guards, not knowing +of their entire safety when protected by a flag of truce, were scared +half out of their small wits at approaching so near to armed Yankees. + +We showered taunts and jeers upon them. An Irishman in my car yelled +out: + +“Och, ye dirty spalpeens; it’s not shootin’ prisoners ye are now; it’s +cumin’ where the Yankee b’ys hev the gun; and the minnit ye say thim +yer white livers show themselves in yer pale faces. Bad luck to the +blatherin’ bastards that yez are, and to the mothers that bore ye.” + +At length our train moved up so near to the line that I could see it +was the grand, old loyal blue that clothed the forms of the men who +were pacing up and down. + +And certainly the world does not hold as superb looking men as these +appeared to me. Finely formed, stalwart, full-fed and well clothed, +they formed the most delightful contrast with the scrawny, shambling, +villain-visaged little clay-eaters and white trash who had looked down +upon us from the sentry boxes for many long months. + +I sprang out of the cars and began washing my face and hands in the +ditch at the side of the road. The Rebel Captain, noticing me, said, in +the old, hateful, brutal, imperious tone: + +“Git back in dat cah, dah.” + +An hour before I would have scrambled back as quickly as possible, +knowing that an instant’s hesitation would be followed by a bullet. +Now, I looked him in the face, and said as irritatingly as possible: + +“O, you go to ----, you Rebel. I’m going into Uncle Sam’s lines with as +little Rebel filth on me as possible.” + +He passed me without replying. + +His day of shooting was past. + +Descending from the cars, we passed through the guards into our lines, +a Rebel and a Union clerk checking us off as we passed. By the time it +was dark we were all under our flag again. + +The place where we came through was several miles west of Wilmington, +where the railroad crossed a branch of the Cape Fear River. The point +was held by a brigade of Schofield’s army--the Twenty-Third Army Corps. + +The boys lavished unstinted kindness upon us. All of the brigade off +duty crowded around, offering us blankets, shirts shoes, pantaloons and +other articles of clothing and similar things that we were obviously +in the greatest need of. The sick were carried, by hundreds of willing +hands, to a sheltered spot, and laid upon good, comfortable beds +improvised with leaves and blankets. A great line of huge, generous +fires was built, that every one of us could have plenty of place around +them. + +By and by a line of wagons came over from Wilmington laden with +rations, and they were dispensed to us with what seemed reckless +prodigality. The lid of a box of hard tack would be knocked off, and +the contents handed to us as we filed past, with absolute disregard as +to quantity. If a prisoner looked wistful after receiving one handful +of crackers, another was handed to him; if his long-famished eyes still +lingered as if enchained by the rare display of food, the men who were +issuing said: + +“Here, old fellow, there’s plenty of it: take just as much as you can +carry in your arms.” + +So it was also with the pickled pork, the coffee, the sugar, etc. We +had been stinted and starved so long that we could not comprehend that +there was anywhere actually enough of anything. + +The kind-hearted boys who were acting as our hosts began preparing +food for the sick, but the Surgeons, who had arrived in the meanwhile, +were compelled to repress them, as it was plain that while it was a +dangerous experiment to give any of us all we could or would eat, it +would never do to give the sick such a temptation to kill themselves, +and only a limited amount of food was allowed to be given those who +were unable to walk. + +Andrews and I hungered for coffee, the delightful fumes of which filled +the air and intoxicated our senses. We procured enough to make our +half-gallon bucket full and very strong. + +We drank so much of this that Andrews became positively drunk, and fell +helplessly into some brush. I pulled him out and dragged him away to a +place where we had made our rude bed. + +I was dazed. I could not comprehend that the long-looked for, +often-despaired-of event had actually happened. I feared that it was +one of those tantalizing dreams that had so often haunted my sleep, +only to be followed by a wretched awakening. Then I became seized with +a sudden fear lest the Rebel attempt to retake me. The line of guards +around us seemed very slight. It might be forced in the night, and all +of us recaptured. Shivering at this thought, absurd though it was, I +arose from our bed, and taking Andrews with me, crawled two or three +hundred yards into a dense undergrowth, where in the event of our lines +being forced, we would be overlooked. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIX. + +GETTING USED TO FREEDOM--DELIGHTS OF A LAND WHERE THERE IS ENOUGH +OF EVERYTHING--FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE OLD FLAG--WILMINGTON AND ITS +HISTORY --LIEUTENANT CUSHING--FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE COLORED +TROOPS--LEAVING FOR HOME--DESTRUCTION OF THE “THORN” BY A TORPEDO--THE +MOCK MONITOR’S ACHIEVEMENT. + +After a sound sleep, Andrews and I awoke to the enjoyment of our first +day of freedom and existence in God’s country. The sun had already +risen, bright and warm, consonant with the happiness of the new life +now opening up for us. + +But to nearly a score of our party his beams brought no awakening +gladness. They fell upon stony, staring eyes, from out of which the +light of life had now faded, as the light of hope had done long ago. +The dead lay there upon the rude beds of fallen leaves, scraped +together by thoughtful comrades the night before, their clenched teeth +showing through parted lips, faces fleshless and pinched, long, unkempt +and ragged hair and whiskers just stirred by the lazy breeze, the +rotting feet and limbs drawn up, and skinny hands clenched in the last +agonies. + +Their fate seemed harder than that of any who had died before them. It +was doubtful if many of them knew that they were at last inside of our +own lines. + +Again the kind-hearted boys of the brigade crowded around us with +proffers of service. Of an Ohio boy who directed his kind tenders to +Andrews and me, we procured a chunk of coarse rosin soap about as big +as a pack of cards, and a towel. Never was there as great a quantity +of solid comfort got out of that much soap as we obtained. It was the +first that we had since that which I stole in Wirz’s headquarters, in +June --nine months before. We felt that the dirt which had accumulated +upon us since then would subject us to assessment as real estate if we +were in the North. + +Hurrying off to a little creek we began our ablutions, and it was not +long until Andrews declared that there was a perceptible sand-bar +forming in the stream, from what we washed off. Dirt deposits of the +Pliocene era rolled off feet and legs. Eocene incrustations let loose +reluctantly from neck and ears; the hair was a mass of tangled locks +matted with nine months’ accumulation of pitch pine tar, rosin soot, +and South Carolina sand, that we did not think we had better start in +upon it until we either had the shock cut off, or had a whole ocean and +a vat of soap to wash it out with. + +After scrubbing until we were exhausted we got off the first few outer +layers--the post tertiary formation, a geologist would term it--and the +smell of many breakfasts cooking, coming down over the hill, set our +stomachs in a mutiny against any longer fasting. + +We went back, rosy, panting, glowing, but happy, to get our selves some +breakfast. + +Should Providence, for some inscrutable reason, vouchsafe me the years +of Methuselah, one of the pleasantest recollections that will abide +with me to the close of the nine hundredth and sixty-ninth year, will +be of that delightful odor of cooking food which regaled our senses as +we came back. From the boiling coffee and the meat frying in the pan +rose an incense sweeter to the senses a thousand times than all the +perfumes of far Arabia. It differed from the loathsome odor of cooking +corn meal as much as it did from the effluvia of a sewer. + +Our noses were the first of our senses to bear testimony that we had +passed from the land of starvation to that of plenty. Andrews and I +hastened off to get our own breakfast, and soon had a half-gallon +of strong coffee, and a frying-pan full, of meat cooking over the +fire--not one of the beggarly skimped little fires we had crouched over +during our months of imprisonment, but a royal, generous fire, fed with +logs instead of shavings and splinters, and giving out heat enough to +warm a regiment. + +Having eaten positively all that we could swallow, those of us who +could walk were ordered to fall in and march over to Wilmington. We +crossed the branch of the river on a pontoon bridge, and took the road +that led across the narrow sandy island between the two branches, +Wilmington being situated on the opposite bank of the farther one. + +When about half way a shout from some one in advance caused us to look +up, and then we saw, flying from a tall steeple in Wilmington, the +glorious old Stars and Stripes, resplendent in the morning sun, and +more beautiful than the most gorgeous web from Tyrian looms. We stopped +with one accord, and shouted and cheered and cried until every throat +was sore and every eye red and blood-shot. It seemed as if our cup of +happiness would certainly run over if any more additions were made to +it. + +When we arrived at the bank of the river opposite Wilmington, a whole +world of new and interesting sights opened up before us. Wilmington, +during the last year-and-a-half of the war, was, next to Richmond, the +most important place in the Southern Confederacy. It was the only port +to which blockade running was at all safe enough to be lucrative. The +Rebels held the strong forts of Caswell and Fisher, at the mouth of +Cape Fear River, and outside, the Frying Pan Shoals, which extended +along the coast forty or fifty miles, kept our blockading fleet so +far off, and made the line so weak and scattered, that there was +comparatively little risk to the small, swift-sailing vessels employed +by the blockade runners in running through it. The only way that +blockade running could be stopped was by the reduction of Forts Caswell +and Fisher, and it was not stopped until this was done. + +Before the war Wilmington was a dull, sleepy North Carolina Town, with +as little animation of any kind as a Breton Pillage. The only business +was the handling of the tar, turpentine, rosin, and peanuts produced +in the surrounding country, a business never lively enough to excite +more than a lazy ripple in the sluggish lagoons of trade. But very +new wine was put into this old bottle when blockade running began to +develop in importance. Then this Sleepy hollow of a place took on +the appearance of San Francisco in the hight of the gold fever. The +English houses engaged in blockade running established branches there +conducted by young men who lived like princes. All the best houses in +the City were leased by them and fitted up in the most gorgeous style. +They literally clothed themselves in purple and fine linen and fared +sumptuously every day, with their fine wines and imported delicacies +and retinue of servants to wait upon them. Fast young Rebel officers, +eager for a season of dissipation, could imagine nothing better than +a leave of absence to go to Wilmington. Money flowed like water. The +common sailors--the scum of all foreign ports--who manned the blockade +runners, received as high as one hundred dollars in gold per month, +and a bounty of fifty dollars for every successful trip, which from +Nassau could be easily made in seven days. Other people were paid in +proportion, and as the old proverb says, “What comes over the Devil’s +back is spent under his breast,” the money so obtained was squandered +recklessly, and all sorts of debauchery ran riot. + +On the ground where we were standing had been erected several large +steam cotton presses, built to compress cotton for the blockade +runners. Around them were stored immense quantities of cotton, and +near by were nearly as great stores of turpentine, rosin and tar. A +little farther down the river was navy yard with docks, etc., for the +accommodation, building and repair of blockade runners. At the time our +folks took Fort Fisher and advanced on Wilmington the docks were filled +with vessels. The retreating Rebels set fire to everything--cotton, +cotton presses, turpentine, rosin, tar, navy yard, naval stores, +timber, docks, and vessels, and the fire made clean work. Our people +arrived too late to save anything, and when we came in the smoke from +the burned cotton, turpentine, etc., still filled the woods. It was a +signal illustration of the ravages of war. Here had been destroyed, in +a few hours, more property than a half-million industrious men would +accumulate in their lives. + +Almost as gratifying as the sight of the old flag flying in triumph, +was the exhibition of our naval power in the river before us. The +larger part of the great North Atlantic squadron, which had done such +excellent service in the reduction of the defenses of Wilmington, was +lying at anchor, with their hundreds of huge guns yawning as if ardent +for more great forts to beat down, more vessels to sink, more heavy +artillery to crush, more Rebels to conquer. It seemed as if there were +cannon enough there to blow the whole Confederacy into kingdom-come. +All was life and animation around the fleet. On the decks the officers +were pacing up and down. One on each vessel carried a long telescope, +with which he almost constantly swept the horizon. Numberless small +boats, each rowed by neatly-uniformed men, and carrying a flag in the +stern, darted hither and thither, carrying officers on errands of duty +or pleasure. It was such a scene as enabled me to realize in a measure, +the descriptions I had read of the pomp and circumstance of naval +warfare. + +While we were standing, contemplating all the interesting sights within +view, a small steamer, about the size of a canal-boat, and carrying +several bright brass guns, ran swiftly and noiselessly up to the dock +near by, and a young, pale-faced officer, slender in build and nervous +in manner, stepped ashore. Some of the blue jackets who were talking +to us looked at him and the vessel with the greatest expression of +interest, and said: + +“Hello! there’s the ‘Monticello’ and Lieutenant Cushing.” + +This, then, was the naval boy hero, with whose exploits the whole +country was ringing. Our sailor friends proceeded to tell us of his +achievements, of which they were justly proud. They told us of his +perilous scouts and his hairbreadth escapes, of his wonderful audacity +and still more wonderful success--of his capture of Towns with a +handful of sailors, and the destruction of valuable stores, etc. I felt +very sorry that the man was not a cavalry commander. There he would +have had full scope for his peculiar genius. He had come prominently +into notice in the preceding Autumn, when he had, by one of the most +daring performances narrated in naval history, destroyed the formidable +ram “Albermarle.” This vessel had been constructed by the Rebels on the +Roanoke River, and had done them very good service, first by assisting +to reduce the forts and capture the garrison at Plymouth, N. C., and +afterward in some minor engagements. In October, 1864, she was lying at +Plymouth. Around her was a boom of logs to prevent sudden approaches +of boats or vessels from our fleet. Cushing, who was then barely +twenty-one, resolved to attempt her destruction. He fitted up a steam +launch with a long spar to which he attached a torpedo. On the night of +October 27th, with thirteen companions, he ran quietly up the Sound and +was not discovered until his boat struck the boom, when a terrific fire +was opened upon him. Backing a short distance, he ran at the boom with +such velocity that his boat leaped across it into the water beyond. +In an instant more his torpedo struck the side of the “Albemarle” and +exploded, tearing a great hole in her hull, which sank her in a few +minutes. At the moment the torpedo went off the “Albermarle” fired one +of her great guns directly into the launch, tearing it completely to +pieces. Lieutenant Cushing and one comrade rose to the surface of the +seething water and, swimming ashore, escaped. What became of the rest +is not known, but their fate can hardly be a matter of doubt. + +We were ferried across the river into Wilmington, and marched up the +streets to some vacant ground near the railroad depot, where we found +most of our old Florence comrades already assembled. When they left us +in the middle of February they were taken to Wilmington, and thence to +Goldsboro, N. C., where they were kept until the rapid closing in of +our Armies made it impracticable to hold them any longer, when they +were sent back to Wilmington and given up to our forces as we had been. + +It was now nearly noon, and we were ordered to fall in and draw +rations, a bewildering order to us, who had been so long in the +habit of drawing food but once a day. We fell in in single rank, and +marched up, one at a time, past where a group of employees of the +Commissary Department dealt out the food. One handed each prisoner as +he passed a large slice of meat; another gave him a handful of ground +coffee; a third a handful of sugar; a fourth gave him a pickle, while +a fifth and sixth handed him an onion and a loaf of fresh bread. +This filled the horn of our plenty full. To have all these in one +day--meat, coffee, sugar, onions and soft bread--was simply to riot +in undreamed-of luxury. Many of the boys--poor fellows--could not yet +realize that there was enough for all, or they could not give up their +old “flanking” tricks, and they stole around, and falling into the +rear, came up again for’ another share. We laughed at them, as did +the Commissary men, who, nevertheless, duplicated the rations already +received, and sent them away happy and content. + +What a glorious dinner Andrews and I had, with our half gallon of +strong coffee, our soft bread, and a pan full of fried pork and onions! +Such an enjoyable feast will never be, eaten again by us. + +Here we saw negro troops under arms for the first time--the most of the +organization of colored soldiers having been, done since our capture. +It was startling at first to see a stalwart, coal-black negro stalking +along with a Sergeant’s chevrons on his arm, or to gaze on a regimental +line of dusky faces on dress parade, but we soon got used to it. The +first strong peculiarity of the negro soldier that impressed itself, +upon us was his literal obedience of orders. A white soldier usually +allows himself considerable discretion in obeying orders--he aims more +at the spirit, while the negro adheres to the strict letter of the +command. + +For instance, the second day after our arrival a line of guards were +placed around us, with orders not to allow any of us to go up town +without a pass. The reason of this was that many weak--even dying-men +would persist in wandering about, and would be found exhausted, +frequently dead, in various parts of the City. Andrews and I concluded +to go up town. Approaching a negro sentinel he warned us back with, + +“Stand back, dah; don’t come any furder; it’s agin de awdahs; you can’t +pass.” + +He would not allow us to argue the case, but brought his gun to such a +threatening position that we fell back. Going down the line a little +farther, we came to a white sentinel, to whom I said: + +“Comrade, what are your orders:” + +He replied: + +“My orders are not to let any of you fellows pass, but my beat only +extends to that out-house there.” + +Acting on this plain hint, we walked around the house and went up-town. +The guard simply construed his orders in a liberal spirit. He reasoned +that they hardly applied to us, since we were evidently able to take +care of ourselves. + +Later we had another illustration of this dog like fidelity of the +colored sentinel. A number of us were quartered in a large and empty +warehouse. On the same floor, and close to us, were a couple of very +fine horses belonging to some officer. We had not been in the warehouse +very long until we concluded that the straw with which the horses were +bedded would be better used in making couches for ourselves, and this +suggestion was instantly acted upon, and so thoroughly that there was +not a straw left between the animals and the bare boards. Presently the +owner of the horses came in, and he was greatly incensed at what had +been done. He relieved his mind of a few sulphurous oaths, and going +out, came back soon with a man with more straw, and a colored soldier +whom he stationed by the horses, saying: + +“Now, look here. You musn’t let anybody take anything sway from these +stalls; d’you understand me?--not a thing.” + +He then went out. Andrews and I had just finished cooking dinner, and +were sitting down to eat it. Wishing to lend our frying-pan to another +mess, I looked around for something to lay our meat upon. Near the +horses I saw a book cover, which would answer the purpose admirably. +Springing up, I skipped across to where it was, snatched it up, and +ran back to my place. As I reached it a yell from the boys made me +look around. The darky was coming at me “full tilt,” with his gun at a +“charge bayonets.” As I turned he said: + +“Put dat right back dah!” + +I said: + +“Why, this don’t amount to anything, this is only an old book cover. It +hasn’t anything in the world to do with the horses.” + +He only replied: + +“Put dat right back dah!” + +I tried another appeal: + +“Now, you woolly-headed son of thunder, haven’t you got sense enough to +know that the officer who posted you didn’t mean such a thing as this! +He only meant that we should not be allowed to take any of the horses’ +bedding or equipments; don’t you see?” + +I might as well have reasoned with a cigar store Indian. He set his +teeth, his eyes showed a dangerous amount of white, and foreshortening +his musket for a lunge, he hissed out again “Put dat right back dah, I +tell you!” + +I looked at the bayonet; it was very long, very bright, and very sharp. +It gleamed cold and chilly like, as if it had not run through a man +for a long time, and yearned for another opportunity. Nothing but the +whites of the darky’s eyes could now be seen. I did not want to perish +there in the fresh bloom of my youth and loveliness; it seemed to me as +if it was my duty to reserve myself for fields of future usefulness, so +I walked back and laid the book cover precisely on the spot whence I +had obtained it, while the thousand boys in the house set up a yell of +sarcastic laughter. + +We staid in Wilmington a few days, days of almost purely animal +enjoyment--the joy of having just as much to eat as we could possibly +swallow, and no one to molest or make us afraid in any way. How we +did eat and fill up. The wrinkles in our skin smoothed out under the +stretching, and we began to feel as if we were returning to our old +plumpness, though so far the plumpness was wholly abdominal. + +One morning we were told that the transports would begin going back +with us that afternoon, the first that left taking the sick. Andrews +and I, true to our old prison practices, resolved to be among those +on the first boat. We slipped through the guards and going up town, +went straight to Major General Schofield’s headquarters and solicited +a pass to go on the first boat--the steamer “Thorn.” General Schofield +treated us very kindly; but declined to let anybody but the helplessly +sick go on the “Thorn.” Defeated here we went down to where the vessel +was lying at the dock, and tried to smuggle ourselves aboard, but the +guard was too strong and too vigilant, and we were driven away. Going +along the dock, angry and discouraged by our failure, we saw a Surgeon, +at a little distance, who was examining and sending the sick who could +walk aboard another vessel--the “General Lyon.” We took our cue, and a +little shamming secured from him tickets which permitted us to take our +passage in her. The larger portion of those on board were in the hold, +and a few were on deck. Andrews and I found a snug place under the +forecastle, by the anchor chains. + +Both vessels speedily received their complement, and leaving their +docks, started down the river. The “Thorn” steamed ahead of us, and +disappeared. Shortly after we got under way, the Colonel who was put in +command of the boat--himself a released prisoner--came around on a tour +of inspection. He found about one thousand of us aboard, and singling +me out made me the non-commissioned officer in command. I was put in +charge, of issuing the rations and of a barrel of milk punch which the +Sanitary Commission had sent down to be dealt out on the voyage to such +as needed it. I went to work and arranged the boys in the best way I +could, and returned to the deck to view the scenery. + +Wilmington is thirty-four miles from the sea, and the river for that +distance is a calm, broad estuary. At this time the resources of Rebel +engineering were exhausted in defense against its passage by a hostile +fleet, and undoubtedly the best work of the kind in the Southern +Confederacy was done upon it. At its mouth were Forts Fisher and +Caswell, the strongest sea coast forts in the Confederacy. Fort Caswell +was an old United States fort, much enlarged and strengthened. Fort +Fisher was a new work, begun immediately after the beginning of the +war, and labored at incessantly until captured. Behind these every one +of the thirty-four miles to Wilmington was covered with the fire of the +best guns the English arsenals could produce, mounted on forts built +at every advantageous spot. Lines of piles running out into the water, +forced incoming vessels to wind back and forth across the stream under +the point-blank range of massive Armstrong rifles. As if this were not +sufficient, the channel was thickly studded with torpedoes that would +explode at the touch of the keel of a passing vessel. These abundant +precautions, and the telegram from General Lee, found in Fort Fisher, +stating that unless that stronghold and Fort Caswell were held he could +not hold Richmond, give some idea of the importance of the place to the +Rebels. + +We passed groups of hundreds of sailors fishing for torpedos, and saw +many of these dangerous monsters, which they had hauled up out of the +water. We caught up with the “Thorn,” when about half way to the sea, +passed her, to our great delight, and soon left a gap between us of +nearly half-a-mile. We ran through an opening in the piling, holding up +close to the left side, and she apparently followed our course exactly. +Suddenly there was a dull roar; a column of water, bearing with it +fragments of timbers, planking and human bodies, rose up through one +side of the vessel, and, as it fell, she lurched forward and sank. She +had struck a torpedo. I never learned the number lost, but it must have +been very great. + +Some little time after this happened we approached Fort Anderson, the +most powerful of the works between Wilmington and the forts at the +mouth of the sea. It was built on the ruins of the little Town of +Brunswick, destroyed by Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War. We +saw a monitor lying near it, and sought good positions to view this +specimen of the redoubtable ironclads of which we had heard and read +so much. It looked precisely as it did in pictures, as black, as grim, +and as uncompromising as the impregnable floating fortress which had +brought the “Merrimac” to terms. + +But as we approached closely we noticed a limpness about the smoke +stack that seemed very inconsistent with the customary rigidity of +cylindrical iron. Then the escape pipe seemed scarcely able to maintain +itself upright. A few minutes later we discovered that our terrible +Cyclops of the sea was a flimsy humbug, a theatrical imitation, made by +stretching blackened canvas over a wooden frame. + +One of the officers on board told us its story. After the fall of Fort +Fisher the Rebels retired to Fort Anderson, and offered a desperate +resistance to our army and fleet. Owing to the shallowness of the water +the latter could not come into close enough range to do effective work. +Then the happy idea of this sham monitor suggested itself to some one. +It was prepared, and one morning before daybreak it was sent floating +in on the tide. The other monitors opened up a heavy fire from their +position. The Rebels manned their guns and replied vigorously, by +concentrating a terrible cannonade on the sham monitor, which sailed +grandly on, undisturbed by the heavy rifled bolts tearing through her +canvas turret. Almost frantic with apprehension of the result if she +could not be checked, every gun that would bear was turned upon her, +and torpedos were exploded in her pathway by electricity. All these she +treated with the silent contempt they merited from so invulnerable a +monster. At length, as she reached a good easy range of the fort, her +bow struck something, and she swung around as if to open fire. That was +enough for the Rebels. With Schofield’s army reaching out to cut off +their retreat, and this dreadful thing about to tear the insides out of +their fort with four-hundred-pound shot at quarter-mile range, there +was nothing for them to do but consult their own safety, which they did +with such haste that they did not spike a gun, or destroy a pound of +stores. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXX. + +VISIT TO FORT FISHER, AND INSPECTION OF THAT STRONGHOLD--THE WAY IT WAS +CAPTURED--OUT ON THE OCEAN SAILING--TERRIBLY SEASICK--RAPID RECOVERY +--ARRIVAL AT ANNAPOLIS--WASHED, CLOTHED AND FED--UNBOUNDED LUXURY, AND +DAYS OF UNADULTERATED HAPPINESS. + +When we reached the mouth of Cape Fear River the wind was blowing so +hard that our Captain did not think it best to venture out, so he cast +anchor. The cabin of the vessel was filled with officers who had been +released from prison about the same time we were. I was also given a +berth in the cabin, in consideration of my being the non-commissioned +officer in charge of the men, and I found the associations quite +pleasant. A party was made up, which included me, to visit Fort Fisher, +and we spent the larger part of a day very agreeably in wandering over +that great stronghold. We found it wonderful in its strength, and +were prepared to accept the statement of those who had seen foreign +defensive works, that it was much more powerful than the famous +Malakoff, which so long defied the besiegers of Sebastopol. + +The situation of the fort was on a narrow and low spit of ground +between Cape Fear River and the ocean. On this the Rebels had erected, +with prodigious labor, an embankment over a mile in length, twenty-five +feet thick and twenty feet high. About two-thirds of this bank faced +the sea; the other third ran across the spit of land to protect the +fort against an attack from the land side. Still stronger than the bank +forming the front of the fort were the traverses, which prevented an +enfilading fire These were regular hills, twenty-five to forty feet +high, and broad and long in proportion. There were fifteen or twenty +of them along the face of the fort. Inside of them were capacious +bomb proofs, sufficiently large to shelter the whole garrison. It +seemed as if a whole Township had been dug up, carted down there and +set on edge. In front of the works was a strong palisade. Between +each pair of traverses were one or two enormous guns, none less than +one-hundred-and-fifty pounders. Among these we saw a great Armstrong +gun, which had been presented to the Southern Confederacy by its +manufacturer, Sir William Armstrong, who, like the majority of the +English nobility, was a warm admirer of the Jeff. Davis crowd. It was +the finest piece of ordnance ever seen in this country. The carriage +was rosewood, and the mountings gilt brass. The breech of the gun had +five reinforcements. + +To attack this place our Government assembled the most powerful +fleet ever sent on such an expedition. Over seventy-five men-of-war, +including six monitors, and carrying six hundred guns, assailed it +with a storm of shot and shell that averaged four projectiles per +second for several hours; the parapet was battered, and the large guns +crushed as one smashes a bottle with a stone. The garrison fled into +the bomb-proofs for protection. The troops, who had landed above the +fort, moved up to assail the land face, while a brigade of sailors and +marines attacked the sea face. + +As the fleet had to cease firing to allow the charge, the Rebels ran +out of their casemates and, manning the parapet, opened such a fire +of musketry that the brigade from the fleet was driven back, but the +soldiers made a lodgment on the land face. Then began some beautiful +cooperative tactics between the Army and Navy, communication being kept +up with signal flags. Our men were on one side of the parapets and the +Rebels on the other, with the fighting almost hand-to-hand. The vessels +ranged out to where their guns would rake the Rebel line, and as their +shot tore down its length, the Rebels gave way, and falling back to the +next traverse, renewed the conflict there. Guided by the signals our +vessels changed their positions, so as to rake this line also, and so +the fight went on until twelve traverses had been carried, one after +the other, when the rebels surrendered. + +The next day the Rebels abandoned Fort Caswell and other fortifications +in the immediate neighborhood, surrendered two gunboats, and fell +back to the lines at Fort Anderson. After Fort Fisher fell, several +blockade-runners were lured inside and captured. + +Never before had there been such a demonstration of the power of +heavy artillery. Huge cannon were pounded into fragments, hills of +sand ripped open, deep crevasses blown in the ground by exploding +shells, wooden buildings reduced to kindling-wood, etc. The ground +was literally paved with fragments of shot and shell, which, now red +with rust from the corroding salt air, made the interior of the fort +resemble what one of our party likened it to “an old brickyard.” + +Whichever way we looked along the shores we saw abundant evidence of +the greatness of the business which gave the place its importance. In +all directions, as far as the eye could reach, the beach was dotted +with the bleaching skeletons of blockade-runners--some run ashore by +their mistaking the channel, more beached to escape the hot pursuit of +our blockaders. + +Directly in front of the sea face of the fort, and not four hundred +yards from the savage mouths of the huge guns, the blackened timbers of +a burned blockade-runner showed above the water at low tide. Coming in +from Nassau with a cargo of priceless value to the gasping Confederacy, +she was observed and chased by one of our vessels, a swifter sailer, +even, than herself. The war ship closed rapidly upon her. She sought +the protection of the guns of Fort Fisher, which opened venomously on +the chaser. They did not stop her, though they were less than half a +mile away. In another minute she would have sent the Rebel vessel to +the bottom of the sea, by a broadside from her heavy guns, but the +Captain of the latter turned her suddenly, and ran her high up on the +beach, wrecking his vessel, but saving the much more valuable cargo. +Our vessel then hauled off, and as night fell, quiet was restored. At +midnight two boat-loads of determined men, rowing with muffled oars +moved silently out from the blockader towards the beached vessel. +In their boats they had some cans of turpentine, and several large +shells. When they reached the blockade-runner they found all her crew +gone ashore, save one watchman, whom they overpowered before he could +give the alarm. They cautiously felt their way around, with the aid of +a dark lantern, secured the ship’s chronometer, her papers and some +other desired objects. They then saturated with the turpentine piles of +combustible material, placed about the vessel to the best advantage, +and finished by depositing the shells where their explosion would ruin +the machinery. All this was done so near to the fort that the sentinels +on the parapets could be heard with the greatest distinctness as they +repeated their half-hourly cry of “All’s well.” Their preparations +completed, the daring fellows touched matches to the doomed vessel in a +dozen places at once, and sprang into their boats. The flames instantly +enveloped the ship, and showed the gunners the incendiaries rowing +rapidly away. A hail of shot beat the water into a foam around the +boats, but their good fortune still attended them, and they got back +without losing a man. + +The wind at length calmed sufficiently to encourage our Captain to +venture out, and we were soon battling with the rolling waves, far out +of sight of land. For awhile the novelty of the scene fascinated me. +I was at last on the ocean, of which I had heard, read and imagined +so much. The creaking cordage, the straining engine, the plunging +ship, the wild waste of tumbling billows, everyone apparently racing +to where our tossing bark was struggling to maintain herself, all had +an entrancing interest for me, and I tried to recall Byron’s sublime +apostrophe to the ocean: + + Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty’s form + Classes itself in tempest: in all time, + Calm or convulsed-in breeze, or gale, or storm, + Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime + Dark-heaving--boundless, endless, and sublime-- + The image of eternity--the throne + Of the invisible; even from out thy slime + The monsters of the deep are made; each zone + Obey thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone, + +Just then, my reverie was broken by the strong hand of the gruff +Captain of, the vessel descending upon my shoulder, and he said: + +“See, here, youngster! Ain’t you the fellow that was put in command of +these men?” + +I acknowledged such to be the case. + +“Well,” said the Captain; “I want you to ’tend to your business and +straighten them around, so that we can clean off the decks.” + +I turned from the bulwark over which I had been contemplating the vasty +deep, and saw the sorriest, most woe-begone lot that the imagination +can conceive. Every mother’s son was wretchedly sea-sick. They were +paying the penalty of their overfeeding in Wilmington; and every face +looked as if its owner was discovering for the first time what the real +lower depths of human misery was. They all seemed afraid they would not +die; as if they were praying for death, but feeling certain that he was +going back on them in a most shameful way. + +We straightened them around a little, washed them and the decks off +with a hose, and then I started down in the hold to see how matters +were with the six hundred down there. The boys there were much sicker +than those on deck. As I lifted the hatch there rose an odor which +appeared strong enough to raise the plank itself. Every onion that +had been issued to us in Wilmington seemed to lie down there in the +last stages of decomposition. All of the seventy distinct smells which +Coleridge counted at Cologne might have been counted in any given +cubic foot of atmosphere, while the next foot would have an entirely +different and equally demonstrative “bouquet.” + +I recoiled, and leaned against the bulwark, but soon summoned up +courage enough to go half-way down the ladder, and shout out in as +stern a tone as I could command: + +“Here, now! I want you fellows to straighten around there, right off, +and help clean up!” + +They were as angry and cross as they were sick. They wanted nothing in +the world so much as the opportunity I had given them to swear at and +abuse somebody. Every one of them raised on his elbow, and shaking his +fist at me yelled out: + +“O, you go to ----, you ---- ---- ----. Just come down another step, +and I’ll knock the whole head off ’en you.” + +I did not go down any farther. + +Coming back on the deck my stomach began to feel qualmish. Some +wretched idiot, whose grandfather’s grave I hope the jackasses have +defiled, as the Turks would say, told me that the best preventive of +sea-sickness was to drink as much of the milk punch as I could swallow. + +Like another idiot, I did so. + +I went again to the side of the vessel, but now the fascination of the +scene had all faded out. The restless billows were dreary, savage, +hungry and dizzying; they seemed to claw at, and tear, and wrench +the struggling ship as a group of huge lions would tease and worry a +captive dog. They distressed her and all on board by dealing a blow +which would send her reeling in one direction, but before she had swung +the full length that impulse would have sent her, catching her on the +opposite side with a stunning shock that sent her another way, only to +meet another rude buffet from still another side. + +I thought we could all have stood it if the motion had been like that +of a swing-backward and forward--or even if the to and fro motion had +been complicated with a side-wise swing, but to be put through every +possible bewildering motion in the briefest space of time was more than +heads of iron and stomachs of brass could stand. + +Mine were not made of such perdurable stuff. + +They commenced mutinous demonstrations in regard to the milk punch. + +I began wondering whether the milk was not the horrible beer swill, +stump-tail kind of which I had heard so much. + +And the whisky in it; to use a vigorous Westernism, descriptive of mean +whisky, it seemed to me that I could smell the boy’s feet who plowed +the corn from which it was distilled. + +Then the onions I had eaten in Wilmington began to rebel, and incite +the bread, meat and coffee to gastric insurrection, and I became so +utterly wretched that life had no farther attractions. + +While I was leaning over the bulwark, musing on the complete hollowness +of all earthly things, the Captain of the vessel caught hold of me +roughly, and said: + +“Look here, you’re just playin’ the very devil a-commandin’ these here +men. Why in ---- don’t you stiffen up, and hump yourself around, and +make these men mind, or else belt them over the head with a capstan +bar! Now I want you to ’tend to your business. D’you understand me?” + +I turned a pair of weary and hopeless eyes upon him, and started to say +that a man who would talk to one in my forlorn condition of “stiffening +up,” and “belting other fellows over the head with a capstan bar,” +would insult a woman dying with consumption, but I suddenly became too +full for utterance. + +The milk punch, the onions, the bread, and meat and coffee tired of +fighting it out in the narrow quarters where I had stowed them, had +started upwards tumultuously. + +I turned my head again to the sea, and looking down into its smaragdine +depths, let go of the victualistic store which I had been industriously +accumulating ever since I had come through the lines. + +I vomited until I felt as empty and hollow as a stove pipe. There +was a vacuum that extended clear to my toe-nails. I feared that +every retching struggle would dent me in, all over, as one sees tin +preserving cans crushed in by outside pressure, and I apprehended that +if I kept on much longer my shoe-soles would come up after the rest. + +I will mention, parenthetically, that, to this day I abhor milk punch, +and also onions. + +Unutterably miserable as I was I could not refrain from a ghost of a +smile, when a poor country boy near me sang out in an interval between +vomiting spells: + +“O, Captain, for God’s sake, stop the boat and lem’me go ashore, and I +swear I’ll walk every step of the way home.” + +He was like old Gonzalo in the ‘Tempest:’ + + Now world I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren + ground; long heath; brown furze; anything. The wills above be done! + but I would fain die a dry death. + +After this misery had lasted about two days we got past Cape Hatteras, +and out of reach of its malign influence, and recovered as rapidly as +we had been prostrated. + +We regained spirits and appetites with amazing swiftness; the sun came +out warm and cheerful, we cleaned up our quarters and ourselves as best +we could, and during the remainder of the voyage were as blithe and +cheerful as so many crickets. + +The fun in the cabin was rollicking. The officers had been as sick as +the men, but were wonderfully vivacious when the ‘mal du mer’ passed +off. In the party was a fine glee club, which had been organized at +“Camp Sorgum,” the officers’ prison at Columbia. Its leader was a Major +of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, who possessed a marvelously sweet tenor +voice, and well developed musical powers. While we were at Wilmington +he sang “When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea,” to an audience of +soldiers that packed the Opera House densely. + +The enthusiasm he aroused was simply indescribable; men shouted, and +the tears ran down their faces. He was recalled time and again, each +time with an increase in the furore. The audience would have staid +there all night to listen to him sing that one song. Poor fellow, he +only went home to die. An attack of pneumonia carried him off within a +fortnight after we separated at Annapolis. + +The Glee Club had several songs which they rendered in regular negro +minstrel style, and in a way that was irresistibly ludicrous. One of +their favorites was “Billy Patterson.” All standing up in a ring, the +tenors would lead off: + + “I saw an old man go riding by,” + +and the baritones, flinging themselves around with the looseness of +Christy’s Minstrels, in a “break down,” would reply: + + “Don’t tell me! Don’t tell me!” + +Then the tenors would resume: + + “Says I, Ole man, your horse’ll die.” + +Then the baritones, with an air of exaggerated interest; + + “A-ha-a-a, Billy Patterson!” + +Tenors: + + “For. It he dies, I’ll tan his skin; + An’ if he lives I’ll ride him agin,” + +All-together, with a furious “break down” at the close: + + “Then I’ll lay five dollars down, + And count them one by one; + Then I’ll lay five dollars down, + If anybody will show me the man + That struck Billy Patterson.” + + +And so on. It used to upset my gravity entirely to see a crowd of +grave and dignified Captains, Majors and Colonels going through this +nonsensical drollery with all the abandon of professional burnt-cork +artists. + +As we were nearing the entrance to Chesapeake Bay we passed a great +monitor, who was exercising her crew at the guns. She fired directly +across our course, the huge four hundred pound balls shipping along +the water, about a mile ahead of us, as we boys used to make the flat +stones skip in the play of “Ducks and Drakes.” One or two of the shots +came so. close that I feared she might be mistaking us for a Rebel ship +intent on some raid up the Bay, and I looked up anxiously to see that +the flag should float out so conspicuously that she could not help +seeing it. + +The next day our vessel ran alongside of the dock at the Naval Academy +at Annapolis, that institution now being used as a hospital for paroled +prisoners. The musicians of the Post band came down with stretchers +to carry the sick to the Hospital, while those of us who were able +to walk were ordered to fall in and march up. The distance was but a +few hundred yards. On reaching the building we marched up on a little +balcony, and as we did so each one of us was seized by a hospital +attendant, who, with the quick dexterity attained by long practice, +snatched every one of our filthy, lousy rags off in the twinkling of an +eye, and flung them over the railing to the ground, where a man loaded +them into a wagon with a pitchfork. + +With them went our faithful little black can, our hoop-iron spoon, and +our chessboard and men. + +Thus entirely denuded, each boy was given a shove which sent him into a +little room, where a barber pressed him down upon a stool, and almost +before he understood what was being done, had his hair and beard cut +off as close as shears would do it. Another tap on the back sent the +shorn lamb into a room furnished with great tubs of water and with +about six inches of soap suds on the zinc-covered floor. + +In another minute two men with sponges had removed every trace of +prison grime from his body, and passed him on to two more men, who +wiped him dry, and moved him on to where a man handed him a new shirt, +a pair of drawers, pair of socks, pair of pantaloons, pair of slippers, +and a hospital gown, and motioned him to go on into the large room, +and array himself in his new garments. Like everything else about the +Hospital this performance was reduced to a perfect system. Not a word +was spoken by anybody, not a moment’s time lost, and it seemed to me +that it was not ten minutes after I marched up on the balcony, covered +with dirt, rags, vermin, and a matted shock of hair, until I marched +out of the room, clean and well clothed. Now I began to feel as if I +was really a man again. + +The next thing done was to register our names, rank, regiment, when +and where captured, when and where released. After this we were shown +to our rooms. And such rooms as they were. All the old maids in the +country could not have improved their spick-span neatness. The floors +were as white as pine plank could be scoured; the sheets and bedding +as clean as cotton and linen and woolen could be washed. Nothing in +any home in the land was any more daintily, wholesomely, unqualifiedly +clean than were these little chambers, each containing two beds, one +for each man assigned to their occupancy. + +Andrews doubted if we could stand all this radical change in our +habits. He feared that it was rushing things too fast. We might have +had our hair cut one week, and taken a bath all over a week later, and +so progress down to sleeping between white sheets in the course of six +months, but to do it all in one day seemed like tempting fate. + +Every turn showed us some new feature of the marvelous order of this +wonderful institution. Shortly after we were sent to our rooms, a +Surgeon entered with a Clerk. After answering the usual questions as +to name, rank, company and regiment, the Surgeon examined our tongues, +eyes, limbs and general appearance, and communicated his conclusions +to the Clerk, who filled out a blank card. This card was stuck into +a little tin holder at the head of my bed. Andrews’s card was the +same, except the name. The Surgeon was followed by a Sergeant, who +was Chief of the Dining-Room, and the Clerk, who made a minute of the +diet ordered for us, and moved off. Andrews and I immediately became +very solicitous to know what species of diet No. 1 was. After the +seasickness left us our appetites became as ravenous as a buzz-saw, +and unless Diet No. 1 was more than No. 1 in name, it would not fill +the bill. We had not long to remain in suspense, for soon another +non-commissioned officer passed through at the head of a train of +attendants, bearing trays. Consulting the list in his hand, he said to +one of his followers, “Two No. 1’s,” and that satellite set down two +large plates, upon each of which were a cup of coffee, a shred of meat, +two boiled eggs and a couple of rolls. + +“Well,” said Andrews, as the procession moved away, “I want to know +where this thing’s going to stop. I am trying hard to get used to +wearing a shirt without any lice in it, and to sitting down on a chair, +and to sleeping in a clean bed, but when it comes to having my meals +sent to my room, I’m afraid I’ll degenerate into a pampered child of +luxury. They are really piling it on too strong. Let us see, Mc.; how +long’s it been since we were sitting on the sand there in Florence, +boiling our pint of meal in that old can?” + +“It seems many years, Lale,” I said; “but for heaven’s sake let us try +to forget it as soon as possible. We will always remember too much of +it.” + +And we did try hard to make the miserable recollections fade out of our +minds. When we were stripped on the balcony we threw away every visible +token that could remind us of the hateful experience we had passed +through. We did not retain a scrap of paper or a relic to recall the +unhappy past. We loathed everything connected with it. + +The days that followed were very happy ones. The Paymaster came around +and paid us each two months’ pay and twenty-five cents a day “ration +money” for every day we had been in prison. This gave Andrews and +I about one hundred and sixty-five dollars apiece--an abundance of +spending money. Uncle Sam was very kind and considerate to his soldier +nephews, and the Hospital authorities neglected nothing that would add +to our comfort. The superbly-kept grounds of the Naval Academy were +renewing the freshness of their loveliness under the tender wooing +of the advancing Spring, and every step one sauntered through them +was a new delight. A magnificent band gave us sweet music morning and +evening. Every dispatch from the South told of the victorious progress +of our arms, and the rapid approach of the close of the struggle. All +we had to do was to enjoy the goods the gods were showering upon us, +and we did so with appreciative, thankful hearts. After awhile all +able to travel were given furloughs of thirty days to visit their +homes, with instructions to report at the expiration of their leaves +of absence to the camps of rendezvous nearest their homes, and we +separated, nearly every man going in a different direction. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + +CAPTAIN WIRZ THE ONLY ONE OF THE PRISON-KEEPERS PUNISHED--HIS ARREST, +TRIAL AND EXECUTION. + +Of all those more or less concerned in the barbarities practiced +upon our prisoners, but one--Captain Henry Wirz--was punished. The +Turners, at Richmond; Lieutenant Boisseux, of Belle Isle; Major Gee, +of Salisbury; Colonel Iverson and Lieutenant Barrett, of Florence; and +the many brutal miscreants about Andersonville, escaped scot free. What +became of them no one knows; they were never heard of after the close +of the war. They had sense enough to retire into obscurity, and stay +there, and this saved their lives, for each one of them had made deadly +enemies among those whom they had maltreated, who, had they known where +they were, would have walked every step of the way thither to kill them. + +When the Confederacy went to pieces in April, 1865, Wirz was still +at Andersonville. General Wilson, commanding our cavalry forces, and +who had established his headquarters at Macon, Ga., learned of this, +and sent one of his staff--Captain H. E. Noyes, of the Fourth Regular +Cavalry --with a squad. of men, to arrest him. This was done on the +7th of May. Wirz protested against his arrest, claiming that he was +protected by the terms of Johnson’s surrender, and, addressed the +following letter to General Wilson: + + ANDERSONVILLE, GA., May 7, 1865. + +GENERAL:--It is with great reluctance that I address you these lines, +being fully aware how little time is left you to attend to such matters +as I now have the honor to lay before you, and if I could see any other +way to accomplish my object I would not intrude upon you. I am a native +of Switzerland, and was before the war a citizen of Louisiana, and by +profession a physician. Like hundreds and thousands of others, I was +carried away by the maelstrom of excitement and joined the Southern +army. I was very severely wounded at the battle of “Seven Pines,” near +Richmond, Va., and have nearly lost the use of my right arm. Unfit for +field duty, I was ordered to report to Brevet Major General John H. +Winder, in charge of the Federal prisoners of war, who ordered me to +take charge of a prison in Tuscaloosa, Ala. My health failing me, I +applied for a furlough and went to Europe, from whence I returned in +February, 1864. I was then ordered to report to the commandant of the +military prison at Andersonville, Ga., who assigned me to the command +of the interior of the prison. The duties I had to perform were arduous +and unpleasant, and I am satisfied that no man can or will justly +blame me for things that happened here, and which were beyond my power +to control. I do not think that I ought to be held responsible for +the shortness of rations, for the overcrowded state of the prison, +(which was of itself a prolific source of fearful mortality), for the +inadequate supply of clothing, want of shelter, etc., etc. Still I +now bear the odium, and men who were prisoners have seemed disposed +to wreak their vengeance upon me for what they have suffered--I, who +was only the medium, or, I may better say, the tool in the hands of my +superiors. This is my condition. I am a man with a family. I lost all +my property when the Federal army besieged Vicksburg. I have no money +at present to go to any place, and, even if I had, I know of no place +where I can go. My life is in danger, and I most respectfully ask of +you help and relief. If you will be so generous as to give me some sort +of a safe conduct, or, what I should greatly prefer, a guard to protect +myself and family against violence, I should be thankful to you, and +you may rest assured that your protection will not be given to one who +is unworthy of it. My intention is to return with my family to Europe, +as soon as I can make the arrangements. In the meantime I have the +honor General, to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + + Hy. WIRZ, Captain C. S. A. +Major General T. H. WILSON, +Commanding, Macon. Ga. + + +He was kept at Macon, under guard, until May 20, when Captain Noyes +was ordered to take him, and the hospital records of Andersonville, +to Washington. Between Macon and Cincinnati the journey was a perfect +gauntlet. + +Our men were stationed all along the road, and among them everywhere +were ex-prisoners, who recognized Wirz, and made such determined +efforts to kill him that it was all that Captain Noyes, backed by a +strong guard, could do to frustrate them. At Chattanooga and Nashville +the struggle between his guards and his would-be slayers, was quite +sharp. + +At Louisville, Noyes had Wirz clean-shaved, and dressed in a complete +suit of black, with a beaver hat, which so altered his appearance that +no one recognized him after that, and the rest of the journey was made +unmolested. + +The authorities at Washington ordered that he be tried immediately, +by a court martial composed of Generals Lewis Wallace, Mott, Geary, +L. Thomas, Fessenden, Bragg and Baller, Colonel Allcock, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Stibbs. Colonel Chipman was Judge Advocate, and the +trial began August 23. + +The prisoner was arraigned on a formidable list of charges and +specifications, which accused him of “combining, confederating, and +conspiring together with John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Isaiah +II. White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson and others unknown, to +injure the health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military +service of the United States, there held, and being prisoners of war +within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, and in the +military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the United +States might be weakened and impaired, in violation of the laws and +customs of war.” The main facts of the dense over-crowding, the lack +of sufficient shelter, the hideous mortality were cited, and to these +added a long list of specific acts of brutality, such as hunting men +down with hounds, tearing them with dogs, robbing them, confining them +in the stocks, cruelly beating and murdering them, of which Wirz was +personally guilty. + +When the defendant was called upon to plead he claimed that his case +was covered by the terms of Johnston’s surrender, and furthermore, that +the country now being at peace, he could not be lawfully tried by a +court-martial. These objections being overruled, he entered a plea of +not guilty to all the charges and specifications. He had two lawyers +for counsel. + +The prosecution called Captain Noyes first, who detailed the +circumstances of Wirz’s arrest, and denied that he had given any +promises of protection. + +The next witness was Colonel George C. Gibbs, who commanded the +troops of the post at Andersonville. He testified that Wirz was the +commandant of the prison, and had sole authority under Winder over all +the prisoners; that there was a Dead Line there, and orders to shoot +any one who crossed it; that dogs were kept to hunt down escaping +prisoners; the dogs were the ordinary plantation dogs, mixture of hound +and cur. + +Dr. J. C. Bates, who was a Surgeon of the Prison Hospital, (a Rebel), +testified that the condition of things in his division was horrible. +Nearly naked men, covered with lice, were dying on all sides. Many were +lying in the filthy sand and mud. + +He went on and described the terrible condition of men--dying from +scurvy, diarrhea, gangrenous sores, and lice. He wanted to carry in +fresh vegetables for the sick, but did not dare, the orders being very +strict against such thing. He thought the prison authorities might +easily have sent in enough green corn to have stopped the scurvy; +the miasmatic effluvia from the prison was exceedingly offensive and +poisonous, so much so that when the surgeons received a slight scratch +on their persons, they carefully covered it up with court plaster, +before venturing near the prison. + +A number of other Rebel Surgeons testified to substantially the same +facts. Several residents of that section of the State testified to the +plentifulness of the crops there in 1864. + +In addition to these, about one hundred and fifty Union prisoners were +examined, who testified to all manner of barbarities which had come +under their personal observation. They had all seen Wirz shoot men, had +seen him knock sick and crippled men down and stamp upon them, had been +run down by him with hounds, etc. Their testimony occupies about two +thousand pages of manuscript, and is, without doubt, the most, terrible +record of crime ever laid to the account of any man. + +The taking of this testimony occupied until October 18, when the +Government decided to close the case, as any further evidence would be +simply cumulative. + +The prisoner presented a statement in which he denied that there had +been an accomplice in a conspiracy of John H. Winder and others, to +destroy the lives of United States soldiers; he also denied that there +had been such a conspiracy, but made the pertinent inquiry why he +alone, of all those who were charged with the conspiracy, was brought +to trial. He said that Winder has gone to the great judgment seat, to +answer for all his thoughts, words and deeds, “and surely I am not to +be held culpable for them. General Howell Cobb has received the pardon +of the President of the United States.” He further claimed that there +was no principle of law which would sanction the holding of him--a mere +subordinate --guilty, for simply obeying, as literally as possible, the +orders of his superiors. + +He denied all the specific acts of cruelty alleged against him, such +as maltreating and killing prisoners with his own hands. The prisoners +killed for crossing the Dead Line, he claimed, should not be charged +against him, since they were simply punished for the violation of a +known order which formed part of the discipline, he believed, of all +military prisons. The statement that soldiers were given a furlough +for killing a Yankee prisoner, was declared to be “a mere idle, absurd +camp rumor.” As to the lack of shelter, room and rations for so many +prisoners, he claimed that the sole responsibility rested upon the +Confederate Government. There never were but two prisoners whipped by +his order, and these were for sufficient cause. He asked the Court to +consider favorably two important items in his defense: first, that he +had of his own accord taken the drummer boys from the Stockade, and +placed them where they could get purer air and better food. Second, +that no property taken from prisoners was retained by him, but was +turned over to the Prison Quartermaster. + +The Court, after due deliberation, declared the prisoner guilty on all +the charges and specifications save two unimportant ones, and sentenced +him to be hanged by the neck until dead, at such time and place as the +President of the United States should direct. + +November 3 President Johnson approved of the sentence, and ordered +Major General C. C. Augur to carry the same into effect on Friday, +November 10, which was done. The prisoner made frantic appeals against +the sentence; he wrote imploring letters to President Johnson, and +lying ones to the New York News, a Rebel paper. It is said that his +wife attempted to convey poison to him, that he might commit suicide +and avoid the ignomy of being hanged. When all hope was gone he nerved +himself up to meet his fate, and died, as thousands of other scoundrels +have, with calmness. His body was buried in the grounds of the Old +Capitol Prison, alongside of that of Azterodt, one of the accomplices +in the assassination of President Lincoln. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + +THE RESPONSIBILITY--WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR ALL THE MISERY--AN EXAMINATION +OF THE FLIMSY EXCUSES MADE FOR THE REBELS--ONE DOCUMENT THAT CONVICTS +THEM--WHAT IS DESIRED. + +I have endeavored to tell the foregoing story as calmly, as +dispassionately, as free from vituperation and prejudice as possible. +How well I have succeeded the reader must judge. How difficult this +moderation has been at times only those know who, like myself, have +seen, from day to day, the treason-sharpened fangs of Starvation and +Disease gnaw nearer and nearer to the hearts of well-beloved friends +and comrades. Of the sixty-three of my company comrades who entered +prison with me, but eleven, or at most thirteen, emerged alive, +and several of these have since died from the effects of what they +suffered. The mortality in the other companies of our battalion was +equally great, as it was also with the prisoners generally. Not less +than twenty-five thousand gallant, noble-hearted boys died around me +between the dates of my capture and release. Nobler men than they +never died for any cause. For the most part they were simple-minded, +honest-hearted boys; the sterling products of our Northern home-life, +and Northern Common Schools, and that grand stalwart Northern blood, +the yeoman blood of sturdy middle class freemen--the blood of the +race which has conquered on every field since the Roman Empire went +down under its sinewy blows. They prated little of honor, and knew +nothing of “chivalry” except in its repulsive travesty in the South. +As citizens at home, no honest labor had been regarded by them as too +humble to be followed with manly pride in its success; as soldiers +in the field, they did their duty with a calm defiance of danger and +death, that the world has not seen equaled in the six thousand years +that men have followed the trade of war. In the prison their conduct +was marked by the same unostentatious but unflinching heroism. Death +stared them in the face constantly. They could read their own fate in +that of the loathsome, unburied dead all around them. Insolent enemies +mocked their sufferings, and sneered at their devotion to a Government +which they asserted had abandoned them, but the simple faith, the +ingrained honesty of these plain-mannered, plain-spoken boys rose +superior to every trial. Brutus, the noblest Roman of them all, says in +his grandest flight: + + Set honor in one eye and death in the other, + And I will look on both indifferently. + +They did not say this: they did it. They never questioned their duty; no +repinings, no murmurings against their Government escaped their lips, +they took the dread fortunes brought to them as calmly, as unshrinkingly +as they had those in the field; they quailed not, nor wavered in their +faith before the worst the Rebels could do. The finest epitaph ever +inscribed above a soldier’s grave was that graven on the stone which +marked the resting-place of the deathless three hundred who fell at +Thermopylae: + + Go, stranger, to Lacedaemon,-- + And tell Sparta that we lie here in obedience to her laws. + +They who lie in the shallow graves of Andersonville, Belle Isle, +Florence and Salisbury, lie there in obedience to the precepts +and maxims inculcated into their minds in the churches and Common +Schools of the North; precepts which impressed upon them the duty of +manliness and honor in all the relations and exigencies of life; not +the “chivalric” prate of their enemies, but the calm steadfastness +which endureth to the end. The highest tribute that can be paid them +is to say they did full credit to their teachings, and they died as +every American should when duty bids him. No richer heritage was ever +bequeathed to posterity. + +It was in the year 1864, and the first three months of 1865 that these +twenty-five thousand youths mere cruelly and needlessly done to death. +In these fatal fifteen months more young men than to-day form the +pride, the hope, and the vigor of any one of our leading Cities, more +than at the beginning of the war were found in either of several States +in the Nation, were sent to their graves, “unknelled, uncoffined, +and unknown,” victims of the most barbarous and unnecessary cruelty +recorded since the Dark Ages. Barbarous, because the wit of man has not +yet devised a more savage method of destroying fellow-beings than by +exposure and starvation; unnecessary, because the destruction of these +had not, and could not have the slightest effect upon the result of the +struggle. The Rebel leaders have acknowledged that they knew the fate +of the Confederacy was sealed when the campaign of 1864 opened with the +North displaying an unflinching determination to prosecute the war to +a successful conclusion. All that they could hope for after that was +some fortuitous accident, or unexpected foreign recognition that would +give them peace with victory. The prisoners were non-important factors +in the military problem. Had they all been turned loose as soon as +captured, their efforts would not have hastened the Confederacy’s fate +a single day. + +As to the responsibility for this monstrous cataclysm of human misery +and death: That the great mass of the Southern people approved of these +outrages, or even knew of them, I do not, for an instant, believe. +They are as little capable of countenancing such a thing as any people +in the world. But the crowning blemish of Southern society has ever +been the dumb acquiescence of the many respectable, well-disposed, +right-thinking people in the acts of the turbulent and unscrupulous +few. From this direful spring has flowed an Iliad of unnumbered woes, +not only to that section but to our common country. It was this that +kept the South vibrating between patriotism and treason during the +revolution, so that it cost more lives and treasure to maintain the +struggle there than in all the rest of the country. It was this that +threatened the dismemberment of the Union in 1832. It was this that +aggravated and envenomed every wrong growing out of Slavery; that +outraged liberty, debauched citizenship, plundered the mails, gagged +the press, stiffled speech, made opinion a crime, polluted the free +soil of God with the unwilling step of the bondman, and at last crowned +three-quarters of a century of this unparalleled iniquity by dragging +eleven millions of people into a war from which their souls revolted, +and against which they had declared by overwhelming majorities in +every State except South Carolina, where the people had no voice. It +may puzzle some to understand how a relatively small band of political +desperados in each State could accomplish such a momentous wrong; +that they did do it, no one conversant with our history will deny, +and that they--insignificant as they were in numbers, in abilities, +in character, in everything save capacity and indomitable energy in +mischief--could achieve such gigantic wrongs in direct opposition to +the better sense of their communities is a fearful demonstration of the +defects of the constitution of Southern society. + +Men capable of doing all that the Secession leaders were guilty +of--both before and during the war--were quite capable of revengefully +destroying twenty-five thousand of their enemies by the most hideous +means at their command. That they did so set about destroying +their enemies, wilfully, maliciously, and with malice prepense and +aforethought, is susceptible of proof as conclusive as that which in a +criminal court sends murderers to the gallows. + +Let us examine some of these proofs: + +1. The terrible mortality at Andersonville and elsewhere was a matter +of as much notoriety throughout the Southern Confederacy as the +military operations of Lee and Johnson. No intelligent man--much less +the Rebel leaders--was ignorant of it nor of its calamitous proportions. + +2. Had the Rebel leaders within a reasonable time after this matter +became notorious made some show of inquiring into and alleviating +the deadly misery, there might be some excuse for them on the +ground of lack of information, and the plea that they did as well +as they could would have some validity. But this state of affairs +was allowed to continue over a year--in fact until the downfall of +the Confederacy--without a hand being raised to mitigate the horrors +of those places--without even an inquiry being made as to whether +they were mitigable or not. Still worse: every month saw the horrors +thicken, and the condition of the prisoners become more wretched. + +The suffering in May, 1864, was more terrible than in April; June +showed a frightful increase over May, while words fail to paint the +horrors of July and August, and so the wretchedness waxed until the +end, in April, 1865. + +3. The main causes of suffering and death were so obviously preventible +that the Rebel leaders could not have been ignorant of the ease with +which a remedy could be applied. These main causes were three in number: + +a. Improper and insufficient food. b. Unheard-of crowding together. c. +Utter lack of shelter. + +It is difficult to say which of these three was the most deadly. Let us +admit, for the sake of argument, that it was impossible for the Rebels +to supply sufficient and proper food. This admission, I know, will not +stand for an instant in the face of the revelations made by Sherman’s +March to the Sea; and through the Carolinas, but let that pass, that we +may consider more easily demonstrable facts connected with the next two +propositions, the first of which is as to the crowding together. Was +land so scarce in the Southern Confederacy that no more than sixteen +acres could be spared for the use of thirty-five thousand prisoners? +The State of Georgia has a population of less than one-sixth that of +New York, scattered over a territory one-quarter greater than that +State’s, and yet a pitiful little tract--less than the corn-patch +“clearing” of the laziest “cracker” in the State--was all that could +be allotted to the use of three-and-a-half times ten thousand young +men! The average population of the State does not exceed sixteen to +the square mile, yet Andersonville was peopled at the rate of one +million four hundred thousand to the square mile. With millions of +acres of unsettled, useless, worthless pine barrens all around them, +the prisoners were wedged together so closely that there was scarcely +room to lie down at night, and a few had space enough to have served as +a grave. This, too, in a country where the land was of so little worth +that much of it had never been entered from the Government. + +Then, as to shelter and fire: Each of the prisons was situated in the +heart of a primeval forest, from which the first trees that had ever +been cut were those used in building the pens. Within a gun-shot of +the perishing men was an abundance of lumber and wood to have built +every man in prison a warm, comfortable hut, and enough fuel to supply +all his wants. Supposing even, that the Rebels did not have the labor +at hand to convert these forests into building material and fuel, the +prisoners themselves would have gladly undertaken the work, as a means +of promoting their own comfort, and for occupation and exercise. No +tools would have been too poor and clumsy for them to work with. When +logs were occasionally found or brought into prison, men tore them to +pieces almost with their naked fingers. Every prisoner will bear me out +in the assertion that there was probably not a root as large as a bit +of clothes-line in all the ground covered by the prisons, that eluded +the faithfully eager search of freezing men for fuel. What else than +deliberate design can account for this systematic withholding from the +prisoners of that which was so essential to their existence, and which +it was so easy to give them? + +This much for the circumstantial evidence connecting the Rebel +authorities with the premeditated plan for destroying the prisoners. +Let us examine the direct evidence: + +The first feature is the assignment to the command of the prisons of +“General” John H. Winder, the confidential friend of Mr. Jefferson +Davis, and a man so unscrupulous, cruel and bloody-thirsty that at +the time of his appointment he was the most hated and feared man in +the Southern Confederacy. His odious administration of the odious +office of Provost Marshal General showed him to be fittest of tools +for their purpose. Their selection--considering the end in view, was +eminently wise. Baron Haynau was made eternally infamous by a fraction +of the wanton cruelties which load the memory of Winder. But it can be +said in extenuation of Haynau’s offenses that he was a brave, skilful +and energetic soldier, who overthrew on the field the enemies he +maltreated. If Winder, at any time during the war, was nearer the front +than Richmond, history does not mention it. Haynau was the bastard son +of a German Elector and of the daughter of a village, druggist. Winder +was the son of a sham aristocrat, whose cowardice and incompetence in +the war of 1812 gave Washington into the hands of the British ravagers. + +It is sufficient indication of this man’s character that he could look +unmoved upon the terrible suffering that prevailed in Andersonville in +June, July, and August; that he could see three thousand men die each +month in the most horrible manner, without lifting a finger in any way +to assist them; that he could call attention in a self-boastful way +to the fact that “I am killing off more Yankees than twenty regiments +in Lee’s Army,” and that he could respond to the suggestions of the +horror-struck visiting Inspector that the prisoners be given at least +more room, with the assertion that he intended to leave matters just +as they were--the operations of death would soon thin out the crowd so +that the survivors would have sufficient room. + +It was Winder who issued this order to the Commander of the Artillery: + +ORDER No. 13. + + HEADQUARTERS MILITARY PRISON, + ANDERSONVILLE, Ga., July 27, 1864. + +The officers on duty and in charge of the Battery of Florida Artillery +at the time will, upon receiving notice that the enemy has approached +within seven miles of this post, open upon the Stockade with grapeshot, +without reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense. + + JOHN H. WINDER, + Brigadier General Commanding. + + +Diabolical is the only word that will come at all near fitly +characterizing such an infamous order. What must have been the nature +of a man who would calmly order twenty-five guns to be opened with +grape and canister at two hundred yards range, upon a mass of thirty +thousand prisoners, mostly sick and dying! All this, rather than +suffer them to be rescued by their friends. Can there be any terms of +reprobation sufficiently strong to properly denounce so malignant a +monster? History has no parallel to him, save among the blood-reveling +kings of Dahomey, or those sanguinary Asiatic chieftains who built +pyramids of human skulls, and paved roads with men’s bones. How a man +bred an American came to display such a Timour-like thirst for human +life, such an Oriental contempt for the sufferings of others, is one of +the mysteries that perplexes me the more I study it. + +If the Rebel leaders who appointed this man, to whom he reported +direct, without intervention of superior officers, and who were fully +informed of all his acts through other sources than himself, were not +responsible for him, who in Heaven’s name was? How can there be a +possibility that they were not cognizant and approving of his acts? + +The Rebels have attempted but one defense to the terrible charges +against them, and that is, that our Government persistently refused +to exchange, preferring to let its men rot in prison, to yielding up +the Rebels it held. This is so utterly false as to be absurd. Our +Government made overture after overture for exchange to the Rebels, +and offered to yield many of the points of difference. But it could +not, with the least consideration for its own honor, yield up the +negro soldiers and their officers to the unrestrained brutality of the +Rebel authorities, nor could it, consistent with military prudence, +parole the one hundred thousand well-fed, well-clothed, able-bodied +Rebels held by it as prisoners, and let them appear inside of a week in +front of Grant or Sherman. Until it would agree to do this the Rebels +would not agree to exchange, and the only motive--save revenge--which +could have inspired the Rebel maltreatment of the prisoners, was the +expectation of raising such a clamor in the North as would force the +Government to consent to a disadvantageous exchange, and to give back +to the Confederacy, at its most critical period one hundred thousand +fresh, able-bodied soldiers. It was for this purpose, probably, that +our Government and the Sanitary Commission were refused all permission +to send us food and clothing. For my part, and I know I echo the +feelings of ninety-nine out of every hundred of my comrades, I would +rather have staid in prison till I rotted, than that our Government +should have yielded to the degrading demands of insolent Rebels. + +There is one document in the possession of the Government which seems +to me to be unanswerable proof, both of the settled policy of the +Richmond Government towards the Union prisoners, and of the relative +merits of Northern and Southern treatment of captives. The document is +a letter reading as follows: + + CITY POINT, Va., March 17, 1863. + +SIR:--A flag-of-truce boat has arrived with three hundred and fifty +political prisoners, General Barrow and several other prominent men +among them. + +I wish you to send me on four o’clock Wednesday morning, all the +military prisoners (except officers), and all the political prisoners +you have. If any of the political prisoners have on hand proof enough +to convict them of being spies, or of having committed other offenses +which should subject them to punishment, so state opposite their names. +Also, state whether you think, under all the circumstances, they should +be released. The arrangement I have made works largely in our favor. WE +GET RID OF A SET OF MISERABLE WRETCHES, AND RECEIVE SOME OF THE BEST +MATERIAL I EVER SAW. + +Tell Captain Turner to put down on the list of political prisoners the +names of Edward P. Eggling, and Eugenia Hammermister. The President is +anxious that they should get off. They are here now. This, of course, +is between ourselves. If you have any political prisoners whom you can +send off safely to keep her company, I would like you to send her. + +Two hundred and odd more political prisoners are on their way. + +I would be more full in my communication if I had time. Yours truly, + + ROBERT OULD, Commissioner of Exchange. + +To Brigadier general John H. Winder. + + +But, supposing that our Government, for good military reasons, or for +no reason at all, declined to exchange prisoners, what possible excuse +is that for slaughtering them by exquisite tortures? Every Government +has ap unquestioned right to decline exchanging when its military +policy suggests such a course; and such declination conveys no right +whatever to the enemy to slay those prisoners, either outright with the +edge of the sword, or more slowly by inhuman treatment. The Rebels’ +attempts to justify their conduct, by the claim that our Government +refused to accede to their wishes in a certain respect, is too +preposterous to be made or listened to by intelligent men. + +The whole affair is simply inexcusable, and stands out a foul blot on +the memory of every Rebel in high place in the Confederate Government. + +“Vengeance is mine,” saith the Lord, and by Him must this great crime +be avenged, if it ever is avenged. It certainly transcends all human +power. I have seen little indication of any Divine interposition +to mete out, at least on this earth, adequate punishment to those +who were the principal agents in that iniquity. Howell Cobb died as +peacefully in his bed as any Christian in the land, and with as few +apparent twinges of remorse as if he had spent his life in good deeds +and prayer. The arch-fiend Winder died in equal tranquility, murmuring +some cheerful hope as to his soul’s future. Not one of the ghosts of +his hunger-slain hovered around to embitter his dying moments, as he +had theirs. Jefferson Davis “still lives, a prosperous gentleman,” +the idol of a large circle of adherents, the recipient of real estate +favors from elderly females of morbid sympathies, and a man whose mouth +is full of plaints of his wrongs, and misappreciation. The rest of the +leading conspirators have either departed this life in the odor of +sanctity, surrounded by sorrowing friends, or are gliding serenely down +the mellow autumnal vale of a benign old age. + +Only Wirz--small, insignificant, miserable Wirz, the underling, the +tool, the servile, brainless, little fetcher-and-carrier of these men, +was punished--was hanged, and upon the narrow shoulders of this pitiful +scapegoat was packed the entire sin of Jefferson Davis and his crew. +What a farce! + +A petty little Captain made to expiate the crimes of Generals, Cabinet +Officers, and a President. How absurd! + +But I do not ask for vengeance. I do not ask for retribution for one +of those thousands of dead comrades, the glitter of whose sightless +eyes will follow me through life. I do not desire even justice on the +still living authors and accomplices in the deep damnation of their +taking off. I simply ask that the great sacrifices of my dead comrades +shall not be suffered to pass unregarded to irrevocable oblivion; +that the example of their heroic self-abnegation shall not be lost, +but the lesson it teaches be preserved and inculcated into the minds +of their fellow-countrymen, that future generations may profit by it, +and others be as ready to die for right and honor and good government +as they were. And it seems to me that if we are to appreciate their +virtues, we must loathe and hold up to opprobrium those evil men whose +malignity made all their sacrifices necessary. I cannot understand what +good self-sacrifice and heroic example are to serve in this world, if +they are to be followed by such a maudlin confusion of ideas as now +threatens to obliterate all distinction between the men who fought and +died for the Right and those who resisted them for the Wrong. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSONVILLE, COMPLETE *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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