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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +Andersonville +By John McElroy + + + + 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 meaningthey 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 a11. 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 th 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 sigmal, 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 d 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 + +"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 XL + +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--VACC1NATION 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 XVL + +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 vas 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 vas 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 lie 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 be 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 vas 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 bog 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, oi 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 yearly 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 XXXVL + +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 m +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, you 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 re turn 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 a 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 I 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 ski1l 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. + +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 u4told 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 XLVII. + +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 Harvey, 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 Harvey 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. + +Harvey 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." + +Harvey 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 Harvey 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 Harvey 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 XLVIII. + +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-1-1 '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 II. + +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 th 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 OF 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 tones( 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 arid 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 be 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 a,gin 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 bad 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 p1ace 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 1n 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 LXXXII. + +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 LXXXIII. + +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 this Project Gutenberg Etext of Andersonville, by John McElroy + |