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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express

 

Welcome to
Morgan County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

.

HISTORY OF MORGAN CO., OHIO
with
PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
of some of its
PIONEERS AND PROMINENT MEN
By Charles Robertson, M. D.
Revised and Extended by the Publishers
Chicago:
L. H. Watkins & Co.
1886

MILITARY
 

CHAPTER XII.
PRISON EXPERIENCES.
pg. 222

Volunteer Militia - Early organization in Morgan County - The Mexican Campaign - Morgan County's Part Therein - Morgan in the Rebellion - The 17th Ohio Regiment_Co H - 26th Regiment -2nd Co - 25th Regiment - Co. H - 2d West Virginia Cavalry - Captain Scott's Cavalry Company18th Regiment - 17th (Three Years) Regiment - 62d Regiment - 77th Regiment - 78th Regiment 86th Regiment - 97th Regiment - 122d Regiment - 9th Cavalry - 161st Regiment, O. N. G.1st Regiment Heavy Artillery - 78th O. V. I. - Co. D - 77th O. V. I. - Co. K - U. S. Signal Detachment - 193d O. V. I. - Miscellaneous List - Captain Joseph Francis Sonnanstine - Hughes Post No. 285, G. A. R.
- Reminiscences of Prison Experience.

ANDERSONVILLE.

     Andersonville prison was in Sumter County, Georgia, and contained about forty acres inclosed by a stockade of logs set endwise in the ground, and about ten feet high.  Attached to it were guard houses at intervals of about 100 feet, which overlooked what they appropriately called the "dead-line," about ten feet from the stockade on the inside.  At the front of the prison were three other stockades with heavy gates.  The entrance or vestibule of the pen, which prevented the escape of prisoners in either large or small bodies on the right, were earthworks, with cannon mounted ready for action.  A little further to the right was the cookhouse.  On the left was the hospital intended

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for sick Union prisoners - but few were taken there - many dying at the gate while waiting for medicine: but the principal number died in the larger apartment.  A small creek ran through the middle of the inclosure, and at an angle with it was about five acres of swamp, thus reducing our parade ground to about thirty-five acres.  On one side of the stream the soil was almost entirely sand - on the other - yellow clay.  In this space the 40,000 prisoners were crowded without shelter of any kind.  The trees that were standing on the ground when it was first occupied were cut down and the roots dug up for fuel.  The possessor of a blanket could to some extent obviate his discomfort; but without it or a substitute the prisoner could burrow in the yellow clay for a brief period preliminary to being carried to the “long trench.”  Through this yellow clay there were from time to time several tunnels made under the stockade; but as far as was known all were failures.  The venturer was either captured by the rebel guard or torn to pieces by the bloodhounds.
     Of the victims of the “ dead line,” starvation or disease, there were about, 13,000 prisoners buried in a trench, a few inches deep, and wide enough for the length of the body.  Thus, side by side, they braved shells or starvation.  The officers of the prison extended no favors to any of the prisoners, except to Free Masons.  When they were recognized in the prison the officers would generally find something for them to do on the outside; and if a Mason died he was more respectably buried.
     *The narrator of this sketch volunteered in the United States signal service corp at Columbus, O., and went into camp at Georgetown, D. C., and from there with a squad to General Siegel’s army.  He was captured by Mosby’s men at Middletown, between Martinsburg and Winchester, on the 13th of May, 1864, and with about 150 prisoners was marched across the country to Gordonsville, thence to Andersonville, where his stay was until September, 1864; thence to Charleston, S. C., and from there to Florence, where he remained until March 4, 1864; from thence to Wilmington, A. C., and from there to Annapolis, Md., from which place he returned to his home.
     Mr. A. Arrick furnishes the following interesting synopsis of an interview with James P. Hartzell, of company G, 78th Regiment, O. V. 1., Col. M. D. Leggett:
     "I was captured at Atlanta, Ga., on 22d of July, 1864, with twenty others of our regiment.  About 7 p. m. the prisoners, two thousand in number, captured that day, were marched by a long detour to the rear of Atlanta.  From here our officers were sent to Charleston, S. C., and we saw them no more.  We remained here until the 24th, when we started and marched during that and the following two days, and arrived at Lovejoy Station, whence we took the cars to Macon, Ga.
     “At Macon we were treated with great kindness by the ladies.  They brought us warm biscuit, milk, wine and ham, and many other luxuries to which we had long been strangers.  One, whose name I regret 1 cannot recall, was particularly kind to me, and talked of her own boy in the Confederate army, while the tears rolled down her cheeks.  I was then only about seventeen years of age, and her

---------------
     * Albert Worley, of McConnelsville, Ohio.

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motherly kindness produced an impression which will ever be remembered.  After leaving Macon we were at Andersonville at noon.
     "We were marched from the station to the front of the stockade and formed in line, and we were introduced to Captain Wurz.  Being in line, we were ordered to open ranks and unsling knapsacks.  The guards then ‘went through our traps,' appropriating everything in our possession, whether valuable or worthless, taking even our knives, forks and spoons.  By some inadvertance, my blanket was left lying in front of me, and when the order ‘march’ was given, with a soldier’s instinct, I reached for it, when a revolver was thrust into my face, and there stood the redoubtable Captain Wurz, who in broken English exclaimed, ‘Yon tarn Yankee, ven I says march I means you to go.’  I went, bidding farewell to my blanket.
     “We were then turned in like cattle, without tent or blanket.  While looking on the scene with anxious wonder, I was accosted by G. W. Sprinkle, a member of our regiment, who had for some time been a boarder, he was an intimate friend, and his assistance and instructions were of great benefit.  Twenty men of our regiment together occupied a spot of ground ten feet square, appropriated to our use, and this was our ‘home.’
     "The inmates were divided into detachments of 270 men, under the charge of a rebel sergeant.  These were again sub-divided, forming three divisions, commanded in like manner by a sergeant.  The business of the sergeants was to draw and issue rations for their respective commands.  This duty was attended to every evening.  The first day it would be a half-pound of corn bread, half a pint of raw beans and about half a pound of cooked bacon.  The next day we would have a half pint of raw corn meal, three spoonfuls of raw rice and a half pound of raw beef.  The third day it would be our former allowance of corn bread, a half pint of ‘nigger’ beans cooked in the pod, and a half pint of sorghum syrup.  The dead were carried away and deposited promiscuously beneath the soil, in a land they had died to continue ‘a land of the free and a home of the brave.’
     “The ‘dead line’ was a mark made by stakes driven in the ground and connected by slats, and was so called because the guard was ordered to shoot any one crossing or touching it.  On one accasion a famished prisoner, in his efforts to obtain a cup of water less filthy than usual, reaching under the slat, happened to touch it.  No sooner than he did so, the guard fired, scattering the poor fellow’s brains over some of us who stood near.
     “But this lack of good water was removed by a singular phenomenon.  On the elevation some distance from the stream, a spring of pure and delicious water burst forth, affording an abundant quantity, which we utilized by a sluice-way to a lower level and used there for a bathing pool, sustaining the lives of many.
     “About the 17th September, 1864, an order came to muster 2,000 able bodied men for exchange.  I was included in the list, as I weighed ninety-five pounds.  My name was the tenth one called, to which there was at least a dozen answers; but crowding up to the gate with one who had been my comrade through all, we made good our exit.

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We were not long- in reaching our regiment, then at ‘Rough and Ready,’ near Atlanta.  Oh! it was one of my happy, happy days.”

LIBBY AND BELLE ISLE.

     * "I was a member of Company D, 122d Regiment, O. V. I., Colonel W. H. Ball commanding.  I was taken prisoner on the 14th of June, 1863, at Winchester, Va., by Lee's forces on their way to Gettysburg.
     "On the second morning after our capture we were conducted up the valley on foot to Staunton.  It required nearly three days to march that distance.  From Staunton we were taken to Richmond by the cars, and there we were placed in a tobacco warehouse, where we remained two or three days, then were removed to the second floor of the famous Libby prison; thence, after a stay of three or four days, by way of variety, we were sent over to Belle Isle, where we were detained and entertained ten or twelve days, until July 10 or 12, when we were paroled.  “Our r daily bill of fare on the way up the valley, and until we reached Richmond, was two pints of flour and a little salt.  Afterward, and while we were in prison at Richmond, our diet consisted of a piece of baker’s bread, about two inches square, and half a pint of field-pea soup, meat and maggots all mixed together each day.  While in the warehouse and Libby proper we were admonished by the guard to keep away from the grated windows or he ‘mought’ shoot.  While I was at Belle Isle there were about 500 prisoner, at least half of them without tent or shelter, sitting or lying exposed to the rays of a July sun, on the burning hot sand, in which the ‘graybacks’ were only to be distinguished by their size and capacity for locomotion.
     “The water privileges were to some extent of a military order.  At given intervals the entire number of prisoners were formed in line and marched to the edge of the river, each taking his drink and countermarching, many being so much exhausted as to be only able to crawl to the designated locality.”
     ** “I was a member of Company B, 62d Regiment, O. V. I., Colonel F. B. Pond commanding, and was taken prisoner at the charge on Fort Wagner.  Morris Island, S. C., on the 18th of July, 1863, with seventy-six of our brigade at the same time.  We were taken to Charleston and put in jail, where we were kept for two days.  In the afternoon of the 20th we were put on the cars and carried up to Columbia, and again put in jail and feasted on boiled rice (cold), one tablespoonful twice a day. 
     “While here we were for a short time in charge of a Captain Linn, who by the way was a Presbyterian preacher; and in justice to him I must say I think he was a gentlemen and a Christian, as he was very kind to us while he had us in charge, and I afterward heard him denounce the holding and starving of prisoners; but he was under orders, however, and could not prevent it.
     “We were held at Columbia nearly two months, then sent to Richmond and put in the Libby prison.  Here, for the first time, we were searched for money or anything we had, which was taken from us, from a match to an ancient penny or army relic, blankets, haversacks, canteens, pocket knives - all but the clothes we had on, and our pocket bibles.  We were only kept in Libby

---------------
     * C. J. Gibson, of Stockport, Ohio.
     ** C. H. Laughridge, of McConnelsville, Ohio.

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three days and were well searched twice in that time; then we were taken over to Belle Isle.  In the inclosure in which we were confined there was no evidence that there had ever been a tree or even a blade of grass.  For the first three months there was no tent or shelter of any kind to protect us from the burning sun, or storms; and being entirely destitute of blankets, or other covering, our sleeping was done in the day time, as it required as much exercise as we could take after night as the only means of keeping warm.  Our beds were at any point within the ‘dead line’ where we might chance to be.
     “ About the first of January, 1864, we got tents of a very inferior quality; they were old tents that our government had condemned, and by some means had come into possession of the rebels.  They would not turn rain, but only answered for a wind-break during the cold and stormy winter, for we had no fire during that entire time.
     “In March they gave us the privilege of carrying wood nearly half a mile distant with the understanding that we should have all that we could carry; but if any one took a bigger load than he could carry all the way to camp without stopping to rest, he must take it to the rebel officers’ tent.  By this means they got all the wood they wanted, and we scarcely any, for the reason that we were feeble and could scarcely walk without the wood.
     “Our camp was inclosed by a four-foot ditch and the embankment on the outside for the guards; but I wish to give further evidence of the brutal treatment we received.  The ditch was eighteen inches deep; at each corner of our enclosure there was a well, dug the depth of a barrel, in which the water must stand at the same height as that in the ditch; from these wells, or barrels, alone could we obtain our water to drink.  The ditch being used as a receptacle for filth, the water from it would filter into the barrels or wells.
     “The rations furnished us while on the island were bad beyond comparison.  At first they gave ns a piece of wheat bread about half the size of a man’s fist twice a day; sometimes a little meat once a day, not more for a hundred men than ten could eat; but this did not continue.  As the time lengthened the rations were abbreviated both in quantity and quality.  The initial of this arrangement was bread made of wheat and pea flour, mixed in equal quantities, served without meat, but with a little pea soup - a common wooden bucket full for 100 men.  Then corn bread alone, without salt and only partially baked, each man being furnished a piece an inch and a half square and half an inch thick, at first twice a day, then once a day with intervals of one or two days, and once the intermission was three days, but no increase in quantity or improvement in quality.
     “During the time I was on the Isle I think there were not more than seventeen or eighteen of our boys who died on the Isle, but when death was ascertained to be certain they were started for Richmond, and they either died on the way or soon after arrival.  Of those that did die on the Isle numbers were not buried, but were thrown outside the camp to be devoured by the hogs.’"
 

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