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Recollections of Prison Life at Andersonville, Georgia and Florence, South Carolina
EXCERPTS
- Page 22-23
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- "Is it any wonder that at such a time as this our minds should wander back to the past? That, as we gathered in little groups, we should wonder that the boys in camp were doing? Who all in our company were being buried in the rifle pits? Who all were wounded? But we had to wait long for an answer to these queries -- and when the answer came, it brought additional sorrow to our hearts; for as in peaceful homes, so it is in the camp of the soldier: Death loves a shining mark." First among our officers was Major General James B. McPherson, who at that time commanded the Army of the Tennessee. He was emphatically the friend of the private soldier. He was universally beloved, and his death was universally lamented. He was both a soldier and a gentleman. Our guards informed us of his death the day after the battle.
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- Page 34
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- "August 3d. 240 prisoners came in today, mostly from the 8th Iowa Cavalry. One man was shot this morning for putting his head past the dead line."
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- Page 38
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- "By the side of him was a small tent occupied by four or five men from on of the New England States. Sometimes in the heat of the day I have seen this man raise the edge of the tent and put his head under it until horrid oaths he was ordered to "get out of that." he lay in this condition for several days, when the blow flies set in. followed by worms and in a few days Death signed his discharge."
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- Page 38
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- "In my journal under the date of August 11th, I find this record. "The deaths in prison and the hospital are about 150 per day. The deaths during the month amounted to something over three thousand."
- p. 67
- "Still I left there with thoughts of sadness, for one of the four of us who lodged together had become so reduced that we were obliged to leave him there and (just as we had supposed) it was to die. S.S. Martin only lived one week after I left one of four and was this to be the fate of Company G? Time proved as much, for of the 14 who were captured on the 22nd of July, only 10 ever reached their homes."
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- p. 67
- "I left Andersonville Sept. 12 after 45 days experience there and I left there hoping that was to be the end of my prison lift, but no there was 90 days experience yet in store for me, an exchange truly, but only an exchange from one prison to another."
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- p. 70
- "The guards all rode upon the top of the cars, and the next morning about daylight while the guards were very dull and many of them asleep and the train running very slow, three of Mt. Pleasants best boys thought they would rather run the risk of making their escape than to run the risk of going to another prison.
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.. Perhaps Mr. Hummel will favor the public an account of it."
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- p. 74
- "On Saturday, there was a general break of the guard line. About two hundred yards distant there was a fence and then a swamp. Myself and Hull had been planning to run the guard at night and make our escape. So when we saw the general break we decided to try our luck
With myself there were C.T. Hull, and B.F. Bower. The other two were J.C. Courtney and J. Beeler. We took our course toward the north star."
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- p. 81
- "Here I sold my watch for $20, which gave me a little capital to set up in business, so I formed a co-partnership with on Mathias Paxton, now of Rome, and we did a thriving business in buying turnips and potatoes, and cooking and dishing them out at ten cents a dish. In this way we made enough to furnish us with one comfortable meal a day, which made our condition much better than others who were not in any business at all."
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- p. 83
- "At this time the camp was under the command of Colonel Harrison. Besides him there was one Lieutenant Barrett of the 5th Georgia and any one who was there will remember him as the red headed Lieutenant, a man who for geniune "cussedness" could not be outdone."
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- p. 86
- "They furnished two sacks of beans, one white, and one dark. The white ones to represent McClennan (the white mans candidate) and the black ones represented Mr. Lincoln, and each man was allowed to deposit one bean in another sack, taking his choice of colors. (I can not say whether they still continue that method of holding elections or not.) But be that as it may, we were very well satisfied with both the method and the results, for I believe that the black beans predominated at about the rate of three to one and they were very much surprised at the "counting out."
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- p. 97-98
- "He had been put in there in December without anything to cook or even draw his rations in. As he was from Illinois, we had arranged to keep together. When he came to sign his parole, the Colonel asked him how long he had been a prisoner and it was but a few days, he told him he could go back into prison as he had not seen enough of the Southern Confederacy."
     
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