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agreeable. The old lady, a tall, angular woman, with a Roman nose and dark penetrating eye, was fired with malicious rage towards the Yankees. Coming into the house and finding the floor covered with the suffering wounded, she gave vent to her feelings in a tirade which I shall never wish to hear repeated, and which I can never forget. "Oh, you wretches," said she, "I am glad to hear you groan. If I durst, I would set fire to the house and burn it over your heads.” And I think she would have done so, but for fear of the guards, who, I must say, treated us kindly. A brave soldier, let him fight on whatever side he may, is always magnanimous and merciful to his captive. It is the dastard and coward who uses this opportunity to inflict upon his helpless captive a humiliation or insult.

On Wednesday, September 23d, I got permission to go over that part of the battlefield on which the 113th had fought on Sunday afternoon, thinking I might find some of my comrades of the regiment who were yet alive, and to whom I might be of some service. I found every bush and tree bearing the marks of the conflict; every object was marked with grape, cannon and rifle balls; even the small twigs had been cut down, and the forest appeared as though a mighty whirlwind had swept through it. I counted on one tree the marks of forty shots, and the wonder is that any man could stand in such a place and live for a moment.

I found our dead here and there, lying where they fell-sometimes singly, sometimes in groups, all unburied. I recognized the faces of a number of the 113th, among the dead; many of the wounded were yet alive, but all I could do for the poor fellows was to give them a drink of water. Captain Joshua M. Wells, Company C, 113th O. V. I., was still alive, having been shot through the left lung. He was fully conscious, and expressed hopes of recovery. Giving what attention I could, I returned to our hospital at the old house, and giving an old man two dollars, I had the Captain brought in and placed where I could give him attention. Here I gave him all possible care, but under the circumstances very little extra care could be bestowed upon a single one.

Captain Wells lived till the following Sunday, September 27th, and met death like a heroic Christian soldier. While I attended him, he expressed a great desire that his body should be sent home to his family at Columbus, O., in case of his death. I assured him it should be done if possible, but I felt utterly powerless to do so. The Captain's body was laid in a grave prepared by my hands; I also marked his grave by a headboard, cutting thereon his name, company and regiment. I afterwards wrote to his widow, giving her an account of the incidents of his closing hours, and of the sad rites I had performed. Some months later, when the Federal troops obtained possession of the battlefield, the body was exhumed and sent home in a good state of preservation.

For a week following the Captain's death we remained in this place, continually burdened with the care of the wounded and the burial of the dead. Up to this time, fourteen days after the conflict, the dead

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were not all buried, and the stench arising from the decaying bodies, surpassed all description, and I am inclined to think caused the speedy death of many of our wounded.

An exchange of wounded prisoners on both sides, was now effected by, and between General Rosecrans and General Bragg. We prisoners who had remained thus in care of the sick, had allowed ourselves to hope that we would be included in the exchange; but we were doomed to disappointment, for, on the day following, we were mustered into line, our name, company and regiment listed, and we were marched to a station on the railroad between Chattanooga and Ringgold, where we were loaded in box cars, a hundred men to each car, and sent south to Atlanta. Remaining two days at Atlanta, we were again loaded on a train and sent to Richmond, Va., arriving at our destination about the 10th or 12th of October, 1863.

None of us had believed that our imprisonment would last but a few days, and had expected nearly every day before leaving northern Georgia, to be exchanged and returned to our commands. Upon arriving at Richmond, we were marched across two long bridges, which span the James river, below the falls, and thence down a street running parallel with the river, and thence into the famous building known as Libby.

Libby stood on the bank of the James. It was a long, brick building, with basement and two stories, and had probably been used as a wholesale tobacco house. The long way of the building was up and down the river, or, in other words, the building stood with its side to the river. On its end front was the sign "Libby & Son." Nearly four hundred of us were quartered on the lower floor of this building on our arrival, and the same evening we had issued to us, a small piece of brown bread and a half pint of thin soup to each man—not half enough to satisfy our appetites. Piling ourselves upon the hard floor, we rested well for the night, for the journey of several hundred miles had been one of fatigue and unrest.

Next morning the prison was visited by two Confederate officials, accompanied by half a dozen guards, and the work of robbing the prisoners of their money in a business-like manner began. We were told to surrender our money to the officers for safe keeping; that an account of it would be kept for us and the amount returned to us whenever we left the prison. We were also told that those who refused to surrender their money voluntarily, would be searched, and all money thus found would not be returned. Having thirty-three dollars, I thought I would divide with them; so pulling off my boot, I secreted twenty dollars therein. When my turn came to "stand and deliver," I handed over thirteen dollars, and all was satisfactory. One of my fellow prisoners had four hundred dollars in gold, all of which he handed over to these robbers. Nearly every one of us had more or less money, and by the time they were through taking care of it for us, they had a considerable pile of greenbacks, and they seemed thoroughly satisfied with the amount realized, for not a man was searched, and the few who had the good sense to keep their money,

saved it all. Not a cent of this money was ever returned, nor was there any intention of returning it when it was taken. It was a cowardly, heartless theft. The second day we received our rations in kind and quantity like the first, but as before, the quantity was far short of our necessities, and after eating the whole quantity, we were almost as hungry as before.

The next day we were marched out of Libby and put into another prison known as "Pemberton's Building." This prison stood further east than Libby, and on the opposite side of the street. It was a large three story brick, with a cellar the full size of the foundation; a brick partition divided it into two nearly equal apartments. we were put into this prison, it was already full of prisoners, but we were crowded in among the rest, and now it was with great difficulty that we could find room to lie down. I, with others of my comrades, found a place on the third floor. The men on each floor drew their rations separately, and according to the number of men on each. One of our number was appointed to receive the rations for all the men on one floor, after which a sub-division was made to squads of twenty-five men, and then these twenty-five would sub-divide, giving to each man his portion with exactness, for even a crumb is a matter of contention among starving men. Our rations were cooked and prepared for us in the basement of Libby prison, and each day a certain number of men were detailed from each floor to go after them. rations now consisted of a very small piece of old bacon, boiled, a half pint of thin soup made of the water in which the bacon was boiled, a small piece of bread. This was not sufficient for one good meal a day, and our hunger was never satisfied. As soon as our food, which was intended for three meals, was issued to us, we ate it all in one, and then hungered till the same hour the next day. I have been so hungry that when I got my soup, thickened with skippers which came out of the meat in boiling, that I never pretended to separate the skippers from the soup, but greedily swallowed skippers and soup together, and thought it excellent. We all did the same in this respect. Every atom of food was precious in our eyes, and being continually hungry, our minds and conversation dwelt upon things we wished to eat. It appeared to us that if we could only have had enough to eat, that notwithstanding our loathsome confinement, we would have been the happiest creatures alive.

Our

Nearly every day flying reports of an exchange were circulating among the prisoners, and our hopes were alternately buoyed and depressed by these groundless reports, originating-nobody knew where; and yet for all this, they served to keep us hopeful. But as day after day passed and no exchange came, I began to despair of being speedily exchanged, and began to look about and devise means and mature plans of escape. These thoughts I kept to myself, but it was several days before I struck a plan that was at all practical. There was quite a trade, in a small way, kept up between the prisoners on the inside and the guards on the outside of the building. This was in violation of orders, and whatever was done in this line

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