PRISON RULES
I also preserved a copy of the Prison Rules here, which is as follows:
"Headquarters, U. S. Forces,
Morris Island, S. C.,
September 7, 1864.
"The following Rules and Regulations are hereby announced for the government of the camp of the prisoners of war:
"The prisoners will be divided into eight detachments, seventy-five in each, lettered A, B, C, etc., each prisoner numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. Each detachment will be under the charge of a warden, who will be detailed from the guard for that duty. There will be three roll calls each day, the first at one-half hour before sunrise, at which time the prisoners will be counted by the wardens, and the reports will be taken by the officer of the day at the company streets before the ranks are broken. Each warden will see that the quarters in his detachment are properly policed, and will make the detail necessary for that duty. Sick-call will be at 9 o'clock A. M. each day. Each warden will make a morning report to the officer in charge on blanks suitable for that purpose. There will be two barrel sinks for each detachment, which will be placed on the flanks of the companies during the day and in the company streets at night. They will be emptied after each roll call by a detail from each detachment. No talking will be allowed after evening roll call, and no prisoner will leave his tent after that time except to obey the calls of nature. During the day the prisoners will be allowed the limits of the camp as marked by the rope running between the stockade and the line of tents. Prisoners passing this line under any pretense whatever will be shot by the sentinels. No persons except the guard and officers on duty at the camp will be allowed to communicate with the prisoners without written permission from these or superior headquarters. The sentinels will always have their guns loaded and capped. If more than ten prisoners are seen together, except at meal-time and roll call, they will be warned to disperse, and if they do not obey at once, they will be fired upon by the sentries.
"If there is any disturbance whatever in the camp or any attempt made by the prisoners to escape, the camp will be opened upon with grape and canister, musketry, and the Requa Batteries.
"If a prisoner is sick, he may be allowed to purchase such luxuries as the surgeon in charge may direct. The prisoners will be allowed to purchase only the following named articles: Writing materials, pipes, tobacco, and necessary clothing.
"Everything bought by or sent to them will be inspected by the provost marshal. The prisoners will be allowed to write letters, one a week, not more than one-half sheet of paper to each letter. The letters will be opened and pass through the hands of the provost marshal before being mailed. No candles or light of any kind will be allowed. The hours for meals are as follows: Breakfast, 7 A. M.; dinner, 12 M.; supper, 5 P. M. The rations will be cooked and served under the direction of the provost marshal.
By order of—
"Lieut.-Col. William Gurney,
127th Regt. N. Y. Vol., Com. Post.
"R. H. L. Jevoett,
Capt. 54 Mass. Vol., A. A. A. G."
"Official: Geo. N. Little,
1st. Lt. 127th R. N. Y. V.,
A. A. A. C."
CHAPTER XIX
To Fort Pulaski—Rotten Cornmeal and
Pickled Rations—A Plot Laid
On the 17th of October the prisoners were notified to be ready to move at daylight next morning. In one of the tents the next morning, in order to see how to get ready, one of the prisoners struck a light, when the negro guard fired into the tent, wounding two of the occupants badly, one through the knee and the other in the shoulder. On the 18th we were marched to the wharf and put aboard two old hulks and towed out to sea. We had been forty-two days in this stockade and were glad enough to get away. But alas! we did not know what was in store for us later on. Three days' rations, so-called, had been issued—fifteen crackers and about five or six ounces of bacon. After being at sea three days and two nights, one hulk-load of 300 were landed at Fort Pulaski, on Tybee Island, Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River, and the other 300 were landed at Hilton Head, a short distance up the coast.
Fort Pulaski was built of brick, with very thick walls, surrounded by a wide moat, was very damp, and when the east winds blew, very cold and disagreeable, there being no window-lights in the embrasures to the casements in which the prisoners were confined—only iron bars. Here the prisoners were guarded by the 127th N. Y. Regiment, commanded by Col. W. W. Brown, who treated the prisoners kindly.
In this regiment there were a great many youths in their teens. I remarked on this in a conversation with a Yankee sergeant, who stated that these boys were put into the army by their fathers for the sake of the large bounties paid, which, in many cases, amounted to $2,000 and over, and that these fathers were using the money to buy homes and lands for themselves.
Just like a Yankee—he would sell his own flesh and blood for money!
The Confederate soldiers were patriots, fighting for their country, while a large majority of the Yankee army were hirelings, fighting for money. Yet these hirelings are lauded as patriots by the North and pensioned by the United States Government!
For a time the rations were better here than on Morris Island. All the men and officers of this regiment had seen service in the field and had a fellow-feeling for a soldier, although he was a "Rebel" prisoner. Whenever we were guarded by Yankees who had never seen service in the field, they were as mean as snakes. The guards at Fort Delaware were of the latter kind—they shot several prisoners without cause. One instance I remember was that of Colonel —— Jones, of Virginia, who was sick and very feeble, scarcely able to walk. He had gone to the sink and had started back when a guard ordered him to move faster, which he could not do, and was shot through the body, dying the next day. The miscreant boasted that, "This makes two Rebels my gun has killed."