In and Out of Rebel Prisons

by A. Cooper

This jail yard itself was filthy to a fearful degree, and was enough to create an epidemic. An old privy occupied the south-west corner of the ground, the vault of which overflowed into the yard and emitted an effluvia that would be certain to create disease, even in an otherwise healthy locality. We petitioned to have this nuisance abated, and after a week or more, upon the recommendation of Dr. Todd, who was the attending physician, and who tried to do all within his power to render our situation more bearable, some men were sent in one night to tear down the old privy and clean out the vault.

This took all night and most of the next day, and during that time, Charleston jail yard was the most revolting place that civilized humanity ever occupied and lived.

As I have said, there were only fifty “A” tents to accommodate six hundred officers and, as not over two hundred and fifty could possibly be crowded into these, there were three hundred and fifty officers without shelter of any kind, and as the weather part of the time was rainy, the suffering among those was fearful and a frightful mortality must have ensued, had we been compelled to have remained there much longer. As it was, I have no doubt that the germs of disease were planted there that afterwards cropped out in some form, and perhaps in many cases resulted in broken constitutions, and even death.

Another prolific source of suffering was the lack of fuel with which to cook our scanty rations.

In our extremity we broke up the lumber of the old privy that had been torn down, and tried to cook with that; but as the pails we used to cook in were mostly without covers, and the old lumber was so thoroughly permeated with the filth it had so many years covered, that the rations thus cooked were too revolting to the stomach to be eaten.

The ground of the jail yard was a sandy loam, and the yard having been occupied by prisoners for a long time, was actually alive with vermin, with which we were soon supplied to an extent that was discouraging to those who had any ideas of cleanliness.

In the centre of the yard was a gallows, which had evidently been erected for a long time, and had probably done considerable service. This was a post about twenty-five feet high, with a horizontal arm extending out about eight feet; at the extreme end of this arm and also at the top of the post where the arm joined it, there were pulleys for a rope to run through. A weight at the end of the rope running down the posts, acted as a drop to elevate the body of the victim from the ground and lifted him towards the end of the extending arm. This gallows we cut down and used for fuel. Dr. Todd, as I have said was the prison physician, and was, I believe, a brother of Mrs. President Lincoln.

Reader, do you wonder that we were willing to give our parole not to escape, for the privilege of exchanging this loathsome and pest breeding jail yard, for good, healthy, clean quarters, where we could have all of the facilities for cleanliness, such as were offered to us?

About the 1st of October a fire broke out just after noon, about six or eight hundred yards to the north-east of where we were then confined, on Broad street, overlooking the bay.

As the alarm was sounded, we gathered upon the piazzas to watch its progress. We could see the firemen dragging their apparatus to the fire, and were watching their preparations to extinguish it, when suddenly, we heard the familiar boom of Gilmore’s “Swamp Angel,” and presently saw a shell explode among a group of firemen, who hastily scattered in every direction.