What a contrast between these men in prison and when they left their homes! There they were patriotic and industrious boys and young men—youths in their first flush of manhood and a life of honor to themselves and usefulness to the community. Boys precious in the affections of home, of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and sweethearts, their minds aglow with high aspirations of a bright future were sent into this hell, to be sacrificed here for their country. Is it any wonder that we dreamed every night of our homes and friends? Scarcely a night passed that I did not dream of being at home and getting something to eat. Then on awakening from such happy dreams what a disappointment it seemed!
“He Knows Me, the Cherub.”
Dream of Home and Wife.
Dear reader, think of it, what it cost to save this great government from destruction. Many a patriotic young man could have saved his life and health by going out of prison on parole, and working for the Confederate government, as they offered us an opportunity to do. But the boys refused to do this. They told them they would rather rot in prison than work for them. This was genuine patriotism, when death was staring them in the face. They refused to do anything to save their own lives which would in the least reflect upon our flag.
Thus many brave and good boys passed from this life while in these prisons, in a most wretched condition. I am at a loss to decide what words to use, in order to express to the reader in a mild form the sad scenes witnessed in some of our comrades’ dying hours, in the prisons, during the winter of 1863 and 1864. The condition of our sick and helpless comrades I partly described in former pages, and here I will merely describe a scene in my unvarnished language, which will probably cover hundreds of cases. One day while I was walking through a crowded part of the prison pen I saw a fellow-prisoner—apparently a young man—lying on the ground. He appeared to me as if he were in a helpless condition. His face was pale where it was not black from prison filth, hair long and matted, clothing thin and torn, arms bare nearly to the elbows, and other parts of the body exposed, caused by worn-out clothing. He looked more like a skeleton than a living man. He was lying upon the bare ground, which was perhaps slightly frozen. As I stated before, the prison pen was entirely destitute of anything which could be placed between his poor, chilled body and the ground. We were all helpless, as far as making him comfortable. This boy was undoubtedly of the class mentioned in former lines, honest, patriotic, and loved by his home relatives and friends. He was now in a destitute and dying condition, with no mother, father, sister or brother to comfort him, to soothe his fevered brow, and to whom he could communicate his last dying words. In some instances similar to this case the last feeble words of the dying man to a comrade would be: “Tell my folks that I died for my country”; and in a feeble voice give the last good-bye.
Who was responsible for the intense sufferings and destruction of Union soldiers confined in southern military prisons during the War of the Rebellion from 1861 to 1865? is a question sometimes asked. I am not able to answer that question fully, but can give only my opinion in some respects, and certify to what I saw and know in regard to it. I believe that a large majority of the people of the South would not have permitted the cruel treatment of our soldiers in their prisons, if they could have prevented it, but they were powerless. The men in authority in the Confederacy were many of them responsible for our cruel treatment.
Of course the South was nearly destitute of some things for which we suffered during our confinement in their prisons. But they possessed plenty of fresh air, fuel (in coal and wood), good clean water, and material with which we could have built shelters for ourselves. If they would have supplied us with the above mentioned four articles, our sufferings would not have been one-half as great as they were.
Some people censured the United States government for leaving us in prison so long a time, claiming that the government would not consent to an exchange of prisoners, because the Confederates in our prisons in the North, if exchanged, would have been able to enter their army as soon as exchanged. But our men from southern prisons would not, on account of being disabled for service. I know we were disabled nearly all of us for a lifetime.
Our faithful endurance in southern prisons was a very large factor in bringing the war to a successful close, but it was a barbarous and cruel manner to use soldiers. If it is true that the United States government would not exchange, it does not excuse the men in authority in the Confederacy, who were responsible for the most of our sufferings while we were confined in southern military prisons.
The truth of our cruel treatment was corroborated by many southern people at the time of our confinement in their prisons, and they petitioned the Confederate authorities, praying for the betterment of our treatment. But the Confederate authorities turned a deaf ear, and would do nothing to relieve our sufferings.