NAMES OF ENLISTED MEN WHO DIED IN REBEL PRISONS.
It is impossible to ascertain the names of all the members of the regiment who were captured by the enemy and held as prisoners of war during the regiment's term of service; but the following is believed to be a complete list of those who died during their captivity:—
Private Israel H. Smith, of Company C, the sole survivor of ten members of the regiment captured at Rutledge, Tenn., soon after the raising of the Siege of Knoxville, has furnished the substance of the following brief narrative of the circumstances attending the capture and the sufferings endured by himself and the brave comrades who did not survive the hardships and cruelty attending their confinement.
While the regiment was encamped at Rutledge, East Tennessee, during the pursuit of Longstreet, after the Siege of Knoxville, Smith, with nine other members of the Thirty-sixth, and a small detail from the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania, under charge of Sergeant Charles H. Boswell, of the Thirty-sixth, were ordered out on a foraging expedition, the regiment being greatly in need of subsistence supplies. While out for this purpose they took possession of an old mill about four miles from camp. The detail of the Thirty-sixth was composed of Sergeant Charles H. Boswell, Privates Daniel H. Park, Lucius A. Reynolds, Frederick Ruth, and Israel H. Smith, of Company C; Hezekiah Aldrich, Calvin Hubbard, and Patrick Gillespie, of Company G; and Charles H. Howe, of Company I. These men were in the mill grinding corn, their rifles stacked in one corner, when, early in the morning of December 15, a boy came running into the mill saying that the rebels were approaching. Smith glanced out of the window and saw a squadron of men whom he supposed from their dress to be Federal Cavalry, but it afterwards appeared that their blue uniforms had been taken from one of our supply trains captured a day or two before. They numbered about four hundred, and immediately surrounding the mill they demanded a surrender. Resistance being hopeless, our men broke their rifle-stocks and gave themselves up to the rebel band, which proved to be a detachment of bushwhackers under General Wheeler. After the surrender the rebels threatened to shoot their prisoners if they did not give up their valuables. They took from them everything, money, rings, watches, keepsakes, and then forced them to give up their clothing, receiving for it in return the old clothes of the rebels. They were then taken about two miles from the mill and turned into an open field, where they spent the night, without shelter of any kind, the rain pouring in torrents. No fires could be made, and the night was one of great suffering.
The next day was extremely cold, and they were obliged to march without covering to their feet, over the rough, frozen roads to Rogersville, a distance of nearly thirty miles. Here they were turned into an old brick building. The next morning, the second after their capture, Smith received one biscuit and a small piece of maggoty bacon. They were then marched twenty-five miles to Bristol, on the line of the Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and put on board the cars and taken via Petersburg to Richmond. Here they were placed in an old tobacco warehouse, called Pemberton Castle. The first food given them was hailed with delight. When first seen some of the men remarked that it appeared to be well seasoned with pepper, but a closer inspection showed what was supposed to be whole pepper was, in reality, small bugs, and the dish was termed "bug" soup.
Smith remained in this place one week, and was then sent to Belle Isle. Here, though snow lay on the ground, he had no shelter. During the day he made himself as comfortable as possible on the sunny side of a bank. At night he was obliged to walk nearly all the time to keep from freezing. He remained on the island until March 10, 1864, when he was sent to Andersonville.
Here he was summoned before the notorious Captain Wirz, who recorded his name, company, and regiment, at the same time cursing him because he came from Massachusetts. He was then marched into the Stockade, and placed in the Fourth detachment. His daily rations consisted of one pint of coarse meal and corn-cob, ground together, with a spoonful of pea-beans occasionally. His shelter was a hole in the ground. Without soap or towel or comb, or change of clothing, with nothing to read, and surrounded by all the depressing scenes of that dreadful place, he soon became ill, and was scarcely able to help himself; while his comrades wasted away to skeletons and died before his eyes.
On the 25th of November, 1864, after spending nearly a year in Southern prison pens, Smith was paroled at Savannah, Ga., and sent to Annapolis, where he was placed in the hospital, and remained until he was mustered-out of service. All the members of the regiment who were captured with him died of disease in rebel prisons.