USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
Saturday, February 22d, the prisoners began to arrive. Sunday and Monday they continued to come, when it was found that no more could be accommodated in Camp Morton, and about sixteen hundred were sent to Lafayette and Terre Haute.
With some abatement for aristocratic disgust, and some allowance for the difference in times and countries, Shaks- peare's sketch of Falstaff's recruits would answer for a descrip- tion of the Southern prisoners as they appeared to Northern citizens, who had hitherto seen no soldiers but our own proud, happy and well-dressed volunteers.
Their dress was not military, but almost uniform in texture and color, being of home-made cloth dyed a dingy yellowish brown with the juice of the butternut. It fit their arms and legs as close as the skin, showing all the bows and angles which nature in her step-motherly way bends or sharpens in the neglected children of poverty and ignorance. Three- fourths of the number wore strips of carpet around their shoulders, while the remainder were wrapped in white or in
318
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
grey blankets, in piano-covers and quilts. Their heads were covered with hats and caps of every hue and shape, with here and there a bare poll, surmounted by an enormous quantity of hair. Some carried frying-pans or tea-kettles. Some, fearing starvation in a northern prison, had provided them- selves with crackers and bacon, which now were slung over their backs. Nearly all had bundles of bedding or clothing, not in knapsacks, but tied up in old quilts, or stuffed into meal-bags. Gray old men of apparently sixty years stumbled along by the side of slender boys of fourteen.
They were small farmers from Tennessee or landless squat- ters from the pine hills of Mississippi, excepting here a sharp, black-eyed lawyer from Mobile, and there a subdued Metho- dist preacher from Louisiana; here a German who knew no English, and there an Irishman who knew no law.
If there existed in any heart a feeling of bitterness towards these unfortunate men it found no expression in words or acts. The spectacle, singular in the history of this world, was presented of disarmed and feeble prisoners walking without harm and without insult through the crowded streets of a powerful enemy, for whose destruction their hands had just been uplifted.
In consideration of some of the late events or disclosures of the war a description of Camp Morton, the only permanent Rebel headquarters in Indiana, and of the general treatment of prisoners, will not be out of place.
The grove north of Indianapolis, known a long time ago as part of the Henderson farm, and as a favorite locality for Methodist camp-meetings, was selected for the first military camp on account of the beauty, healthfulness and convenience of its situation, and was now turned over to the use of the prisoners for the same reason. It is in the highest and dryest portion of the suburbs, and is in the neighborhood of the University, which is surrounded by open grounds, and of wealthy citizens whose houses are in the midst of gardens. It is consequently free from impure air. It contains thirty-six acres, and is supplied with deep wells of cold, pure water. The trees are tall, wide-spreading maple and walnut. The blue-grass carpet, which used to be one of the beauties of the
319
A NORTHERN PRISON.
spot, with its border of wild flowers growing in the fence corners, was trodden out long before the prisoners entered into possession; but the ground was not necessarily muddy, being easily drained by a stream which ran through one end.
When Camp Morton was first appropriated to prisoners the Government was not yet familiar with the manifold and perplexing cares incident to the war, and some time elapsed as each new object of attention rose before the business of arranging and managing it was understood. The first prisons, like the first camps, especially the camps of drafted men which were greatly crowded, were inferior in every respect to the prisons of a latter date. Efforts, however, were immediately made to form of Camp Morton a comfortable as well as secure place for prisoners.
Barracks sufficient to accommodate five thousand men were constructed, although more than three thousand were seldom admitted. Hospitals as warm, as airy and as well provided as hospitals for our own soldiers were prepared. The rations of the prisoners were exactly those of our soldiers, and being always at a base of supplies, their coffee, sugar, bread and meat were always of the best quality. The cost of the sur- plus (few men can eat a full ration) was strictly applied to the benefit of the prisoners. When they were required to build barracks, or to perform any labor, some variation was made in their food. They were supplied with good clothing and comfortable bedding.
A sutler kept his stand within the grounds, and sold at current prices all for which there was a demand. They were encouraged to make themselves bowling-alleys, to procure balls and to spend much of their time in active games. All money sent to them was scrupulously delivered, although if sent in large amounts it was paid over by instalments, and all articles of every kind, except jellies and other delicacies, were given to the individuals to whom they were addressed. The delicacies were divided among the Rebel sick in the hospitals.
Medical attendance was of the best character. Dr. Bobbs, an old physician, well known as a man of science, and as a successful practitioner, was medical director. The subordi-
320
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
nate physicians reported to him, and he reported to the sur- geon-general. Inspectors from Washington examined the camp and hospitals monthly, or at some regular period. Every precaution was used to prevent corruption.
The first prisoners in Camp Morton suffered more sickness than any who succeeded, partly on account of the want of accommodations already spoken of, but chiefly from the low tone of their health when they arrived. Many, of those, too, who were from regions where roses bloom in the open air every month in the year, had been been in the rifle-pits during the whole siege of Donelson, day and night, in rain and snow, with little food and no shelter. They were worn out by expo- sure, mortified by the surrender, distressed by their distance from home, full of fears for the future, and suffering under a reaction which corresponded in exhaustion with the intense excitement of the long-continued battle. One-tenth of the number had frozen hands or feet. Nine-tenths were destitute of some necessary article of clothing. They were filthy beyond description-actually covered with vermin, and their despondency was such that they had not the energy necessary to wash themselves. They seemed to have almost no vitality, no power to rally if once attacked with fever.
As soon as they reached Camp Morton scores sank under disease. The city hospital could not at that time accommo- date more than thirty; accordingly Captain Ekin, United States Quartermaster, appropriated the Gymnasium, which was on the corner of Meridian and Maryland streets, for the use of the sick. It consisted of but one room, but it was well ventilated, and very large. Dr. Fletcher, who, though young, was a man of experience, having practised in hospi- tals in New York city and in Richmond, Virginia, and who knew from his own life as a prisoner for "another's woe to feel," was placed in charge of this hospital. Bunks were hastily procured, and the citizens were invited to assist in preparing beds and in procuring clean and otherwise suit- able clothing for the sick. They responded heartily, sending and bringing contributions, and when needed assisting as nurses.
A loyal woman who lived on the same street declared with
321
DR. BULLARD.
warmth that she could have no sympathy even with suffering Rebels, but her stoicism could not bear the sight of that house full of sick, and coffins coming and going every morn- ing. She made some broth, and calling her daughter, a young lady who basked in enjoyment, and whose laughing blue eyes had scarcely ever looked upon sorrow, she proceeded to the prison-hospital. Admitted without hesitation, she bestowed her charity with melting heart and voice. The visits and the charity of the mother and daughter were frequently repeated.
One night, at one o'clock, they were roused from sleep by a violent ring at the door-bell, followed by an urgent request to come to the hospital. They threw on their clothes and hastened through the chill night to the heavy air of the sick room. A dying man was watching the door with eager eyes as they entered. To see them was all he wanted, to touch their hands and thank them for their Christian love.
Dr. Fletcher's hospital being found too small Captain Ekin, with Mr. Hay, Assistant Quartermaster, obtained the old post office building, and thirty-six hours after the contract was made, had it prepared for the reception of the sick. Prisoners were employed to clean it, under the superintendence of sev- eral ladies, who, impatient of the slow progress made by the workmen, swept the floors, guided the mops and washed the windows with their own hands. They also sewed up the beds, spread the blankets and heated bricks to put at the feet of the sufferers as they came from camp.
The new hospital was on Meridian street, nearly opposite Dr. Fletcher's, and was superior to the latter for the purpose to which it was applied, on account of the great number of rooms which it contained.
Dr. Bullard, one of the oldest and most prominent physi- cians in the town, was placed in charge. He was an enthu- siastic Union man, but no more tender heart than his ever beat, and he did not afterwards toil more devotedly for loyal sufferers, although he died a victim to his exertions, than he did for the prisoners during the whole time a Rebel hospital was under his care.
Profiting by the experience of Dr. Fletcher, who had been annoyed by the officious assistance and the evil influence of
322
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
secessionists, he forbade the visits of any ladies but a small number whose patriotism, although in subjection to their charity, was decided and known.
These ladies were faithful helpers. They sat in the medi- cine room of the hospital hour by hour, tying comfortables, and cutting the eagle off of new suits of Federal uniforms and sewing black buttons in its place, submitting to see traitors even in the honored blue. They wrote letters of hope and comfort to homes in Iuka, Holly Springs, Corinth-names heard then for the first time.
One or two passages from dictated letters, notes of which were accidentally preserved by one of the ladies, show the tone of all which were written in the first enjoyment of the unexpected comforts in the hospitals:
Dear Mother-I have been sick nearly two weeks. The people here are clever; they are not heathens. Make your- selves easy. I hope soon to be well. Tell brother he had better stay at home as long as he can. Tell all the kinfolks I am a heap better satisfied than they expected.
Your affectionate son, J. T. ROBINSON.
My Dear Wife-I have been sick six weeks, and have suf- fered a great deal, but I hope soon to be well. I am treated better than I expected. David Frazier takes care of me. Your brother Marshall was killed at the fort.
Your husband, BENJAMIN WILLIAMS.
Dear Mother-I have been sick since ever I left Fort Don- elson. I was exposed there two or three days and nights in rain and mud. I am now in the hospital among friends instead of foes.' 'The people are as kind as you could be, so don't be uneasy. I should rather be at home, but find friends here much more than I expected when I started. Tell aunt I'm doing fine, not to study about me. I don't forget any of you. I have not heard from home since January.
Your son, WILLIAM WILLIAMS.
Dear Father-I have been sick ever since I came, but I
323
LETTERS HOME.
am mighty well taken care of now in the hospital, treated better than ever before since I joined the army. If I was only well I would be pretty comfortable. Brother Mat is sick in Cairo, brother Russ is sick in town here, at another hos- pital; Cicero was killed at the fort; Cousin Henry died. Tom and Nick Doty are sick at Fort Henry. I wish you all good luck. If I ever get home I'll want to stay. If we never meet on earth again, I hope we'll meet in heaven.
Your son,
PETER RAY.
The writer of the above had pneumonia. He was as white as snow, and his face was convulsed with emotion while he dictated his simple letter. He could scarcely utter the sentence about meeting his friends in heaven if not on earth, and his language was very strong when he spoke of the cruel treatment to which he had been subjected in the army. Yet all the time he was dictating a man stood on each side of his bed laughing at him, with no attempt at restraint. If war does not harden men's hearts they are made of stony stuff originally.
J. C. McLernan writes to his father that he is in comforta- ble quarters and treated kindly, as kindly as he could ask, that he had no clothing when he came, but had drawn all that he needed.
M. R. Barnet writes that the people are kind.
B. H. Rogers says that "the Northern people are kinder than he expected, they are sociable and friendly; very kind to the sick. His feet are frost-bitten, and he has suffered much."
The shelves in the store-room of Dr. Bullard's hospital were laden with oranges, lemons, canned peaches and jellies, while cologne, bay-rum and wine were not lacking. Every- thing that sick men could desire was there, and in the other hospitals.
When spring came the ladies gathered the pink and white blossoms of the apple, the plum and the pear and made the sick rooms sweet with orchard odors, more pleasant to coun- trymen than the fragrance of roses.
A young lady appealed to her mother for a pillow to give to a sick Mississippian, who had complained that his head
324
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
was too low. "I can't give you one," was the answer she received. "I stripped the house for our sick soldiers in Ken- tucky, you have stripped it since for the Rebels, and really there is nothing more."*
" Then I will give him my pillow," said the daughter, and accordingly she robbed her own bed.
She went to the hospital in her carriage, driving as rapidly as she could, that the sick man might not lose a moment of the comfort of the pillow, and placed it under his grateful head.
A lady beside the bed of a dying boy, whose hand played with her "yaller beads," as he called the watch chain at her belt, involuntarily exclaimed to a boyish nurse who was wiping tears from his eyes, "Oh, why did you enter the army?" The nurse answered, "They told us we would be drafted, and could have no choice;" after a pause he added, "and what was more, they made us believe it was right."
A number of singers went every Sunday evening and sang a hymn in each of the rooms. It was beautiful to see a stolid face gradually soften or dying eyes light up as the exalted and familiar strain
"When I can read my title clear To mansion in the skies."
or the melting words
"Shall Jesus bear the cross alone ?"
swept softly over the prone and feeble forms.
The poor strangers, although even their names were often unknown, did not go unmourned to the grave. Tearful eyes watched the coffins carried away from the dreary hospital door, and sympathizing hearts would fain have consoled the far away mourners to whom consolation would never come.
A third hospital was established under the care of Dr. Dunlap, the oldest physician in Indianapolis. Dr. Dunlap
* This was true. She had not only sent sheets, pillows, blankets and clothing, but the fruits and vegetables she had canned for family use. When her boys were old enough she sent them into the army, and being then some- what at liberty herself, served three months in a hospital in Kentucky. It was told, the first summer of the war, that Massachusetts had sent ten regi- ments, would send six more, and if that was not enough, would go herself. This Hoosier mother did better-she went.
325
SOUTHERN SPIRIT.
had had an unusually warm affection for the South, But when the rebellion broke out he declared "if the rascals succeeded he would drag himself to some other country to die."
He was a keen observer, and pronounced his patients the most regardless of others of any men he had ever seen. He ascribed their selfishness, however, entirely to ignorance, and had rather more pity for them on account of it.
The first week in March the number of prisoners in Camp Morton was three thousand two hundred and thirty-three. About four hundred were sick at that time-one hundred and forty in Dr. Fletcher's hospital, one hundred and sixty in Dr. Bullard's, forty in Dr. Dunlap's thirty in the city hospital, and about forty in the receiving hospital and barracks at Camp Morton.
The city hospital was under the charge of Dr. Kitchen, an excellent and popular physician, and a very amiable man; and Camp Morton was under the care of Dr. Jameson, a physician and gentleman of high character.
The number of sick gradually diminished, and the third week in March Dr. Jameson reported that the general health of the prisoners in Camp Morton was good. The last of April the city hospital, which had been enlarged, was found sufficient to accommodate both our own sick soldiers and the Rebels.
The prisoners in Lafayette and Terre Haute received even more attention and kindness from citizens than the larger number in Indianapolis.
Some of them preserved unstained in calamity their.lofty Southern spirit.
"Let all the world take notice," said a Confederate news- paper, "that the Southern troops are gentlemen, and must be- subjected to no drudgery."
Mrs. Reed, an active and generous lady in Terre Haute, în her frequent visits to the hospital, was annoyed by the spec- tacle of a heap of filth remaining day after day by the side of a sick man's bed, and in the way of every one passing by .. "If I were in your place," she said at last to a stout looking man, who had insinuated himself into the hospital, "I would
22
326
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
clean up that dirt. It wouldn't take you more than three minutes."
" Madam," replied the man, with dignity, "the Southern spirit could never brook such degradation."
" It seems," indignantly retorted the lady, "that the South- ern spirit can brook any amount of dirt."
The Fort Donelson prisoners were allowed to go about town on parole, to make calls and to see visitors, until they abused these privileges, when their liberties were more .re- stricted.
Many of them had relatives or friends in the North, and claimed them without hesitation. Their claims were gener- ally allowed, and many a bank bill of five and ten dollars went from loyal into disloyal pockets. One of the best citi- zens of Indianapolis, a man who afterwards gave his life for his country, had six cousins among the officers and privates from Fort Donelson. He answered the demands of such as applied to him, giving them clothes and lending them money and books, until he found that his humanity was interpreted disloyalty, when he suddenly and absolutely shut down the doors of his charity. None of the money lent was returned, although the borrowers offered to give notes for quadruple the value they received.
The prisoners' letters were restricted as to length, and sub- jected to an examination, which sometimes resulted in wicked, sometimes in absurb disclosures. The following whimsical epistle, from a Southern girl to her cousin, was published in the Indianapolis Journal, and, silly as it is, was copied in a number of papers in the United States. In sentiment and expression, excepting the metre, it is a fair specimen of the epistolatory ability of Southern ladies, who talk with ease and grace, and are in good standing in society:
"I will be for Jeffdavise til the tenisee river freazes over, and then be for him, and scratch on the ice.
"Jeffdavise rides a white horse, Lincoln rides a mule ; Jeffdavise is a gentleman, Lincoln is a fule."
The first guards of Camp Morton were the Sixtieth and
327
GUARDS.
Fifty-Third regiments, with portions of the Sixty-First and Sixty-Third.
The Sixtieth was ordered to Indianapolis during the pro- gress of enlisting, on the 22d of February. While on duty there the organization was completed in the month of March. Colonel Owen, of the Sixtieth, had been the Lieutenant-Colo- nel of the Fifteenth. He is the son of the celebrated Scotch Reformer, Robert Owen, and is a gentleman of literary and scientific attainments. Thoroughly liberal in his views, he is also thoroughly generous in feeling and act, and the Rebels could not have desired to be in better hands.
The Fifty-Third, partially organized at New Albany in January, was perfected by a union with the Sixty-Second, which was partially organized at Rockport. Walter Q. Gresham, of the Fifty-Third, was made Colonel, and William Jones, of the Sixty-Second, Lieutenant-Colonel.
The recruits of the Sixty-First, or Second Irish, who assisted in guarding Camp Morton, were under the command of Bernard F. Mullen, and first guarded the prisoners in Terre Haute.
The prisoners at Lafayette were guarded by companies A, B, C and D, of the Sixty-Third, being all of the regiment which was at the time enlisted. They were organized as a battalion, with John S. Williams as Lieutenant-Colonel, and in March removed to Indianapolis.
The prisoners from Fort Donelson were exchanged in the following summer. They came to Indianapolis silent, sub- dued and sickly, ragged, cold and dirty. They went away stout and healthy, and filling the air with their curses.
As has been mentioned, Camp Morton continued during the war to be used as a Confederate prison. The greatest number of prisoners it contained at one time was five thousand five hundred. The period in which it was crowded in this manner was very short. The greatest number of deaths occurring in one month was one hundred and forty-four. This terrible mortality took place in March, 1862, among the prisoners from Fort Donelson.
It was invariably found that the most sickness and the greatest number of deaths occurred in the first days of im-
328
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
prisonment, the unfortunate captives being worn out by expo- sure, exertion and often by ill-treatment when they arrived. As they remained their health improved, and when they were exchanged they were, as a general thing, as stout and hearty as men with southern constitutions can ever become.
329
THE THIRD DIVISION.
CHAPTER XXVIL
BOWLING GREEN .- NASHVILLE .- COLUMBUS.
"I passed General Wigfall on my return from dinner, and asked him if there was any news. "No," said he; "but I don't believe we have been whipped since dinner."-Correspondent of New Orleans Crescent.
TAKE him all in all, the greatest man in General Buell's army was General Mitchell. He united the mathematician's power of concentration with the poet's imagination; the sol- dier's daring with the Christian's trust; the master's strictness with the teacher's tenderness; the reformer's ardor with the learner's patience. He commanded the third division, which was not unworthy of him. Colonel Sill, who was afterwards for a time commander of the second (McCook's) division, was one of his brigade commanders. General Dumont, for- merly Colonelof the Seventh Indiana, was another. Dumont was appointed Brigadier General on the 3d of September, while he was in West Virginia, and had charge of a brigade at Elkwater until early in December, when he was ordered to Bacon creek, and assigned to Mitchell's division. Colonel Turchin, a Russian, who believed that war meant fight, and that traitors were not brothers to true men, also commanded a brigade in the third division. The Thirty-Seventh Indiana regiment and the Fifth Indiana battery were in Turchin's brigade, which consisted principally of Illinois troops.
General Mitchell wintered on Bacon creek, not many miles in the rear of McCook. On the 10th of February, at nine at night, he gave orders to his division to march in the morn- ing at five.
General Buell was at last ready to move towards the South, and while Foote and Grant invested Fort Donelson, he deter- mined to lay siege to Bowling Green. Almost at the same time he gave the command to move to the six divisions which composed his army, to Thomas on his left, McCook in his
330
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
front, Crittenden on his right, Mitchell and Nelson forming his center, and to Wood in his rear; but to Mitchell he gave the honor of the advance.
The men were not yet so familiar with the soldier's life as to get ready at a moment's warning, and the most of the night was spent by the third division in preparation. Colonel Turchin's brigade was the foremost on the march. On the evening of the first day the division encamped on the north bank of Green river, having passed McCook's troops, and on the second day encamped on the south bank, having been all' day crossing the stream.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.