USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > The Melrose memorial : the annals of Melrose, county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, in the great rebellion of 1861-'65 > Part 12
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He was brevetted Ist Lieutenant, Dec. 31, 1864, for gallant conduct and bravery displayed at the "Battle of Blount's Mills, "when, with a few others, he rushed out from the ranks and rescued Belger's Fifth Rhode Island Battery, which had become disabled and been left in the field between the two forces, Captain Belger him- self having lost an arm, the horses being killed, and the battery abandoned.
XIV.
IN REBEL PRISONS.
" The world's ear is full of cries from the land of rebel bar- barism, where starvation walked at the side of every captive, and suffering, despair and death sat at every prison door."
"Andersonville " ! " Belle Isle"! "Florence "! "Mil- len"! Salisbury"! Who that has had friends or rela- tives starved in these hideous "prison-pens," or that has read the story of those who have experienced and survived the systematic cruelty there practised by the rebel author- ities, -the " horrible and predetermined scheme, contrived for the purpose of depleting our armies and discouraging our soldiers," "to destroy them, or to disable them for further military service, or to compel our Government to an exchange on other than the terms to which it is in honor and by necessity committed," - does not shudder at men- tion of these names, so suggestive are they of brutality, sickness, disease, starvation, death, and almost every con- ceivable inhumanity ? It is impossible for any one to realize the amount of suffering and misery endured by Union men in these terrible places.
After hearing the recital, or reading the account of one who has experienced this severe treatment, suffered its horrors, and has returned and told his story, the wonder
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THE MELROSE MEMORIAI.
is that any one of the many thousands that have been there incarcerated 1 ever survived the fearful ordeal. But there are those, -and we have a few in our midst, - who lived through all and returned, and have related their suf- ferings, giving the world a picture of the misery and tor- ture endured by our men at the instigation of rebel leaders, whose names and memories will ever be accursed and stig- matized, bé they wandering up and down the face of the earth, or be they in their graves.
Not many of our own citizens were destined to experi- ence these fearful sufferings, although at one time, Jan. I, 1863, twenty-five (25) Melrose men, belonging to the Forty- Second Massachusetts Regiment, were taken prisoners at Galveston, Texas ; but this was before the extreme cruelty and barbarity toward our men, - the systematic determi- nation to let them perish from neglect, - was fully exer- cised, -although great suffering had then been endured by our men in more eastern prisons, - and they were treated comparatively well, being cared for, and as good and as much food given them as it was in the rebels' power to give ; and, after passing through Texas and Louisiana to the Mississippi River, by railroad and steamboat, with one foot-march of one hundred and twenty-five miles in five days, they were paroled, having been in the rebel author- ities' hands only about two months.
" The number of Union prisoners held in the South during the Rebellion was 126,940. Of this number 22,576 died, or were starved to death. The first Union prisoner held by the rebels was John L. Worden, -who after- terwards commanded the " Monitor" in its encounter with the " Merri- mack," - who was kept in the common jail at Montgomery from April 15, 1861, until Nov. 11, and then exchanged.
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IN REBEL PRISONS.
Besides these twenty-five (25) men, the following of our citizens have been prisoners of war :
Henry H. Jones, George W. Batchelder,
Archibald Bogle,
Benjamin F. York,
George E. Richardson,
Frederick W. Krantz, ·
Albert W. Crockett,
George W. Elliot,
William H. Eastman,
John E. Quinn,
Edmund W. Davis,
Henry Stone.
Ten of these lived to return to their homes. Richard- son and Crockett were starved to death at "Salisbury" and " Andersonville." Sketches of them have appeared on a previous page. We now give short notices of the impris- onment of some of those who survived the fierce conflict with sickness and starvation.
HENRY H. JONES,
of Co. A, Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment, was taken prisoner during the first day's fighting of the "Battle of Gettysburg," July 1, 1863, and, after suffering eight months the horrors of rebel prisons, was exchanged, and rejoined his regiment in May 1864, just before the " Battle of Cool Arbor," during the final campaign under General Grant.
From Gettysburg young Jones was taken to Staunton, Va., where, with between four and five thousand other prisoners, he remained six weeks, waiting transportation to Richmond ; to which place prisoners were finally car- ried on cattle cars.
His first night in Richmond was spent in the famous - and infamous -" Libby Prison "; after which he was sent
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to "Belle Isle," where commenced his sufferings, and where he remained until exchanged.1
Here he suffered the horrors and torments incident to this overcrowded, ill-fed and ill-treated body of prisoners. There were at times from ten to twelve thousand men congregated in this small space, - turned in like so many cattle, - to find what resting-place and comfort they could. When the least crowded, they could not have had a space for each man larger than three feet by nine. Here disease and death held high carnival. Thousands without tent or shelter of any kind ; through summer, fall and winter ; through torrid sun, rains and floods ; malarial fogs and sharp, cutting winds ; covered with dirt and vermin ; " stripped of blankets and overcoats, hatless often, shoe- less often, in ragged coats and rotting shirts, they were obliged to take the weather as it came. Here and there a tent had a fire, and the inmates gathered round it, but the thousands outside shivered as the cold cut them to the bone, and huddled together for warmth and sympathy"; " the cold froze them because they were hungry, -the
1 Belle Island is a small island in the James River, opposite the Tredegar Iron-works, and in full sight from the Libby windows. It has pretensions enough to beauty at a distant view to justify its name, as part of it is a bluff covered with trees. But the portion on which the prisoners are confined is low, sandy and barren, without a tree to cast a shadow, and poured upon by the burning rays of a Southern sun. Here is an enclosure, variously estimated to be from three to six acres in extent, surrounded by an earthwork about three feet high, with a ditch on either side. On the edge of the outer ditch, all round the enclosure, guards are stationed about forty feet apart, and keep watch there day and night. The interior has something of the look of an encampment, a number of Sibley tents being set in rows, with " streets" between. These tents, rotten, torn full of holes, - poor shelter at any rate, - accommodated only a small portion of the number who were confined within these low earth walls. - Report of Committee to U. S. Sanitary Commission.
IN REBEL PRISONS. 189
hunger consumed them because they were cold." So severe was the treatment, that, according to the Confeder- ate Surgeon-General's quarterly report for the months of January, February and March, 1864, out of nearly twenty- eight hundred patients in the hospital, about fourteen hundred -half the number -died! This is but a slight picture of the sufferings experienced in this and other rebel prisons.
Jones was released from this scene of misery in April 1864, and after his exchange was sent to Annapolis, Md., -then a rendezvous for exchanged prisoners, -- where he remained, recuperating his nearly exhausted system, for six weeks ; after which he joined his regi- ment, went with it through the remaining period of its service, returned, and was mustered out, Aug. 1, 1864. Some idea of the suffering he experienced can be imag- ined, not realized, when it is stated that when taken prisoner he weighed one hundred and fifty-eight pounds ; when he arrived at Annapolis he weighed ninety-five pounds. He still suffers from deafness and rheumatism, engendered by the cruel treatment received while in the hands of " our erring sisters."
ARCHIBALD BOGLE
Went into the service in 1861 as 2d Lieutenant of Co. I, Seventeenth Massachusetts Regiment, was promoted Ist Lieutenant, May 28, 1862, and discharged May 20, 1863, to become Major of the Thirty-Fifth U. S. Colored Troops in General Wild's Brigade, then stationed in North Carolina. At the " Battle of Olustce," in Florida, Feb. 20, 1864,1 he was left on the field, supposed to be dead, being severely wounded in bowels and leg. His colonel being
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THE MELROSE MEMORIAL.
absent, and the lieutenant-colonel being wounded, the command of the regiment devolved upon Major Bogle for five hours, during the hottest part of the strife. For distin- guished gallantry at this battle Major Bogle was published in General Orders, and in March following was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel. As the "Olustee" battle-ground remained in the possession of the Confederates, Major Bogle fell into their hands and was taken, - notwithstanding he was an officer, and should have been taken to " Macon " or some other officer's prison, - to " Andersonville," where he experienced the horrors of that "prison-pen " for nine months.
" Andersonville ". was an open space, of twenty-five acres, in the shape of a parallelogram, sloping on both sides, without trees or shelter of any kind, and with a sandy soil over a bottom of clay. The fence was made of upright trunks of trees, about twenty feet high, near the top of which were small platforms, where the guards were stationed. Twenty feet inside and parallel to the fence was a light railing, forming the " dead-line," beyond which the projection of a foot or finger was sure to bring the deadly bullet of the sentinel. Here were crowded at times as many as twenty-eight thousand fellow - soldiers,2- so
1 The " Battle of Olustee," or " Ocean Pond " was fought between 5,000 Union Soldiers under General Seymour, and 10,000 Rebels under General Finnegan. Unionists compelled to retreat, leaving five guns, nearly six hun- dred stand of small arms, all its battery horses, and about one thousand two hundred killed and wounded on the field. Rebel loss nine hundred and thirty-five killed and wounded.
* The Macon Journal and Messenger of the summer of,1864 said that there were over 27,000 prisoners in Andersonville, and the deaths from fifty to sixty per day. By sworn testimony before the Commissioners of the " Sanitary Committee," it was proved that the average number of deaths in August, 1864, was over one hundred and thirty a day. Warren Lee Goss,
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IN REBEL PRISONS.
crowded that it was difficult to move in any direction without jostling or being jostled. We cannot spare the space to give details of the condition of this prison ; of the utter disregard to all cleanliness and health of the pris- oners ; of the perfectly horrid state to which the swampy portion of the inside became. So wretched an appearance did it present that new comers on reaching it would exclaim, " Is this hell?" yet they soon would become cal- lous, and enter unmoved the horrible rottenness.
From this living death at " Andersonville," Major Bogle was successively removed to Millen, Savannah, Charleston, and Columbia, and was finally paroled at Wilmington, N. C., March 1, 1865. He received the rank of Brevet-Colonel March 13, 1865.
Colonel Bogle is honorably mentioned and interestingly spoken of, while at " Andersonville," in "The Soldier's Story of his captivity at Andersonville, Belle Isle, and other Rebel Prisons," by Warren Lee Goss of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Heavy Artillery. Mr. Goss was twice a prisoner in the hands of the rebels, wit- nessing and experiencing the things of which he speaks ; and if one desires to learn something of the sufferings through which our men passed, - although he says in conversation with the writer, that were he to tell the story with all its fiendish cruelties and barbarities, it would not be believed, - we advise them to read his volume, in which he " proposes to relate the tale of horrors experi-
in his book, - hereafter referred to, -says that "July and August of this year were the most terrible experienced by the general prisoners. In one day in August, no less than one hundred and sixty died. From the ist of February to the 16th of September, 12,000 Federal Soldiers, prisoners of war, were carried from the prison to the dead man's trench and the felon's burial."
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THE MELROSE MEMORIAL.
enced in these prisons, without exaggeration." An extract from this sadly interesting book, relating to Col. Bogle, is here introduced.
Understanding that there was a major of colored troops in prison, I hunted him up, and found Major Archibald Bogle, who was formerly, I believe, a Lieutenant in the Seventeenth Mas- sachusetts Infantry. He was captured at Olustee, after being severely wounded in several places. He informed me that he formerly lived in Melrose, Massachusetts. Since he came into the pen, he had been refused all medical and surgical treatment, though the prisoners detailed as hospital stewards had covertly afforded him aid, and dressed his wounds. He wore his uniform, and freely declared himself an officer of negro troops, - a fact which all officers of negroes were not willing to own, by reason of the hard treatment received therefor from the rebels. His was an instance of the fact that a true gentleman remains the same amidst the most squalid misery and accumulated misfor- tunes. His intercourse with others was dignified, courteous, and urbane, as if in command of his regiment. There were many in prison, as there always have been in our army, who professed to despise negro troops, and have a contempt for their officers. Major Bogle was at one time, I was informed, compelled to mess with his negroes ; yet he always maintained his gentle- manly bearing and his self-respect, and commanded the respect of others amid all the accumulated misery of the " prison-pen." Such were my impressions of Major Bogle.
Many loose statements have been made in print indicating that officers were as common among prisoners at Andersonville, as enlisted men. With the exception of Major Bogle, there were no commissioned officers intentionally placed in Andersonville. Others were there by their own act ; but the prison was intended for enlisted men only. At any time an officer of white troops could be sent to Macon, or some other officers' prison, by merely making a plain statement of facts which looked plau-
IN REBEL PRISONS. 193
sible. So much is required to be said, as there seems to be a great misunderstanding in relation to this matter ; and it is my desire to write such a description of the prison that those who were prisoners at the time with myself will be the ones most ready to testify to the truth of these pictures, crudely drawn with pen and ink. Major Bogle at one time was engaged in a tunnelling operation, in which he plotted to release all the pris- oners of the stockade. It failed through the treason of some one in the secret, though it came near being a success. About the time I became acquainted with him, an extensive plot was formed to break the stockade. Over two thousand men were pledged to risk their lives upon an effort to liberate the prison- ers of the stockade. Here seemed the choice before us, to die without an effort, amid all the misery of the "prison-pen," or to die with our hands uplifted to strike one blow at our enemies, before death, in an attempt to liberate ourselves and starving . comrades. To no reasonable man did there appear at that time to be any hope for life but in that manner. I went into the project, I am willing to confess at this day, having full confi- dence in our ability to achieve the desired result, and with a feeling that it was better to die in such an attempt than to die a miserable, loathsome death by gradual starvation.
Acting in concert, we set ourselves at work, and dug tunnels up to the stockade ; then the tunnel branched off at right angles, running parallel with the stockade, a shoulder of earth being left as a temporary support, so that when a rush was made against the wall from the outside, it would be thrown down in the places thus mined. In this manner three portions of the stockade walls were undermined, - at least, I have reason to suppose so, although I was engaged in digging and engineering on but one of them. Our plans were as follows : One detach- ment of prisoners was to break through on the south side, near the gate, and capture the reserve of the guard ; another to break through on the north side, and, making a circuit of the stockade, capture the guard thereon ; another party, breaking through on
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THE MELROSE MEMORIAL.
the south-west side, near the gate, was to capture the rebel artil- lery near headquarters, and use it according to circumstances, and make such capture of rebel officers as was possible ; while prisoners outside, under detail, were to cut the telegraph wires. This achieved, prisoners were to be liberated, rations equally distributed, the cars seized, ammunition and arms placed in the hands of the " organization," and then, raiding through the rebel country, seize upon horses and other modes of transportation, and effect an escape to the Gulf. Such were our plans generally.
All was pronounced ready for the grand assault, and we were waiting with trembling expectancy, when a proclamation was read in prison, and posted in conspicuous places, stating that such a plan was known to be organized, and the commandant of the prison had full knowledge of all its details, even to the names of those concerned; and that, if we persisted in carrying it out, there would be great bloodshed, which he wished to avert Such, in substance, was a proclamation signed by Henry Wirz. We had been betrayed by one who, we supposed, from every motive of interest, would keep the secret. Artillery was posted at various points, with men in position to use it: twice shots were fired over the heads of prisoners in crowds, while white flags were placed all over the prison, as ranges for the artil- lerists. Thus ended the best-conceived plan for liberating the prisoners en masse during my imprisonment, and proved the assertion frequently made among the Kentucky boys, that, " Everything in the Confederacy was drefful onsartain, and liable to bust."
WILLIAM H. EASTMAN,
of Nims' Second Battery was taken prisoner at Bayou Bœuf, June 18, 1863, while the army was on the march to " Port Hudson,"-he, with others, having been left behind in charge of sick horses belonging to the battery. As our army moved forward, the rebel army followed, taking what
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IN REBEL PRISONS.
spoils and prisoners it could. Eastman was taken to Brashear City, where he was held only about a fortnight, and then paroled and sent within the Union lines, where he arrived just before the fall of " Port Hudson." He was not exchanged until the following November, and during the intermediate time he acted as clerk for the Provost Marshal of one of the Louisiana Districts. During the short time he was in the hands of the Rebels, his treatment was com- paratively good, and he escaped without suffering the tortures of an " Andersonville " or a " Salisbury."
JOHN L. CHAMBERS.
Acting Master's Mate, John L. Chambers, although living in East Boston at the time he entered the service, was a citizen of Melrose before the war, and has been since his return; therefore, a short sketch of his imprisonment is here introduced, notwithstanding his name did not count on our quotas. It was, by far, the longest imprisonment suffered by any of our citizens, being over two years in duration.
Mr. Chambers was appointed Acting Master's Mate, August 15, 1862, and ordered on board the gunboat " Albatross." In September, while at Ship Island, he was transferred to the ship " Morning Light,"- Acting Master John Dillingham in command, - which was on blockading duty on the coast of Louisiana and Texas. She had an armament of eight long 32-pound guns and a rifled Butler gun, with a crew of eighty-four men, all told. In No- vember, 1862, she was ordered on duty off Sabine Pass. On the morning of the 21st of January, 1863, -a consort, the schooner "Velocity," which carried two twelve-pound howitzers, being also then on duty, -when four miles
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THE MELROSE MEMORIAL.
from shore, and in a perfect calm, these vessels were attacked by two river boats, which had been converted into cotton-clad Rebel gunboats ; they were the "John Bell" which carried a 64-pound rifled cannon, and the " Uncle Ben," with two twelve-pounders, and with five hundred sharp-shooters on board, all under the command of Major O. M. Watkins. Although the "Morning Light" had the heaviest armament, yet she failed to keep the Rebel steamers at a distance, and, approaching within a thousand yards they poured in a terrific and constant fire ; and after a fight which lasted about two hours and a half, both vessels surrendered, with a loss of five killed and fifteen wounded. The prisoners were first taken to Sabine City, thence to Houston, where they were imprisoned in a large warehouse. About ninety men were confined in the room with Chambers, which was about one hundred feet square. But the treatment here was not severe, the men being allowed two hours each day for walking, under a guard of twelve men.
About the last of April, the officers of the "Morning Light," together with those of the "Harriet Lane " and the "Forty-Second Massachusetts Regiment," taken pris- oners at the "Battle of Galveston," Jan. 1, 1863,-twenty- two in all, - were sent to Huntsville, where for three days, by order of the rebel authorities, they were confined in the cells of its State Prison. These cells were anything but inviting places of abode, being about eight feet by five, and overrun with cockroaches and overbrooded with mos- quitoes. But by the kindness of Colonel Caruthers, the Superintendent, they were released from these close quarters and given a large upper room, which was fitted up and made comfortable for them.
Here Chambers remained until the 27th of June, when he, with the rest of the officers, was ordered to "Camp
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IN REBEL PRISONS.
Groce," seventy miles southwest from Huntsville, on the "Houston and Navasota Railroad," to which place the crews of the "Morning Light" and the "Velocity " had been previously sent. "Camp Groce" was first a camp of instruction for the Rebels, but afterwards was turned into a "prison-pen" or " corral." It consisted of four stacks of barracks surrounding an arca, beyond which a tract of wild country, wood, swamp and prairie, stretched for miles around. It was under a guard of from sixty to eighty men, commanded by a fat officer known as "Cap- tain Buster." Among the officers now congregated at " Camp Groce " were Colonel Isaac S. Burrill and Surgeon A. I. Cummings of the "Forty-Second Massachusetts," Colonel A. J. H. Duganne,1 of the "One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York," and many others taken at Galveston, Sabine Pass, and other points in Texas. In "Camp Groce" Chambers remained until the 9th of December following, and during this time much sickness had prevailed, and many deaths had taken place, one of which was that of Surgeon Cummings. Nov. 20th, Cham- bers and three hundred other prisoners were paroled, and ordered to dispose of all superfluous clothing, bedding and baggage, and prepare for a march to Shrevesport, Louisi- ana, about three hundred miles distant, for the purpose of being exchanged. Up to this time the Rebel authorities had transported for the prisoners all bedding, baggage, etc., and they had received comfortable care, with good beef and corn-bread rations ; but now this kindness ceased and from this time the ill-treatment and sufferings of
1 Author of " A History of Governments," "Footprints of Heroism," " War in Europe," " Battle Ballads," "Twenty Months in the Department of the Gulf," etc.
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Chambers increased. This march to Shrevesport was about three hundred and thirty miles in length, and occupied twenty-one days ; passing through Anderson, Huntsville, Crockett, Palestine, Kickapoo, and Tyler. Near the last town is situated "Camp Ford," now left behind, but which was yet destined to receive these disap- pointed prisoners. When within ten miles of Shrevesport, and near Marshall, La., they were ordered to halt and encamp in the woods near "Four Mile Spring." Here amid rain and snow and very severe weather they suffered great hardships. In the morning orders came not to exchange, and a "camp" was made near by in an open field, where, without shelter, they remained amid much suffering and many privations about three months. In March they were ordered back to "Camp Ford," one hundred miles distant. This march was accomplished in three days, and with terrible suffering, tracks of blood being left in many cases ; in such condition were the pris- oners, and so severe the treatment. One sad incident of this march deserves mentioning. There were two brothers among the prisoners, one of whom was taken sick during the march, and died just before bivouacking for the night. The officer in command would not allow the brother to remain and bury the body, but compelled him to march on with the rest ; but at night, after they had encamped, the guards, more humane than the officer, went back and buried him. Chambers was not in this severe march, but from the camp near "Four Mile Spring" was sent, with twenty other sick prisoners, to Shrevesport, where he remained until May 28th, when he was sent back to "Camp Ford," together with a hundred and fifty other prisoners that had been gathered from different sources.
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