USA > Massachusetts > Wearing the blue in the Twenty-fifth Mass. volunteer infantry, with Burnside's coast division, 18th army corps, and Army of the James > Part 30
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For a moment, imagine over thirty thousand human beings herded into this enclosure of twenty-seven acres, the heat at one hundred and five degrees, and not a tree branch, or a bare pole to afford a shade, and then think of these thirty thousand human beings, recking in their own filth, generating disease and death, exposed by day to the heat of the sun or the pouring
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WEARING THE BLUE.
rains- by night, to the damps and miasma of the locality, and all the time to the bullets of the guardsmen on the stockade. [Corporal W. S. Bugbee of Company A, Twenty-fifth Massa- chusetts, states, that when he was there about July 1st, 1864, thirty-three thousand prisoners were within the stockade.] Add to this, the starvation rations -rations doled out in infinitesimal doses, until the victims were only staggering skeletons, and an idea may be formed of some of the horrors of the place. This description is not the work of imagina- tion. Would that it was only the figment of some diseased brain, a picture only chimerical ! The testimony of those who experienced Andersonville and survived its horrors, and the graves of twelve thousand nine hundred and twenty victims, describes more plainly than words can, the dreadful reality of that Gehenna !
The Committee of the Sanitary Commission, after making an exhaustive investigation into the charge that our prisoners were starved, declare that -
" The conclusion is inevitable. It was in their power to feed sufficiently, and to clothe, when necessary, their prisoners of war. They were perfectly able to include them in the military establish- meuts, but they chose to exclude them from the position always assigned to such, and in no respect to treat them like men taken in honorable warfare. Their commonest soldier was never compelled, by hunger, to eat the disgusting rations furnished at the Libby prison to United States officers. Their most exposed encampment, however temporary, never beheld the scenes of suffering which occurred daily and nightly among the United States soldiers in the encampment on Belle Isle. The excuse and explanation are swept away."
It is said that the lack of proper or sufficient food was in consequence of its scarcity, but the Committee report -
"That the Southern army has been, ever since its organization, completely equipped in all necessary respects, and the men have
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TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS.
been supplied with everything which would keep them in the best condition of mind and body, for the hard and desperate service in which they were engaged."
It may be added too, that Georgia was a great producing State, especially of cereals, that no ravaging army had de- stroyed its crops, and that when Sherman marched through that section of country in 1865, he found an abundance of everything necessary for man's sustenance. Upon the matter of rations furnished to our prisoners at Andersonville, we quote a little at length from the excellent work upon Andersonville Prison, by Dr. Augustus C. Hamlin of Bangor, Me., late Medi- cal Inspector United States Army : --
"In attempting to form a proper estimate of the alleged rations furnished by the rebels to their prisoners at Andersonville, we will endeavor to arrive at just conclusions by comparing the known quan- tities with the dietaries of long established hospitals, prisons, and the rations of armies of different periods of history.
" The effects of food upon the civil prisoners, both of the long and short term, have been carefully studied by Christianson, Liebig, Barral, and Edwards ; and it is conclusively shown by their statistics of the prisons of Europe, how much food will keep the prisoners in athletic condition when exposed to healthy influences. The quantity of food required depends upon the wants of the system and the quality of food consumed. Some articles of food are far more nutritious than others, and are far less bulky ; for instance, the rice eaters of China, the potato and milk consumers of Ireland, eat enor- mously, compared with the beef-eating people.
"But rarely will a less quantity than seventeen ounces suffice for the animal economy, and not then, even, unless it is the concentrated " essences and principles of carefully selected grains, and healthy meat from cattle killed in their native pastures, like the scientific ration correctly proposed by Professor Horsford. It was substan- tially the same ration that enabled the Romans to traverse countries far remote from their main depot of supplies, and the Greeks to advance across, with safety, the immense arid deserts of Asia. Any
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WEARING THE BLUE. 369
of our splendidly equipped and fed armies of modern times would perish in a few days along the route where Xenophon and his im- mortal ten thousand passed with safety, and without much loss. * Besides the allowance of wheat daily -one to two pounds - the Roman soldiers often received a ration of pork, mutton, legumes, cheese, oil, salt, wine, and vinegar .. With the grain, a porridge-pot, a spit, the casque for a cup, and with vinegar to mix with their water, which formed the regulation drink posea, or acetum - they marched rapidly, and retained their extraordinary vigor in the midst of pestilential regions. Every soldier carried his own food for a given length of time, which was from eight to twenty-eight days. *
" In the prisons and hospitals of England, Scotland, France and Germany, the dietaries furnish from seventeen to twenty-eight ounces of nitrogenous and carbonaceous food. * In England we find the total quantity of solid food to be as follows: the British soldier receives in home service forty-five ounces ; the seamen of the royal navy forty-four ounces; convicts fifty-four ounces; male paupers twenty-nine ounces ; male lunatics thirty-one ounces. The full diet of the hospitals of London, furnish from twenty-five to thirty-one ounces of solid food. besides from one to five pints of beer daily.
"The Russian soldier has about fifty ounces; the Turkish more than forty ounces; the Hessian thirty-three ounces; the Yorkshire . laborer fifty ounces ; United States navy fifty ounces. and the soldier of the United States army, about fifty ounces of solid food.
"The food allowed to the prisoners at Andersonville, according to the statements of the prisoners and other witnesses, was from two to four ounces of bacon. and from four to twelve ounces of corn bread daily ; some times a half pint to a pint of bean, pea, or sweet potato soup, of doubtful value. Vegetables were unknown. Thus giving a total weight, per diem, of six to sixteen ounces of solid food. The amount was not constant: some days the prisoners were entirely without food, as was the case at Belle Isle and Salisbury. Neither was the deficiency afterwards made good. The amount given was oftener less than more than ten ounces. The contrast furnished by the dietaries of our own military prisons, of those of the British hulks, (so much cursed during the last war,) or by the food given by the Algerine pirates to their prisoners and slaves, gives rise to terri- 47
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TWENTY-FIFTHI MASSACHUSETTS.
ble convictions as to the regard the rebel authorities placed upon the lives of their prisoners. The United States allowed to the rebel prisoners held by them, thirty-eight ounces of solid food at first ; but afterwards, in June, 1864, they reduced the ration to thirty-four and one-half ounces per day. The range of articles composing the ration was the same as with our own troops, the exception being in the rate of bread. In the Dartmoor prison in England, where our men were confined by the English, when taken prisoners during the last war with England, and of which so much cruelty has been alleged, the authorities allowed to the prisoners for the first five days in the week, twenty-four ounces of coarse brown bread, eight ounces of beef, four ounces of barley, one-third ounce of salt, one-third ounce of onions, and sixteen ounces of turnips daily (or more than fifty ounces of solid food) ; and for the remaining two days, the usual allowance of bread was given with sixteen ounces of pickled fish. The daily allowance to our men, at Melville island prison, at Halifax, during the last English war, was sixteen ounces bread, sixteen ounces beef, and one gill peas; the American agent furnishing coffee, sugar, potatoes, and tobacco. The allowance on the noted Medway hulks was eight ounces of beef, twenty-four ounces of bread, and one gill of barley, daily, for five days ; and sixteen ounces of codfish, sixteen ounces potatoes, or sixteen ounces of smoked herring, the remaining two days of the week. Furthermore, in addition to these generous allowances of the British people, it can be said that the quality of the food was almost always excellent.
"The writer, with one exception, knows of no dietary to compare with that adopted, or made use of without the formality of adoption, by the rebel authorities in the treatment of their prisoners. This exception is found in ancient history, which Plutarch has handed down to us. The Athenians, captured at the siege of Syracuse, were placed in the stone quarries of Ortygia, aud fed upon one pint of barley and half a pint of water daily. Most of them ยท perished from this treatment."
FACTS AND INCIDENTS.
Corporal Walter S. Bugbee, of Company A, Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, captured at Cold Harbor, experienced prison
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WEARING THE BLUE.
life at Belle Isle a short time: Andersonville three months, Charleston three weeks, Florence a little more than five months, and was paroled in February, 1865, (when en route between Wilmington and Goldsboro') in consequence of Sher- man's march, ending a captivity of more than nine months. After being in Andersonville for the term stated, he was sent to Charleston.
We quote from his letter, recently furnished the writer : -
"After being three weeks in Charleston, we were removed by rail- road to Florence, about one hundred miles from Charleston on the Wilmington road. Here we were put into a stockade like that of Andersonville. Mach has been said about the prison at Ander- sonville, but Florence was the hardest place, and all prisoners who . have suffered at both places, will agree that in all things except the supply of wood, [a larger quantity required at Florence, because of more severe cold] Andersonville was better than Florence. The amount of food was greater at the former prison, and the deaths at Florence were in excess of Andersonville, considered in proportion to the number of prisoners. We were less able to stand severe treat- ment after our summer experience at Andersonville, and when we were compelled to go fifty-six hours without even the small pittance usually given us by the rebels, and meat was served to us but three times in five months, and then only two ounces per man, prisoners could only resign themselves to despair and death.
"Our rations were usually a small pint of corn-meal, and less than half a pint of black beans, daily, issued raw. I have seen men so ravenously hungry, that they consumed the beans and meal in the same state as received, rather than wait for the process of cooking. I have seen men go to the brook where the sinks were located, and gather the beans from the bottom of the stream and eat. them, the same beans having once before performed service as a ration."
Corporal Bugbee gives a comical account of his reception at Andersonville. When he reached the stockade, [June 15th, 1864] he found Charles E. Benson, of Company A at the gate, who stated that some of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts had a
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TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS.
place for him : so the new B followed the old B to a place where Corporal Fuller of the same company had spread an old canvas upon some poles. Fuller sold a watch for thirty dollars in greenbacks, and bought the canvas of a "Johnnie " for twenty dollars. He spread the canvas as stated, and took in lodyers. Under this canvas, Bugbee found himself introduced. The first question propounded was, "Are you lousy ?" which was not considered an indelicate question to ask a soldier. Upon being assured that no vermin contaminated his flesh or clothing, Fuller and the other lodgers "allowed" that Bugbee might remain with them. The family consisted of Corporal J. H. Fuller, of Company A, proprietor; Private C. E. Benson, of Company A ; Sergeants Joseph S. Moulton and George Trask ; Privates George D. Browning, Joel S. Bosworth and Sumner Frost, of Company I; Corporal Corne- lius F. Collins; Privates Eli E. Clark and Stanley W. Edwards, of Company K. Of this number, only Corporals Bugbec and Collins and Private Benson survived the horrors of captivity.
Bugbee having lost rest for a couple of nights, went into a very sound sleep, awakening at a very late hour the next morning, and, upon being fully aroused, heard the cracking of bones : he looked about him, and to his great surprise found all his comrades sitting up, engaged busily in catching and cracking lice. And this accounted for the question so seriously put to him the day before.
In calling the roll of prisoners at Andersonville, the men were divided into detachments of two hundred and seventy.
A Confederate sergeant came in and called the roll of each detachment separately, giving rations according to the number answering roll-call. An effort was made to have the roll called in each detachment at the same time, because the prisoners had learned how to " flank " on the detachments, that is, go from one to another, like a repeater in a city election. When thirty-three thousand prisoners inhabited the stockade, it was impossible to call the roll in each squad
WEARING THE BLUE. 373
at once, as there was no means of separating the detachments one from the other. For two days at this time no rations were issued whatever. At Florence, at one time, our prisoners went sixty-six hours without food on account of suspicions that a tunnel was being dug as a means of escape.
Dr. A. K. Gould, of Fitchburg, Mass., who for seven months and two days was a prisoner in Andersonville, excepting a short time that he was under the fire of our batteries at Charleston, and a brief time at Florence, which latter place he denounces as " a most damnable prison-pen - a second Ander- sonville," furnished an account of prison life at Andersonville, for the work -" Fitchburg in the Rebellion ; " beginning at the one hundred and ninety-third page, we quote as follows : -
" Well do I remember when I first arrived in sight of this terrible place, on the 20th day of May, 1864, and of my first interview with the rebel officer in charge of it, Captain Henry Wirtz, a most savage- looking man, and who was as brutal as his looks would seem to indicate. He offered us all the abuse he was capable of, and then marched us into prison. It was no uncommon thing for this brute to strip the prisoners of their clothing, and everything of value about them, before sending them inside the stockade. The stockade in which we were confined was made by setting logs upright in the ground as closely as they could be driven, standing above the ground about fourteen feet, and enclosing about nineteen acres of land, about half as wide as it was long. Running through or across this lot, was a brook about four feet wide, and generally, two or three inches in depth, thus giving us water to use, but of the filthiest character, on account of there being just above us, a camp of three thousand rebels, and as many more negroes, (serving as guard over us) all of whose filth and refuse was emptied into the brook and swept down to us. In addition to this, the land on either side of the brook, to the extent of six acres, was a complete swamp. A portion of this was used by the thirty thousand prisoners, more or less, for ' siuk' purposes, and its effect upon the water can better be imagined than described.
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TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS.
"To see my fellow men suffering for the want of food and clothing, as I did; to see them stretching out their bony hands for the merest morsel to eat; to hear their piteous inquiries 'shall we ever go home;' to see how they died, poor fellows, wasting away, little by little, exposed to the scorching rays of a Georgia sun ; this was enough to break the hardest heart.
" It may be interesting to know how we lived. We dug holes or burrows in the ground, thus forming a little shelter for us. Once a day we had our rations brought in to us, which consisted of one-half pint of cob corn meal, coarsely ground, or its equivalent of beans or rice; or sometimes bacon, and all of these of the poorest quality. One of the most dreaded things in this dreadful place was the 'dead line.' This was a furrow turned up, about twenty feet from the stockade all around, and was called the 'dead line' and if a man dared to step over this line, or cross it by mistake, he was at once shot by the guard, without a word being said. It was sickening to see the dead as they lay in prison. It was the custom to carry them out every morning, the prisoners being hired to do this, their pay being an extra ration and a chance to bring in an armful of wood when they returned; and these inducements were so great, that sometimes one squad would steal a dead body from another, in order to get a chance to go out to get wood and more to eat. Others were detailed for that purpose, and they also got extra rations, and when the guard came for any such purpose, how cager the men were to get a chance to go, and how savagely they were treated when refused. So many of these barbarities crowd upon my mind, that I hardly know where to stop.
"Some of the prisoners thought they might escape if they got out, but the bloodhounds were too much for them. A pack was kept for the purpose of hunting all such, and very savage they were too, so that few escaped them who ever tried. I found in the prison several men from Fitchburg and its vicinity. * *
"Another feature of this place was the damnable 'stocks.' I never suffered in them, but have often seen my fellows tortured by them. The pain was excruciating in the extreme. The men were put into a hellish machine, that would stretch them all their muscles and cords would bear, and with their faces turned up to the scorching sun, they
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WEARING THE BLUE.
were left from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. This was the most barbarous act of all, and this to men already completely emaciated by sickness. I have seen men taken from the stocks only to expire in a few minutes. All this was done by authority of the officers in charge. All I have to say is, let just retribution be their reward."
PRISONERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TWENTY-FIFTH.
Until the affair at Drewry's bluff, the list of prisoners from the Massachusetts Twenty-fifth was small. Surgeon Rice and his orderly, Private John B. Savage of Company A, were captured near Deep Gully, N. C., as before stated. The Surgeon was taken to Richmond and exchanged after a short captivity. Private Savage went to Belle Isle, where he died, March 1st, 1864. Sergeant Champney, transferred to the Signal Corps from Company D, was captured near Bachellor's creek, N. C., and died at Andersonville. Private John W. Partridge, of Company D, was captured with Champney, and also died at Andersonville. Private Chas. F. Wood, of Com- pany D was captured during the Gum swamp march, and released in about ten days. Private W. C. Wiswell, of Com- pany G was captured at Deep Gully, and released after a captivity of some months.
Then came Drewry's bluff, where about sixty of the Twenty- fifth Massachusetts were surrounded and captured. Among these was Sergeant Emerson Stone, of Company K, who suffered amputation of an arm, and was early paroled. At the time of the capture of Sergeant Stone, he had been appointed aud commissioned a Captain of United States Volunteers. Although he was on the siek list and not released from hos- pital, he insisted upon joining the march towards Richmond. with the result stated, at Drewry's bluff. After his release from prison, minus an arm, the government repaid his bravery by refusing to allow him to muster in upon his commission as captain, making as a first excuse that he had not been exchanged, and upon applying for muster after exchange,
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TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS.
- declining to muster him because there were no vacancies. Comment is unnecessary.
Fifty-one of those captured at Drewry's bluff were taken to Andersonville. Of those captured at Cold Harbor, twenty- one went to Andersonville, all being sent first to Richmond. Lieutenant-Colonel Moulton and Lieutenant Saul were taken to Macon and afterwards to Charleston, where they were placed under the fire of our batteries bombarding the city. They received no injury however, and were afterwards paroled in 1865. The number of men of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts in Andersonville prison on July 1st, 1864, was seventy-four, as stated by Corporal Bugbee.
Four of these were of Company A; one of Company C; eight of Company B ; three or four each of Companies F and G ; five each from D and H, and the balance, about fifty, were nearly equally divided between companies E, I and K .*
Of this number, about fifty died in prison, and two died on their way home, after being paroled. Private Bosworth, of Company B, was the first of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts to die at Andersonville.
Private Otis H. Knight, of Company D, was shot and killed by a sentinel on the stockade, at Andersonville, July 22nd, 1864.
*The following table gives interesting data in regard to Andersonville prison.
Month.
No. of Prisoners.
No. in
Average
Hospital. daily deaths.
February,
1864
1,600
93
....
March,
4,503
909
9
April,
1,875
19
May,
13.486
1,190
23
June,
22,352
1,605
40
July,
28,689
2,156
56
August,
32.193
3,709
99.
September,
17,733
3.026
89
October,
5,885
2.245
51
November,
2,024
16
December,
2,218
431
5
January,
1865
4,931
595
6
February,
..
5,195
365
5
4,800
110
3
March,
.
On the 23rd of August, 1864, the deaths were one hundred and twenty-seven, or one in every eleven minutes.
- FRANK S. SIBLEY. Co. K.
HAMLIN BUTTERFIELD, Co. A.
THOMAS WINDLE, Co. K.
CHARLES L. RICE. Co. H.
JOHN'S. CHASE, Co. I.
Heliatype Printing Co., Dustun.
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WEARING THE BLUE.
EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS.
It has been said, apparently without much reflection or knowledge of facts, that our government did not make proper effort to secure the release of prisoners of war by exchange. In December, 1863, a proposition was made to the Con- federate government to exchange prisoners, officer for officer, man for man, and up to August 10th, 1864, the proposition was not accepted. There was trouble because the Richmond government determined not to include colored troops in an exchange, decreeing that the colored soldiers should still be deemed slaves, and returned to their masters if captured, and that officers of colored troops should not be treated as prisoners of war, but turned over for punishment under the laws of the State where captured. August 10th, 1864, the proposition made by our government in December, 1863, as above stated, was officially accepted, and the long delay in exchanges caused by the differences in regard to the status of colored troops, was over.
CONFEDERATE POLICY.
The Confederates seemed to have a well-defined policy in the treatment of Federal prisoners. They sent to the United States by the flag of truce boats, surviving " skeletons " from the prisons of Andersonville, Florence and other places, in such physical condition as to unfit many of them for a long time, and others for all the future, from doing the duty of a soldier. In return they received the well-fed and splendidly conditioned soldiers captured by the United States armies, ready for active service against our flag. This was the con- trast-the flag of truce boat on its way from rebeldom, was loaded with feeble, attenuated, ragged, filthy, and dying men, illustrating the immanity of the treatment received by them at the hands of the rebel government. That same boat on its return, was loaded with men made strong and hearty by the generous treatment received from our government, they having
45
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TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS.
actually received in kind and quantity, better rations in every respect than they ever received in their own service.
That it may be seen that our statement is not chimerical, we give the following table : -
RATIONS FOR PRISONERS OF WAR.
"By order of the War Department of the United States, through the office of Commissary-General of Prisoners, of date April 20th, 1864, the ration for all prisoners of war captured by the army or navy of the United States is com- posed as follows : ---
Hard Bread - 14 ounces per one ration, or 18 ounces soft bread one ration.
Corn Meal -- 18 ounces per one ration.
Beef-14 ounces per one ration.
Bacon or Pork - 10 ounces per one ration.
Beans-6 quarts per one hundred men.
Hominy or Rice -8 pounds per one hundred men.
Sugar- 14 pounds per one hundred men.
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