USA > New York > Schoharie County > Military records of Schoharie County veterans of four wars > Part 31
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the dead on the morning following. On the first of September seven or eight hundred of us were sent to Savannah, where we staid about six weeks, and were then transferred to Millen, one or two thousand being confined there for about six more weeks. During iny stay at Millen, I contracted chills and diarrhea, and thought my days were numbered, yet after ten days I recovered. The doctor eame, into camp with orders that the sick and wounded were to be sent North, our names were taken and we were sent to the one side of the camp where we waited for the train, without food, for two days.
After we were packed on board the cars, and before starting, we were given ten or twelve sweet potatoes each, some of which we ate raw, then and there. We were taken to a swamp within about four miles of Savannah, where we halted for the night and cooked the balance of our potatoes. In the morning we entered Savannah, old ladies brought provisions to us in baskets and we had quite a feast. In the afternoon we were put on board an exchange boat, which met one of the Union boats in the river, and it began to look like home again when I saw the old stars and stripes. On board our boat we got eoffee, boiled ham, and hard tack ; a most delicious meal, but the rocking of the boat and the hearty food made us all heave up Jonah. We were soon transferred to another boat, which was furnished with berths, then we were comfortable and happy, and soon on our way to Annapolis.
WILLIAM W. EARLE.
I was captured at Gettysburg on the afternoon of the first day's battle and taken to the Rebel rear, where they had gathered their prisoners together. On the 4th of July they started us for Rich- mond; that was the hungriest march I ever made. I received one pint of flour to go to Richmond on, a four days' journey. When we reached Harper's Ferry, there stood men on boxes shaving off bread at a dollar a slice ; I happened to be one of the lucky men who had a dollar. After we came to Richmond we were put into the old tobacco warehouse for one night, and then taken to Belle Isle. At that time there were about thirty-eight out of our regiment. When we entered Belle Isle, there were about forty squads of one hundred men each ; one man would draw the rations for a squad and by him they were dealt out to each man ; the boys of our regiment went into " squad 38," and it went along so for about one month, when we were all taken out of our camp and marched through a tent and searched for money. Then Asher Bice and myself left the old
50
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY VETERANS.
squad 38, he going into "squad 5" and I into "squad 7." On the 30th of September, they took out eight of the first squads for ex- change, which let me out. While I was a prisoner, our rations con- sisted of two meals per day. In the forenoon a piece of corn bread three inches square, together with a piece of meat one and one-half inches square, and in the afternoon we would draw a three-inch hunk of wheat bread and one pint of bean soup, made out of James river water, which was a muddy stream ; but never mind, it gave bottom to the soup. While I was on the island we used to go out skirmish- ing, not for Johnnies, but for "greybacks," which stuck close to your back. I have seen them on persons who did not try to keep clean of them, like scales on a fish, heads in, tails out. We used to take our clothes off and run down the seams with our fingers and kill lots of them, but the next day there would be just as many as ever. When exchanged we were taken to City Point and from there to Annapolis.
ASHER D. BICE.
I was taken prisoner at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, my birthday. Myself with several other comrades, a captain and a lieutenant, were surrounded by the Rebs and remained near the battle-field under guard, during the next two days. On the morning of the " glorious Fourth," we were started for Richmond, Va., where we arrived in due time, after a long and tedious march, suffering greatly at times from loss of sleep and all the time from hunger. Here I will give a little to illustrate our sufferings on that memorable march. After cross- ing the Potomac we were given, to each man, one-half pint of wheat flour, and then started again on our march. During the next sixty hours we received nothing more to eat, nor any sleep ex- cept what we could get during our halts of five minutes' duration. These halts would occur at intervals of six or eight hours. After arriving at Richmond we were sent to Belle Isle to board, where I remained until October 1, making just two months during which I was a prisoner of war, when I was exchanged on parole. I will not attempt to tell of our sufferings on the Island, as I consider it wholly beyond the power of tongue to tell, or pen to describe them. My weight when captured was two hundred pounds. Comrade W. W. Earle and myself, by using a little strategy, succeeded in getting pa- roled in the last lot that was paroled from Belle Isle. Had we not succeeded in getting away from that hell, we would, in all probability, have had the privilege of visiting Andersonville. Of my experience
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in Parole Camp, I need say nothing more, than that we were again under the old flag, and had plenty to eat and the wherewith to cover our backs. I was four months in Parole Camp at Annapolis, and four months at Parole Camp at Columbus, Ohio.
HARRISON KNISKERN.
The regiment moved across Germania Ford, May 5, 1864. Meet- ing Lee's advance, we attacked and drove them back, and held them in check from 8 A. M. until 3 p. M. We were then ordered to cover the retreat of our forces and to remain at the rear for thirty minutes before following. During that time we were ent off, and after re- peated attacks of the enemy, we took to the woods and fields. While crossing a ravine and jumping a fence, my saddle-girth gave way, turning the saddle and landing me on my back. I then became a demoralized infantry-man, and crossing a stream my cavalry boots filled with water, and with my two hundred and six pounds of body I was compelled to hide in a ditcli. I was found by a Reb. who took me to a cousin of his from the Shenandoah Valley, and was treated well while with him. While joking with the Rebs. and in- ducing them to read one of my " best girl's " letters, I succeeded in hiding and saving a ten-dollar greenbaek, and a two-dollar knife. We received our first rations, two sea biscuits, from the Rebs. at Orange C. H. at one o'clock the next morning. Our next ration consisted of a pint of raw corn.
The greater part of ten months I spent in Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, S. C. When captured I was wearing a new cavalry suit, which I had taken some pains to procure to wear home on fur- lough a short time before. The gold-plated buttons from the coat I sold from time to time for four dollars each in Rebel money. The food and exposure at Andersonville laid me up for weeks, and to make it more sure to stay by me, they sent me to Florence to win- ter, with but little clothing and bare footed. Ice froze nights which would bear a man. I had for mates in the last-named prison, Tripp Parker and Nears Douglas, of Maine, who died by my side. I saw sights which ought to cause any American citizen to blush. One " Lon " Bonek, of Breakabeen, died, alive with vermin, and nothing given to help him free himself. I was paroled at Goldsboronrgh, N. C .; treated for a while at Wilmington, N. C., for bone fever, then sent home on furlough, and discharged, June 14, 1865.
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY VETERANS.
GEORGE W. GUERNSEY.
The " Battle of Peach Tree Creek," Ga., within about three miles of Atlanta, was the last battle in which I participated. Our regi- ment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Allen H. Jackson, who was a brave soldier, and on this occasion, I thought, a little reck- less, as he was so far in advance of his regiment as to be out of sight when we went into action, it being a wooded section where we were operating. Some of our men on the right were firing, although from where my company stood, not a graycoat was to be seen. I determined to hold my fire until the enemy appeared, and while waiting and watching, I noticed that only one man was left near me; the whole line so far as I could see had retreated. This man was Corporal Davis Gilbourne, a fearless soldier. About this time the colonel came running back like a deer, to overtake his regiment, having lost one of his fingers by a shot from the enemy. I asked him if he saw the Rebs .; he said, "Good God ! don't you see them there ?" and away he went withont giving a word of command. Then all at once the Johnnies swarmed upon us so that I deemed it impossible to escape. As they came up Corporal Gilbourne shook his fist at them, exclaiming " surrender ? - you, surrender. But we were only two, and when we did not throw down our arms, and they were about to bayonet us, we surrendered and were pulled to the rear as fast as our captors could travel, we feeling assured that in a few minutes the Union lines would be reformed, and shot and shell would be flying after us, and so it turned out. This was Gen- eral Hood's first battle after he had superseded Joe E. Johnson. He made a terrible onslaught, took about two thousand prisoners, but paid dearly for it, as history will inform all who read. We all marched to Atlanta and were put on board the cars for Anderson- ville. While waiting in Atlanta, those Confederate officers who were around were quite exultant.
One colonel boasted that they had captured all of our artillery "some 30 pieces or more." I told him that was only what we had in one hole. They found it to be so, by the way Sherman sent the shells among them before we left Atlanta. We arrived at Ander- sonville without incident. At the gate most of the prisoners were searched, and all money and other articles were taken from them; all of great valne to prisoners in such a place. Here we met the notorious Capt. Wirtz; he stormed and threatened like a demon, although no one said any thing, and he was having every thing his own way. He had a battery on a knoll outside and commanding
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the camp, and declared that he would fire on them if he saw them collecting in crowds at any time. It will be remembered that this man expiated the crime of shooting helpless prisoners, on the gal- lows at Washington after the war. At Andersonville I found my brother who had been held a prisoner for about a year, having been confined on Belle Isle in the James river at Richmond, in tents without fire and while ice was a foot thick in the James river. Like hundreds of others he was about used up. The stories related of Andersonville are not exaggerations. Men were lying upon the ground in all directions, almost naked and covered with filth and seurf, without bed or shelter, groaning and dying in pain, so that, many days, scores would be carried out. Our stay at Andersonville was abridged by Sherman's progress "through Georgia," and we were taken to Millen. Any place was better than Andersonville, which is only another name for misery and death. Our daily fare at that place was a piece of corn bread about as large as three fingers, with a small piece of bacon, or occasionally a small piece of beef. At Millen we had corn meal or pea beans, with weevils or bugs in them, and occasionally a small ration of molasses. While here " election day " came, "Little Mack " having been nominated, and Lincoln re-nominated for the presidency ; a few of our men at- tempted to harangue their fellows in favor of Lincoln's re-election, but they were speedily stopped by the guards. From Millen we were taken to a camp near Savannah for a short time, thence to Blackshear, Fla., for a few days, and finally to Florence, S. C. Time wore heavily and we became reduced by scanty rations. Much time was spent in talking of the prospect of once more breathing the air under the "stars and stripes," where we could have enough to eat and clothing to keep us warm. Much time was spent in warring against lice and mosquitos by day and fleas at night, until it became too cold for mosquitos, then our sleep was disturbed by dreams of blankets for bedding and sights of eatables of all kinds, and like the " Mirage of the Desert" to disappear on awakening. Starvation will unman the strongest person, and he will commit petty acts to get a morsel, which otherwise would never have been thought of. I could endure the prison life on such fare tolerably well, no physi- cal labor being required, until cold weather came, then, with scanty covering, the nights were long, tedious and uncomfortably cold. Little pastime was engaged in, for as half-starved domestic animals are not known to frolic and play, so the men in Southern prisons were "grim visaged " and of " sober mien."
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY VETERANS.
With few exceptions, each man was intent on looking after his own welfare. Some of the prisoners would fight for a morsel of food or a chew of tobacco. It was estimated that thirty thousand were confined at Andersonville, representing all branches of the service. Florence, S. C., was the last prison I was in. One day the different divisions were called in line, in open ranks, and the doctors passed between to pick out the sick and feeble, to be paroled, and they were placed under guard, aside from the main body. Although I was passed by as " rugged " enough to stay, yet, when the doctor's back was turned, I unconcernedly left the ranks and joined the in- valids, the guards being none the wiser. And so, on the 13th of December, I left the Southern prison, still occupied by hundreds of sufferers, and the next day reached Charleston, and went on board the United States transport " Varuna " in Charleston Harbor, bound for Annapolis, Md. We felt happy inwardly, though too much re- duced physically to show it. When once on board the transport, we were stripped and were given a change of clothing, casting our prison clothes, with their countless creeping inhabitants, into the sea. Our voyage North was without event, except a great amount of heaving overboard of the contents of our inside bread-baskets. For many days it was impossible to appease our appetites, and we heard of one or two cases of death from over-eating. From Annapolis I was fur- loughed home for thirty days, with orders to report at Camp Chase, Ohio, at the expiration of my leave. In the spring we rejoined our several regiments, took part in the Grand Review at Washington, and as the " crnel war was over," we were mustered out of " Uncle Sam's " service, and went on our several ways, rejoicing that peace had come, and that the question of "Secession of States " had been settled.
OSCAR AKELEY.
I was taken prisoner at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, after being wounded. I was transferred to a hospital at Richmond, and cared for and nursed by my fellow-prisoners, and have little cause to com- plain of my treatment, but the rations were very scant and of poor quality. After spending seventy days in the prison hospital I was sent to Camp Parole. While there I saw and heard very much of the effects of the horrible prison life. While it is impossible to draw a true picture, there are many others who can do far better than I. If Americans can forgive and forget, the men in charge of those horrid holes will never receive their reward until the Judgment day, and from the hand of a just God.
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ANDERSONVILLE.
(From a Report made by CLARA BARTON To the People of the United States of America.)
This woman, who has become known and honored among all civilized nations, began a search for the missing men of the United States Army in March of 1865, under the sanction of President Lincoln, became acquainted with an ex-prisoner named Dorence Atwater, who had been a prisoner at Belle Isle and Andersonville twenty-two months and had been charged by the Rebel authorities with the duty of keeping the Death Register of the Union prisoners, who died at the last-named prison. After a consultation with Comrade Atwater, she conceived the idea of identifying the graves by comparing the numbered posts with a register which had been made by him and which he had succeeded in preserving. With this object in view her proposition was laid before Secretary Stanton and approved by him, and by his order an expedition was fitted out with men and materials for the purpose of designating the graves and inclosing the grounds with a fence. Miss Barton was invited to accompany the expedition, which left Washington on the 8th of July and arrived at Andersonville July 25. I am indebted to this lady for many acts of kindly interest in my work, and having no doubt that her de- scription of Andersonville, immediately after the war, will be especially interest- ing to the reader, I take pleasure in giving it.
" We found the prison grounds, stockade, hospital sheds and the various minor structures, almost in the same condition in which they had been evacuated ; and care is taken to have these historic monu- ments undisturbed, so long as the elements will spare them. There is not, and never was any town or village at this place except what grew-out of its military occupation. Anderson Station, on the rail- road from Macon to Eufala, was selected as a depot for prisoners, probably on account of its remoteness and possible security, and the prison itself, with the buildings which sprang up around it, consti- tuted all there was of Andersonville. The land around it is broken and undulating, and at the time of the occupation was covered with forests, mostly of the long-leafed pine, common to the uplands of the South. The bases of the hills are lined with oozy springs, which unite to form little rivulets, one of which winds sluggishly through each of the intervening marshy valleys. The original in- closure of nineteen acres was made in the unbroken woods; and the timber was only removed as it was wanted for the necessities of the prison. The inclosure was made in January, 1864, and enlarged, during the summer, to twenty five and three-fourths acres, being a (madrangle 1,295 by 865 feet. The greatest length is from north to south, the ground rising from the middle toward each end in rather a steep, rounded hill, the northern one being at once the highest and of the greatest extent. A small stream, rising from springs a little to the eastward, flows across it, through a narrow valley filled with compost washed down by the rains.
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY VETERANS.
" The inclosing stockade is formed by pine logs, twenty feet in length, and about eight inches in diameter, sunk five feet into the ground, and placed close together. This is again surrounded by two successive and precisely similar palisades, a portion of the last of which is gone. It seems never to have been completed. The two inner walls remain entire. Within the interior space, at the dis- tance of about seventeen feet from the stockade, runs the famous dead line, marked by small posts set in the ground, and a slight strip of pine board nailed on the tops of them. The gates, of which there are two, situated on the west side, were continuations of the stock- ade, inclosing spaces of thirty feet square, more or less, with mas- sive doors at either end. They were arranged and worked on the principle of canal loeks. Upon the inner stockade were fifty-two sentry boxes, raised above the tops of the palisades, and accessible to the gnard by ladders.
"In these stood fifty-two guards, with loaded arms, so near that they could converse with each other. In addition to these, seven forts, mounted with field artillery, commanded the fatal space and its masses of perishing men. Under the most favorable circumstances, and best possible management, the supply of water would have been insufficient for half the number of persons using it. The sole es- tablishments for cooking and baking were placed on the bank of the stream, immediately above, and between the two inner lines of palisades. The grease and refuse from them were found adhering to the banks at the time of our visit. The guards, to the number of about 3,600, were principally encamped on the upper part of the stream, and when the heavy rains washed down the hillsides, covered with 30,000 human beings, and the outlet below failed to discharge the flood which backed and filled the valley, the water must have be- come so foul and loathsome, that every statement I have seen of its offensiveness must be considered as falling short of the reality, and yet, within rifle shot of the prison there flowed a stream, fifteen feet wide and three feet deep, of pure, delicious water. Had the prison been placed so as to include a section of the 'Sweet Water Creek,' the inmates might have drank and bathed to their hearts' con- tent. * * Five sheds stand on the top of the northern hill, erected in the early part of the occupation, and five more on the opposite height, built a short time before the evacuation.
"Like nearly all southern land, the soil is liable to be washed away by the rains ; and on the slopes of the hills, ravines are now formed, gullied to the depth of twelve feet. It seems impossible that men
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could have kept their footing on these hillsides, when slippery with rain. Ontside of the inclosure, and nearly paralled with its south end, is the hospital stockade, 800 feet by 350. It contains twenty- two sheds, for the most part withont sides, erected about three months before the place was abandoned. The old hospital, occupied up to that time, in which so many brave men died, consisted only of tents inclosed by a board fence, and surrounded by a guard. Confused heaps of rubbish alone mark the place it occupied. About half a mile from the main prison, and near Anderson Station, is the officers' stockade, a small inclosure, in which were never imprisoned more than 250 officers, and it was chiefly used for the confinement of Rebel offenders. The cemetery, aronnd which the chief interest must gather, is distant about 300 yards from the stockade in a north-west- erly direction. The graves, placed side by side in close, continuous rows, cover nine acres, divided into three unequal lots by two roads, which intersect each other nearly at right angles. The fourth space is still unoccupied, except by a few graves of ' Confederate soldiers.'''
Since the visit of Miss Barton and the party commissioned to identify the graves, our government has replaced the wooden head- boards, set up at that time, by neat marble stones, and converted the grounds into a neat cemetery. That the graves of over twelve thousand Union men can be designated by name is owing to the list made and preserved by Dorence Atwater and the humane effort of Clara Barton.
THE ROLL OF HONOR.
" THE DEATH RETURN." " Azrael ! Azrael ! Azrael tested them !
See those pale shadows ! Can they be the rest of them ? Look at them ! GnosTs! Who are riding abreast of them,
If you would know of them, Some of the best of them, Chosen by death, When he made a fierce test of them. Look through the years Of the war eagle's track, 51
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY VETERANS.
Look at the head-stones That lie in the track, All wet with hot tears When they did not come back."
HORACE BINNEY SARGENT.
KILLED. a Accident. d Drowned.
Allen, David C.
Hammond, Jas. H.
Andrews, Henry.
Hartgraves, John.
Archer, John A.
Hummel, Rensom.
Barlow, Joseph.
Hunter, Chas. J.d
Barton, Darius C.
Ilyser, Jacob.
Bowie, James.
Kilmer, James.
Brown, Harvey.
Layman, Francis.
Brumley, John.
Lane, Stanton.
Butler, John.
Lawyer, Hiram K.
Clow, Erskine.
Liddle, Wm. J.
Clute, Henry.a
Little, Loren L.
Clapper, George.
Manchester, John A. Morehouse, Jolın.
Coons, David S. a
Moyer, Sylvanus.
Cornell, William H.a
Cosgrove, Charles.
Nichols, Nathan. Ostrander, John. Payne, George R.
Creighton, David W.
Palmatier, Daniel. Palmatier, Jas. H.
Decatur, James. Douglass, Geo. W.
Parris, Charles. Porter, William. Ray, John.
Eckerson, William, Jr.
Efner, Erastus.
Rickard, Nathaniel.
Fox, Levi O.
Robinson, Franklin. a
Freyer, Henry.
Slater, William.
Gardner, Henry C.
Slater, Levi.
Guernsey, Theodore. Guffin, James.
Haggadorn, Wm. P.
Halleek, Nicholas.
Hallenbeck, Henry.
Hallenbeck, Martin W. Haner, David.
Slater, John M. Shumway, Silas. Shafer, Sylvester. Snyder, Thomas. Southwick, Calvin. Stryker, Geo. M. Sweet, Sylvanus.
Cook, Timothy P.
Cowley, Hector.
Earl, Wilber N.
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WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Thompson, Lysander.
Watson, John I.
Teater, Helam.
West, John A.
Tompkins, Jay, Jr.
Wharton, James.
Taylor, Robert.
Winnie, James.
Van Buren, Peter A.
Wilber, Ebin.
Van Loan, James L.
Wilber, Hiram.
Walters, Ambrose.
Weidman, James.
Wagoner, Chauncey.
Weidman, Septimus.
Walker, Richtmyer.
Woodworth, John.
Wayman, Jeremiah. a
Yansen, Joseph.
WOUNDED AF AND CAPTURED, FATE UNKNOWN.
Barry, James Gardner, Robert W.
Houghtaling, Levi Lee, Peter Tompkins, Moses
DIED OF WOUNDS.
Barnhart, Cornelius
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