USA > New York > Records of the 24th Independent Battery, N. Y. Light Artillery, U. S. V. > Part 16
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
Digitized by Google
.
1
1
.
234
RECORDS OF THE
and the lampblack soot made by it settled upon the camp and the men, so that they resembled a delegation of unwashed charcoal men.
The stream of water was entirely inadequate for bath- ing purposes, and in a few days the brightest uniforms and the tidiest of our fellows began to bear near sem- blance to the oldest residents.
As this was our last camp, and proved to be to many of our dear comrades their last earthly abiding place, we think this a proper place to give a brief description of it.
------ --
.
Digitized by Google
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY. 235
-
.
CHAPTER XI.
ANDERSONVILLE.
After this, whenever any man who has lain a prisoner within the stockade of Andersonville, would tell you of his sufferings, how he fainted, scorched, drenched, hungered, sickened, was scoffed, scourged, hunted and persecuted, though the tale be long and twice told, as you would have your own wrongs appreciated, your own woes pitied, your own cries for mercy heard, I charge you listen and believe him. How- ever definitely he may have spoken, know that he has not told you all. However strongly he may have outlined, or deeply he may have col- ored his picture, know that the. reality calls for a better light, and a nearer view than your clouded, distant gaze will ever get. And your sympathies need not be confined to Andersonville, while similar hor- rors glared in the sunny light, and spotted the flower-girt garden fields of that whole desperate, misguided and bewildered people. Wherever stretched the form of a Union prisoner, there rose the sig- nal for cruelty and the cry of agony, and there, day by day, grew the skeleton graves of the nameless dead.
But, braving and enduring all this, some thousands have returned to you. And you will bear with me, and these noble men will par- don me, while, in conclusion I speak one word of them.
The unparalleled severities of our four year's campaigns have told upon the constitutional strength even of the fortunate soldier, who alone marched to the music of the Union, and slept only beneath the folds of the flag for which he fought. But they whom fickle fortune left to crouch at the foot of the shadowless palmetto, and listen to the hissing of the serpent, drank still deeper of the unhealthful draught. These men bear with them the seeds of disease and death, sown in that fatal clime, and ripening for an early harvest. With occasional exceptions, they will prove to be short-lived and enfeebled men, and
Digitized by Google
236
RECORDS OF THE
whether they ask it or not, will deserve at your hands no ordinary share of kindly consideration. The survivor of a rebel prison has endured and suffered what you never can, and what I pray God your children never may. With less of strength, and more of sad and bit- ter memories, he is with you now to earn the food so long denied him. If he ask " leave to toil," give it him before it is too late; if he need kindness and encouragement bestow them freely, while you may ; if he seek charity at your hands, remember that "the poor you have always with you," but him you have not always, and withhold it not. If hereafter you find them making organized effort to provide for the widow and orphan of the Union prisoner, remember that it grows out of the heart sympathy which clusters around the memories of the comrades who perished at their side, and a well-grounded apprehen- sion for the future of their own, and aid them.
CLARA BARTON.
Andersonville, Georgia, was a wood and water rail- road station. It was located within nine miles of Ameri- cus, and for a time the prison encampment was desig- nated as being located at Americus.
It was selected by the rebel authorities as a proper location for a military prison, since it was then nearly central as regarded the Confederate States, and their then probability of maintaining the ground held by them.
That portion, too, of the Confederacy was better able to furnish provisions and other supplies, having been quite remote from active scenes in the war.
The rebel camp of guard at Andersonville was called " Camp Sumter."
The vicinity was a woody, lonely, deserted spot. The strange and rapid changes that have actually taken place in a region, so few years since almost uninhabited and nearly unknown, seem incredible.
·
.
.
Digitized by Google
---
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY. 237
One day, a silent wilderness ; another, a busy camp- a horrible human slaughter-house; still another, and it is the noted graveyard of America-we might say, of the world.
The so-called "Confederate States Military Prison" was a stockade.made of pine logs, planted in the ground perpendicularly, so that they were about twenty feet high from the ground. There were two stockades, the first of unhewn logs, the second (being the stockade proper) of hewn timber, covering an area of 232 acres. Inside of this was a light railing, at a distance of about twenty feet from, and running parallel with, the four sides of the square, called the " dead line. Any prisoner passing this line, by any pretence or accident, endangered his life. The space occupied by the prisoners was thus quite materially decreased.
There were two entrances ; one east, near the north and south ends of the stockade, consisting of massive gates, opening into spaces about 30 feet square, on the principle of a canal lock.
On the inner stockade, at intervals of say ten rods, were sentry boxes, covered so as to protect the inmates from storm and sun. The rebel guard stationed in these boxes were so elevated as to have a perfect view of all that was taking place within.
.
The object of the two stockades was, that if attacked, the rebel force acting as guard might defend themselves behind the outside wall, while the prisoners should still be confined within the inner wall.
At certain angles of this outer wall small parapets were thrown up, in the shape of angular forts, in some
·
.
·
.
Digitized by Google
238
RECORDS OF THE
of which artillery was placed, commanding the prison · grounds, as well as the open fields. surrounding the stockade.
A small stream passed through the centre of the stock- ade, on each side of which the land gradually ascended to a height of about forty or fifty feet, so that the camp was really upon two side hills. At the head of this stream, outside and in immediate proximity to the inner stockade, was the main cook house of the prison. It was a wooden, barn-like building, covering some immense cauldron kettles and some very large but very poor ovens. The cooking of eatables was a mere farce.
A short time before this camp was deserted, another cook house was erected, but was used only a few times.
In the early history of the prison, the hospital consisted of a space of ground about four rods square, in one corner of the stockade. A favored few were allowed to lay under some tarpaulins, stretched over poles, placed hori- zontally on forked stakes.
The latter part of May, the stockade becoming crowded, and the number of sick being largely on the increase, a board enclosure, covering about five acres, was put up on the south side of the stockade, and called the hospi- tal. The worst cases were then removed to this enclo- sure. A small stream of water ran through the south end, and a cook house (that is, a kettle) was placed near this stream. A few tents and several pieces of canvas constituted the shelter for the sick. This hospital would accommodate about 1,000. It generally had 2,500 in- mates.
The care of the sick at the Hospital was given to Fed-
.
.
i
Digitized by Google
- -
İ
:
:
·
.
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY.
239
eral prisoners, and there was in this camp an attempt at order and decency.
The trees were not allowed to be cut down, and the shade was one of the blessings which the sun scorched invalids longed for. The camp was laid out in squares, and the streets were policed every day.
The surgeon in charge placed his command first in four divisions, a surgeon in charge of each division; second, each division in five wards, a surgeon to each ward.
Over each ward was placed a "Yankee steward," whose duty it was to stand between the rebels and their sick comrades. Under his direction, each ward steward and half a dozen nurses gave constant attendance to the sick.
Had they been furnished proper and sufficient shelter, food and medicine, the mortality list would never have reached the marvellous number that it did.
At the northwest of the stockade a shed was built, and called the "dead house." To this all the bodies were removed both from the stockade and from the hospital, and after a description was taken of the dead, they were numbered and then removed either to the dissecting sheds, or carried in wagons, about twenty to twenty-five in each load, piled up as a farmer would load in a quan- tity of butchered hogs, to the "Graveyard." The Grave- , yard was in the most pleasant location, and one might almost say the most desirable of any of the several insti- tutions which went to make up Andersonville. It was on an elevated spot of ground, laid out in streets and squares.
In this connection it would be proper to introduce a
.
Digitized by Google
.
240
RECORDS OF THE
letter written by Miss Clara Barton in reply to my in- quiry concerning the United States Cemetery at Ander- sonville :
OFFICE OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE FRIENDS - OF THE MISSING MEN OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2d, 1869.
DEAR SIR :
In reply to your letter I send a copy of Atwater's list of the dead of Andersonville, which contains my report of those prison grounds as I found them in July, 1865. It is as complete as I could make it, and correct, I believe, in every particular.
,
Upon the departure of the party accompanying me, a guard was stationed and a superintendent appointed and sustained by the Gov- ernment, whose duties were to keep the place and its surroundings with as little change as possible, and I presume that with the excep- tion of the natural decay, it remains to-day nearly as described in my report.
Although I have written much, very much, in reference to prisons and prisoners, it has been of a private nature, addressed and sent to the friends of those who had suffered and died there, and not pub- lished.
I have never published a " Book" upon prisons, as many suppose, although I have written enough upon the subject to constitute the material for a number of books ; but I have always considered that the prisoners themselves were the proper persons to place the woes of their prison life before the public, and that if there was a call for any- thing of that nature, the privilege of meeting it, and the profits accru- ing therefrom of right belonged to them.
Regretting that I have not more information, I can only refer you to such authors as have written upon the subject, viz., Abbott, Spen- cer, Hamlin (Martyria) and others whose works are well known and easily found.
-
You ask for my " bill." I had hoped that all my friends, at least, : thoroughly understood the basis upon which I have done my little work, and that not only no bills had ever passed out of my office, but that no money for services or information rendered had ever been permitted to come into it and remain there. I have always promptly returned every dollar and half dollar that a sometimes grateful party
Digitized by Google
-
1
.
J.M.CRR.N.Y.
A HOSPITAL TENT.
Digitized by
·
.
i
.
Digitized by
.
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY. 241 .
would insist upon enclosing to me. The little I have been able to do for those who suffered in our country's cause, has been done for the love of it, and right and humanity.
If any opportunity present in which I can serve you to more purpose than I have been able to do in this, please let me know, and oblige,
Yours, very truly, CLARA BARTON.
In the report referred to in Miss Barton's letter, we find the following description of the present condition of Andersonville Graveyards :
The cemetery, around which the chief interest must gather, is dis- tant about 300 yards from the stockade, in a northwesterly 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 unoccu- pied, except by a few graves of " Confederate" soldiers.
No human bodies were found exposed, and none were removed. The place was found in much better condition than had been antici- pated, owing to the excellent measures taken by Major General Wil- son, commanding at Macon, and a humane public-spirited citizen of Fort Valley, Georgia, a Mr. Griffin, who, in passing on the railroad, was informed by one of the ever-faithful negroes that the bodies were becoming exposed, and were rooted up by animals. Having verified this statement, he collected a few negroes, sank ,the exposed bodies, . and covered them to a proper depth. He then reported the facts to General Wilson, and requested authority to take steps for protecting the grounds. That patriotic officer visited Andersonville in person, appointed Mr. Griffin temporary superintendent, and gave him such limited facilities as could be furnished in that destitute country. It was determined to enclose a square of fifty acres; and at the time of our arrival the fence was nearly one-third built, from old lumber found about the place. He had also erected a brick kiln, and was manufac- turing brick for drains to conduct the water away from the graves, and protect and strengthen the soil against the action of heavy rains. We found Mr. Griffin, with a force of about twenty negroes and a few mules at work on the grounds. I have understood that that gentleman fur- nished the labor at his own cost, while General Wilson issued the necessary rations. 16
.
-
Digitized by Google
-
242
RECORDS OF THE
The part performed by our party was to take up and carry forward the work so well commenced. Additional force was obtained from the military commandant at Macon for completing the enclosure and erecting the head boards. It seems that the dead had been buried by Union prisoners, paroled from the stockade and hospital for that pur- pose. Successive trenches, capable of containing from 100 to 150 bodies each, thickly set with little posts or boards, with numbers in regular order carved upon them, told to the astonished and tear- dimmed eye the sad story of buried treasures. It was only necessary to compare the number upon each post or board with that which stands opposite the name on the register, and replace the whole with a more substantial, uniform and comely tablet, bearing not only the original number, but the name, company and regiment, and date of death of the soldier who slept beneath.
-
I have been repeatedly assured by prisoners that great care was taken at the time by the men to whom fell the sad task of originally marking this astonishing number of graves, to perform the work with faithfulness and accuracy. If it shall prove that the work performed by those who followed, under circumstances so much more favorable, was executed with less faithfulness and accuracy than the former, it will be a subject of much regret, but fortunately not yet beyond the pos- sibility of correction, The number of graves marked is 12,920. The original records captured by General Wilson, furnished about 10,500; but as one book of the record had not been secured, over 2,000 names were supplied from a copy (of his own record) made by Mr. Atwater in the Andersonville prison, and brought by him to Annapolis on his return with the paroled prisoners.
Interspersed throughout this Death Register, were 400 numbers against which stood only the dark word " unknown." So, scattered among the thickly designated graves, stand 400 tablets, bearing only the number and the touching inscription, " Unknown Union Soldier."
Substantially, nothing was attempted beyond enclosing the grounds, identifying and marking the graves, placing some appropriate mot- toes at the gates and along the spaces designed for walks, and erect- ing a flagstaff in the centre of the cemetery. The work was com- pleted on the 17th of August, and the party took the route homeward by way of Chattanooga, Nashville and Cincinnati, arriving at Wash- ington on the morning of August 24th.
.
+
Digitized by
=
-- -
.
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY. 243
CHAPTER XII.
FACTS AND THEORIES.
Thirty-two thousand men were confined in an area of twenty-three and one-half acres of land.
To sustain this statement, which, I believe from obser- vation to be correct, I would refer to Documents Nos. 1 and 4 in the Appendix. Official statements of Inspectors must, in such cases, be uncontrovertible evidence.
No shelter or protection from heat, cold or rain was furnished to the prisoners. This assertion is made by Colonel Chandler, Dr. Jones, Dr. Roy, and a host of other Confederate officers; and I, having the evidence of my own eyesight, do endorse it, and believe that there is not a survivor of Andersonville living to-day who would contradict such assertion.
A limited number of the prisoners were the fortunate possessors of army blankets.
The erection of a tent consisted in stretching one of these blankets over a pole which had been laid horizon- tally in two forked stakes, driven some feet or so into the ground. These quarters furnished sleeping accommoda- tions for from four to six men.
Others, by bribing guards and going out occasionally in the squads sent outside for fuel, obtained boughs and branches, with which they framed a shelter.
Digitized by Google
244
RECORDS OF THE
Others dug holes in the side hill, sufficiently large to cover the head and shoulders, and deemed themselves happy in the possession of such a tenement.
A greater portion of the inmates of that prison had no place to rest their sick and weary bodies in day or night, except upon the hot sand or the muddy swamp, with naught but the canopy of heaven to cover them.
The supply of water was insufficient. The water was impure, even vile. (See Documents Nos. 1, 4 and 8 in Appendix.) It was not fit for bathing purposes, to say nothing of being obliged to drink it and cook with it. My own knowledge of this fact is constituted on this : that I often went to bathe and to obtain water for cooking and drinking purposes. The stream ran through the centre of the stockade. On either side was a marshy strip of ground, extending about ten feet each way, and following the stream its entire length. This morass was the general sink of the camp. Therefore, there was but one point at which water could be obtained, which even a burning thirst could force down our throats. That was at the head of the stream, and in immediate prox- imity to the "dead line." " A thousand men an hour at one spring of water." Realize that fact, my reader, and you may comprehend one of our difficult undertakings. Not unfrequently would prisoners endanger their lives, by reaching over the "dead line" and plunging their cups and buckets, in hoping to obtain a little purer water, and avoid a weary waiting in the line. Some were shot there. ·
Below this point many bathed and washed their cloth- ing. The lampblack soot that settled over their bodies
Digitized by Google
.
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY. 245
and clothing-the dirt clinging to these from their sandy and muddy beds-the accumulation of body lice and other vermin-were all removed by washing in this stream, if removed at all. The natural result of an at- tempted purification of such an army of persons in so small a stream, which was at the same time receiving the drainage of the marshy sink, was, that the water became thick and sluggish with such a conglomeration of filth.
Nor was this all. I have said that the purest water, which was used for drinking, was sought for at the head of the stream, within the stockade " dead line." Out- side of the stockade, and above this portion of the stream, I saw, many times, camps of the rebel guard stationed on the banks of the same creek. All their refuse floated down until it reached the cook house (which was built on this same stream, near to the stockade, and within forty feet of the point where the water was obtained by the prisoners ;) there it received the additional offscour- ings and offal of that filthy place, and the whole accumu- lated mass poured under the stockade timbers into the cups of thirsty men. None but men with parched and fevered throats could have drank it.
In the latter part of their stay a few wells were dug by the soldiers themselves. As a rule, however, they belonged to a firm of speculative individuals, who laid tribute (and considering the labor incurred, having nothing but their hands, tin cups and half canteens to dig with, the charge was not unjust) on others ,for the use of the water from these wells. The supply would have soon been exhausted if they had permitted a gene- ral use of the wells.
.
Digitized by Google
246
RECORDS OF THE
The quantity of food issued to the prisoners was so meagre as to gradually induce death from starvation, and the quality was such that none but starving men could have been induced to eat it. It was repulsive even to them.
The United States soldier receives a daily ration of ¿ pound of bacon, 12 pound of fresh or salt beef, 18 ounces of bread and flour, or & pound of hard bread, or 12 pound corn meal,. with rice, beans, vegetables, coffee, sugar, tea, &c., in proportion.
These were also the daily rations furnished the Con- federate prisoners by the United States Government. Compare them with the pitiable allowance of food at Andersonville, i. e., 3 to 4 ounces .of spoiled bacon, half pint of meal or a piece of meal cake, composed of water and ground corn, husks and cob, either partially baked or quite burned, its cubical dimensions being, say three inches wide, one inch thick, and four to five inches long. In addition to this, we only occasionally received a small quantity of rice and a tablespoonfull of molasses, or a few worm-eaten beans, which was often termed "red maggot soup."
In the hospital the food was the same as in the stock- ade, with the exception of beef soup once or twice a week ; and toward the latter days a gill of wheat flour was distributed perhaps twice a week.
Rations were frequently distributed raw, and no fuel provided to cook with.
These rations, which were daily dealt out to us, and called food, did not satisfy hunger. They created hun- ger. The corn bread, which was the staple article, after
Digitized by Google
ISSUING RATIONS AT ANDERSONVILLE,
.
Digitized by Google
AWWROLIAS
.
.
.
1
-
!
Digitized by Google
.
1
-
-. ..
-
247
TWENTY-FOURTH NEW YORK BATTERY,.
it was masticated and swallowed with much difficulty, only irritated the stomach and bowels and produced diarrhea, and as more was taken into the stomach, so much the more rapidly the victim passed along the road to death. There was no nourishment in it. It might as well have been so much sawdust and water.
The bacon which was given us would have disgusted a soap-fat man.
Men were suffering and dying for want of acids and vegetables. Scorbutis arises from want of acids. It can be easily cured by a proper supply of vegetables and fruits. None were ever dealt out to us. Scorbutis was the great scourge of the camp.
A very few times some cabbages were sent to the hos- pital .. The country was full of sweet potatoes, and yet the prisoners saw none in Andersonville until the last week or two that they were there.
The supply of fuel was irregular and entirely inade- quate. It was generally obtained by a squad of the prisoners detailed each day or twice a week. Not over forty were permitted to go out at a time. And this number of men were obliged to procure from the woods, and bring in upon their backs, the daily sup- ply of branches which constituted the fuel for the use of from 15,000 to 30,000 men. Take forty sticks of wood from your " four foot" wood pile, and so splin- ter it that it shall make 15,000 pieces, and you have an Andersonville "ration " of wood.
After having used every influence and means to produce sickness, no proper or adequate measures were
-
.
Digitized by Google
.
.
.
248
RECORDS OF THE
taken to cure or even to alleviate suffering. (See Documents Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in Appendix.)
The hospital was overcrowded. Its accommodations were the poorest imaginable.
There were a few good tents-more that were rotten and torn. No bedding, not even straw, to lie upon. Those who owned blankets could use them for a bed. Those who did not, had the ground for a couch.
One line of tents used for those who had had sur- gical operations performed upon them, was furnished with board bunks. But they soon became so filthy, from want of change of bed clothing, that no person, with the slightest flesh wound, dared to locate himself there, for fear of being contaminated with gangrene, which, if once possessed, doomed a man to certain death.
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.