USA > Rhode Island > History of the Fifth Regiment of Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, during three years and a half of service in North Carolina. January 1862-June 1865 > Part 20
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" Here I might state that Chaplain White came down from New Berne the day before for the purpose of bringing us reading matter, and so forth, and had his horse saddled and at Captain Aigan's tent door, ready to start for New Berne when our pickets were driven in. The captain deemed it unsafe for him to set out, so he hitched his horse outside and came in the fort with us, saying that he would share our fate. He was a good soul, always cheerful and kind, and gave us encouraging words wherever he was, especially while he was with us as a prisoner ; but still the ' Rebs ' called him hard names, because he was a minister of the gospel I suppose. But to go back to my story. Well, to our surprise they came down on us from the north over an open field, all mounted and coming at a fearful pace. But we gave them a shell from our little brass piece, and it burst right in their column, scattering them in all directions at the same time. Captain Aigan's horse broke loose and ran towards the . Rebs.' and we saw one of them who had lost his horse by our shell mount him and ride away. Then they came in on us from two sides, east and west, and we had it hot for about two hours, our good captain standing there and encouraging us, and dealing out ammuni- tion in abundance. Besides our ritles that little brass six-pounder did its duty well, for it counted every time. The . Rebs ' would hardly believe that we had but one gun.
.. Soon the ' Rebs' showed a white flag and demanded that we surrender. Captain Aigan refused to surrender, and soon we were fighting again with more vigor than ever. the captain saying, . If our ammunition holds out we will give them enough of it.' Our
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rifles at this time had got so hot that we had to handle them by the gun-slings, and we were hoping every minute that they would let up a little. But all the time they were crawling up nearer. When our shell scattered them they had gone into the woods and dismounted. Then they raised the flag and again demanded our surrender. Cap- tain Aigan said he would not surrender until obliged to. The ' Rebs'' agent said, " You are a brave fellow, but we know just your force, and you will lose all of your men if you hold out much longer.' Then they shook hands and parted again. Soon we were firing at them again, little thinking that we should be under their control in a little while. But our ammunition would soon be exhausted and our telegraph wires were cut in all directions. Captain Aigan, Lieuten- ant Durfee and Chaplain White held a council to see what was best to do. They concluded to propose to surrender on conditions that the officers and men could retain all their private property. So up went a white flag on our little fort, and they agreed to our propositions, and about four o'clock in the afternoon, on the fifth day of May, 1861, a day that will never be forgotten by me, we marched out of our little fort, meek as lambs, and stackel arms.
" Of course they . gobbled up ' all of the government property first, and then got us into line as soon as possible. They allowed us to take all the eatables we could, and to fill our canteens, and then they hurried us away. We soon found out why they rushed us along so fast. They were ordered to Richmond as fast as they could go, and were about to leave us when we surrendered. Oh! if we could have known it before, but it was too late ! That night they packed us into the block-house, about four miles from our camp, and there we began to sew what money we had into our clothing, in case the ' Rebs ' should search us. We feared they would do so when we changed hands, but they did not break their agreement in that re- spect. I think there were about seventy men of us shut up there until about four o'clock in the morning, when they started ns for Kinston, about forty miles distant, and the nearest railroad station that they held. The men that had us in charge were North Carolina troops, and many of them loyal if they had dared to be. When we rested along the sandy roads they were ready for conversation or trade. Just as we were falling in. after a short rest. General Deer-
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ing, the officer in command, rode up with his staff, He said to the officer who had charge of us, ' What have those Yankee officers got their side-arms for?' and he ordered them taken from them.
" We arrived in Kinston about half past ten at night, completely tired out, and after a scanty meal we laid down on the cold ground for the night. The next morning we were placed in the county jail. where we had the privilege of looking through the bars of the wind- ows. The jail was anything but comfortable quarters-live stock in abundance-and we were told that we would have to wait until the troops had all gone through to Richmond, rolling stock being scarce. So we had the pleasure of seeing the different rebel regiments pass through, and we also recognized our little six-pounder when it went by, and we cheered it every time. This provoked the ' Rebs' so much that they threatened to fire on us if we didn't keep quiet.
"After five days they marched us out to the station. We were bound south, they said, We were packed in box cars, about as close as possible. with two guards inside of each car, and quite a number outside on top. By having the guards inside we could have the doors open so we could have some fresh air. The guards seemed to be good men. They would lie down with us and sleep at night, when the cars were in motion. The roads were so out of repair that they could not make more than six miles an hour, and if it could have been understood in all the cars of this train we could have taken possession of it as easy as it is to talk about it now. We could handle the guns of the guard any time, and they didn't seem to care much about anything they were so completely tired of the war. It has always seemed strange to me why Captain Aigan could not see it also. He had the privilege of coming from one car to another as often as we came to a stop. We knew every inch of that country around Kinston, and we could have run that train back easy, for there were no troops in the town after we left it.
.. Our next stopping place was Wilmington, N. C., where we re- mained all night, and took breakfast, which consisted of a small piece of bacon, one egg, a small piece of corn bread and one cup of so called coffee, for ten dollars. They knew that each one of us had a little money, and they were bound to get it some way. The next place we stopped was Branchville, S. C., where we were used like
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anything but human beings, but we soon pushed along to Angusta, Ga .. and here we began to feel as though we were prisoners indeed. We were landed in the north part of the city and marched the whole length of it to the south side to take the cars for Macon. Ga. We thought there must be a circus or caravan going through the town,
Sylvester B. Hiscox, A SURVIVOR OF ANDERSONVILLE PRISON. · From a recent picture.)
for old men and women, children and darkies ran from every direc- tion to see the . Yankees.' . Bluebellies,' " Mudsills,' and every con- ceivable name they could think of. They began to abuse us in every way they could.
". We there boarded another train. still bound south, and the next day arrived at a place called Andersonville. It was a collection of a
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few huts. Here we were ordered out of the train and formed in line. We marched half a mile when we saw a stockade in the dis- tance. Then we knew our destination. We were again formed in line and our names, company, regiment, etc., recorded. I should say here that Captain Aigan, Lieutenant Durfee, and Chaplain White came on this ' excursion ' with us. After our names had been taken we were marched through the gates of Andersonville prison. That was the last that we saw of our officers. We found out after- wards that they were going back to Macon.
" Well, you cannot imagine how we felt then. You might have seen tears in our eyes, when we gazed upon such horrid looking be- ings as we saw before us. I can't tell you about it. Words are of no use. Our first thought was, have we got to stay in this pen. among these men, with no shelter but the heavens above us? And then they crowded around us, thousands of them, all clamoring and asking questions. Their one cry was, ' Is there any possible chance of exchange?' Oh, those many thousands of American soldiers. I've got to a point now when it makes my blood boil when I think for a moment of the misery that was around us. But that story- it can never be told as we felt it -- has been published over and over again since the war, and I've told it myself, hundreds of times per- haps, but even now I don't want to think of what we had to endure, nor think of the many thousands of brave men that laid their bones away near Andersonville prison-many of them, too. my own well tried and dear comrades. We were added to a prison battalion of 270 men, divided into three companies of ninety men each, with a . Reb' sergeant to each company to draw rations. It was not long before we men of Company A were scattered all over the prison.
" You may imagine how thick men were in there when I tell you there were about thirty acres inside the stockade, and we were told that there were 37,000 prisoners in this pen. As a general thing the rations consisted of about one small pint of mush-we called it ; sometimes about two ounces of fat bacon, and occasionally a little rice or a few small, red beans, which we never could boil soft. There was but little wood, and that was green pine, so that we couldn't halt cook what we got, and not half enough water, and that was so filthy that a beast wouldn't drink it, and no shelter from the hot sun for
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more than one-third of the men-and then the filth, from all these men, that was inside the pen too-Oh, it's too sickening to print. And so we suffered on in that way. All this time these men talked about four things and nothing else, getting exhanged, home, some- thing to eat, and getting away.
" One afternoon, as the ' Rebs' were dealing out the rations, it was much as usual, a Rhode Island soldier sat down with us, while eat- ing the scanty mess they gave us, he said : . Boys, I used when I was at home to give my chickens just such food. but,' raising his head and arm heavenward. . I ask pardon for all I ever gave them.' That was about the feeling among us all.
" Strong hearts melted, like snow in the sun. For three months we managed to weather the privations, but during August and Sep- tember fifty-one of our company dropped away. After I had been in about three months I had gangrene sores come on my feet, so that I was not able to get around except by crawling on my hands and knees. So it deprived me of the privilege of going to the gates each morning to see if any of our men had died during the night, and re- port to those not able to get there. We could generally count, dur- ing the hot months, never less than one hundred and sometimes as high as one hundred and thirty deaths for the twenty-four hours. Then the army wagons would back up to the gate and they wouldl throw the bodies in like so many swine. That was a heart-rending sight,-those half-naked, dirty bodies-covered with vermin, etc .. carted off but a little way, right in sight of our prison. and put in trenches with nothing but a narrow strip of head-board bearing ouly the number of the man on the prison list.
" There was a great break planned. There were only about five thousand men in all to guard us, at that time, and we had about twenty thousand quite strong men. able and willing to go into the break and fight. One battalion of' us was to tear up the railroad track and cut the wires ; one battalion was formed for each of the four batteries that bore on us ; one battalion was to secure the guns . and ammunition that was in store, and one was to look out for what provisions they could find. We had a map of the whole country. and were only about three hundred miles from the place where Sher- man was fighting, which we meant to reach before they could over-
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take us. Every morning at daybreak the . Reb' sergeants came in to have roll call. and the gates were opened to let them in. We were going to make the break at that time. when the gates were open. The day was set, and we were all ready the night before, but some worse than cowardly villain inside, informed on us-to Captain Wirtz. We could never find out who he was. Oh, but the ' Rebs' were wild with excitement. All night long they were bringing troops from every direction and making their breastworks and batteries stronger than ever. When morning came they had five thousand extra troops there, and we were too discouraged to try it. Occasionally, that day, Captain Wirtz would send a shell or two over the prison as a sort of a reminder, and then we would hiss at them and call them anything but good names.
"I haven't spoken of the raiders, as we called them. They were a gang of ruffians-Union prisoners, too, that would plunder, and even murder, their fellow prisoners. They got so bold and so dan- gerous that we organized a police force. This police arrested six of the worst of them, tried them by court-martial, found them guilty, and by permission of the . Reb' authorities, hanged them inside our prison pen. Although we knew that they had been guilty of many murders, it was a pitiful sight to see six such horrible looking creatures as all of us were then, hanging on the gallows. But it put a stop to all raiding after that.
"About the 28th of August there was an order issued to take 10,000 prisoners to Florence, S. C., and I happened to be one of that number. It was new ground there, of course, but we had become so feeble from sickness and privation that we were even worse off, or what there was left of each one of us, than we were in Andersonville. And I have never seen one of Company A after I left Andersonville, and I was so reduced that I did not care to make a single new acquaintance. not even among the ' Rebs,' but waited patiently for release, which I knew must come some time. One hour we would hear all sorts of encouraging rumors, only to have them contradicted the next moment, and then we would think there was not a ray of hope for us. Men would get so full of despair that they would deliberately walk over the dead line, to be shot. I saw such instances several times. I must say that I think the surgeons
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here were better men, and had more feeling for us; seemed more like doctors than at Andersonville.
"All sorts of orders were posted up in the prison, by the ' Rebs.' such as ' thirty days' furlough for each and every Yankee shot while crossing the dead line,' ' if any crowd collects it will be opened ou with grape and canister.' Tunnelling out was in order all the time ; but most of those who got out were hunted down with bloodhounds. kept for the purpose, and brought back, and had to endure punish- ment of some kind. Once we were kept without rations for three days for refusing to let the . Rebs' know where the tunnel was, - so many were getting away at that time.
" The days dragged along in this way until towards December. At this time things began to look rather mixed for the . Rebs.' They wanted to get their prisoners away out of that part of the country. or off their hands on the best terins they could get. So, then, one Sunday morning, there was an order that eight hundred of the sick should be paroled. It was all that they had cars to carry at one time. That is one of the mornings I shall never for- get. My name was the second one that was called to come forward and take the oath not to serve again until I was exchanged, and sign the papers. For four months I had not stood on my feet. but had crawled about on my hands and knees. I can never describe my feelings when I found myself outside of that stockade, and yet we did not realize ; could not make it seem true that we were going home. But we were soon put on board the train, and the first thing I asked was, if any of the Fifth Rhode Island boys were there, but I could not hear of one. So I came to the conclusion that they must all be dead.
"The . Rebs' gave us the best meal the day we left Florence that we had had in many months. We rode along very quietly until we got within about four miles-it seemed to me-of Savan- nah, when we could hear firing, not a great way off, and we were told that Sherman's army would soon be in ; and we thought so, for when we got in the city all was in an uproar. They soon put us aboard a small steamer and took us down the river as fast as possible. It took but a little time to reach our fleet, where we were turned over to the officers waiting to receive us. It was a hospital boat. and
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they had everything ready for us. What a change it was to be among friends, -to be free, under the dear old flag again. Sick as we were we sang the good old Union songs all that day. And then the smell of the good old government coffee. and enough for all of us to eat and to spare. Our surgeon was afraid they would kill us with kindness. It was not long before the dirty rags that we had on when we came aboard, and called clothing, was floating down the Savannah River. The steamer soon started for Annapolis, Md., and when we were settled in our clean and comfortable beds at night, we began to fully realize that we were released from our prisou.
" We reached Annapolis the next Sunday morning, and were sent to a general hospital, and were informed that we could be hurt with kindness, for our sickness was such that everything that we eat seemed to disagree with us. As soon as we were able to travel we received a furlough to go home. During the journey home we were helped in every way, and lots of money was given us -- because we looked so bad-for we were nothing but skeletons moving slowly about. Well, I arrived home Jan. 5, 1865, and there I remained for many months before I could walk without crutches. While at home Charles F. Chase was released from prison. He came to see me, he belonged in the same town. and was a dear comrade. And I thought that if I could have come out of that pen looking as well as he appeared to then I would have given all the world. But in a fortnight he was dead.
" I do not think there are many of the dear old company left now to tell the sad tale. I can recall but two, Lieutenant Durfee and Peter Melville, both in Newport. This is only a short talk about our experience. As I said before, no one can know all the story of the Southern prison pens, unless, under the providence of God, they were enabled to survive, as I did, those long months of sickness, starvation, and despair."
" I suppose you know about Captain Aigan's escape, If you do not I will tell you what he told me as well as I can now recollect it. He got away four times and was retaken each time. He got out through a tunnel at Macon, and the fourth time he nearly reached Sherman's lines. There was one incident I must tell you. In the
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first part of the winter of '64 there were many . Reb' officers on leave at Macon, and they would go in to see our officers who were prisoners. One day some of them came in at roll-call, and a group was standing near the company that the captain was in. When his name was called he noticed that some of them commenced talking, and he won- dered what it meant. Soon the . Reb' sergeant came and said he was wanted outside. There he was confronted by a Rebel colonel. who said : . Well, John, how do you like to be in the Yankee army?' The captain replied, ' Very well, colonel.' Then he said. . John, what made you desert from my regiment in Texas?' Cap- tain Aigan said, ' Colonel, I guess you are mistaken in your man.' But the rebel flew into a rage and said he had his descriptive list with him, and he pulled it out and read it right there, and asked the captain if he knew the penalty of desertion. The captain replied, ' Colonel, I guess you must have my company's papers to get that.' And he could not convince the colonel that he was not the deserter from his regiment. So he was sent back into the pen feeling that there was but little hope for him. He was broken down, for the first time, I think, for he was always of good courage from the first of my acquaintance with him, and I believe even to this day that he died from the injuries and exposure of his prison life. But to go back. Later in the day he was told that they had decided that he was not the man they thought he was, for this reason : One of the officers who heard the talk between the ' Reb' colonel and Captain Aigan, turned to the colonel after the captain had been taken back to. the prison and said, ' Colonel, I believe you are mistaken, myself. Did you ever in your life hear a Texan soldier say I guess ?' ' Never,' said the colonel. So you see that one word probably saved Captain Aigan's life.
" Well, it was in February, about the middle of it. if I remember. when the captain made his last break. There were five of them. They were soon retaken, and at night a guard was placed over them in a field. The officers told him they would fix him that time. But the prisoners did not mean to be taken back if they could help it. So they pretended to go to sleep and watched, for what they felt that was their last chance. Soon all of the ' Reb ' guard was asleep but the one on post. They managed to seize him. choking him so that he could
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not make any noise, led him silently to a wood where they gagged and left him. They went some miles and finally met an old darkey and told him their story. He took them back of his barn where he brought a table and had them creep under it. Then he covered them up, table and all with manure. They had a fork handle with them which they used to keep a hole open to get fresh air. They heard what evidently were soldiers inquiring for them. The old negro would not let them out until the next night, by which time they were . nearly suffocated with the heat of their cramped up hiding-place. The old negro put tar and red pepper on their feet so that the hounds could not trail them, and sent them to another negro some miles away. Finally they reached General Sherman's army, then on its way north through South Carolina."
CAPTAIN JOHN AIGAN'S REPORT.
PAWTUCKET, R. I .. April 20, 1865.
GENERAL: I have the honor to submit to you the names of the men of my company who have died since we were captured by the enemy at Croatan, N. C., May 5, 1864. I have only a few correct dates, but I have given them as near as I could ascertain. I also give the names of some whom I presume are dead, but of whom I cannot give any correct infor- mation.
I have the honor to be, General, your obedient servant,
JOHN AIGAN. Captain Co. A, 5th R. I. Artillery.
To BRIG. GEN. E. C. MAURAN, Adjutant General. Rhode Island. 1. Sergeant Michael Kennedy, died in Charleston, S. C., Oct. 4, 1864. 2. 66 Thomas Hanly. Andersonville, Ga .. Sept ..
1. Corporal W. IL. Lillibridge, Aug., ..
Charles A. Slocum,
2. 3. Edward O. Colvin, 5. 66
.. 4. Michael Riley, Charleston, S. C., Sept .. 6.
1. Musician John Livingstone, .. Andersonville. Ga.,
Daniel F. Hawkins.
1. Private John Gondy. .. Andrew J. Johnson.
August. Inne T. .. 2.
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FIFTH RHODE ISLAND HEAVY ARTILLERY.
3. Private William Wallace, died in Andersonville, Ga., August. 1864. 4. .. Edward Lewis, .. 66
5.
..
George L. Doolittle,
.:
July,
6.
Frederick Bane,
August,
1.
.. John Hempstead, .:
..
July, William Garvey, .. 8. 9. James Doyle, .. .. 10. ..
.. Charles S. Sisson,
..
Ang. 18, "
11.
.. Henry Seymour,
..
12.
..
Jerry Sullivan, ..
..
July. Angust,
.: 66
.. 66 16.
66 17.
after being paroled.
6: in Warren, R. I., Jan. 19, 1865.
10, 20. George Montgomery, shot while attempting to escape.
21.
.. Amos Eaton, died in Andersonville, Ga., August. 1864.
22.
Dennis G. Ballou, died in Charleston, S. C., about Oet. S. "
23. John Hanley.
" Florence, S. C., September, .. 24.
Andersonville. Ga., August, .. 25. ..
John Thomas, 66
..
SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD, AS I CANNOT LEARN ANYTHING CERTAIN ABOUT THEM-Sergt. Samuel R. Eddy, Corp. Franklin Wicks, Privates Stephen Wicks, James Brady, and William H. Vallet, Jr.
RECAPITULATION-Dead-Sergeants, 2 ; corporals, 4: musicians, 2 ; privates, 25; total, 33.
MISSING, SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD-Sergeants. 1; corporals, 2; privates, 3; total, 6.
WITH THE REGIMENT-Privates, 5.
NOT HEARD FROM, BUT SUPPOSED TO BE LIVING-Privates, 5.
AT HOME SICK-Privates, 2; total, 12; aggregate, 51.
NOT HEARD FROM, SUPPOSED TO BE LIVING AND WITH THE REGIMENT- Privates, Franklin Smith, Benjamin Bentley, Frank S. Clark, James Matthews, Charles Delaney, George O. Brown, James Lawrence, Edward McQuade, David HI. Willard, JJolm Couly.
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