USA > Texas > Prison life in Texas : an account of the capture and imprisonment of a portion of the 46th Regiment, Indiana Veteran Volunteers in Texas > Part 3
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With the officers, it was more difficult than with the men. They were carried on a separate roll, but they were so successful that the name of an absent one was often carried a month, without discovery-long enough to ensure his safety. 1
General Treatment.
The commanding officer of Camp Ford, Lieutenant Colonel Borders, was an Englishman-a resident of the South, about nine years. From association with the most reckless and dissipated of this semi-barbarous soci- ety, he was thoroughly imbued with the worst qualities of it. By marriage, he had stepped into a fortune, and be- come arrogant and haughty. Here, the inate brutality of the man found full scope, and a field for cultivation. The acquisition of power, fed his pride and sharpened his malice. With all, the infamy of his character was inten- sified by his being a bitter rebel. A monarchist, hating everything Republican, and with unbounded malice to- wards the Union soldiery, he was a fit instrument to carry out the system provided by the leaders of the rebel- lion, of the treatment of prisoners. He had an adju-
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. tant, unprincipled, cowardly, vicious, and destitute of the dimest spark of manhood. Lieutenant Me- Cann, was the name of this offieer. He possessed no principle of action, but the slavish one of wishing to please his superiors. When some of the prisoners were coming home, through New Orleans, in March, last, this MeCann was just being brought in, a prisoner. General Canby was informed of the brutality praetieed by him, by Major Norris, of the 43d Indiana, when the gentle- man was put in irons, and a ration of a pint of meal and a half pound of baeon was ordered for him.
If men approaeued too near the stockade-the limit being ten feet-they were either shot down, or made to mark time at a vigorous " double quick," at the pleasure and diseretion of the sentinel ; as many of these were boys, not over fifteen years old, it was very gratifying to to the embryo traitor, to have a Yankee danee at his bid- ding. The inducement, a cocked musket held at the breast of a prisoner, and handled in the most reckless manner, was generally sufficient to get out of the man all the dance there was in him. Thus, a skeleton was made to jump high or low, to suit a boy's faney.
As many as thirty at a time have been subjected to this treatment, for two hours, or until they become ex- hausted and fell. Confederate officers often stood by en- joying the amusing scene, and sometimes ordering a bayonet to be used in compelling men to use their feet.
Men who were overtaken in trying to escape, and re- turned to prison, were made to stand on blocks of wood or stumps, bare-headed in the sun for four hours, and after two hours rest, on again for "four hours." This would be continued for a week, before the man would be considered sufficiently purged of his crime.
Sometimes sueh criminals were made to stand half their time on one foot, whilst a soldier sat by with his musket, in some shady place to enforce odedienee.
Lady visitors, (rather demons) occasionally passed around the eamp to see the " animals," as they humanly termed the prisoners. Taunting them in the most insult- ing manner.
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Groups of prisoners were often tied up by the thumbs, for some trifling offence, and suspended so that their toes barely touched the ground, and for days were brought out and subjected to this torture, two hours at a time.
Strong men subjected to this punishment in a July sun, would faint and fall as far as the ligatures on their thumbs would permit, and would be cut down as soon as a lazy, vicious rebel found it convenient to go to his assistance.
Prisoners were shot down without any attempt at justi- fication. A man was near the gate asking to be per- mitted to go out for wood. The guard ordered him away. The man turned to obey the order when he was shot through the heart by the guard and killed.
A man named Colvert, of the 77th Ohio, whilst quietly walking along within the proper limits, was inhumanly shot down by a boy about fourteen years of age, who, per- haps, was ambitious of something to boast of among his associates and tutors.
S. O. Shoenicker, of the 130th Illinois, a good orderly, pious man, whilst setting in a hovel, pleading with a friend to become religious, was shot dead by a guard, some twenty yards behind him. The guard declared he had a brother who was killed in battle and "He was bound to kill some d-d- of a . - of a Yankee."
As a punishment for this outrage, this rebel received a furlough for thirty days, which he submitted to with all grace.
A member of the 173d New York, was killed whilst walking towards the wall to obtain his hat which had been blown off. The man who committed this murder, merely remarked that he " Had killed two Yankees before-now this was three."
A member of the 36th Iowa, was shot whilst walking along the usual path, about 8 o'clock one evening. Both arms were broken, and the heart was perforated by the ball. He died in the arms of his brother, declaring he was foully murdered. This brother was paroled in March and came home.
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An Indian, belonging to the 14th Kansas, was killed as wantonly as any of those above mentioned.
The men who committed these outrages without rebuke, were of Colonels Sweet and Brown's battalion.
1
Rations and Hospital.
The regular ration consisted of a pint of corn meal, in the bran and about one pound of beef, with a little salt, to the man, but scarcely any day brought anything near the allowance. The articles issued were of the most inferior character. The meat often was not fit for use. . The sup- ply of cooking utensils was not sufficient for a battalion of men. A small allowance of wood was brought, but so meager was the supply, that a portion of the camp would have none. These having no way to cook their beef, lost it. Provisions could be bought of outsiders, but at prices beyond the reach of most of the prisoners. The officers of the camp, permitted every advantage to be taking of the starving inmates, and appeared to co-operate in creat- ing a demand for what there was to sell.
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The Hospital arrangements consisted of a new wooden building erected in the woods, near by, about large enough to accommodate thirty patients, which was about a third of the average sick, needing the most judicious treatment and close attention. Sick men, were usually, only car- ried out to the hospital, when it became apparent that death would soon ensue. In the hospital, the sick were on rude wooden bunks, with nothing to soften them. No blankets nor comforts of any kind, were furnished. The only advantage in the hospital over the camp, was, that the men were raised off the ground .- a gain of dryness, at the sacrifice of some comfort. The same rations were issued to sick and well. If the sick man had a blanket, he was fortunate indecd, but if he had none, he was obliged to suffer without it. The majority laid almost naked, on rough boards and were left to get well or die as disease and his constitution determined.
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The medical department was in keeping with every- thing else. A Surgeon was detailed, whose duty it was to visit the sick. He usually visited the camp about once a week, and pretended to have an inspection, but usually he came at such times as but few knew of his presence. When he was seen, he issued curses liberally, and the commonest drugs parsimoneously.
The monthly allowance of medicine to the prisoners, was not sufficient for one day's treatment of the more sim- ple cases, and was of very inferior quality. In short, the whole thing was but a brutal and systematic farce.
Removal to Camp Groce.
On the 12th of August, five hundred and six of the prisoners were ordered to move south to Camp Groce, a dis- tance of two hundred miles. The unfortunate ones were selected from every regiment in the camp, and made up of the unruly members of the prison community. Officers and men who had made themselves obnoxious to the offi- cials by resisting or protesting against their infamous treatment of men held as prisoners of war, or those who had made attempts to escape.
Not over ten minutes notice was given of the proposed march. The rations of the day had not been issued, and there was nothing to be taken to eat. Rations, it was said, would follow in wagons. The line was soon formed outside, but the march was delayed many hours, whilst the men were kept in the burning sun, without water, wearying with a delay that appeared to be without cause, except for the general purpose of torturing them. John Shaffer, Jasper N. Mullins, Robert Lewis and David Gar- bison of the 46th Indiana, being sick and unable to make the march, were not taken.
The road, for the entire distance, ran through a pine and oak barren-extremely broken-and interspersed with narrow strips of timber, with an occasional stretch
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PRISON LIFE IN TEXAS.
of from five to six miles without a shrub or scarcely a blade of grass. The sand was scorching hot, ankle deep and with the greatest scarcity of water. Fifteen miles frequently intervened between watering places, where no water could be obtained for the guards and their horses, which were always first considered. There were not over fifty canteens among all the priso- ners, and there was no way of carrying water from point to point. The daily march was about twenty miles-ar- ranged with a view to the water places.
In justice to the guards on this duty, it must be said that they were the best class yet met. They belonged to the 21st Texas, and numbered two hundred and fifty.
The intense heat, without water, caused many of the prisoners to drop exhausted by the way-side, where they were guarded till night came on and then forced to over- take the column. There were six or eight wagons as- signed for the sick and exhausted, but they did not ac- commodate a fourth of the number of those utterly unable to march. Many were without shirts-their naked backs exposed to the sun. A large proportion were without shoes-their feet blistering in the hot sand. Many with their uncovered heads exposed to the almost perpen- dicular rays of the sun.
It would be fruitless to attempt to portray the suffer- ings of that eleven day's march, the remembrance of which is enough to make the heart sick.
Teams followed the column gathering rations, and often they did not get into camp till near midnight. There was then doled out a small cup of flour or corn-meal, and a third of a pound of bacon to the man.
Camp Groce was at last made, when the saddest days in the prisoner's experience commenced. There were con- fined in this camp, about fifty soldiers, and the officers and crews of the gun-boats " Wave " and " Granite City," captured at "Calcasieu Pass " on the 6th of May, 1864, in all, about one hundred and fifty men. They were all sick with fever and ague. Of these, eighty died before
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the following November. They were all in the most des- titute condition.
This prison is about sixty miles northwest of Houston, near Hempstead, on the Houston and Texas Central Rail- road. It is situated in a sharp bend of a branch of, and within a few miles of Brazos River. It is almost entirely surrounded by a strip of low marshy ground. impregnat- ing the air with a deadly malaria. About one and a half acres of ground are enclosed with a close stockade about twelve feet high. The prison is supplied with water from two wells, which were found filled with rubbish and filth. These, with great labor, were fitted for use, and furnished a supply of slimy and unhealthy water. There were board barracks, sufficient to accommodate six hundred and fifty men, but in a most dilapidated condition.
The rations of this camp when the new delegation ar- rived were some better than in the one just left, but they very soon contracted to uncomfortably small dimensions.
This camp was commanded by an Irish Captain, who had been a Corporal in the regular United States Army, and was in Texas at the breaking out of the rebellion, when the infamous General Twiggs, so disgracefully be- trayed his trust, and delivered up his command of trained and disciplined soldiers, to a cowardly mob, which a volley would have put to flight.
Of the companies of the prison guards, one was Irish ; one German, and two were Texans. The men of the two first were, almost to a man, as loyal as the prisoners whom they guarded. They showed the prisoners every possible favor and kindness, when not under the eye of their officers. Numerous instances occurred in which these guards after dark passed out prisoners, and even, by means of ropes, let the prisoners down on the outside of the stockade, and furnished them provisions for their journey. As many as thirty in rapid succession, have gone over the stockade on a moonlight night, either by the help of the guard, or through their disregard of duty. These attempts to escape were no more successful than at Camp Ford. After wandering about the country a few days,
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they were brought back, having become sick from the malaria of the country, and given themselves up, or were captured by the local force. Some died whilst out and were buried by their comrades.
The men transferred from Camp Ford, had not been long here before they began to be taken down with fevers and diarrhea, and by the middle of September, there was not one hundred well men in the prison. The camp pre- sented a most deplorable condition. Men crazed with fever ran hither and thither like madmen. Night and day the cries of the sick and dying filled the air. Men woke in the morning, after a night of horror to find their bunk-mates dead by their side.
No medicines were to be had until disease had become general in the camp, and many were beyond the reach of remedy. The Surgeon whose duty it was to visit the sick, but seldom came, and when he did, was drunk and administered curses in place of medicine. Many days passed without any medical attendance or relief beyond what could be furnished by the inmates of the prison. This hidious drama, was most appropriately closed by the death of the fiendish Surgeon by detirum tremens.
After this those who were thought too sick to be treated in camp, were carried to the Hospital at Hempstead, about two miles distant. From ten to fifteen sick men would be jammed into a wagon and carried to the Hospital over rough roads, and through the scorching sun. Four or five nien died during these murderous transits and for want of room, were set or laid upon by their almost un- conscious comrades.
Hospital at Hempstead.
This institutution was the low garret of a church. The roof was almost within reach of the patients. There were no side windows-no place for ventilation but through the small gable windows. The inner view of this den was most horrible. There was but enough light to make the
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scene visible, and the filthy and noisome effluvia that per- vaded the place, drove away all who were not forced to remain. The fresh air so greatly needed by the fevered sufferers, seemed to turn in disgust and abhorence from the threshhold of this cavern.
The sick were crowded together as thick as it was pos- sible to wedge them-one tier over another, on rough board bunks, and generally, with no straw or mattress. If the man did not have a blanket, which was generally the case, he lay in his rags, upon the hard boards. There were a few mattresses belonging to the Hospital, but these from long use had become so foul, that they were refused by all. If the men were able to crawl down a rickety flight of stairs, the inexorable laws of nature could be complied with-otherwise comfort and cleanli- ness gave way to necessity.
Helpless and suffering, with fever and chronic diarrhoea, men died without thought or care. Their remains were hauled out in a cart and dumped into a hole without coffin, and without an emotion of sympathy or regret.
Change of Camp.
In September the yellow fever broke out at Galveston, and soon reached Houston and other points above. The Confederate guard at the prison, fearing the disease might reach that point, openly threatened to leave, and let the prisoners take care of themselves. On this, the authori- ties determined to move the camp. On the 20th, the pri- soners were taken west of Brazos River, and encamped twenty-five miles from the railroad, on a low wet marshy creek bottom.
There was now five hundred men of the six hundred and fifty left. Of these there were not over seventy-five well. On the journey the sick were crowded together in rough wagons, fifteen or sixteen to a wagon. These were those only who were not able to walk. Those who the bayonet could persuade along, were obliged to go on foot. Very
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fcw were able to walk comfortably-and a great number got along only with the greatest difficulty. The transporta- tion was limited and many dragging themselves along until they could do so no longer, fell exhausted, and were left to follow or die, or be picked up when it suited the convenience of the guard to go back for them.
On this move six men died in the wagons, and were hastily tumbled into holes dug by the way-side.
Sick and well alike, at this camp, had no beds but the damp ground, and no shelter but such as they might con- struct with brush. They were closely packed together on less than a half acre of ground, where the cooking and all camp duties were performed. Sinks were dug inside the lines, which in the hot sun rendered the atmosphere almost unendurable. Water was obtained from pools along the bed of the creek-green, filthy, and rank with disease and death. As usual, above the camp the horses of the rebels, numbering near five hundred, were kept, watered and cleaned. The dirt of a filthy rebel camp was intentionally thrown into the water. On the banks of the stream were the sinks of the rebel camp. Each rain brought down all this disgusting material, and left the prisoners no alternative but to use that water or do with- out any.
Instead of the health improving, the sickness greatly increased. There was no medicines, nor attendence of any kind. Each morning at roll call, men were found present in body but absent in spirit. Death had released them. The dead would be found lying upon the ground in the mud, having been denied the satisfaction of a bed, and with no covering but the scanty rags that composed their clothing. Around this few was a heavy chain of sentinels standing guard, as it were, over a grave-yard, to keep ghosts in subjection.
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Another Move.
On the 3d of October, owing to heavy rains and cold winds, it was decreed necessary again to move the camp. A march of twenty-five miles was made near to the town of Chappel Hill. An old camp meeting ground, where were some sheds and shelter, was encamped upon. The move from the old camp, was in all respects much like the former one, rendered worse by a more general and thorough exhaustion among the men. Now, a well man was a curiosity-none were well. As before several died in the wagons or by the road side.
The new camp, too, was located on a damp piece of ground. There was a springy ridge above it, which kept a portion of the camp constantly wet. As before no shel- ter was had for the prisoners, and they had the ground, only, for their beds. The cold, chilly October rains had now set in, and night after night the sad moans of the suffering; the maniacal ravings of men, delirious form fever, and the cough from hundreds of diseased lungs, sounded through and above the howling winds. Ghost- like forms crowded around cheerless fires, striving to warm their attenutated bodies, and keep in circulation the sluggish blood. And their tortures ran through many nights of pelting rain or hail.
About the 15th of Ootober, for the first time, the pri- son was furnished with medicines of something like an ap- proach to decency, but still far from sufficient. A Surgeon, comparatively a humane man, abounding in good promises, of limited action and energy, was alloted to us. The health began to improve, but deaths continued at the rate of four or five a day.
There was abundant shelter for two thousand men, con- sisting of sheds and board houses, erected by and for the families who came for religious purposes, in times past. In these were quartered about four hundred soldiers-the guard-the rest was taken up by their horses, equip- ments and forage. The systematic efforts to wear out and destroy the prisoners, would have been defeated, in a
PRISON LIFE IN TEXAS. 39
measure, had they been permitted to occupy that portion of the quarters that were empty.
About the last of October, the yellow fever having sub- sided, the prisoners were again moved back to Camp Groce. On this journey, after having marched over four hundred miles, from the place of capture, the first rail- road transportation of the campaign was furnished, and a ride of fifteen miles! as an especial favor, granted the prisoners.
The condition of the men on returning to Camp Groce, was most deplorable. There were four hundred and forty of the original number. With the exception of six or seven successful escapes, all the rest had fallen victims of the infamous treatment to which they had been sub- jected by the scoundrels who had charge of them.
Not one in ten of the prisoners had a hat, about one in twenty a blanket ; a few had shirts ; a few had panta- loons, . but the majority were clothed in collections of rags that defied description, and very few had shoes.
What is known as " Northers," now occurred frequent- lv. The suddenness of them rendered them more severe. Often with the thermometer at seventy degrees, dark clouds would start up from the northwest and in two hours the thermometer would fall to thirty five degrees. As the season advances these storms increase in frequency and intensity, and they cause more suffering than a regu- lar season of a lower temperature.
The general misery of the prisoners' situation was greatly augmented by their inability to hear from home, or to obtain information in relation to the progress of the war. Nothing was known of the great armies of the nation-of their coudition or progress. The exagerated stories of the rebels were known to be false, because un- reasonable and improbable. It was known that the Red River expedition was a disasterous failure, and it was feared that like defeats had been suffered in other de- partments.
Nothing was heard of the regiment, but what was con- tained in a short letter written June 14th, by Colonel
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Bringhurst, on the Mississippi, to Liutenant Colonel Flory, as the regiment was going home on veteran furlough. At Camp Ford, in November, a letter from Colonel B. was received by the four members of the regiment left there in August. It informed them that the regiment was in Kentucky. With these exceptions, nothing was known of the movements of the comrades of the prisoners, with whom they had been constantly in company in camp or field, for nearly three years.
The " Houston Telegraph " was the vehicle of the news received by the neighborhood around Camp Groce. In it were published the most startling accounts of Union de- feats and rebel victories. Every action was a Federal disaster, and ruin seemed constantly impending over the National Government.
With all this, there ran through the rebel soldiery, an anticipation of final defeat, which belied all their boasts and predictions.
At Camp Ford on the 4th of July, the commandant of the camp permitted the prisoners to have a celebration, with the restriction that there was to be no allusion to the war, or the questions at issue between the north and south, in the speeches. Colonel Dugane, of the 75th New York, Lieutenant Colonel Flory, of the 46th Indiana, Captain Crocker, of the gunboat Clifton, and others made patriotic speeches, which were highly appreciated by the large audience. Patriotic songs were sung, and over three hundred sat down to a 4th of July dinner, gotten up by subscription, at the aristocratic price of $4 a ticket.
On the 8th of November, the prisoners at Camp Ford held an election for President of the United States. The matter was first suggested by a rebel, Colonel Brown, then commanding the camp. He said the votes of men coming from so many States, would indicate the result in the actual vote. The idea was readily adopted by the prisoners and preparations made for the important occa- sion. The camp was divided into wards, and persons in- dicated, distributed slips of paper to each ward. At roll call on the morning of the 8th, the tickets were dropped
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into hats, brought together and counted. The proceeding was altogether fair. There was neither bribery, nor any undue influence used. Yet, literally, the purity of the ballot box, could not be fairly insisted upon.
There were 2,370 votes cast, of which 615 were cast for General Mcclellan, and 1,665 for Mr. Lincoln. To make the affair more closely resemble the actual proceed- ing, several fights among the voting sovereigns were in- dulged in with the usual amount of damage to the partici- pants.
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