The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1863-10-13

Bully for old Buchanan. q
HEAD QRs. 9th Iowa, LITTLE RocK1
ARKANSAS, Sept. 2lst, 1863.
FRIEND RrcH In visits TO the city
Of Little Rock, since my last, / have
made a more minute inspection of the
various places of interest. The first
place visited was the arsenal, which is
situated nearly in the center Of the town
east and west, but on lis southern boun.
Diary. Theie is fenced in about ten
acres of ground, in which are situated
the various buildings, such as guard
house, officers work shops, store rooms.
quarters for the men, and officers quar-.
ters. These are tastefully arranged, and
in front Of them The grounds are laid out
in good order, with graveled foot paths
and carriage ways. On one side Of the
grounds is vegetable garden, the pres
ent state Of which shows that the rebels
have not been unmindful of the value OF
vegetables, this season. The rear or
south half of the grounds is kept as a
place Of drill for the troops. There are
left standing enough of the original for
est trees to make 1t very nice. shady
resort; while the ground beneath the
trees i kept well erased over, and the
surface cleaned, so that it is a pleasant
place to lounge during the heat Of the
day. East of this, about eighty rods, is
a fine large brick building, intended for
college, but now used as a hospital.
Forming a square with the college bull
ding as the west center front, have been
erected two story wood buildings, for
hospital purposes. Judging from an
outside view, should say that there
we're accommodations here foI 1000 pa
tients with the necessary attendants, and
rooms for surgeons, and store and cook
rooms. These bulldogs were not erect
ed by the rebels without some necessity
for them. When we took the place there
were large number of patients in the
buildings, together with medicines
and supplies, none of which the rebels
had time to remove. There were also
several other buildings in town, over
which the hospital flag was flying when
we got possession here. How many pa
tients were in them all have not learn.
ed, but such as were are now prisoners
of war, and 60 to swell The list 10 be ex
changed. The next place sted was
the State Prison. This is situated at the
southwest part Of town, on rocky emf
hence, and consists Of stone wall some
twenty feet high. and enclosing tract
of land about 400 feet square. On the
east side, near the north corner. is the
warden's house. now occupied by the
military guard under charge Of Captain
-, of the Sd Minnesota infantry As
had been somewhat acquainted with
the Captain during our sojeurn at Fort
Smelling, last fall, found no difficulty
in getting permission 10 visit the inside
of the prison. Passing through large
iron gate, We suddenly found ourselves
surrounded by AS squalidlY dressed sci
of men as you could imagine. This
sight AT first startled me, being so unex
pected, but | soon became aware Of the
fact that this was military prison now,
and these were prisoners OF war. That
these same men on The 10th inst, were
shooting at US only four miles from here !;
that il was these same men that burned
the boats on the river here, and burned
or attempted to burn, the bridge that
crossed the river at this place that these
men only few days before were pre-.
pairing to slaughter us as we marched on
this place. l learned afterwards that
there were 451 then in this prison. There
WAS here but small guard, but no one
had any fears Of these men escaping
They had voluntarily laid down their
arms and come into our lines. They
bad become sick of this war and wanted
to 60 home. Several, in fact at almost
every turn We made, we were besought
TO use our influence to have them allow
ed TO take the oath of allegiance and go
home. They wanted to get home and
stay there and become again good citi-
gems. They denounced Price and the
war generally, and wanted peace and
quiet once more. After talking with the
prisoners as long rs we desired, we made
a tour Of the buildings inside the wall
They consisted Of one room for cells,
about SO feet by 40, in which WAS four
stories of cells built up in the center,
and two tiers of cells in each story.
There were in all about 400 cells. There
was one work shop and tan house
which completed the internal buildings.
| was informed by The Captain in charge,
that when the place came into the posses
sion Of our forces, the tools and machin
cry hid been mostly removed and the