The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1864-11-24
Thrilling Experience of Prisoners o.
the d. C. Cavalry.

Allreu OnQefklrK, or the DSI ~. ". CaV
airy, Col. l.. G.. Baker, who was captured
in the vicinity of the Richmond and Dan
vile Railroad on the 18th of May, ha
made his escape, and arrived in this city
His narrative is exceedingly interesting
and in less exciting times would afort
material for columns Of newspaper notice
After his capture he was carried t.
Richmond, and afterward transferred tt
Andersonville, Georgia. Here the pris
oners were confined in stockade without
particle Of shelter from the fierce rays
of the sun or the pelting storm, excep
when the prisoners deprived themselve.
of necessary articles Of clothing to make
some slight screen.
The prison fare here seemed to have
been graduated by the Rebels with the
devilish purpose of killing off the prison
ers by slow starvation, fastened by the
exposure to the weather.
The daily rations at Andersonyille were
one half pint corn meal, two spoonsfuls
raw rice, two do molasses. When bacon
or beef was given the rice and molasses
were withheld, and the meet rations when
given consisted of two mouthsfuls of ba-
con or FIVE of beef, and the later always
spoiled. The stockade formed square,
and within the stockad walls and twenty
feet from them was an interior square
within which the prisoners were confined.
The lines of this interior square were
marked only by line of stakes with slips
of boards nailed on at top something like
telegraph posts and wires, and this vague
defined line was designated as the "Dead
Line" the orders being that any prisoner
passing hairs breadth past the line
should be shot by the guards stationed on
the walls of the stockade.
1t was reported that for every Yankee
thus shot the guard doing the deed was
granted furlough of 80 days-a piece of
diabolsm almost beyond belief, but which
receives confirmation in the fact that In
numerous instances prisoners where shot
dead when they were not within five feet
of the dead line.
In three instances while Onderkirk
was there, prisoners wild with the insan-
ity of hunger, and fever from exposure,
courted death, and sprang out past the
dead line to receive the wei come bullet
that relieved them from the horrors of
such an existence.
The prisoners were so ravenously hun
cry that they would crawl under the ra-
ton wagons like dogs in quest of the
crumbs that might fall to the ground.
Onderkirk says that at the time he was
at Andersonvlle our men were dying at
the rate of l50 to 200 per day When
Sherman took Atlanta, the Rebels, in a.
larm lest he should make raid upon An
dersouyille and release the large number
of prisoners there, transferred the prison
ers in hot haste to various points-Savan-
nah, Charleston and elsewhere.
Onderkirk was sent to Savannah. Here
the fare was somewhat better than at Au-
dersonyille, but they were kept in stock
ade, upon the bare ground, exposed to sun
and rain day and night. The scanty pris-
on fare was made more tolerable by the
kindness of citizens OF Savannah, especi-
ally the ladies, who sent in supplies of
food and clothing until the brutal
General Winder, who seems to indulge
the hate of devil towards our unfortu-
nate men, interfcrred, and imprisoned
some ofthe most respectable ladies of Sa-
vannah in the guard house over night as
a punishment for their exercise of this
mere act of Christian charity to the un-
fortunate, starving prisoners. With the
same systematic cruelty Winder peremp-
torily refused the offer of citizens OF Sa-
vannah to erect shelters for the prisoners
at their own expense.
Eight Thousand prisoners were confined
in the stockade at Savannah.
When news come that Hood was mo-
wing into Tennessee, in the rear of Sher-
man, the prisoners at Savannah, with 9th
ers, were transferred to Millen, Georgia,
where large stockade pen had been CON
structed. Millen is aqual distant from
Savannah, Milledgeville and Auguata,
Georgia, aud being at convenient point
of railroad junction, the Rebels propose
to make it their main prison quarters.
A glance, at the map, will, however
show that it will be a mighty convenient
point for Sherman to drop down upon IN
his march through the Cotton States. anc
especially so should Savannah or Charles
ton be his destination.
When the train conveying Onderkirk
with other prisoners, from Savannah t.
/ Milien was about 104 miles west of Sa
vannah, he jumped from the train while
the train was moving at the rate of abou
Is miles an hour, and though good dea
stunned by the fall, he managed to craw
away and hide himself to the apparently
hopeless undertaking of making his way
barefoot and unguided, through 278 miles
of hostile territory, to Sherman's line a
Atlanta. This he absolutely accomplish
ed, walking by night, in II nights, ma
king long detours to avoid regular hne
of travel, where he would be liable to de
lection, and thus he was Obliged to MAKE
L. rrci