Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-04-06

4 prisoner; no shelter OF any sort was allowed
{ the prisoner no tools or materials TO con.
struct shelter were allowed the prisoner;
! no means Ot living as a civilized man were
allowed the prisoner; no way of helping
/ himself as savage wa. allowed the prisoner.
/ The ratinns we're at all times insufficient, and
! frequently 50 foul that starvation itself could
1 not swallow them; consequence. stomach and
/ body weakened by perpetual hunger. and
7 IN many cases utter inability TO retain food
good or bad More than thst, the sluggish
water course that served as their resorv0ir
crept acrsss their pen foul aud thick with
the debris nj the rebel camp above, aud in
/ The ccUtre filtered through the sponYy ground
aud creaingd and mantfed AMI spread out
! lrathspmiy inta hateful swamp; and the
Ii rec sun, beating down nm its Shiny surface,
drew iroB It's ie>tern. pools sand mounds OF
refuse a yapor oi death. and the prisoners
breathetl It. and the reck OF unwashoi and
diseased bodies crowdlpg close on each other,
and the slckenIug, p,stiitntial odor Of a
huge camp without sewerage or system ot
policing, made the air norror anu the
| prisoners breathed it.
Drake woke, sitting with the heat and
horrible steam, and turning and throwing
out his arm, only yet h,lf awake, struck on
something cold and stiff; the corpse OF some
poor fellow who had died there in the night
beside him. Drake in two years campaign.
had grown familiar with death, but could
not yet receive him as a bed-fellow, and
scrambled up in sickening horror to day in
which there was no breakfa to eat. no arms
to clean, no shoes to black, no dress to
change, no work Of any sort to do. no letters
to write or hope for, no books to read, no
dinner to prepare, at least till four p NJ,
when they served out rations, s,-nothing TO
fix the eye, or offer subject Of thought, but
the general and utter wretchedness Nor
could Drake and his fellows take refuge in
that unconscious selfgratulation with which
which we see the miseries of our neghbors;
for the future here threw shadows backward.
That skeleton I use the word not in the
exaggerated sense in which we are apt to
apply it, but advisedly; and mean a living
human being, whose skin is literally drawn
in over hideously projecting bones, and who,
having actually lost all roundingout and filling
OF flesh, has grown transparent, 20 that by
holding an arm to the light you may see the
blood-vessels and the inner edges Of tho
bones, this skeleton lying there was,
perhaps. what Drake should be two months
hence; these men quarrelling, hyena like,
for the ''job" Of burying their dead comrades,
that Scared old man moaning for compass,
because he has lost his way and could not
hud the North, were not lower or more pitt
full than Drake might yet be; for stout heart
and brave blood and quick brain have no
charm against famine, pestilence, aud a
steady pressure Of misery in all possible
forms.
The majority of his comrades sank help
lessly into this quaking bog. Out OF fifty
captured of his regiment, Williams, a
delicate lad, sickened at once; Dean, stout
old Scotchman, was close on idocy in d
month; Allan, the color bearer as.shot by
the guard,-he had slipped near the dead
line, and fallen with his head outside; four
teen were dead of disease; twelve more sank
I in rayless, hopeless apathy; and Drake-wa'
busy on A History of the Stockade Prison. y
The way in wich he got the idea and hi:
stationery is worth telling.
There had fallen upon him dread of mo
tion, sombre endurance, discouraged
sense Of thirty thousand hopeless. men drag
ging him down to despair, dark cloud that
ty to compose and fix his drowsy, reeline
school. and love and laughter at home anC
| iopoOu iIoOii iutO auu CCaoOO
to be even dreamy speculation. Drake, ir
short, was going to the bottom with hi.
theory about his neck, when Providence
tho modern way of lodging an acknowl
edgement to God, whom, by the by ou
poor boy had quite omitted in his littl,
theory of elfpresevaton,-in the curious
shape of an official blunder, stepped in to
his rescue. A cook-house was in erection
without the limits of their pen though nj
carpenter, Drake was set with others to worl
under guard, The first glimpse of the oper
country, stretching away to meet the low
horizon, brought back the halt-forgotter
thought of Freedom; and the very trail OF
! her robe is so glorious, that even this pool
savage liberty of rock and clod reused il
him new wit to devise and courage t
; endu e. He worked then so merrily ant
with such good heart, that an admiring in
spector more than limited at 'the pity it wa
to see decent young fellow like him shu
up in the pen yonder."
So | think" returned Drake, calmly
cutting away at his board.
The official edged little closer.
why don't you come over TO US then
The Coniederacy gives good wages Ou
Government knows how to pay Its men
? fright there !" retorted Drake. ''Th'
Confederacy pays its servants in death am
ruin, which, as you say, are the just wage
of a traitor As for me, | want no more 0
Georgia soil than will make me grave
That is as much as man can own here no'
and be honest.
, r 1t was then. from some occult connection
, ofidels too subtitle for searching out, tha
he imagined, first history Of the Stockad
Prison, secured number oflong thin boards
, and planed them smooth for iOolscap, poin
ted bits of wood for pens, manulacturei hi
t ink from the rust of some old nails, an
made himselfa knife by grnding two piece
T of iron hoop one upon the other, and hi
work upon the cook. house at an end, Sc
: bravely about his history. when Fate nippe
/ it, as she has done many moro promlsn
, one before it; for even when on the iin'
I flourish of his tito, he heard a sound b
4 tween groan and sigh, and turnlng,sa
{ Corny Keegan, a strapping lrlshman, an
sergeant in his regiment, lying near him. =
n Drake put the tail on his 70, and then som
uneasy consciousness would have him loo
: again over tho edge Of his board at tn
L sergeant; for though there werc scores {
n men lying within view on the ground, ,thel
o was something in the give and laxlty ,
# Cerny's posture that augured i'll for him /
d brakes experienced eyes, and laying tt
y history aside, he went over and kneeled dow
g beside him. The mans eyes were closef
- N L. a Al