The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-03-20
LoGANsv1LLE, Pa.
CAMP FORD.
4 New York Soldiers Experience in that Prison
Pen.

To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:
Observing in your columns a request for a
description of Tyler prison, Tex, give you
my experience in that horrible pen. Camp
Ford, as il was called, was simply stockade,
inelosing, as nearly as ! can reeollect, about
fifteen acres. lt WIS about four miles from the
/ town OF Tyler, where the writer once passed
4 thirty-one days and nights in cell under The
/ Jail, in company with many others, as a pun-
ishmeut Tor escaping from the pen, or Camp
+ Ford When l reached the place there were
+ several hundred prisoners already there, in
i GLIDING the crew Of the Morning Light, cap
tured at Galveston ia the early DAYS Of the
( war, IS also those of the gunboats Clifton and
sachem, taken during the ill-fated Sabine Pass
/ expedition.
They had built for themselves comparatively
comfortable quarters Lighthouse, 6c.-cut-
| ting their timber in the adjacent woods under
| guard, and bringing il upon their backs to the
camp.
The sudden increase in population of the
camp had not been provided for. The new
/ delegation of prisoners, captured at Sabine
Crossroads and Pleasant Hill, numbered sew
eral thousand, and included men belonging TO
/ the 18th, 10TH and 18th corps, General Lees
cavalry division, and part of General Steele's
/ forces.
On our arrival we found no other shelter
i than the sky, whence the silyery stars looked
4 AObH lilsnb dlIer On SCENES OI suffering
that battle description. Our clothing was of all
sorts. Some of US had on original uniforms.
while many the writer of this being one of the
NUMBER had parted with their clothing and
what valuables they had, at the urgent So
licitatious" of their eaptoFs, and received in
exchange clothes which, to say tie least, had
| survived their usefulness.
The rations which the Confederacy furnished
were supposed to be one pint of meal ground
cob and ALI, one-half pound of beef, and once
in while a few ounces of bacon in place Of
the beef, each day. These were supplied when
| they felt so disposed, or the mil hadn't
broken down. or the creek WAS low SO
that the wagon could cross. We also had a
very small ration Of salt occasionally
The cooking utensils consisted of one skillet
to about every fifty men, and one iron pot to
every two skillets, SO that at every fire you
would see a crowd of men waiting for the
dodger" TO be cooked so as to obtain the
| skillet to cook for themselves.
The weather during the summer of '64 was
| very warm and many deaths occurred in the
stockade. There vas a so called hospital out
side the stockade, which it was the writer's
good fortune never to visit; but, judging from
| the number who entered il and the few who
came out alive, the. motto of Dantes Inferno
would have been an appropriate inscription for
| its doors.
The guards while I was in the prison were a
pan " SAtS tA1.iO SO1Oitl SoNtEls 1E1dlS. 1DeY
had been to the front, and we we're used by
! them comparatively well. But the pressing
| need of the Confederacy for all fighting men
resulted in their being relieved by conscripts
composed OF boys under fourteen and men over
sixty, and their treatment OF US was little short
OF barbarity. For example, one OF these guards
| "a boy OF about twelve years of age-emDtied
his double barreled shotgun into a soldier of
the l73d New York, and he gave as a reason
for this murder that he had promised his
| mother to g kill a Yankee" On another occa-
sion the prison adjutant-one Lieutenant Nc
Cam, who never entered the prison except on
| horseback revolver in handwriting at the
morning count Of prisoners that one of the
wards was man short, and having been told
that the man was sick and lying in brush
hut, he rode up TO the hut ordered the man
ont, and on his not appearing-being in a dy-
ing condition and unable TO rise-shot him
dead, with the remark, . III learn you Yankees
to obey my orders Only the presence of q
strong force of guards guns in hand prevented
a righteous punishment being melted out to the
! murderer then and there These are but two
of many incidents which I could give to illus-
trate the vindictiye feeling which the guards
had towards the unfortunate beings thus tenn
porarliy left in their power.
The long rows of unmarked graves on the
hillside at Camp Ford are mute though power
full witnesses Of the treatment received by the
men confined in the "pen."
VI the thIrty-one men who were captured on
the 9Th Of April, 1864, but four remained to
tell the story when we again entered our lines
on the 9th of May, 1866. 4 few escaped, and
were never heard from; the rest sleep the long
sleep that knows no waking on the hillside at
old Camp Ford.
AT different times several hundreds were
exchanged, but it was my fortune to remain
till the final collapse of the rebellion Rnmors
OF a parole were prevalent all through the
winters captivity, but it was not until the
middle of May, 60, when we noticed a sudden
and unusual movement of the guards, they
leaving their posts without being relieved. that
we were notified we would be paroled aud
sent to our lines. The news seemed too GOOD
to be true, but true ii proved for that after
noon we were paroled and the next morning
commenced our march towards Shreveport,
where on our arrival we found things III gem
eral disorder. The Confederate soldiers were
helping themselves to horses aud mules and
starting for home.
AT Shreveport we were placed upon three
steamboats-the Nina LenIus, Judge Fletcher
and General Quitman Il being passenger on
the last-naned boat)-and started on our joy
Gus way down the Red River to Gods coun-
try"
On the morning Of the 9th of May, '65. we
entered the Mississippi under a flag Of truce,
and found ourselves in the presence of a fleet
OF gunboats over each of which hoafed the
glor'ohs old fiag-the flag for which we had
endured so much, and whose stripes and stars
had been 50 long only a memory to us.
We landed on the east side of the river. and
found camped there waiting TO receive us, If /
remember rightly, the 18th Ohio, with long
rows OF fires burning, kettles of meat and
Lincoln coffee and boxes of bareback We
ate and drank our ill for the first time in
more than q ar.
This ended my captivity an experience
which an not likely ever TO forget, and which
consider amply sufficient for one lifetime.
Il. f. CoGGIN,
I65th n. Y Vols. ed Duryea's Zouayesl.
CASCADE, Iowa.
THE coLoRs or THE 18TH OHIO AT TYLER.
To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:
At the battle Of Sabine Crossroads the 18th