The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-26

Ills ldJner JuSJ recovered. LII was the
last letter the young soldier ever
wrote. The letter, in full, is as follows
SAVANNAH, Ga, Sept. 1, 1864.
" Dear Father Il will now try and
write you few lines to let you know
that / am in the land of the living.
have written to you three times, but
don't think any of them have reached
you; but as some surgeons are to be
sent through the lines in few DAYS 1
thought l would get a letter through
the same way. They have to be ex-
amined before they leave, and are not
allowed to take anything that looks like
letter / wrote letter to Cornwall
and put it into the button of my coat,
and gave it to one of the chaplains that
is among the party to be sent away. If
you get this let him know that am
well and am looking for an exchange
this fall. l have made pin-ball that
shall send this in. / guess that il will
fool the rebs. Tell Crowley that Car
roll is in very good health and he will
let his wife know. l was captured on
the Odd. l went out in the morning
with lightweight men. Fifty-eight of
them were captured All of the rest
were killed or wounded. We were
taken to Richmond and put into the
Libby prison till the Goth, when we
were sent to Macon, Ga. As Sher-
mans army was making raid in that
place they thought it would not be safe
to leave us there. There were sixteen
hundred officers in the prison. They
made three divisions of us and sent one
division to Columbia, one to Charles
ton and one here. We got here on the
Doth of July. We live the best here we
have at any place in the confederacy,
but that is not anything to brag of. We
don't get anything but corn-meal and a
little beef and bacon and SALT but still
we can make out to live on this, if we
have our health. The prison is yard
fourteen rods wide, twenty-one long.
There is not building of of any kind
for shelter. We have some small tents
There are six hundred of us in the
yard. All of the officers from our regi-
ment are well but Lieutenant Towles,
and he was taken to the hospital night
before last very sick. If we have to
stop here all winter, and they don't open
communication so we can send home
for clothing, | don't know what | shall
do. | have not got any boots and only
one shirt, and that is poor one.
Greenbacks are worth four hundred
fifty times their money value. Potatoes
are 81 quart and wheat bread SO a
pound. l did not have any money
when l was captured They took
everything away from most of the pris-
oners. / was in luck when | sent my
watch home, if you ever got it; but you
never wrote me whether you did or not.
| left my rubber coat, sword, belt and
valise, with my dress-coat, pants, one
shirt, gloves and my commission and
number of other little things. | gave
the keys to my valise to a chaplain at
Libby prison that was going home soon.
/ guess that you had better write Cap
tain Lee or Severance and find out
what has become of them. The valise
was a new one, black leather, with two
locks on it, but there was no name on
it. | did not have time to get any
mark put on before we went to the
front, as | got it the same morning.
We have dug four trenches under the
prison walls since we have been here,
but all of them have been detected be-
fore we got them done. We don't
mean to give up yet. l sold my Ma
camie pin for IS, but that WON'T buy
much here. There are some of the
officers here that have been here fifteen
months. Two officers died last week.
If you write to that Captain Lee tell
him to give my best wishes to all of the
boys, and tell him that our capture was
one of the most shameful captures that
ever happened. There was no one in
command of us that knew or cared
anything about us. Major Fleming
did not come out of his hole. He did
not know anything about what was 60
ing on out on the line. / thought 1
was called for number of times. but l
came out all right. There was about
five hundred of us to about five thou
sand rebs. l never saw bullets fly any
faster than they did that day. We
fought seven hours and then we were
gobbled up by the Florida brigade of
Mahone's division. They treated us
well. Captain Simmons had charge of
us till we got to Petersburg We have
to do all of our own cooking. / am in
mess of three. l have to cook every
third day. | cook to-day. had some
hash-balls made out of beef, rice and
corn-bread. | shall have beef soup
for dinner and corn-meal griddle-cakes
, FOR supper. We have built an oven to
bt'hN wi h-plStu III hoNs II w III NC ICu'ii
tomorrow. How l should like to step
in and take dinner at home to-day. l
think that dinner in a civilized coun-
try would taste good to me now. But L
must close for short time, but it may
be for long one. Love TO all. From
your son, EDWARD"
Such is the letter. Eli B. Parker
contributed his three sons to the Union
armies. Edward was the youngest and
the favorite child. He was only seven
teen years old when he enlisted, and
his horrible death almost broke his
fathers heart and blighted all his after
life. Mr.. Parker is an old man, who
has had many ups and downs in life.
He is now over seventy years old, and
ill-luck seems to follow him still; for,
although he applied many years ago for
a pension on account of his sons death
in the army, he has been so far unable
to get it allowed, and the case still
hangs fire.