St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-08-27
A Soldiers Letter.
Man Gets His Sons Letter Written 30
Years Ago.

A Man Gets His Sons Letter Written 30
Years Ago.
A few days ago Eli b. Parker OF
Middlebury received from the adjutant-
generals office at Washington letter
written 10y his son, Edward Il. Parker,
when he was in Libby prison, and by
him entrusted tn he forwarded to Mr..
Parker by a fellow prisoner who was
about Ia he exchanged. After the ex-
change it was some time before his
companion could get an opportunity to
forward the letter and then the add
dress had been lost. The letter was
lost sight of and only found IA few
weeks ago, when it was sent to the adj
infant general of the army to see if he
could discover the writer, who had
only signed his given name. 1t was
thought at the adiutant- generals office
that the letter must have been written
by Young Parker, and a letter was
therefore sent to Mr.. Parker, from
whom it was learned that Edward B..
I
Young Parker went out as three
months man, and afterwards enlisted
in Company b, llth Vermont, and rose
to be lieutenant, rank which he held
at the time of capture. While assist
ing to tear up the Weldon railroad
near Petersburg, Va, june %, 1864, i'll
young Parker was captured and taken
to Libby prison. From there he was
transferred to Macon, Ga. From here
he was sent to Savannah, Ga, and
9Th of October Il party of prisoners
were stared from Charleston HarbOr
for the prison at Columbia, South Car
DINA. Parker was among them. Dur
ing the journey that day Lieutenant
Parker jumped from the train and es-
capped. Blood hounds were set upon
his track, and he was Overtaken the
next day, October Is, and torn almost
in pieces. He fingered along, endur-
ing great agony until October IL, when
he died Some of the cruel details of
the story are given in Parker's letter
to his father, just recovered. IT. was
the last letter the young soldier ever
wrote. The letter in full is as follows:
SAVANNAH, Ga, Sept. |, 1864.
Dear Father: | 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 rs some surgeons are to be
sent through the lines in II few days
thought would get Il letter through
the same way They have to be ex
amined before they leave, and are not
allowed tn take anything that looks
like a letter. ! wrote letter to Corn
wall and put it into the button of my
coat, and gave it To one of the chap
lains that is among the party to be
sent away. II you get this let him
know that | am we'll and am looking
for an exchange this fall. | have made
"a pin ball that 1 shall send this in. |
guess that it will fool the rebs. Tell
Crowley that Carroll is in very good
health aud he will let his wife know.
was captured on the 23d. | went
ont in the morning with % men ! sc
at them were captured. All of the
rest were killed or wounded. We were
- 4 4 L.. L 1.
by prison till the both, when we were
sent tn Macon, Ga. As Sherman's army |
was making a raid in that place they |
thought il would not be safe to leave |
us there. There were 1900 officers in |
the prison. They made three divi-
sions of us and sent one division to |
one to Charleston and one 4
here. We got here ON the 29th of July. |
We live the best here we have at any
place in the Confederacy, but this is |
not anything tn brag Of We don't get
beef aud bacon aud salt; but still we
can make out To Tive on this, if we
have our health.
The prison is a yard II rods wide, 81
long. There is not a bnilding of any
kind for shelter. We have some small
tents. There are Gro of Us in the yard
Ali of the officers from our regiment
are well but Lieut.. Towles, and he was
taken to the hospital night before last
very sick. II We have to stop here all
winter and they don't open c0mmuni-
cations 50 we can send home for cloth
ing, | don't know what / shall do
have not got any boots and only one
shirt, and that is poor one. Green
backs are worth $50 times their money
valne. Potatoes are 81 quart and
wheat bread 30 pound. did not
have any money when | was captur-
ed. They took everything away
from most of the prisoners. was I'M
luck when / sent my watch home, if
YOU ever get it; but yon never wrote
me whether you did or not. left my
rubber coat, sword, belt and ralise.
" it'll my dress coat, pants, one shirt,
gloves and my commission aud a num-