The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1891-12-10
UNION PRISONERS.
Another Account Of How They We're Treated /
the Sunny S0Bth.

Another Account Of How They We're Treated In
the Sunny South.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: I wish to cor
robOrate the testimony Of II. q. HOrnbecke
10th Pa, in regard to treatment Of Union
prisoners in rebel prison pens. The writer was
captured at MOnOcacy, Nd. July Q, 1864, and
was paroled at Richmond Feb %, 1865; was
confined at DanVille, Va, from July % till Feb
Is following, and the word the eOmrade uses
i. G.. hellish-cannOt express the misery we ex-
perieneed. We were fed on cOrn-cOb bread and
cow peas that a Northern farmers hogs would
have sc0rned TO touch. At one time during
our stay there the rebs were packing beef for
their army, and they kindly Cd gave US the
heads and lights, or lungs, which our cooks
boiled and issued with the soup which came
with it, and you can imagine the effect it had
on the boys, who had not tasted meat for weeks.
At another time they said they were going
to give the YaDks a feast, and they boiled up
green pumpkins and cabbage leaves in the
same water rusty, maggoty bacon had been
boiled in. Imagine our feast.
How we'll / remember the December day
when Col. w. @. RalstOn, 9th n. Y. Cav, was
shot in Prison No. 8 just across the street
nearly opposite our prison. How they rushed
out the guard when the alarm was given And
next morning poor RalstOn was taken over
the hill TO the hospital, where he died five days
the boys who were there would write it up in
better form than / can, and tell about Uncle
Dave, the rebel guard, who used to appear so
often on the parade-gr0und in front Of the
prisons with a bal-and-ehain hitehed to his
leg, and on a barrel with placard on his back,
worled thus, Beware Of Dundee"
Now when any person makes the assertion
that Union prisoners were kindly treated in
any rebel prison during the last year of the
war; / believe they simply lie, and if every
prisoner who was confined at Danville during
the Winter of '64-'5, told 0ne-half of the misery
of that prison alone, il would ill The Ma
TIoSAL TRIBUNE for year, to say nothing
about Salisbury, Millen, Andersonville, and
other stOckade PRISONS where they must nee
essarily have suffered more than We did, where
we had a roof to cover US.
Now. boys. if any Of you are alive who boarded
in our hotel that Winter, speak out, for we
would like to hear from any OF you, especially
those who were captured with the writer of
this ut Monocacy that hot July Q, 1864 when
some Of the boys started overland to Ellicotts
Mills, and not few of us went with Early up
10 Washington to see the two divisions of
the Sixth Corps whip him and send him flying
up the Valley, where Sheridan finished him
Oct 10, 1864 The writer of this weighed $50
pounds when captured, and 10 Just 10 days after
he reached Gods country he weighed 78. Oh.
YES. they treated US kindly. i hope to meet
an the survivors Of the battle Of MOnOcaey at
Reunion to be held there during the National
Encampment next year, at which there is to be
a Reunion Of the Third Division, Sixth Corps.
FRANK TALLMAN. Co. L, 9th N. Y. Art,
Secretary Of Third Division, Sixth Corps As
ISOLATION, Lincoln st., Auburn, N. Y.