The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-01-30
,ut as / was not permitted to address


him stool still and kept looking at
him, suppose with rather wiShful
countenance. All at once he called
out, well, yank, what will you haye?"
The way was now open for me to spend
my money, SO l told him | wanted 81
worth of salt. LET me have the
money and you shall have the salt as
soon as l come on guard again"
passed the money over to him and the
next day Received ten pounds of salt
The next day | sold the salt at cents
a spoonful, realizing $40 in confeder-
ate bills.
Now the future seemed more hone
full and encouraging for nearly all of
my prison life was spent in trading
and bartering with the rebS, taking
exercise and caring for my person. AS
| was rather flush with money | was
looked upon as rather wide awake: as
it was impossible to do business alone
/ got me partner to do the trading
and selling in the prison while [ fur
nished the stock OF merchandise.
My time was occupied and my health
excellent. Time seemed to pass off
rather smoothly about this time. Now
comes the order to get ready to march
md exchanged. Time was Short for
me to exchange my confederate money
for greenbackS. However this task
was soon accomplished, and | was
ready to start for home. But as soon
as we boarded the cars we all could
understand that the exchange was a
| fraud, and our calculations were hope
less as the cars moved in the wrong
direction. Arriving at AnderSonville
confederate money was almost at par
with greenbackS, SO of course my
earthly possessions were small, for at
Richmond [ had to give ten cOnfeder-
ate dollars for one greenback. Before
entering in AnderSonville prison there
was long order read to us by Gen.
| Winder in regard to the prison rules
Some of them were very strict, and if
anyone would violate those rules, the
guard was ordered to shoot Us down
| like dogs. Arriving on the prison
grounds the StOCkade was not COM
| pleted, SO we were guarded in one cor
ner until the prison pen was cOmplet-
! ed. | belonged to the first division of
+ prisoners that tread on the Anderson
vile prison grounds. Here | wit
messed more cruelty and suffered more
! hardship than tongue can express.
At the same time lived in a mansion
| in comparison to the majority, for |
| had some kind of a blanket to make
me tent to keep at least the heavy
| dewS off from me that fall every night
! in that country, and in the Gay time
protect me from the hot sun. A
heavy rain would soak through so we
had but very little protection. | had
most of the time about all | could eat
in some form, whilst twO-thirdS of
80, 600 had no shelter to protect them
from the hot sun and the dews at
night, and the rain storms that we
had to meet frequently, and the ra-
lions that were dealt out to us for
twenty-fOur hours you could without
trouble put in pint cup. L most all
the time enjoyed good health and
looked on the bright side of life and
the surroundings. l often was asked
why | could look so cheerful and al
ways could be so confident that |
would be exchanged and GO home be-
fore long. l never had time to look
on the darkest side of that most nor
rible prison hole for it would have de-
StrOyed all hopes OF ever getting home.
l had too much TO do every day to
ponder on the past and present pros
pect Of my life that l might De eX-
changed when that time would come.
All the clothing | had during twenty
two months of my prison life was what
| received from the United States be-
fore | was captured. Ny clothes were
more firm, and looked as though they
could never be worn out and ought to
have been preserved for future genera
tiOns to look at. Itwas fortunate that
we had no soap nor any Clean water nor
way to wash our clothes, or else we
should most certainly have washed
them to pieces long before we were re-
leased from our prison life. My. rule
at AnderSOnyille was to get up early
in the morning, march around the
stockade inside the dead line, take a
fair look at the guard, lind out what |
could trade for the following night,
have fair understanding in regard to
WnaJ | iau to DO, so no one would fire
on me when | stepped across the dead
line IN order to- get near enough to
exchange goods. The next in order
about every other day was to wash our
bodies, or rather rub them off with
water, mud and clay in order that we
might preserve our health. Next in
order was ration time and dinner, af-
ter dinner all live comrades had to do
SkirmiShing for about two hours in or
der to make life possible under the
circumstances. Neglecting this most
important duty four weeks was sure
death. In the hottest part Of the day
[ generally kept myself under my tent
AT different times | saw comrades shot
dead on the spot with the least excuse
for doing So There seemed to be no
regard whatever for the prisoners, the
main object was to kill as many as
possible. This can be fairly proved by
not furnishing us with such material
as we could pick up in the pine forest
to cook the raw rations that we re-
ceived every other day and to make
shelter for us to protect us from rain,
sun and the dewS at night.
AnderSOnyille is surrounded with
pine forests, and there was no excuse
for the rebs for not furnishing the
camp with plenty of wood and materi-
al to keep the prisoners warm and com
Portable. In 1864 the prison pen was
crowded. About $4,000 were in the
pen most of the time. The mortality
frequently reached 135 in a hours.
During the summer of 1864 Anderson
vile received an addition of 5000 at
one time and suttler shop followed
on their heels. These men surrender
ed under conditions, SO that they could