The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-05-23
AN OLD E-POST,
And the Memories 1t Calls Up Regardin
Camp Ford.

And the Memories 1t Calls Up Regarding
Camp Ford.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Recently
1 received box containing the bottom Of
the post of the gate of the prison Of Camp
Ford, together with many other relics which
gathered while / made that place visit
last Winter.
The box also contained apple and null
berry trees grown on the prison grounds,
few fox-grape vines, pieces of the persimmon
and pine tree that has grown near the
center Of the prison since we left. Many
pieces of our old cooking utensils, pieces of
beef bones that were used in various ways,
that came handy around our kitchen, and a
large fiat stone that was used to rub down
horn and bones in manufacturing combs,
toOthpicks, etc, came 10 me.
The post was the bottom Of the principal
gate. Every prisoner there confined had to
pass through it, 1t had been in the ground
80 years and was quite sound. 1t had been
cut off some years ago, and hid from view,
but / knew where the gate stood, and i'll
digging around found it. 1t was the south
post, and was the one on which all orders
were placed for our benefit as long as it was
kept as prison. Here is one:
Hereafter any Federal prisoner detected In trying
to make his escape from the prison, either i'll the
BY order of Lieut..Col BORDER, Commanding
Camp Ford Prison.
b. w. McEAcHAs, Lieutenant and Acting AdJu-
tRnt.
There was no demon OF more brutal
wretch ever presided over prisoners than
this McEachan. He ought to have had the
same treatment melted out to him as had
Capt Wrz, commander ut Anders0nville
/ could have gazed on him on my visit to.
the old prison had | cared to do so. "KenO"
was a nickname we gave him. The boys
that were there during his reign will remem-
Der what it means. 1t makes me shudder
when / think back of the brutal treatment
that was forced upon us by this man, and the
many poor fellows knocked down, and tied
up by the thumbs, or stood on stumps for
hours in the hot sun, and marked time with
out hat or shoes on. He even had our
scanty rations withheld for days at time.
Col. Border was somewhat on the black
flag order-kill as yGn go, but too indolent
to carry out his threats, and he left it all
with this McEachah, who was always
contriying something to cause trouble, that
he might shoot Yankees by the wholesale"
as he remarked on one occasion.
Many relics which picked up on the old
prison ground / would like to return to the
owners. Among them n Masonic pin of high
rank, which was very beautiful at one time;
gold-plated, Master Mason.
The article published in February of my
visit to the old prison brought letters from
comrades from nearly every State in the
Union. One poor fellow wrote that he was
one of the two corp SEES that the logs repre-
sented that was found in the graveyard at
that place when the bodies we're removed.
The other | would like to find.
Who was "Wild Bill" as we called him.
and whatever became of him? Who were
those men that were thrown into the sinks?
Who was that little boy shot in the thigh,
just before we left the prison, by one of the
patrol? / think he belonged to an Indiana
regiment, and belonged in the southeast of
the prison.-A. ]. SwANGER, 120th Ohio,
Shiloh, o.