The National tribune., 1898-11-24
I'M SOUTH cHRohIHH PRISON.
Extracts from "A Wartime Letter Written
from Camp Columbia.

/
| Editor National Tribune: / send yo
extracts from letter written by me to m
mother from the rebel prison at Cam
Columbia, S. c., Dec. Z, 1864, which ma
| contain something of interest to the com
| rades
! Gas the prospect OF an exchange of al
| the sick and wounded officers become
more encouraging, | commence this lette
with the hope that ] may find an oppor
| tunity of sending it by some one of then
| and not have the rebels know it, that
| may inform you of my true situation, 10
| know that you can have no idea or cal
realize but little what prisoners life is
have Just sent home three letters
hoping that one of the three might reacl
you, in all of which have ordered boz
| OF clothing, eatableS, ETC., to be sent I'M
| mediately. | had some SIS or $50 in green
| backs, 81 in silver and about five II
postage when | was captured, but it was
watch. Confederate greenbacks have
been worth from IS 10 81 for one. Here
they are worth S7-goId, S24. If there hat
been any way to get 1T, should have haC
sent you some long ere this, but the
rebel authorities have never turned Over
any of either gold or greenbacks that has
been sent to our officers, although they
are continually promising to do so. Sew
eral of the officers have received gold and
greenbacks in. boxes by having a hole
bored into the end OF the end-piece OF the
box; the side pieces being nailed on hides
it from all possible detection. l never
saw the need of little money so much in
all my life as / have here, and especially
when we were at Macon, Ga, last Summer.
"Our ratiOns consist of a very small
piece of rancid side of bacon, a very
limited allowance of cOrnmeal, w0rmy
rice and beans not fit for a sheep to eat
We do our own cooking. The utensils for
h. ,oI, 10 tod 81
one dozen 12-quart tin pals, one dozen
six-quart tin pans, and II Dutch ovens
Tor skiliets with covers) to 100 mon; no
plates, knives, forks or spoons. Many
have suffered very much. We have
always been allowed sutler, so that all
those who had money could buy vege-
tables OF anything they wished, but every
thing commands an enormous price in
Confederate money.
"After leaving Macon, Ga, July 30, SOC
OF us were confined in the old Y. S.
Marine Hospital, yard, Savannah, Ga;
the rest, 1900, went to Charleston for six
weeks, where we had the best quarters
and rations that we have ever had, and
enough OF the latter, consisting of pound
OF fresh beef per man day, with plenty of
cornmeai and rice, with little flour. We
Jared much worse at Charleston than at
Macon, being quartered most of the time
in the city iail-yard, which was very close
u
poorest quality and barely enough to sus-
tain life. A short time before we left,
relief came by way of giving power-of-
attorney on our Paymaster to receive 50
Confederate for one in greenbacks. 1t is a
big swindle, but | procured $50 in Con-
fedeTate and have been sorry since that
did not treble it. This amount did not
last me long, but it did me great deal of
good, as the scurvy had begun to show
itself in my system.
81 do not know what shall do, as my
limbs are almost bare, | am almost bare
footed and bare-headed and the cold, wet
season will soon be upon US. About 300
boxes have been received since we have
been here, and we are expecting another
lot soon, in which hope l shall find one
from home. You might as well send one
every month. for / see no signs for an ex-
change for the present. ! am quite dis
couraged on this point, and all that can
ask, care for or expect, is to preserve my
life and health until general exchange
does come about. But | should like to
get back and have another hack at the
rebel hendS, and pay some Of them off in
their own coin; yet, know they never can
be paid or punished in this world.
"Since we have been at this place we
have been treated worse than dumb
beasts, being placed in an open field
without shelter; all the cooking utensils
we have had is what we struggled through
when we left Charleston, and not morsel
of meat OF any kind has been issued.
Our rations here have been cornmeal and
sorghum fmo1asses), with occasionally "a
small ration OF rice and flour. 1t has been
nearly five weeks since have tasted
meat of any kind. You know not how
my appetite Graves something more sub
and for pickles or something
sour. Our salt ration is not half suffi-
cient, but my messmate has little
so that we have managed to buy
a little salt and soda, which come very
high.
when we first came here, we built
small shanties of pine boughs, but soon
found they would not protect US from the
rain and cold nights, SO we have since
built log house, the lumber green pine
for which we have had to carry on our
backs a third OF mile, all the wood we
burn coming the same way. We have a
fireplace in our house, SO hat we are very
we'll protected from the weather and can
keep quite comfortable, and | think we
enjoy fully as good health as we should if
confined in a building. ~
eve have no St0ckade around camp, it
Being guarded by sentinels posted at
short intervals around it. The guard is
entirely of militia naughty
,ut cowardly set, who fail far short of
Icing their duty. This, with an occa-
'ional good "Union man" among them,
las oecasioned good many escapes,
,ver 300 officers being absent without
cave at the present time and making
heir way towards Sherman's lines There
$ not a night but what party creeps out
the sentinel5. 4 great many are
but | hope and trust that
some are successful.
at is quite an easy matter to get out of
lere, and | should have tried to have got
o our lines long ere this if my feet had
,een well protected | would do any
hing and run almost any risk if could
MY get out and back into our lines"
&C. W.Wilcox, 9Th n. H., Milford, Mass