Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-02-05
PRISON EXPERIENCES.
NO, 6.

Os
At break of day we saw Petersburg
rs-convalescent soldiers, citizens
and negroes coming from all dlrec-
tions. We concluded there was an
attraction over our way, and soon
found that we ourselves were the
magicians who had charmed them to
the spot. They swarmed around US
like bees around a hive of honey.
Talk about the Yankees being an in
quisitive people? These people were
not only that but prying, anxious en-
quiring-all that the word implies.
They wanted to see if we had rings on
our Iingers-and bells on our toes /
suppose; wanted to see our watch
es, trade jacknives, get hold of any
little ornament or trinket we might
have as a relic of Yankeedom. If we
had each had bushel of toys and tin
whistles we could have disposed OF
them all for corn bread and tobacco,
which seemed to be their staple arti-
cles of dicker. I don't mean to say
that these were the "bon ton" of the
place. They represented the low ne
gro and poor white trash class; the
ssyou uns, we uns" the ''you sides" of
the three hop and a skip" sort.
Tho soldiers here treated US fairly
well when contrasted with that re-
ceived on our pilgrimage to the inte-
rior, and after we arrived there,
although q sneak lieutenant managed
to steal q good watch from William
Williams, getting it into his hands on
the pretext that he wanted to buy it,
jumping upon his horse and riding
away. Profiting from his experience
1 was more fortunate in disposing of
mine. : private offered me fifty dol
lars; I asked him one hundred; we
compromised and let him have it at
ninety, taking care to get my confed-
crate money @. 0. D. The watch was
worth fifteen dollars in greenbacks
and l supposed I had made a good
trade until had an opportunity to
use some of the money when I found
a good deal went but little ways.
Here also a squad of soldiers obey
ed the orders of their superiors and
took away what rubber blankets and
shelter tents there were among us,
and from this time on, with the excep-
ton OF few days at Richmond, most
of US we've destined, in all kinds Of
weather, to make our beds on the bare
bosom of mother earth with no cover
ing but the cloud or sky,-a circum-
stance that later was one of the chief
causes of the intense suffering and
fearful mortality among the prisoners.
This was the first but not the last piece
of wholesale robbery to which we
were subjected.
After gathering up the last of the
above articles we were ordered to
''fall in" an order that we obeyed
with alacrity, expecting to be march
ed to the cook house and breakfasted
on hot rolls, buckwheat cake and
sorghum; but it was a vision of mis-
Judged generosity, for they neither |
invited us to breakfast, dinner or sup /
per that day. We were moved to
low, sandy piece of land on the bank |
Of and partly surrounded by bow in
the Appomattox River, which was to
be our camping ground during that |
and till noon the next day. Whatever |
We had to eat we bought of peddlers !
at the following prices: Apple pies,
small and thin, eight dollars each; bis
,uit, dry and tough, fifty cents; green
apples, two dollars per dozen; onions,
three dollars per dozen; corn cake,
,wo, three and four dollars per loaf
according to size. One of the boys
asked one of the guards if he had any
Johnny -cake.'' Johnny cake" said
le, "what's that?' ''Why corn bread"
exclaimed the Yankee. s'O-hol is
hat what makes you'uns call we'uns
Tohnnies?"
Before noon the sand upon which
We were encamped became so hot
lnder the blistering heat of the sun as
o be almost unbearable. We made
application to be allowed to move
ust across the river into the shade of