The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-11-27
THE INSANE ASYLUM.


vice had expired, he had succeeded in get
ting out on special exchange.
THE INSANE ASYLUM
The material Confederate Government.
with an eye single to the health, comfort
and longevity of her prisoners of war, had
discovered that q constantly increasing
danger of suffication threatened the lives
of all the Union officers confined in and
around Columbia.
There were about 20 of us in the Column
bia Jail, which structure answered very
| well as a shelter during the Summer and
Autumn, but for us to be shut in there
within those damp and chilly walls,
through the dreary Winter months was an
awful risk that the COnfederacy did not
dare take.
The prisoners at Camp Sorghum were
even in more precariOus situation. That
camp had been located in the edge of
secOnd-grOwth, pine woods, as the illus
tration, drawn true to life by soldier
artist, Capt. Robert J. Fisher, while i'm
prisoned there, fully shows. There were
| thousands of square miles of such woods
all over the South in those days, and
especially was this true of South Caro-
lima and Georgia. These sylvan shades,
so conducive of health and comfort in
| warm weather, were all that could be de-
sired in the balmy months of Summer and
Autumn, but as the frosty nights and
stormy days of Winter approached, the
lncOnSiderate prisoners cut down many
| trees on the hill sides, rafting the small
| logs thus obtained into rude dwellings
which they covered with the branches and
leaves, and mould from mother earth, fill
ing the crevices between the logs with
moss which they cemented over with clay,
thus making for themselves habitations
which were as tombs for the living, and
the precursors of tombs for the dead,
which must certainly follow such lack of
fOrethought and acts of rashness, if some
plan was not Immediately adopted to
counteract these evils by the Confederate
Government. Besides, there were many
trees left standing nearby which these
careless prisoners might gather for fuel,
and thus, overheating these shacks or
tombs which they had so foolishly built
for themselves, the mortality threatened
was horrible to contemplate.
The Confederacy could never allow her
prisoners Of war to throw their lives away
in that manner, much less to have the
Implication go abroad in the world that
she had failed to guard her prisoners even
against their own careless deeds; there
fore, she gathered US evenfas a hen-hawk
gathereth her chickens, all into one camp,
where We might breath the pure South
Carolina Winter air, free from all con-
Eliminating surroundings
So, on Dec. IL, 1864, in the dead of
Winter, the doors of our dear old Jail were
thrown open and we marched forth to re-
turn no more. In the outskirts of Co
lumbia, probably two miles from the Jail,
as the distance seemed to me, stood the
Insane Asylum, to which we wended our
way and through the gates were nshered
into-not the Insane Asylum proper, for
that institution was already full, while
thousands of insane native South Caro-
linans were. running at large; in truth, |
South Carolina was, and had been, from
the days of notification under the leader
ship of John G. Calhoun, one vast insane
asylum-but we were ushered into the |
grounds thereof, which were inclosed by |
solid and substantial brick wall about |
eight feet high. In one end of the |
parallelosram formed by this brick wall
was situated the Asylum buildings. Across |
wall or fence had been built of boards of |
the same hight of the brick wall, separat- |
ing the Asylum buildings from the previ- |
ously unoccupied ground, thus forming a |
square pen or yard containing probably |
three or four acres of land. Within this |
Enclosure we found the prisoners from |
Camp Sorghum" who had reached the
ground before us, and some old tents, in
the neighborhoOd of 60 in number, had |
been pitched in a promiscuous cluster in
the center OF the Enclosure, and were all
occupied. As there were somewhere from
1000 to 1000 of the Camp Sorghum"
prisoners, they were crowded into these
tents like sardines in box, so that there
was a very poor chance for us jail-birds,
who brought with US no sign of tent or
covering, to obtain shelter.
Besides the tents, the Confederate au-
thOrities began the erection Of barracks
for the shelter of the prisoners, and the
framework for number of such barracks
was constructed, only one or two of
which were ever finished. For from one
to two weeks after our arrival in this
camp many of the jail-birds found it i'm
possible to obtain shelter of any descrip-
ton, but after the completion Of the first
barrack, all managed to get under some
kind of cover. There was one building
inside of our camp that was used for
hospital, and we had Confederate doc
tor of some kind in charge of it. 1 was
never inside the hospital building. While
in Columbia Jail was sick for a time, as
well as wounded, but we had no medical
attention of any kind there. While in
asylum Camp 1 was so fortunate as
not to need hospital or medical aid.
In Asylum Camp" we had the benefit
of sutler establishment within our walls,
and any man who had money could OBJ
tain plenty of food. There was no lack
of provisions in South Carolina in the
Winter of 1S64'5. With us there was a
great lack of money. l was so fortunate
as to have a comrade, Lieut.. NJ. B.. Case,
who had taken the precautiOn to sew with
in the lining Of his clothes a goOdly num-
Der of greenbacks. He also secreted and
saved his watch when captured, which
later he sold for Confedefhte scrip. This
loaned me money, and during our
stay in "Asylum CamppAwe managed to
buy about double the amount of pro-
visions furnished us by the COnfederacy,
with all of which we managed to get two
very moderate meals a. day.
Our water supply came from the Asy-
lum, and was conducted through the par
tition wall by woOdeR spout running
into four wooden troughs, two of which
we used for drinking aud the others for
washing purposes. Tlielwater was pure,
and wa alwo yc had al Ia noa IF |