The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-02

! N'-rship except gNod fortune"
 me disaster at Franklin Tenn, soon ,otowed. and tpe morning of Dec. 15.
 tse4, Found our army under General Hood. in front of Nashville vainly e.
 slsting an overwhelming force of the enemy sweeping dowr on our left
 n6nk and driving our gallant little army from It's intrenehments. The ciose of the next day found our army in retreat. much of the fighting that day having been done with the enemy press Ing us on the flank. in front and in
 rear Numbers were killed. wounded and captured In these two days fight. Those captured were carried back to Nashville. and confined that night in the old penitentiary, and the next morn ing wcrn srnt on the way to Fort War ren. Johnson's Island, and other prisons in the North.
 The greatest number of the officers were sent to the United States Military prison on Iohnsons Island. When we reached Sandusky City Ohio. we found Lake Erie frozen over. the ice being about thirty inches thick, with the ther- mometer 25 degrees below zero. We marched three miles over the ice to Johnson's Island. many of the men with only short grey roundabout and their feet almost on the ice. My boots were frozen to my feet and had to be cut off. It was thought I would not be able to walk again, but day pr two after. a clever Yankee sergeant Of the 12Sth Ohio regiment. brought me heavy pair of brogan shoes, size or more too large. but after that I never missed roll call while there, and have never suffered from this terrible ex- perience. which is attributable to the fact that for an hour or more after reaching the prison I stood in the snow to my knees waiting for my turn to De
 2 s uMra L. An. srnA the shoes he offered an apology, saying he knew 1t was the same that we is- sued to our slaves in the South, but that 1t was. the best his poor govern ment could do It was the only time while there that I knew of quarter masters stores being Issued 10 prisoner. and suspected. that they were smuggled in at the in- stance of some of my comrades. The morning after reaching there. Gen: sam Moore of Huntsville, Ala. brought to me a suit of heavy underclothins which was most acceptable. as we came In with only what we had on.
 Johnson's Island, consisting or about 800 acres of land. is at the mouth of sandusky Bay overlooking Lake Erie, three miles from Sandusky City In Ohio. The prison grounds included three acres enclosed by a fence twelve feet high. with a platform on the top for sentinels guarding the prisoners. On this the guard walked day and night Sometimes they were relieved every half hour on account of the se- were cold, as was the case in the win ter of 1Se4-h. There were from first to last about I5.000 prisoners there. and in the winter of 1864 there were 2.oOO. The buildings were weather boarded on the outside, but neither ceiled nor plastered on the inside, and during severe winds would rock hke A shin In a heavy gale. On one occa- sion I remember the winds were so fu- rious that many. fearing it might be blown over, left the building in their night clothes, and that was one time at least when they showed the white flag fiuttering ir the breeze. There were thirteen blocks for prisons. each two stories high guard house. Kitchen and suffers store, where those who were fortunate enough to have friends on the outside who would deposit money for them at headduarters might purchase what they needed by paving high prices. No money was allowed to be Tn the hands of prisoners, though sometimes they managed to smuggie 1t through.
 remember to have seen a young officer from Tennessee, while on the cars. just before reaching Sandusky City. with his coat or and tusily en- gagged in sewing In the lining of his coat a lot of greenbaoks which he had picked up on the battlefield. He had a good bank account, if in searching him 1t was not found. but if he was searched as carefully as I was. it cer- tainly did not escape them. Tn the small room where each was taken to be searched, Confederate money was thrown on the floor several inches deep. The greenbaoks the Federal of- flcers appropriated.
 At one time prisoners were allowed to have a limited supply of money in their possession. A friend of mine from Huntsville. Ala, who has several times been Mayor of that beautiful city for the time being became an expert at handling cards It was not long before he owned tho greater part of the money in prison. Afterwards the authorities became stricter and reduced the amount of cur rency to two postage stamps to each man. and 1t was not long before ths clever gentleman from Huntsville own ed all the stamps, and correspondencs was done only by his permission.
 The food of the prisoners consisted or pickled beef and salted white fish, with but little bakers bread. the very kind of food to produce scurvy, which was making terrible havoc among them. Once a week one Irish potato would be issued to each man. which was eagerly eaten as an anti-scorbutic. I have there seen men cry from nun ger who had braved death on many battlehelds. An officer who called the roll at ono of the blocks would some times bring in a little rat terrier. which was instantly seized by prisoners, taken to. the mess hall. and made to catch rats which were made into pies. which they seemed to relish. The United States authorities issued an order for bidding any boxes of supplies to he re- ceived by prisoners and forbade sutlei s to sell any other article than combs l soaps, tobacco and writing material. No healthy men can well subsist on less than thirty eight ounces of food per day but our prisoners received less than twenty eight ounces.
 The Masonic fraternity among the prisoners did much good. The hospital 1 within the grounds was made comfort | able for the sick and wounded. sev- eral times aided in the last sad duty | to deceased Masons Neat head and | foot boards were placed at their graves. | with name, rank and date of death GUS | in the boards
 The Northern papers were at this | time publishing such narrowing ac- counts of the alleged bad treatment of | their prisoners at Andersonville. Ga, | that they were using retaliatoFV meas ures on us. forgetting that Anderson vile was getting the same rations as l were issued to Confederate soldiers. The percentage of Federal deaths in !, Southern prisons was under 9. while | the percentage of Confederate deaths in Northern prisons was over F. This ], shows where there was most cruelty e