The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-01-31
PRISON HELLS
In Which Captured Confederate
Soldiers We're Confined
DURING CAPTIVITY.
The Personal Recollection of An
Old Confederate Soldier, Who
Spent Some Time in the Prison
Pens of the North During the
War, Published in Reply to Corr
porl Tanners TRADE.

War, Published in Reply to Corr
poral Tanners TRADE.
10 the Editor of The News and
Courier: l have read with feelings Of
disgust the article headed Union
Veterans Indignant" in The Sunday
News of the 26 inst.
Corpl. Tanner said: when the ac-
cursed soul of Capt. Wirz floated into
the corridors Of hell the devil recog-
nized that his only possible competi-
tor was there" This may be ac-
counted for by the fact that Capt. A.
Walker, provost marshal of the pris-
on can't at Hart's Island, N. Y, was
still living.
l can well remember, as boy still
in my teens, my arrival, at this pen
in the month of March, 1895. after
spending time at Pollock Street
Jail at New Bern, N. C. It was a
fearfully cold, windy day, and when
we reached the sheds, occupying
three sides of a square and sur
rounded by the waters of Long Is
land, we were delighted to find large
heating stoves known as self-feeders-
allowing one to each hundred men,
and beside the door ton of hard
coal. Imagine our disappointment
when, after night Of comfort, the
next morning the quartermaster
came and tore down every stove and
removed every lump Of coal.
This was but the beginning, for in
a few days we were ordered to fall
in with all of our effects, then place
them before us upon the ground.
What then? A non-commissioned
officer started, and every keepsake
or any article of value, even to
pocket knife was stolen. This was
the order Of the commandant, a.
Walker, not Major Wirz.
Every indignity was studied out
That they might he heaped upon us.
Push carts with pick and shovel were
provided, and the men worked as
convicts clearing stone from parade
ground. All of this was done with
the plenty to eat referred to by Corpl
Tanner. l well remember at day.
break one morning after being up all
night with my friend, Alick De
Choisey, Marion Artillery, going to
the well in the middle of parade
ground for drink of water, an old
soldier, I forget his name, was few
steps in front Of me. Without
word Of warning we were fired upon
and the old soldier fell dead. When
1 reached the barracks and offered
the water to my friend, Alick,
found him dead. Also, we had a hos
pital, but onr poor fellows were al
lowed to remain in their bunks un-
til they were so weak that many died
in being carried to it. Corpl. Tanner
says we gave them plenty to eat. He
certainly must be an ascetic.
For his information, our bill of
fare was, one-half loaf Of bakers
bread and six ounces Of salt beef in
the morning. At twelve o'clock pea
soup, sometimes English split peas.
will give the prescription:
Take Il drinking tumbler Of warm
water, add three teaspoonfuls of pull
verized sulphur and stir it well; you
have the soup.
The bill Of fare was sometimes
changed, and we received four hard
tack and small piece of boiled beef,
and at twelve o'clock Boston bean
soup, they told us, but If you took
piece Of cause and strained it you
could not find the skin of bean TO
gallon. This is the plenty that we
were required to live upon, except on
one occasion when an army wagon
load of green mutton was hauled in
which, if eaten, would have finished
few thousands of our brave boys, but
our head doctor, who, by the way,
was at Fort Moultrie before the war,
and was q friend Of the Rev. Whit
ford Smith, sent it out and we had
no meat.
Compare WirZ with Walker. Why,
If the devil knew Walker was coming
he would have evacuated hell befora
he came in sight. Major Wirz let tho
Northern prisoners have their boxes
sent by friends. None ever entered
our prison without being riDnd or
robbed, and few even then. l know
this from the fact that l was at the
provost marshal's Office as clerk
with my friend, Jesse Cotton Lynes,
and saw it almost daily. Well, T
think we left near 800 dead there in
three months. |, at least, was not
in the emaciated condition referred
to by Corpl. amer, for | weighed
140 pounds, and when ! reached
home weighed only So. So r.lch
food did not agree with me. Mr..
Sherman, no doubt, in his march and
pillage, found sufficient food from the
simple f. that he rC5bed women
and children and left them to starve.
If the one hundred and odd thous-
and emaciated Confederate soldiers
that were so well fed in Northern
prisons had been released he never
would have disgraced this country
by such march and the noble wo-
men Of the Confederacy could have
placed any inscription on th~ir monu-
ments without giving offence to the
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