The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-02-05
PRISON EIIIEL-LS
In Which Captured Confederate
Soldiers We're Confined
DURING CAPTIVITY

Pens Of the North During the
War, Published in Reply to Cor
poraI Tanners Tirade.
To the Editor OF The News and
Courier: I have read With feelings OF
disgust the article headed Union
Veterans Indignant, III The Sunday
News OF the 26 inst.
Corpl. Tanner said: When the ac-
cursed soul OF Capt. N'irz hoated into
the corridors Of hell the devil recog-
nized that his only possible comDeti-
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.
can well remember. as q bo. still
in my teens, my arrival, at this pen
in the month OF March, 1895, after
spending a time at Pollock Street
Jail at New Bern, y. c.. 1t was a
fearfully cold, windy day, and when
We reached the sheds, occupying
three sides of 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 a 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-conmissioned
officer started, and every keepsake
or any article Of value, even to a
pocket knife was stolen. This was
the order of the comnandant, A.
Walker, not Major Wirz.
Every indignity was studied out
that they might he beaped 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. I 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 a drink Of water, an old
soldier, I forget his name, was a few
steps in front of me. Without q
word Of warning we were fired upon
and the old soldier fell dead. When
reached the barracks and offered
the water to my friend, Alick, ]
found him dead. Also, we had hos
pital, but onr poor fellows were al
lowed to remain in their hunks un-
I'll 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.
l will give the prescription:
Take a drinking tumbler Of warm
water, add three teaspoonfuls of pull
iverized 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 a
piece of cause and strained it you
could not find the skin Of a bean to
"a gallon. This is the plenty that we
We're required to live upon, except OF
one occasion when an army wagon
load of green mutton was hauled in
which, if eaten, would have flashed a
few thousands of our brave bays, bnt
our head doctor, who, by the way.
~5s at Fort Monltrie before the war.
and was a friend of the Rev. Witt
ford Smith, sent it out and we haG
no meat.
Compare Wirz with Walker. Why.
if the devil knew Walker was coming
he would have evacuated hell befor'
he came in sight Major Wirz let th>
Northern prisoners have their boxes
sent by friends. None ever entered
our prison without being rifed or
robbed, and few even then. I know
this from the fact that I was at the
provost marshals Office as a clerk
with my friend, Jesse Cotton Lynes,
and saw it almost daily. Well,
think We left near 300 dead there IL
three months. I, at least, was not
in the emaciated condition referred
TO by Corpl. amer, for I weighed
40 pounds. and when I reached
home weighed only 95. So much
food did not agree with me. Mr..
Sherman. no doubt, in his march and
pillage, found sufficient food from the
simple fact that he robbed women
and children and left them to starve.
If the one hundred and odd thous-
and emaciated Confederate soldiers
that were so we'll fed IN Northern
prisons had been released ne never
would have disgraced this country
by such a march and the noble wo-
men of the Confederacy could have
placed any inscription on their monu-
ments without giving offence to the
Grand Army of the Republic.
Children unborn during the war
are men now. Let US speak the
truth. Respectfully,
c. F. Steinmeyer,
l0G Beaufain street,
Charleston, January 27.
ACCUSED OF SWNDL!NG.