Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/167

 Sni/tl>,Tii Soldiers in Northern Prisons. 161

About midnight I was aroused by some hard kicks, and when I what it meant was told to "Get up and hurry, for Stonewall Jackson is in our rear." I -aid, "Stonewall Jackson is in his 14 rave"; but the man laughed, and said: "You can't stuff that into me; we've heard that before, but don't believe it." We were started for Westminster right away, in the pouring rain, and marched all next day. and besides being wet, tired, and hungry, I was suffering acutely from my wounds, which had no attention until several days afterwards. On the 5th we were marched to Fort McHenry, and on the 6th we were given our first rations, only three hard-tack.

FORT DELAWARE.

After two days and nights in the pouring rain we were taken to Fort Delaware, and received our second rations. We were put into barracks, stripped, and searched, even to the seams of our clothing. My wounds received no attention until the 8th. Our rations con- sisted of three hard-tack, a cup of weak bean-soup, and a very small piece of salt pork for dinner, and only two hard-tack and a cup of coffee for breakfast, so the "gnawings of hunger" was a chronic complaint, one from which there was never any relief.

The officers of our regiment, especially Colonel Burgwyn, were so strict in enforcing cleanliness that there were neither filth nor vermin among us, and now, to my horror and disgust, I was covered with both. I had never seen body vermin until I reached this place, and it was perfectly awful to feel them crawling over one, and to be powerless to prevent it. The barracks swarmed with them, and every tuft of grass was covered with these loathsome objects. Bath- ing was out of the question here. The island was below tide-water, and I have seen the water recede and leave the soil as black as tar. I still shudder when I recall my suffering during the three and a half months' imprisonment there. We were exposed to every disease, and the mortality among the prisoners was thirty per day while I was there.

Our joy was unbounded when, on the i3th day of October, we saw the old Ashland anchor out in the bay, and heard the call for "Gettysburg prisoners." We were to go to Point Lookout; had never heard of the place, and knew nothing about it; but we knew it could not be any worse than the place we were in, and were glad of any change. At Point Lookout we had tents seventeen men to a tent. Our rations were no better, but we could bathe, and that was a great luxury to us. 11