Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/247

 In a Fe</rr</l Prison. 231

had caused these wounds; for in an instant he lay a corpse, having been brained by one of the Lieutenant's company with the butt end of his gun.

At last the Yankees got possession of the works, and the prisoners were hurried to the rear. A dearly bought advantage was theirs, for in a short time the position was retaken by the Confederates, and in thirty minutes some 13,000 Federals had been killed, while a num- ber of Confederates had been taken prisoners.

The latter, I among them, were taken two miles to the rear and guarded near General Grant's headquarters. Later we were moved further to the rear, and after the expiration of several days were marched to Whitehouse Landing, and were afterwards taken to prison at Point Lookout, Md.

After a few days at this place we were removed to Fort Delaware. Here we remained until August 2Oth.

UNDER FIRE OF THEIR OWN MEN.

Among the prisoners their were 600 commissioned officers. We were called out, placed on the steamer Crescent, and after a stay of eighteen days on the vessel were landed at the lower end of Morris Island, S. C. We were under the impression that we were to be ex- changed, but were marched to the upper end and put in the stock- ade. Here we were placed under the fire of our own guns. The Confederates occupied Charleston and the Federals Fort Wagner. The stockade was between the two armies, hence we were exposed to the fire of both. Our men knew where we were, and they cut their fuse so that their balls would not e'xplode over us, and thus it chanced that only a few of us were wounde^d.

We were divided into eight detachments, seventy-five in each, and placed in small "A tents," four men in each. We were guarded by the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (negro) Regiment, commanded by Colonel Patton, of Philadelphia. I was told by Captain James Dun- lap, a fellow prisoner, that this Colonel Patton' s father was a silk merchant of Philadelphia, of whom Captain Dunlap had bought goods before the war.

THE STOCKADE.

The stockade was built of rows of pine poles, twelve or fifteen feet long, placed with the small end in the ground, and these were closely bolted together. On top was a parapet two or three feet