PRISON LIFE OF THE ENLISTED MEN.
It is to the credit of the rebel soldiers whose good fortune it was to
capture our command, that we were treated with considerable courtesy
and kindness while in their power. Our men were allowed to retain
their blankets and overcoats, and all little articles of value which
they might have upon their persons. Many of the men had about them
large sums of money which they were allowed to keep. From Plymouth,
the long and wearisome march made to Tarboro (an account of which is
given in the preceding chapter,) together with scanty rations and
exposure, told severely on the men, and many were sick and feeble; and
it was with no little pleasure that, on the morning of April 29th,
they marched to the depot in the town to take cars to Camp Sumter,
where, as the rebels informed them, rations would be dealt out
plenteously. They were crowded aboard small box cars by forties, and,
in addition, six rebel guards were stationed in each car, occupying
the door. Of course under such circumstances, they were nearly
suffocated, and were pressed almost out of shape. The train started at
10 o'clock, stopping at Goldsboro, where rations were issued,
consisting of three small hard crackers and a little scrap of bacon,
to subsist on for the next twenty-four hours. Although arriving at
midnight at Wilmington, they were not allowed to get out of the
wretched cars until morning. At sunrise they were marched down to the
dock, and conveyed by ferry boats to the opposite side. Taking the
train in waiting for them, they proceeded to Charleston, arriving
there on Sunday morning, May 1st. In the afternoon they were
transferred to another train and put aboard platform cars and at a
rapid rate went to Savannah, Georgia. But before reaching there they
were overtaken by a storm and thoroughly drenched with rain. Changing
cars at Savannah, they proceeded to Macon, and thence to
Andersonville, arriving there at nine in the evening. Leaving the cars
they were marched into an open field near by, where they remained
during the night, and marched into the prison pen the next morning
under the escort of a strong guard. How each one felt as he entered
this "hell upon earth," can little be imagined. The first night ten
died near the position of the 16th. The men seemed to stand it pretty
well at first, much better than the other regiments captured at
Plymouth, and it was not until the 20th of June that the first of
their number died, Alonzo A. Bosworth, Co. D. But by the 1st of
August, some of the Sixteenth died nearly every day.
The inhuman treatment which our men experienced in Southern Prisons
has been told over and over, and is well known in history and need not
be repeated; but this history would not be complete without inserting
the following testimony of rebel barbarity taken from the diary of
Corporal Charles G. Lee, (Co. B.,) who died from exposure and lack of
food, immediately after being exchanged at Wilmington, N.C. He writes
as follows, "Again I am called to bid adieu to the passing year, but
under very different circumstances from any in which I have ever been.
During the year 1864, I have passed eight months in the most degrading
imprisonment. In that time, our inhuman captors had not furnished
shelter of any kind; and we have repeatedly been for two and three
days at a time without a morsel of food; and even that we have
received would at home have been generally thought unfit for swine. We
have not had a particle of meat for forty-two days, and but little
molasses, or any thing to take the place of it. Our rations chiefly
consist of about a pint and a half of coarse corn-meal, and half a
teaspoonful of salt daily. Now and then we receive a few beans or
sweet potatoes. Many a night have I lain awake because I was so hungry
that I could not sleep."
About the 1st of September the prisoners were removed to Charleston,
South Carolina, where they remained about four weeks, when the yellow
fever broke out and raged so fearfully among the rebel forces who
guarded the prisoners, that they were removed to Florence, where they
spent the winter months. During the latter part of December, 1864, and
the months of January and February, 1865, the men were--a few at a
time--paroled and allowed to come north, and afterwards were regularly
exchanged, thus ending the career of the Sixteenth in prison, with the
heavy loss of over fifty per cent. in deaths, in a period of a few
months. A more detailed account has been published by Sergeant Major
Robert H. Kellogg, in his "Life and Death in Rebel Prisons." Among the
number who escaped from prison, were Quartermaster Sergeant Hiram
Buckingham and Andrew J. Spring, of Company K. An order was received
for the names of all sailors at Andersonville. Sergeant Buckingham
suspecting it was for the purpose of exchange, obtained a suit of
sailor's clothes, and accordingly took the name of Johnny Sullivan, a
sailor who had died in the hospital a few months before. In about a
week after the names had been registered, the sailors were ordered out
of prison. Buckingham answering "Here," to the name of Johnny
Sullivan, passed out without detection. They went to Charleston,
thence to Richmond, and were exchanged, having been in prison just six
months.
Andrew J. Spring in some manner procured money enough to bribe a
guard, who allowed him to escape with two comrades. They were five
days in reaching the Union lines, living meanwhile on sugar-cane,
green corn, and persimmons. Traveling in the woods, they guided
themselves by the moss, which grows heaviest on the north side of the
trees, and successfully passed three lines of rebel pickets.
The shooting of prisoners who came near the "dead line," was of almost
daily occurrence; for if they were near it with no intention of
escaping, the sentinels would fire. The regiment lost one man in this
manner, William Drake of Company A, who was shot December 4th, 1864.