Life and Death in Rebel Prisons: Giving a Complete History of the Inhuman and Barbarous Treatment of Our Brave Soldiers by Rebel Authorities, Inflicting Terrible Suffering and Frightful Mortality, Principally at Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, S. C. ... To which is Added as Full Sketches of Other Prisons as Can be Given Without Repetition of the Above, by the Partie who Have Been Confined ThereinL. Stebbins, 1865 - 400 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
allowed appearance army arrived attempt become better blankets body boys brought called camp carried cause close comfort condition Confederate continued course crowd dead death died earth escape everything exchange excitement fear feel feet felt fire forces four friends gate give given ground guard half hands hard heard heart hope hospital hundred keep kind knew known least leave less live looked marched matter mind miserable month morning nearly never night obtain officers once passed poor position possible prison rain rations ready reason rebel received regiment rest seemed seen sent Sergeant short sick side soldiers soon Southern stockade suffering surely taken tell tent things thought thousand tion told true turned usual whole wished wood
Popular passages
Page 159 - ... men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
Page 383 - Vermin swarmed every where ; they tortured us while we tried to sleep on our coarse blankets, and kept us in torment when awake. No light of any kind was furnished us; and there we sat night after night in the thick darkness, inhaling the foul vapors and the acrid smoke, longing for the morning when we could again catch a glimpse of the overarching sky.
Page 60 - mid the brotherhood on high To be at home with God. 2 It is not death to close The eye long dimmed by tears, And wake, in glorious repose To spend eternal years. 3 It is not death to bear The wrench that sets us free From dungeon chain, to breathe the air Of boundless liberty.
Page 107 - True hope is based on energy of character. A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability of human affairs, and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests upon itself; it is not confined to partial views, or to one particular object, and if at last all should be lost it has saved itself its own integrity and worth.
Page 379 - A" tent were furnished to each squad of 100 ; with the closest crowding, these sheltered about half the prisoners. The rest burrowed in the ground, crept under the buildings, or shivered through the night in the open air upon the frozen ground. If the rebels, at the time of our capture, had not stolen our shelter-tents, blankets, clothing, and money, they would have suffered little from cold. If the prison authorities had permitted them, either on parole or under guard, to cut logs within two miles...
Page 381 - I left about six thousand and five hundred remaining in garrison on the day of my escape, and they were then dying at the average rate of twentyeight per day, or thirteen per cent, a month. The simple truth is, that the Rebel authorities are murdering our soldiers at Salisbury by cold and hunger, while they might easily supply them with ample food and fuel.
Page 357 - Hard Bread, 14 oz. per one ration, or 18 oz. Soft Bread, one ration. Corn Meal, 18 oz. per one ration. Beef, 14 " Bacon or Pork, 10 " " " Beans, 6 qts. per 100 men. Hominy or Rice, 8 Ibs. " " Sugar, 14
Page 381 - Deliberate, cold-blooded murders of peaceable men, where there was no pretense that they were breaking any prison regulation, were very frequent. Our lives were never safe for one moment. Any sentinel, at any hour of the day or night, could deliberately shoot down any prisoner, or fire into a group of them, black or white, and never be taken off his post for it. I left about...
Page 389 - Andersonville on the 1st of November, 1864. It was pleasantly situated, about eighty miles north of Savannah, in a country where pine forests abound. Indeed, these were a prominent feature in the external surroundings of many of the Southern prisons. Trees would be felled, a clearing made, and here located the rude structure that was to be the cheerless home of thousands for long, weary months. Could a voice be given to these silent groves, and they become witnesses of what they have seen and heard,...
Page 383 - Think of men of delicate organization, accustomed to ease and luxury, of fine taste, and a passionate love for the beautiful, without a word of sympathy, or a whisper of hope, wearing their days out amid such scenes. Not a pleasant sound, nor a sweet odor, nor a vision of fairness, ever reached them. They were buried as completely as if they lay beneath the ruins of Pompeii or Herculancurn.