History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers Part 6

This caused much hunger, suffering, and misery, as the beans and rice could not be eaten. The quality of the water in this prison was good and usually plenty, though some days the supply was short. Our treatment here was generally bad. The length of confinement was three months.

At Savannah we were better treated in every respect than in any other prison, provided with tents, and cooking utensils, and a good supply of rations of good quality. Fresh beef was issued nearly every day. The water though, was very poor; having a fetid smell, and unpleasant taste, and could only be used for drinking purposes by filtering through charcoal; or burnt rice or meal steeped in it. The length of confinement was six weeks.

At Charleston Jail Yard, only a part were provided with shelter; and in rainy weather the yard was flooded with water, so we could neither lie down nor do any cooking. In pleasant weather, it was as hot as an oven. Little or no fresh air could come within those walls which were twelve feet high, and in addition surrounded by buildings. When there was a breeze, there were whirlwinds of dust which would almost suffocate us. The water was very poor, making a great many sick. The rations consisted of small quant.i.ties of corn-meal and rice, and one ounce of bacon per day; but after a week or so the bacon was dispensed with. There were no utensils for cooking, and but little salt was issued. In addition to our deplorable condition we were under fire from Gilmore's batteries, whose sh.e.l.ls were continually bursting around us, occasionally coming amongst us and twice tearing the wall away. On one occasion for sixty hours we had not a morsel to eat.

At Roper Hospital Prison, in Charleston, our exact rations were for ten days, two and a third quarts of corn-meal, two quarts of rice, three pints of black beans (including bugs,) and four ounces (daily) of fresh beef, or in lieu thereof, two ounces of bacon. No cooking utensils were to be had. We certainly should have starved to death here, had it not been for an arrangement made for obtaining money which enabled us to purchase food of the citizens. The authorities gave us Confederate money in exchange for our drafts (in gold) on the North.

At Columbia we were turned into an open field like a drove of cattle to pa.s.s the winter months, without any shelter whatever, neither cooking utensils, axes, spades or anything were issued that would enable us to make ourselves comfortable. With scanty clothing, but few blankets, some without shoes, we were left here to pa.s.s the winter as best we could. Rations consisted of corn-meal and rice. Twelve days rations of rice made one meal.

Salt was issued in small quant.i.ties, and for four consecutive days we had none at all. On September 26th and 27th, we had nothing to eat. One or two issues of flour were made, but no meat of any kind was provided.

While on our way to Charlotte, the train ran into a drove of cattle, killing three, which were issued to us, making the only meat rations we had had for four months and ten days. At Raleigh we met several trains loaded with enlisted men going north to be paroled. Nearly all were sick and very dirty and black; no soap having been issued to them for six months. Nineteen out of one train had died since leaving Salisbury, a distance of 132 miles, mostly of starvation, though some who were on the top of the cars were frozen to death. On Monday morning they had half a loaf of bread, weighing not over five ounces issued to them, since which time the rebels had issued _not a particle of food_.

It was then Thursday noon. How soon thereafter rations were issued to them I am unable to state.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] So named, because that was the princ.i.p.al ration we received while there.

[4] The first six months of prison life one is called a "fresh fish," the next four months a "sucker," the next two a "dry cod,"

and the balance of his time a "dried herring," or "old fish."

After exchange he becomes a "pickled sardine."

As soon as a new prisoner made his appearance at the gate, the cry of "fresh-fish," by each one ran through the prison, and a general rush was made for the gate. An eager group surrounded him, and while some would be seriously asking questions concerning his capture and listening to his pitiful story others would call out "Take your hands out of his haversack;" "Give him air;" "Keep that louse off him;" "Don't take his clothes;" etc. All this affected them strangely at first, and produced a hearty laugh for us.

CHAPTER VIII.

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 circ.u.mstances, 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 sc.r.a.p 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 "h.e.l.l 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 pa.s.sing year, but under very different circ.u.mstances from any in which I have ever been.

During the year 1864, I have pa.s.sed 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 mola.s.ses, or any thing to take the place of it. Our rations chiefly consist of about a pint and a half of coa.r.s.e 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, pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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.

CHAPTER IX.

1865.

NEW BERNE,--HARTFORD, CONN.

Company "H," (Captain Barnum,) who escaped capture at Plymouth, by being detached and sent to Roanoke Island for duty in April, 1864, was reinforced now and then by men who had previously been detached for special service, or were absent sick, also by a few who were exchanged from time to time, representing every company, and this composed the 16th regiment in actual service. Captain Barnum labored with much zeal under many difficulties, to preserve the former prestige of the regiment. During December the regiment proceeded to Plymouth, and went thence on an expedition to Poster's Mills, about ten miles, destroying the mills and a large quant.i.ty of grain, and returning with various spoils. On another occasion the regiment went to Hertford, where they captured large quant.i.ties of cotton, tobacco, finished carriages, and buggies, several thousand feet of lumber, several mules, and forty contrabands. And again one bright night Captain Pomeroy with sixty men proceeded by steamer up the Alligator river, capturing a barge and three small sail vessels containing twenty-five hundred bushels of sh.e.l.led corn, together with the outfit of fifteen men with their mules and carts. They were intending to take the corn to a mill near by to be ground. The regiment also made several unimportant raids to Columbia, Edenton, and the adjoining country, until March 4th, 1865, when they were ordered to New Berne, N.C., where the exchanged prisoners joined them and remained on provost duty. Most of the officers were quartered in the houses at the corner of Craven and Union streets. Colonel Beach having been released from Libby Prison in May, 1864, was a.s.signed to various duties in Was.h.i.+ngton, only once rejoining what remained of the regiment. That was at New Berne, where he was taken sick and soon departed on sick-leave.

Colonel Frank Beach was a graduate of West Point Academy, cla.s.s '57.

He was stationed at first at Fortress Monroe, as a brevet second lieutenant of artillery.

At a later date he was ordered to the far west with General Gibbon, and took part in the well-known Utah expedition in 1858. The sufferings of that campaign and the winter encampment on the prairie were shared by him, as well as the almost unendurable _ennui_ of later days, when Digger Indians or inimical Mormons were the only society accessible to the small garrison.

When the war broke out Colonel Beach was post adjutant at Port McHenry near Baltimore, and remained in that position for some time. He took some share in McClellan's advance, and was stationed at Yorktown as an officer of artillery. But in the summer of 1862, he was permitted, by special order of the war department, to accept the colonelcy of the Sixteenth Connecticut regiment which had been tendered him by Governor Buckingham. He commanded the regiment at the battle of Antietam, showing great personal bravery and heroism during the engagement. He galloped hither and thither on his white horse over the field, trying in vain to draw the men out of the desperate charge into which they had been ordered, and sad and full of woe was his heart on the night after the struggle, when the broken remnants of the Sixteenth gathered around him in the rear of the battle ground. He made personal inquiry after each of the wounded, and visited a number of them on that evening and the following days, doing for them all that was possible.

The winter which followed made him an invalid with a disease whose seeds had been laid in the Utah campaign. But, as he was reluctant to leave the regiment, he accompanied it in an ambulance on the long marches down Virginia to Fredericksburg. With him, and sharing the same ambulance, was Colonel Griffin Stedman, the heroic commander of the Eleventh Connecticut, still lame from Antietam wounds. They became firm friends, and not unfrequently in those cold evenings the ambulance would harbor a merry party, which, by the light of a hospital lantern, and in the sight of the surrounding camp fires, would speed the long hours by merry conversation. Major Converse, Adjutant Barnum, (both fallen) and Dr. Mayer would bear them company.

The greater part of that winter the Colonel remained with the regiment, but was finally forced to take sick leave. He returned to it in the summer at Portsmouth, Va., and held command during the siege of Suffolk, and the charge on Longstreet's army. Then he conducted it to North Carolina, where he remained in command of a brigade, until at Plymouth, he was taken prisoner with the regiment and all the other troops that garrisoned this surprised out-post.

After the war Colonel Beach was for some time in command of a solitary fort near Was.h.i.+ngton. He was soon after stationed at Was.h.i.+ngton, and then at Fort McHenry. His old trouble having reappeared with more than its former violence and persistency, he was placed on the retired list, and endeavored to regain his health, but with only temporary success. He died at New York, in the New York hotel, on Wednesday evening, February 5th, 1873.

Colonel Beach was a gentleman of very handsome appearance and strong masculinity of deportment. He was widely and well read, and as thoroughly acquainted with the progress of modern philosophy and science as with the prominent poets and writers of _belles lettres_ of all ages. He had an elegant yet terse method of expression, and a flas.h.i.+ng quality of wit. But no man was of kinder heart, and in the regular army his good nature had become proverbial. In his first connection with the Sixteenth Connecticut Regiment under unfortunate circ.u.mstances, many misunderstandings between him and the men gained ground. This, as in some other regiments, was owing to the jealousy with which the volunteer soldiers, fresh from home, regarded regular army officers, and to the disagreeable impression the necessities of army discipline made on them. But, a little later, and at the close of the war, there was not a man of the regiment who was not warmly attached to the Colonel, admired him, was proud of his bravery, his military knowledge, bearing, and of his standing in the army. "Little Moustache," and "Black Eye," the men used to call him among themselves, and they made a boast of him to those of other regiments.

He was as splendidly endowed with all the qualities that make the true and n.o.ble man, as with all those that please and captivate in society.

For years a sufferer from a hara.s.sing disease, yet few came in personal contact with him but will regret his demise as that of a person of fine and polished intellect, and engaging manners, and of a great-hearted gentleman.

Surgeon Mayer who was exchanged in May, 1864, was ordered to the Foster General Hospital at New Berne, N.C. There he remained in charge of four wards until the latter part of September, when the Chief Surgeon of the hospital went north, and he succeeded to the charge of the inst.i.tution. Immediately afterwards the yellow fever broke out.

Its ravages in the city of New Berne and among the garrison are a matter of general history. There were only a few of the Sixteenth at New Berne at the time, and most of these had been detailed as clerks or nurses to the hospital, at Surgeon Mayer's suggestion. Jasper A.

Winslow, Company "C," who at his own request, through the Surgeon's influence, was ordered there as clerk, took sick at once, and died in a few days. W. Chester Case, Company "H," was doing clerk's duty and proved very efficient at this terrible time. He held out courageously, and kept the reports of the dying, of their places of burial, of their possessions and accounts, until he himself was seized with the fever.

When it is considered that sometimes as many as thirty or forty died in one day at the hospital, an idea may be formed in regard to the difficulty and labor of keeping reports. Under Surgeon Mayer's personal treatment Case and a few other Sixteenth men, sick at New Berne, recovered. But at last he took sick himself. For two days it was doubtful whether he would live. Then, some favorable symptoms occurred, and Medical Director Hand sent him to Morehead City. After a two weeks convalescence, he returned to New Berne, where Surgeon Rice and Surgeon Cowgill, who had been in charge since his sickness, lay also attacked by the fever. He took charge again and so continued until his appointment to a different office. During the epidemic, eighteen a.s.sistant Surgeons had shared his labors, all of whom had in succession been attacked by the fever, which carried off nine of them.

General Palmer, in recognition of Surgeon Mayer's services, appointed him Medical Purveyor of the district, and this office he held until the muster out of the regiment. A complimentary order was issued to him. His management of the hospital during the yellow fever time, and his administration of the Medical Purveyor's department, met with general praise.

The Doctor says: "I got out of the hospital where over five hundred died, and had saved seventy patients above the general average; and I got out of the Medical Purveyor's office, where I had some million dollars worth of property to administer and was square with the United States Government, all but fourteen pounds of nails, which I couldn't account for; so I may consider myself fortunate. But the Quartermaster's Department kept writing for those nails every quarter for four or five years."

In May it was generally conceded that the war was ended, and Captains d.i.c.kerson and Turner resigned and went home. Adjutant Clapp also resigned while home on leave of absence, and Lieutenant Landon was made Adjutant. June 19th, Major Pasco returned from Connecticut, with the necessary muster rolls and papers to enable us to complete the muster-out rolls. Then both day and night did the officers work on discharge papers and muster-out rolls. Finally on Sat.u.r.day, June 24th, the rolls were examined and we were honorably mustered out of the service, at 5. P.M., by Captain John D. Parker, A.C.M., Second Ma.s.sachusetts heavy artillery, the men remarking, while standing in line, waiting patiently; "that while it did not take long to enlist, it took a long time to get mustered out." It proved quite true; for while we enlisted for three years, it was not supposed that we should be out more than three or six months at the most; and many of the men enlisted expecting to return in a short time, not one of us realizing the hards.h.i.+ps and sufferings we must pa.s.s through. But who of us regrets the faithful service performed for our country. How many around us to-day do we see who blush and say the greatest mistake they ever made was that they did not go to the war. How many would say as did a prominent man to me, the day we returned home; "I would give fifty thousand dollars to have seen and been through what you have."

The regiment partic.i.p.ated in the following

ENGAGEMENTS.

_Antietam, Md._--September 17th, 1862. Loss in killed, four commissioned officers, 38 enlisted men; wounded, eight commissioned officers, 176 enlisted men; captured, 12 enlisted men; _Total Loss, 238._

_Fredericksburg, Virginia._--December 12, 13, and 14, 1862. Loss in wounded, one enlisted man. _Total loss one._

_Edenton Road, Suffolk, Virginia._--April 24, 1863. Loss in killed, one enlisted man; wounded, seven enlisted men. _Total loss, eight._

_Providence Church Road, Suffolk, Virginia._--May 3, 1863. Loss in killed, two enlisted men; wounded, one commissioned officer, seven enlisted men. _Total loss, 10._

_Plymouth, North Carolina._--April 20, 1864. Loss in killed, one enlisted man; wounded, one commissioned officer, 11 enlisted men; captured, 23 commissioned officers, 400 enlisted men.

_Total loss 436._