This article is reproduced from the July, 1878 issue of the journal "Annals of the
Army of Tennessee". The comments in italics below were written by Dr. Edwin L. Drake, the editor of the publication, and a former Lt. Colonel in the Confederate Army.
NINE MONTHS IN A NORTHERN PRISON
By Sergeant G. W. D. Porter, 44th Tenn. Regt.
[The following brief sketch of prison life at Elmira, New York, by
Sergeant Porter, adds another bit of information to the already
voluminous record of the treatment of Confederate prisoners. In
contrast with the conduct of Colt, Beale and the hog-backed Scotcbman,
it affords us real pleasure to record in these pages the kindness and
gentlemanly demeanor of Lieutenant Groves, the cashier of the prison
bank. We have been informed that on several occasions this officer
sought out privately the prisoners about to leave on parole, and
restored them the balance of their money, of which he was the
custodian, but which he had been commanded to withhold, being
unwilling to stain his conscience by perpetrating a wrong action, of
which technically he himself was guiltless. We know Sergeant Porter,
and give full credence to his statement in regard to the ration of
food and fuel which was the daily allowance at Elmira. He was one of
the bravest of the brave, and it was his aim that set on fire a
Federal gunboat at Swift creek, in the attack on Fort Clifton, below
Richmond, Va., for the heroic defense of which Lieutenant F. M. Kelso
and his little band of Tennesseeans received the thanks of General
Beauregard, in a general order. With justifiable pride we may add
that these men were of General Bushrod Johnson's Division, which
belonged to the Army of Tennessee, but, by good fortune, reached the
front of Petersburg in time to join lines with their brethren of the
East, and bottle Butler at Bermuda Hundreds.]
ELMIRA is one of the oldest cities in the State of New York. It is
situated on the Chemung river, in a beautiful valley surrounded by an
almost endless range of peaks and mountains, from which most of the
timber has been cleared, leaving a landscape dotted with farmhouses,
fields of buckwheat and other grain. It was here, in 1776, the Battle
of Chemung was fought, between General Sullivan and the celebrated
Iroquois Chief, Thayendanega. He was a half-breed, educated in
Connecticut, and was commissioned a colonel in 1775, by the English
Crown. He was infamously known to the whites as Joseph
Brandt. His cruelties were enacted in the heai of battle, and insti-
gated by the wrongs his people had suffered at the hands of the
whites.
Cruelty and cowardice often go hand in hand, but Brandt was brave,
and his cruelty to his enemy was only a religious duty naturalized in
the savage character through the custom of many ages. His in motto
was, doubtless, that " war is cruelty," and not open to the amenities
which humanity would seek to interpose against its horrors.
'When I think of Elmira in connection with its historical
associations, I am tempted to institute a comparison between Joseph
Brandt, the savage, and some of the commandants of her prison-house in
1864, with its thousands of ragged, sick and starved tenants. Brandt
was an Indian, tutored from his cradle to deeds of cruelty-these, the
representatives of a civilization which boasts of having reached its
highest type in this, the nineteenth, century of the Christian Era.
But this might be called the ravings of hate, and the Democratic
Congressman from that District might rise and call me a liar, and
affirm that there was no lack of food, fuel and clothing among the
Confederate prisoners at Elmira. But to our narrative.
The writer, with about five hundred other prisoners of war, arrived at
Elmira about the first of August, 1864, after a confinement of forty
five days at Point Lookout. I spent the first day in a thorough
examination of my new abode, and its advantages as a home until
fortune would release me from its durance. It contained several acres
of ground, enclosed by a plank fence about fourteen feet high; some
three feet from the top on the outside ran a narrow footway, or
parapet, of plank, supported by braces. On this the sentinels walked
day and night, being enabled from this height to command a view of the
entire prison. On the inside, large globe lamps were ranged at
regular intervals, which were lighted shortly after sunset and
extinguished after fair day-light, thus rendering it impossible, even
in the darkest night, for anyone to approach without being discovered.
Near the center of the enclosure, and on the north side, was the main
entrance, by large folding doors. East of this point, on the outside
about fifty yards from the enclosure, was a large observatory, upon
which hundreds would crowd daily to get a view of the prisoners-many
to gloat, perhaps, on their sufferings; some to gaze in wonder and awe
upon the ragged, bob-tailed crew who had on many fields conquered
their best armies; and some, no doubt, to sigh for an exchange of
these men for fathers, sons and brothers who were suffering kindred
miseries at Libby, Salisbury and Andersonville. A single tree -a
walnut- stood opposite the observatory, and its shade was particularly
grateful during the month of August.
The south, or rear, line of the enclosure stood on the bank of the
Chemung. Through the center ran a deep channel, cut by the river at
high tide, the upper and lower ends of which were dry part of the
year; the middle always contained water to the depth of two feet or
more. During, the hot months, the prisoners suffered greatly from
heat at night, owing to their crowding in tents. In October,
materials and tools were furnished, and wooden barracks were built.
During our tent life, two blankets were furnished to six men; one
stick of green pine or hemlock, from four to six feet long and rarely
over six inches in diameter, was the daily allowance of fuel for six
men; no tools were allowed to cut and split it. J. W. Daniel was
woodchopper for our mess, patiently hacking the wood in two with an
old case knife, and splitting it with the aid of a railroad spike and
a rock. The routine of roll-call was most exactingly carried out in
spite of bad weather, no one being allowed to break ranks under the
most urgent circumstances until the signal was given. Owing to the
diet, crowding and other unwholesome surroundings, bowel complaints
were exceedingly common and severe, and the requirements of the
disease often subjected the unfortunates to a brutish befouling of
clothing and person while standing in ranks awaiting the leisurely
completion of a simple routine task.
Majors Colt and Beale were at times not only unkind, but unjust and
oppressive. Beale, on one occasion, aroused all of the inmates of the
prison on a bitter cold night, and made them stand in line until he
ascertained how many had United States overcoats, and where they got
them. He then had the coats carried to his quarters, where the tails
were cut off, and the mutilated garments restored to their owners.
These officers had men tied up by the thumbs to make them reveal
suppositious plots. An instrument of torture called the "sweat box "
will bear describing to the uninitiated. They were made of stout
planks, of different dimensions, so as to gauge the victim's size.
They were secured upright to a post, with a hinged door, and when a
culprit could be squeezed in, so much the better for the violated law.
An aperture for the nose was the only evidence of charity in their
construction. When a prisoner was to be committed, he was marched to
successive boxes until one was found to suit; with his back to the
entrance and his arms close to his side, he was thrust in and the door
closed with a push and fastened.
Ward inspection was held every Sunday morning by a captain or
lieutenant. On these occasions none were excused from attendance. The
presence of every man had to be verified; and if any were found in the
privies, or on the road therefrom, they were dragged to the
guard-house, where a mysterious performance added terror to the
situation. The guard-house had two rooms-the rear one for prisoners;
as the victim entered the.door a blanket was dropped over his head:
and he was forced to the floor and robbed of every thing he had. He
was then left half-suffocated, without an opportunity of knowing who
did the deed. Many of the Federal officers were brutes in the human
form. One, whose name I have forgotten, was a fiend. He was a tall,
humped-back Scotchman, nicknamed by the boys "Old HogBack," but he was
a hog all over. On several occasions I have seen him kick sick men
off of the walk with his heavy boots, simply because they were too
feeble to get out of his way quickly enough, or did not care to get
out in the mud and water to let him pass. I hope some reader of the
ANNALS may, perchance, remember his name and report it, so as to
impale his memory with the infamy of wanton cruelty to helpless and
defenseless fellow-creatures.
Lieutenant Groves, the cashier of the prison bank, was, in every
respect, a gentleman, and, for his kindness and humanity, his name is
gratefully remembered by every inmate of the Elmira Prison who come in
contact with him.
Threats of retaliation for the Fort Pillow affair were often
circulated to induce men to take the oath. At one time, it was put
out that lots were to be drawn for men to be placed on gunboats under
fire of Sumter and other forts. To an officer who was threatening me
with such terrors, I replied: "Put me down on that list as a
volunteer. I would be delighted with the exchange, and think I can
stand any thing your men can." I was determined to brag a little, just
to cut his feathers, and I succeeded.
My gorge, bile, spleen and phlegm will rise somewhat yet at the
recollection of the quantity and quality of the food doled out at the
model humanitarium at Elmira in the years 1864-5. I have long since
gotten over the sense of soreness begotten of the knocks and hurts
incident to honorable warfare; but Elmira, somehow, when I happen to
think of it, will play the deuce with my patriotism and loyalty to my
country in thought, not act, but only at these times. Ah well! I'd
live it down and die content if I was only sure that "Old Hog-Back "
will not be able to cbeat the devil out of his own. Prove me this,
and I am "truly loyal." But here's the ration: The strong sustained
life on four ounces of sour light bread and three ounces of salt beef
or pork for breakfast; for dinner, the same amount of bread was
allowed, and, in lieu of the meat, a compound called soup, but in
reality nothing more than hot salty water, in which bags of peas or
beans had been boiled, but which were carefully removed and kept for
other uses than to make animal heat for cold, starving prisoners of
war. This salt-water diet will account for the large number of cases
of scurvy and dysentery which carried off so many. A great number of
the men were in rags, and but a small quantity of clothing was issued
by the United States Government. Of that received from home and
friends, the amount was restricted, and only obtainable on a permit
approved at headquarters. When the mercury got down to 35 degrees
below zero in the winter of 1864-5, I saw numbers of my comrades with
frost-bitten hands, feet, ears and faces.
For the truth of these statements, I am willing to abide by the
evidence of hundreds of living witnesses North and South. Moore, Colt
and Beal, of the prison authorities, could tell a tale if they would.
They surely can remember an order that was to deprive a prison full of
half -starved wretches of all food until they produced a barrel of
beans which had been stolen by their own underlings. They can recall
the fact that only one stove was allowed to each hundred men, and only
half enough fuel for use, while hundreds of wagon-loads were stacked
on the premises. But the graves of dead Southern soldiers at Elmira
tell a tale, before which every utterance of the lip or pen is dumb in
comparison.