English Diary 2
-
4th. Six men shot within the last week. A Yankee made believe he was dead last night, and allowed himself to be carried out to the dead-house on a stretcher, and was laid alongside the dead. I hope the fellow will get inside our lines, but very few escape the bloodhounds.
-
7th. Rained hard last night and is still raining. Our drinking water is thick with mud and filth. I sometimes think everything is coming on us to hurry us off, Well, probably the sooner out of such misery the better, but I will keep up as long as there is a spark of life left in me. A great many get discouraged and die when they could prolong their lives with a little courage. But it is only a matter of time, as six months is considered a prisoner's life in a Confederate prison, although it has been eight months since I was captured. I am a mere skeleton.
-
8th. Received a pound of bread today, the first we have had since we came here, three ounces of beef, and a bucketful of rice to be divided among ninety men. How we wretches enjoyed it! The bread was made of yellow meal and somewhat resembled fruit cake the flies taking the place of the raisins. Nearly all the old prisoners now have scurvy, the gums turning black and swelling bevond the teeth, and pouching out the cheek; the teeth become loose and drop out. The mouth becomes cancerous and the patient lingers and dies. In others the limbs turn black and swell to the greatest capacity of the skin, black watery sores open, gangrene sets in, and death shortly follows. The whole prison was a hell of torture and insanity. You could hear praying and groaning mingled with the laugh of the lunatic and cursing. The sun is growing hotter and the raiders bolder. The guards are more numerous, the stocks more terrible and the chain-gangs are full of victims. The ground swarms with all kinds of vermin, and millions upon millions of mosquitoes come from the surrounding swamps to feast on our emaciated bodies; their buzzing hum adds to the bedlam of the prison, and with the hooting of the owls and the mournful notes of the whip-poor-wills, howled a requiem, broken only by the crack of the muskets of the murderous guards, or the sounds of their voices as they cry out the hour of the night from their perches on the stockade. I have lain on the battle-field in the solemn hours of the night, surrounded with dead and dying and listening to the piteous, agonizing cries of the wounded, but it is nothing compared to this den of misery and woe, the memory of which will be ever present to those who experienced it. Nearly one-half of the old prisoners are dead and nearly all of those living are prostrated with scurvy and gangrene. There is a place outside the stockade where; some of the sick are taken, but they are so poisoned by the stench of the prison, that nearly all die. Unless one was there, it is hard for the mind to grasp the magnitude of this hell on earth. There are nearly 30,000 young men who had been pronounced sound and healthy and the best material in the land, condemned to this hell of torture and misery. There seems to be no relief; we must rot in this living grave. The raiders are having everything their own way; it is a common thing to find dead men in the morning with throats cut or heads crushed in. The raiders got so bold that gangs of them go about in daylight and rob by the wholesale; great talk of organizing the prisoners into regulars or prison police.
bedlam - a scene of uproar and confusion
-
-
17th. About seven hundred and fifty more prisoners, mostly from the army of the Potomac. They were greatly surprised to see so many prisoners here. Raining hard. There are millions and millions of all kinds of vermin here, flies, bugs, maggots and lice, some of them as large as spiders. If they once get the best of you, you are a goner. A great many of the prisoners are hopelessly crazy, starvation, disease and vermin being the cause.
-
19th. Corn bread and about three ounces of bacon for today. Some fifteen hundred prisoners came in last night and this morning — mostly from the Army of the Potomac. Great many prisoners suffering from scurvy; some of them are all doubled up and cannot stretch either limb; some have their gums rot and teeth drop out.
-
20th. What a sad looking place this is this morning; a heavy rain and thunder storm last night and we were almost drowned. No tents or shelter of any kind, and the rain poured down in unceasing torrents. Some of the new prisoners who made tents of their blankets found them of little use. Culberson, Webb, Gallagher and myself compose the party of my company who have held together so long. Culberson's days, poor fellow, are numbered; he was taken outside to the hospital this morning. A few months ago he was a large, hearty, fine-looking fellow, but now — a total wreck. It is not always the largest and the strongest that can stand it the longest. I am weary and sick; sick in body and mind, and don't care whether I write any more or not.
-
21st, Fifty prisoners arrived yesterday, captured in Florida. Raining hard today. The raiders killed a man last night. Prisoners dying of dropsy; when they are dead, their bodies swell up as large as barrels. There is quite a fight over a dead man's pants; when a prisoner dies, his shoes, stockings, shirt, pants and cap are stripped from him. One prisoner will almost kill another to gain possession of them.
dropsy - old-fashioned or less technical term for edema
-
26th. Raining hard again today. Mud and filth are our bed fellows. Six hundred more prisoners this afternoon. I am somewhat crippled, myself, but manage to try and wash and keep clean, that is the principal thing. One hundred have died within the last 24 hours.
1 - 2025-02-26
2 - 2025-02-25
3 - 2025-02-24
In 2024, the number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years. The change is welcome news for a country that is dealing with serious population problems.