English Diary 1
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29th. I was lucky in getting into one of the tents, so did Webb and Culberson. The reason we got in this tent was on account of what we had in our haversack out of the boxes. There are ten of us in this tent, if I may call it that, and I promised to pony up with them. Webb and I went to work and made a large can of coffee for all hands. Those poor fellows, how they enjoyed it. This is a horrible place. Pemberton we thought was bad, but nothing compared to Bell Isle. Very cold last night.
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30th. Rations for the next twenty four hours about three fourths pound of corn dodger and two spoonfuls of molasses to each man. Prisoners dying very fast here. A number of Pemberton men died last night. They say Uncle Sam's rations are all gone. Resorted to box and got a cup of tea, some cake and ham.
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31st. Four hundred more crossed from Barrett's prison for here this morning. It is dreadfully cold on the Island this morning, It is not strange that life under these circumstances should become weary. It is a sad thing to have established on the pages of history. These poor defenseless soldiers not only to be deprived of their arms which were so much their pride to bear and their glory to wield, but also deprived of every personal comfort and convenience and compelled to lie down exposed to the frowning elements of nature, and the still more pitiless abuse of mankind. It were scarcely possible to conceive of more persistent wholesale misery, deliberately heaped upon men, than agents of Southern malice have poured upon their Northern kindred. The tortures of the inquisition were horrible and we shrink with horror as we peruse the history of that period. Those terrible pages telling us how the flames rose from a bundle of sticks, and curled above the martyrs as they were tied to the stake, have a power to stir our souls within us to their utmost depth, but who will say they are more dreadful than the slow burnings which eat out the vitals, leaving the tenement of clay a mere wreck before the spirit quits its frail abode, more to be feared than the lightening which prevents the play of life, more sure than the anaconda's grasp or the tiger's embrace. There are some of these things which have to be taken as the natural consequences of war, but some of them are not. We know that the misfortunes and chances of war are privations, exposures and suffering, which is the inevitable lot of those who engage in the service, but we seldom hear our willing soldiers complain of these; it is the inhuman and inexcusable treatment they receive as prisoners.They bear their misfortunes bravely and patriotically, blaming only the conduct of our merciless enemies. Later in the history of this war, the people will become acquainted with the treatment of Union soldiers in the various Southern prisons.
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2d. Rations three-fourths of a pound of corn dodger and a pint of bean soup for the next twenty-four hours. Hardly any of the prisoners have anything to get their soup in, and it would make your heart bleed to see how poor fellows trying to get their soup in their caps and anything that will hold it. Two hundred more prisoners came in here this morning. They were captured at the Rapidan. They have their overcoats and blankets. Lucky fellows! as they will have to sleep in the open air and on frosty ground.
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3d. Received a Ietter from my mother this morning. It was dated Bristol, Nov. 15111, 1863. There were about four hundred letters for the boys. Walter Webb, my comrade, was very sick this morning; made him a little tea. I must keep the tea and coffee for ourselves in case of sickness. Some of the new prisoners have plenty of money and keep up a general trading with the guards, buying butter, eggs and wheat bread. I forgot to mention that we are divided into squads of twenty, and one man goes outside prison lines with the guard and brings in three sticks cord wood for the twenty men, and after that is divided up, we have to wait our turn for the axe, there being only three on the Island. We have not received any soap since we came here. We look like a lot of colored persons.
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4th. Great demand for greenbacks; ten in Confederate for one of ours. Prison rations the same for the last four or five days; several fellows had their feet frozen last night and quite a number taken to the hospital this morning. A little time on this island will soon make one a fit subject for the hospital.
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8th. Rations same as yesterday. Have a little left from the box yet, but very careful of it. Had a cup of coffee this morning. Froze hard last night and about six hundred of the prisoners who came in last night were almost frozen to death, not having any shelter.
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9th. No change in the rations for the last two or three days. The part of the Island I occupy is the part nearest Richmond and washed on both sides by the James river. At the place where the river unites again, the point of land running in between is very narrow, and here the prisoners meet in hundreds all day long to wash and draw water. You may think it is a very nice place, but no person can form any idea of Bell isle as it appeared to us unfortunate creatures. It is very much crowded now, about eight or nine thousand prisoners being here, naked and hungry, and shivering with cold and suffering with vermin. And then you cannot walk five yards without meeting men answering to the call of nature, diarrhoea being very prevalent, rendering the camp a wilderness of filth, which requires a company of prison police to clean every day. Hogs are better cared for than us poor prisoners who are in the South. I wonder if our government knows how we are suffering in this hell upon earth.
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11th. Rations as usual; the same kind and quantity; no change whatever in the bill of fare. Sometimes when I look around and see so many fine fellows carried out dead, I think I will not write any more in my diary, expecting that the same will soon be my lot, and my diary would never be sent home to my friends. But then, again, I think I may probably pull through, and that spurs me on. It occupies my mind for a time at least.
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12th. No change in rations. One of the prisoners was shot at by a guard this morning. The poor fellow saw a small piece of wood near the ditch, and in attempting to pick it up, he fell on the ice", and as he was straightening himself up, a guard shot him through the lungs. He died in about an hour. Our lives are not safe here for one moment. A sentinel may at any time of the day or night deliberately shoot any prisoner or fire into a group and he is not even taken off his post or the least attention paid to it.
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17th. About five hundred more prisoners came on the Island today from Richmond. They say they are going to send all the Yankees they have in Richmond on this Island, so as to freeze them and get rid of them. Rations about the same, It is hardly worth while to mention rations and the quantity. There is not enough change to be of any importance.
1 - 2025-02-27
2 - 2025-02-26
3 - 2025-02-25
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.