English Diary 1
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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 - 2025-02-26
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.