Ball's Bluff: An Episode and Its Consequences to Some of UsPeirson, Charles Lawrence
History
Ball's Bluff: An Episode and Its Consequences to Some of Us
Peirson, Charles Lawrence
Ball's Bluff, Battle of, Va., 1861; Libby Prison
The tobacco warehouse which we occupied, is on the main street of
Richmond. It was similar to several other buildings and they were all
used as Military Prisons, and all called Libby Prison. It is a large,
three-story building and built as it was, in a most substantial manner,
was well adapted for a Military Prison. The first floor was allotted to
the officers captured, some 70 in number, and the other stories filled
with the men, perhaps 250 of them. In the centre of the lower or
officers' floor is placed the heavy machinery for pressing and
preparing the tobacco, thus dividing the space into two equal sections,
and occupying one-half of the floor space, which was 65 x 45 feet.
The windows on the street floor are well protected by iron bars, while
those opposite are unprovided with bars, and open upon the yard, but
guarded by sentinels stationed there, with orders to shoot any
prisoners in either story who lean out of the windows. Seven men were
shot by these guardsmen while I was confined there. Those dying in the
nearby hospital were taken to this yard for shipment elsewhere in
wagons.
We had no inducement to peer inquisitively from the windows. The
windows on the street, however, afforded us some more interesting
views. Some of the towns-people were almost always outside-lookers-in,
and occasionally someone would, when unnoticed by the guard at the
entrance, show a sign of sympathy. We frequently saw Jeff Davis riding
by, and we always took pains to regale him with pertinent remarks
befitting his high rank, or with some applicable song. One song was
called the Prison Song, to the tune of,--"John Brown's Body lies
a-Slumbering in the Ground." The words, descriptive of our situation, I
do not remember, but the refrain ran,--"Roll on Sweet Moments, Roll on,
and let the poor prisoners go home, go home."
There were ten mess tables made of rough boards, and benches or stools.
The fare was meagre; the floor hard for sleeping, though later we
procured some cots; the covering insufficient, and the vermin
ineffaceable pests. We had almost no books, nothing to help pass the
time. We took daily walks by reliefs, up and down one side of our
scanty quarters. There was a daily roll call, when chaffing the Officer
of the Day gave slight amusement. At one time three or four of our
companions escaped from prison, passing the guard by a show of
authority. The wearing of Federal uniforms secured on the field of
battle was so common in the streets, that the guards could hardly tell
friends from foe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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