Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel PrisonsDay, W. W. (William Worthy)
History
Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel Prisons
Day, W. W. (William Worthy)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
Time passed, night was approaching, when several Johnnies approached,
one of whom came up to where I was sitting on the ground, and spoke to
me. The man was a blamed poor talker, but I understood fully what was
wanted, and acquiesced promptly. The outcome of which was, I was
toddled off to Atlanta; from thence to Richmond and Danville, Va. I
make no attempt to write of my own personal adventures, or prison
experience. Much of it, with but few exceptions, as well as the
experience of thousands of others, may be gleaned from the papers of
Comrade Day. For a time I owned and occupied a chalk mark, as my bed,
on the same floor with Comrade Day at Danville, and I wish to say,
what he has written of the rebel management of those prisons, both at
Richmond and Danville, the general treatment of prisoners, rations, in
kind, quantity, quality, manner of cooking, &c., &c., are the COLD
FACTS. Many incidents and happenings which he refers to in his
narrative came to my own personal observation, and as related by him
accord fully with my recollections of them at the time of their
occurrence. In fact I heartily endorse, as being substantially true,
every word of the Comrade’s Prison experiences, except, perhaps, his
reference to Belle Isle. I think his statement there imbibes a little
of the imaginary, when he characterizes the place as a literal “hell
on earth.” Where did he get his facts? That’s the puzzle. No matter,
if he were there—It is a small matter however, and may be true after
all. I know something of Belle Isle, but have only this to say, if the
emperor of the infernal regions, who is said to reign below the great
divide, has a hole anywhere in his dominions, filled with souls that
are undergoing pains and miseries equaling those to which our boys
were subjected on Belle Isle, I pray God I may escape it.
DEXTER LANE.
CHAPTER VI.
EN ROUTE TO ANDERSONVILLE.
“Tis a weary life this—
Vaults overhead and gates and bars around me,
And my sad hours spent with as sad companions,
Whose thoughts are brooding o’er their own mischances,
Far, far too deeply to take part in mine.”
—Scott.
As the train pulled out of Danville that morning, our hopes began to
rise in proportion to the distance we placed between ourselves and our
late prison.
We had now been in the Confederate prisons seven months, and we had high
hopes that our guards were telling us the truth, for once.
I am not prepared to say that the people of the South are not as
truthful as other people; but I will say, that truth was a commodity,
which appeared to be very scarce with our guards.
When we left the Danville prison, we took with us, contrary to orders, a
wooden bucket belonging to my mess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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