. The story of a border city during the Civil War . ittle alteration, were easily and quickly madesuitable for the reception of political prisoners. Amongthese buildings was the slave-pen, mentioned in the pre-ceding chapter, at the corner of Fifth and Myrtle Streets,Another was the McDowell Medical College on GratiotStreet. Dr. McDowell, who founded this college, and hadconducted it successfully for many years, was one ofthe staunchest of pro-slavery men, and a pronouncedand bitter secessionist. He was tall and imposing inappearance. His long, white locks, thrust back of hisears, hung down ov
. The story of a border city during the Civil War . ittle alteration, were easily and quickly madesuitable for the reception of political prisoners. Amongthese buildings was the slave-pen, mentioned in the pre-ceding chapter, at the corner of Fifth and Myrtle Streets,Another was the McDowell Medical College on GratiotStreet. Dr. McDowell, who founded this college, and hadconducted it successfully for many years, was one ofthe staunchest of pro-slavery men, and a pronouncedand bitter secessionist. He was tall and imposing inappearance. His long, white locks, thrust back of hisears, hung down over his coat collar. His eyes gleamedfrom beneath shaggy, gray eyebrows. Any strangerwould have noted him in a crowd as an unusual charac-ter. Although he was old, his step had the elasticityof youth. He was an antagonist that few men cared toencounter. For years he had been active in the stump he at times denounced those of oppositeviews in terms of unmeasured severity. On one occasion,having some apprehension that his opprobrious epi-. THEMEV. Prisons and Prisoners 189 thets might provoke violent opposition, just as hebegan his speech, as a warning to all antagonists, hedrew his revolver and ostentatiously laid it down onthe desk before him and then proceeded with his fieryharangue. At the beginning of the war he left our cityfor the more congenial society of the Southern Con-federacy, and the military authorities confiscatedhis college building and made it serve the cause that itsowner hated and denounced. The military prisons of St. Louis were sanitary andwell kept. No one within them was permitted unneces-sarily to suffer. All had enough wholesome food. Thefare of the prisoners was as good as that of the soldierswho guarded them. In winter, so far as it was possible,they were kept warm and comfortably clad. Most ofthem were incarcerated, not for ordinary criminal acts,but because taken in arms against the United States, ordetected in aiding those who were intent
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