. History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment .. . ee allaround us. The meal often was sour and being eaten uncooked gave the men adiarrhea from which they died by the hundred. Soon our numbers increased to-35,000 men in the prison. CONFEDERATE PRISONS. 439 At night, pine fires were built all around the prison to light up the pen for theguards to sight any escaping. From the smoke of these pine fires, the mens faces,hands and naked feet became black. Their clothing hung in tatters from theiremaciated limbs. Many had no hats. Many ha
. History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment .. . ee allaround us. The meal often was sour and being eaten uncooked gave the men adiarrhea from which they died by the hundred. Soon our numbers increased to-35,000 men in the prison. CONFEDERATE PRISONS. 439 At night, pine fires were built all around the prison to light up the pen for theguards to sight any escaping. From the smoke of these pine fires, the mens faces,hands and naked feet became black. Their clothing hung in tatters from theiremaciated limbs. Many had no hats. Many had no shirts, or coats or shoes. Aswamp ran through the center of this camp, one side of which was used for a sink,which under a broiling sun, became too vile to describe, and maggots covered thesurface of the stagnant mass. Our men died off from starvation like sheep with therot. Every morning corpses were laid out to be hauled away. One day I countedover 200 dead who had died within twenty-four hours ! Negroes would come in witha span of mules hitched to a wagon with the box top spreading outwards, and the. WAGON AT ANDERSONVILLE USED TO CARRY IN THE FOOD AND CARRY OUT THE JEAD. 440 HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN. stiffened corpses would we tossed into the wagon like so many dead hogs, one top ofthe other, until the box was filled. This same wagon, uncleaned, was used to haul in, toour men, their daily supply of food ! Every few mornings the deep mouthed hayings of the large blood hounds keptfor the purpose, were heard in the neighboring forests, indicating the woeful fate ofsome escaped prisoner. I have read histories of those Southern prisons, but thefullness of all their hellish enormities has never been told. It never can be. In thefall of 1864, many of us were taken to Millen, Georgia. This was the same asAndersonville in the treatment of the men. A few months later, I was released forexchange along with 1,100 others. My diary that I had kept was taken from me byth
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