(Civil War) Pair of Manuscript Reminiscences of Captivity in Andersonville Prison by two Members of the 8th Maine Regiment, written circa 1910-1911

Octavo and quarto, 13 pages, inscribed on sheets of lined paper in pencil, in very good clean condition. “What I saw while a Prisoner of War I enlisted in the 8th Me Regt. Co I May 6, 1861. Was taken prisoner at the battle of Drewy’s Bluff Va., May 16, 1864 they took me to Libby Prison same day. They put us in the upper story; Castle Thunder was opposite Libby Prison while in Libby they gave us bean pods and all after we picked out the pods but a few beans was left. May 23d 1864 Left Libby Prison for Danville, Va, Arrived at Danville 24. 25 left Danville for Andersonville, Ga May 30th arrived at Andersonville Ga. The stockade wos was ma built out of timber hewn on two sides, so they would be tight when put together they was about 14 feet in length they were set in the ground 2 or 3 feet the sentry boxes were built on the outside of the stockade so the guard could look over into the prison to watch we Yanks. Inside of the stockade was the deadline; it was posts set in the ground about 3 feet high with a rail on the top, this was several feet from the stockade. We wasn’t allowed inside of the dead line if we did the Guard would shoot us without any reason. If went to pick up a chip under the deadline they would shoot us. They would not allow us to get into the shade of the stockade to shelter us from the hot sun. They would come in after and with a bar and punch round inside the dead line to see if we had made any attempt to tunnel out. They had a field piece mounted just above the prison so if we got together in groups they would throw a shot over the Prison; they were afraid we was making plans for an escape. The Prisoners dug wells some very deep ones; they begin they would begin in the side of the well to tunnel out; they would let the dirt from the tunnel go into the well so the Johnnies could not see any signs of a tunnel. Several prisoners made their escape but a small per cent of them reached our lines. While at Blackshire I got one square meal; they had a guard around us, it was dark and I got by the guard without his notice and went to a Darkies Cabin the old woman gave us some meat and bread so we had a feast; while we were there a Darkie came in but didn’t stop long; we thought he was up to something so we put for the camp just before we got in we heard a blood hound but we got in all right – The Negro had betrayed us. Their was a stream of water ran through the Prison; they had their cook house on this stream so all of their waste they threw into this stream and we had to drink the water which was rather filthy at times. We had a heavy thunder shower that washed away part of the stockade; after the shower a pring broke out on side of the hill better water never flowed out of the ground that came from this spring they made us fall in single file to get our water for a while afterwards we had all we wanted. We were divided of into squads about 75 in a squad, had a sargent to each squad. Sergent Whittlesey had charge of the squad I was in; he belonged to a N York Regt; he was a fine fellow. I would like to know if he is living; when they brought in the rations he would take charge of them he would cut them up as best he could then he would have us all numbered, then one of us would turn our back, he would point to ration and say who will have this; the one that turned his back would say no 4 and so on till we were all served. We drew our rations once a day, they brought them in with a mule team, it didn’t take us long to eat our morsel Some of the boys would say after eating their rations we are square with Jeff Davis for 24 hours. Our rations were a small piece of bread & the same of meat a little bit of salt. Thair were a great many that had no shelter; some would dig holes in the ground; it was kind of clay that would not cave. I with several of my comrads had a shelter; but we had to lay pretty close; when one turned over we had a [write for full description].