War Papers, Read Before the Commandery of the State of Maine, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (Volume 1); V. 1-

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1898. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES IN REBEL PRISONS, 1864-1865. By Major A. R. Small. THE hardpan of a soldier's life was not reached until the door of Libby Prison, or the gate of a stockade, closed upon the unfortunate captive. My regiment (the 16th Maine Infantry) was well represented in the prison-pens of the South, and the survivors bear witness to the inexcusable barbarity of their keepers. It has been truthfully said that cruelty, without pretext or passion, was a brilliant element in the character of prison commandants throughout the South. There is not to be told by me one exceptional voluntary act of mercy or kindness, not one ray of sunshine to relieve the black darkness of that long night of systematic cruelty, during whose tedious hours illiterate, superficial, bombastic and cowardly subordinates, with stolid indifference to suffering, executed the will of their superiors. It was years ago and yet it all comes home to me like a terrible dream, a nightmare of agony, an ever-present horror, a thing of the past living in the present and reaching out into the future, to sting with its poison every hour of life until death brings welcome relief to physical suffering. We are told by the press to modify our conceived opinions that we were cruelly treated. Go and study the faces of humanity yet living, and read therein whole chapters of prison horrors which a lost intelligence fails to express in words, and let the idiotic stare emphasize every line wrought by suffering, and modify your opinions if you can. Ask the widowed mother who seeing the name of her boy among the paroled prisoners from Salisbury, took her little all and hurried to Annapolis to nurse him back to health. Weary and worn and trembling with excitement, yet glad with expectation...