The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

PRISON LIFE AND ESCAPE. HI
the stockade and stopped on a piece of marsh that had just
been covered with dirt taken from the side hill. Now I must
tell you about one of Col. Shaw's poor negro soldiers. You all
remember Col. Shaw of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts. They
were colored troops. Col. Shaw fell while assaulting Fort
Wagner and was buried in the trench beneath the bodies of his
own men who fell there. We found one of his wounded heroes
lying up in the dirt close to the bank made by taking this dirt
out to make dry land of the marsh. Some of the Massachusetts
boys who were captured with us were acquainted with him
and said he was a student in one of their colleges when he
enlisted. It was very hot weather then, which must have been
the first part of June, and we had a heavy thunder shower every
afternoon. After a few days I thought of this poor fellow and
wondered what shelter he had there from these showers, and
that afternoon when the shower commenced I left our shelter
and went over where we had seen him. There he was under
that bank lying on his side, a muddy stream of water running
over him from up on the hill. He was about half buried by
the sand that had washed over him. A stream was running
directly across his face and sand had washed into his mouth and
eyes and he was just gasping his last breath ;
and
while I stood
looking at him, paralyzed by the horror of his situation, he vvas
dead. Hasn't somebody suffered that we and our children and
children's children might have a bright and pleasant and free
country to live in?
We were divided into detachments of two hundred and sev-
enty, sub-divided into three squads of ninety each, and they
into messes of forty-five men each. We were in the second
mess, called by the rebel roll-call sergeant, " 45-2." The
members of our regiment who staid together were Orderly
Sergt. Wallace Smith, Co. C, Corp. Delance Young of Co. B,
Arthur Robinson, myself, Henry L. Burnell, William H. Norris
of Co. I. Then we took in Dennis Hagan of the Ninth Maine,
one of Howe's comrades and two of the One Hundredth New
York, Alexander McLain called " Sandy " for short, and Joe