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

PRISON LIFE AND ESCAPE. 113
put on of what they called fifteen acres. It has since been
found to contain about fifteen acres all told. A brook, as I
said before, ran through it, and on the bank of the brook was a
cook house where bacon was boiled for us, also stock beans or
" cow beans " as the rebels called them, and corn bread made of
meal, ground cobs and all, was baked there. All the greasy
water and filth was drained into the brook and came in through
the chinks of the stockade for us to wash in and drink, and as meat
was cooked for the large number of prisoners, there was consid-
erable filth. Many of the men dug little wells near the brook
and got pretty good water. But there was a very large number
who had no other place to get water but the brook, and as the
only place where water obtained from the brook could possibly
be used was close to the dead line, there was always a crowd
there getting water. The dead line, as I have told you was
edgings or scantlings nailed on the top of stakes. In this
place the stakes each side of the brook were on higher ground
than where the prisoners stood dipping up water. The guard
from his sentry box always watched sharp there and whenever
he could see a man or part of a man by looking under the dead line
he would fire at him. Man}- and many a poor fellow fell dead
or mortally wounded there by the brook. I say mortally wounded,
for if the skin was broken it was as bad as to have the throat cut
from ear to ear. It seemed our blood was so poisoned that
healing even the smallest wound, was impossible. I was going
down' to the brook one day when I heard a shot and then our
boys yelling like angry demons. When I got to the brook I
saw a party carrying a dead man off, and on the ground was a
piece of his skull, blood and brains. We always yelled at the
rebels and called them cowards and all the names men could
think of, notwithstanding all the threats the rebels might make.
I do not remember of their ever firing on us for it. At another time
a man near my " shebang " put his hand on the dead line, when
the bloodthirsty coward on guard fired and slightly wounded
one man and killed another ten feet from the dead line. He
was just as well satisfied as if he had hit the one aimed at. I