Newspaper Articles for Allen County, Kansas

ALLEN COUNTY, KANSAS

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OLD SOLDIER TELLS OF CRUELTY

W. T. Barnett Writes Of His Experiences As Prisoner of War

Mrs. McDowell's article in the September 14 issue of the Iola Register brought to my mind my experiences in the Rebel prison, and at the request of some of the members of the W.R.C. and the G.A.R. I shall write these few incidents. Our regiment, the 26th In., and the 19th Iowa were captured by the Rebels September 29, 1863, after a hard fought battle lasting about three hours.

We were taken by surprise and from the start we fought with both bullets and bayonets. our small supply of ammunition was soon exhausted after which we battled with our bayonets and the butts of our guns. Our men numbered about five hundred and after we surrendered we found we had been fighting General Green's army of about 10,000 men. We expected reinforcements at any time and our commander ordered us
to charge bayonets and break through the Rebel lines. We did so then retreated until we ran into a battery placed across the road in front of us. It was impossible to pass. Our Col.. Rose said, "Boys, shall we surrender?" The answer from many throats was, "No! Never!" but Col.. Leek, commander of the two detachments, ordered a surrender and told our Colonel to put up his handkerchief on the point of his sword. We surrendered with empty guns and empty cartridge boxes.

The Rebel Calvary came upon us, dismounted and went through us like holdups taking the contents of our pockets, our hats,coats, shoes and
anything else they wanted.

The dead and most seriously wounded were left on the field. All who could walk were lined up and the march into the Confederacy began. I had been shot in the right cheek, my teeth being knocked out, and I had three bayonet or saber wounds in my right hip. Many others were wounded but all who could had to walk had to go and without any medical treatment of any kind. We went into prison destitute of food, clothing and bedding. We had no bedding of any kind while we were prisoners.

No barracks, no shelter excepting the poor temporary things we could fix ourselves.

We were taken to Tyler, Texas, the first prisoners who were ever there excepting a few officers. They built a stockade around us sixteen feet high. We were under command of Col.. Allen, a mean deceitful man with a bushman grin. Allen was fully as wicked a man as Wirz but lacked the nerve Wirz possessed. Allen come into the camp near Christmas at our roll call and told us he was going to parole us and we could go home.

It turned very cold and probably half of our squad was barefoot. We marched from Tyler, Texas, to Shreveport, La., about 125 miles in three days hoping to see God's country. Capt. Alfred, a Confederate Soldier, and Lieut. Haines were in command. A Frenchman in our crowd gave out and Capt. Alfred struck him on the side of the head with his sword, went on and left him lying there which was the last we ever saw of the Frenchman.

Orlando Troutman, a sick member of my company, fell in the road. We wanted to take care of him but they cursed us and drove us on, saying
they would take care of him. The guards told us later they had knocked Troutman in the head and covered him up by the roadside. We never heard of him again.

We were not paroled but moved back to Tyler and put in the stockade. One day the Rebels fired into a bunch of us who were standing together, hitting two of my regiment. One man( named Moorehead I think) was shot in the abdomen. He lived about a day. The other man, Joe Beech was shot in the arm but lived to get out of prison. They received no medical treatment. Another man of the 19th Iowa was sitting beside a stump talking to his comrades of his sick family when he was shot through the body and killed. My cousin, Alfred Hikes, of Stewartsville, Mo., was sick and unable to walk. He was crawling to get a drink when a Rebel guard shot him through the body killing him. All names mentioned in this article may be found in the Adjutant General's report of the state from which these men enlisted. We didn't always get our rations but when we did our allowance was one pint of unsifted meal to each man every day. Sometimes a little salt and sometimes a little beef. A Southern man named Massey, who a few years ago lived at 311 Burleson street, San Antonio, Texas told me he was often in the prison at Tyler and saw what we had to eat. He said our meal was ground from weevil corn which the Rebels considered unfit for any but prisoners to eat, and our meat from crippled cattle. I met a great many Ex-Confederates in San Antonio and all those who expressed an opinion agreed with Mr. Massey that the Rebels badly mistreated their prisoners. Mr. Massey said the Rebels treated their prisoners much worse than they did their animals.

I was a national delegate a number of times to the Ex-Prisoner of War Association and met men who had been prisoners in Belle Isle, Libby,
Andersonville, Tyler, Meridian, and other smaller prisons, and the treatment received seemed about the same in all prisons. I do and always will fell loyal to the memory of our comrades who met their death in the Rebel prisons and also to the mother, wives and sisters of these men. Some of the men were starved to death, some frozen and other as I told you elsewhere in this article, were shot down like dogs. We were prisoners, ten months. many of us were almost naked when we came out of prison in July, 1864.

WILLIAM T. BARNETT
Co. D 26 Ind. Vet. Vol. Inf.
506 North Street
Iola, Kans.

(TheE Iola Register, September 24, 1929, Submitted by Nancy Willis)