Chapter V: Varner, Ambrose, 114

Vermin, in Old Capitol, 67-8.
At Parole Camp, 105-6.

Vindication of the South, 129-30.

_Virginia_ (_Merrimac_), iron-clad, 91.
Blown up off Craney Island, 92.

Visitors at Old Capitol, 30-1.
My wife rudely treated, 74.

Vivandieres, pretty on parade, 15.

W

Wade, John M., 65-6.

Ward, Charles, 119.

Ward, Walter W., 119.

Weiler, Emanuel, 38, 119.

Weitbrec, R. F., telegraph operator, tells of capture, 154-5.

Wessells and Seymour, Gens., 126.

Western prisoners, at Old Capitol, 64, 75.
A brave young hero, 65.
At Fortress Monroe, 90.
At Johnson’s Island, 100-1.
At Parole Camp corroborate accounts given at Old Capitol, 100.
Gen. John McNeil’s brutal massacre, 65-6.
Ill-treatment, sickness and great mortality among, 100-105.
150 brought from St. Louis, 75.
Outrages and bitter feeling in the West, 64-7.

Westmoreland Court House, 17.

Westover on the James, 95.

Wharton, Jesse W., killed, 36, 132.

Whelan, Rev. Father, called as witness, not allowed to testify, 136.

Whiskey, how obtained, 53, 80.
Charlie, our friendly contraband, 53.
Guards ready for consideration, 53.
Defeats escape planned, 52-3.
Chew Carter gets more than his share, 81.
He also finds it in hospital, 82-3.

“Who wants to go to Dixie,” 80, 88.

Wiget, S. J., Rev. B. F., attended Wirz with Father Boyle, 132, 142-3.

Williams, Augustus, arrested and imprisoned four times, 104, 119.
Familiarly greeted by Wood, 37.
His son, 12 years old, and two daughters imprisoned three months,
104.

Williams, W. F., 119.

Williamson, James J., early life, 11.
Arrest and imprisoned in Old Capitol, 19.
At outbreak of war, 12.
At Parole Camp, 98.
At provost-marshal’s office, 58.
Examined by Col. Buell, 85-6.
Examined by Captain Parker, 38, 42.
Examined by Col. Wood, 72-3.
Granted parole to see sick child, 56.
In railroad wreck, 14.
In Richmond, 15, 40, 108-9.
Leave sick-bed to go South, 13.
Off for Dixie, 88.
Meet old schoolmate in prison, 79.
Regularly mustered into Confederate service, 105.

Wilmington, N. C., port most frequently used in running the blockade,
46-7.

Winder, Major Richard B., letter regarding offer to pardon Wirz, 139.
Wirz’s farewell, 141.

Wirz, Major Henry, after close of war arrested and imprisoned, 135.
Brief sketch of, 133.
Charged with conspiracy, but no other punished, 138.
Charges and specifications, 138.
Extracts from his diary, 147-51.
Father Whelan, 136.
Father B. F. Wiget, S. J., 142-3.
Gen. Imboden, 135.
Good-bye to Winder, 141.
Hired witnesses swear his life away, 137.
Last letter to his wife and children, 145-6.
Letter from his wife, 144.
Letter of Gen. Imboden, 134.
Letter of Rev. Father Boyle, 139, 140.
Letter of Robert Ould, 136.
Letter of Major Winder, 139.
Letters in official records show efforts to relieve prisoners, 134.
Marini, a witness, 136.
Marquis De la Baume, 137.
Monument at Andersonville, 152.
Night before execution, 141.
Not responsible for sufferings at Andersonville, 125, 130.
Promoted to captaincy for bravery on battlefield, 133.
Promoted to rank of major, 133.
Rainbow, John, a witness, 137.
Rev. Father Boyle, 135, 139-40-1-2.
Rejects proposal to purchase pardon by perjury, 139, 140.
Scene at the scaffold, 142-3.
Schade, Louis, 132.
Tried by military commission, 135.
U. S. authorities refuse to give up body for burial, 135.
Witnesses not allowed to testify in his behalf, 135-6.

Wood, Col. William P., supt. Old Capitol Prison, 38.
Biographical sketch, 33-4.
Gospel according to Abe Lincoln and Jeff. Davis, 34.
Gus Williams, 37.

Wrecks of _Congress_ and _Cumberland_, 91-2.

Wrenn, Lieut. Albert, 99, 104-8-13-14.

Wright, J., 90-4, 119.

Wynne, Captain, escaped from Old Capitol, 46.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] THE OATH

_District of Columbia_, }
_County of Washington_ }

I, .........................., of ................... do solemnly
swear on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, without any mental
reservation, that I will at any and all times hereafter, and under
all circumstances, yield a hearty and willing support to the
Constitution of the United States and to the Government thereof;
that I will not, either directly or indirectly, take up arms against
said Government, nor aid those now in arms against it; that I will
not pass without the lines now established by the Army of the United
States, or hereafter from time to time to be established by said
Army, nor hold any correspondence whatever with any person or persons
beyond said lines so established by said Army of the United States
during the present rebellion, without permission from the Secretary
of War; also, that I will do no act hostile or injurious to the Union
of the States; that I will give no aid, comfort or assistance to the
enemies of the Government, either domestic or foreign; that I will
defend the flag of the United States and the armies fighting under it
from insult and injury, if in my power so to do; and that I will in
all things deport myself as a good and loyal citizen.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this ........ day of
....................

........................

[B] Colonel William P. Wood was born in Alexandria, Va., on the 11th
of March, 1820, and died at the Soldiers’ Home, Washington, D. C.,
March 20, 1903.

He was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and one of the
survivors of the Walker filibustering expedition to Nicaragua. When
the Mexican War broke out he enlisted in the mounted rifles under
Sam. H. Walker, the noted Texan Ranger. After serving out his term,
he returned to Washington and married a Maryland lady.

When Stanton became Secretary of War he appointed Wood to be
Superintendent of the Military Prisons of the District of Columbia,
and concentrated the “State” prisoners and all others in the Old
Capitol, to which was afterward added the Carroll Prison (Duff
Green’s Row).

Wood was the first Chief of the United States Secret Service when it
became part of the Treasury Department.

At the time of his death a bill was before Congress to pay him
$15,000 for his services in the famous Brockway case. Wood captured
the author and secured the plate of this noted 7.30 Bond counterfeit.
The work on this bond was so well executed that it passed as genuine
until Jay Cooke & Co. forwarded $84,000 to the United States Treasury
for redemption.

[C] When General Pope was placed in command of the Army of Virginia,
he issued a General Order to his soldiers which virtually gave them
unbridled license to plunder and destroy, by depriving the citizens
of the section of country through which they were passing of even the
trifling amount of protection afforded by safeguards, as may be seen
by the copy of the Order here shown:

HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF VIRGINIA }
Washington, July 25th. }

_General Orders No. 13._--Hereafter no guards will be placed over
private houses or private property of any description whatever.
Commanding officers are responsible for the conduct of the troops
under their command, and the articles of war and the regulations of
the army provide ample means for restraining them to the full extent
required for discipline and efficiency. Soldiers were called into the
field to do battle against the enemy, and it is not expected that
their force and energy shall be wasted in protecting private property
of those most hostile to the government. No soldier serving in this
army shall be hereafter employed on such service.

BY COMMAND OF MAJOR-GEN. POPE,
(Signed), Geo. D. Ruggles,
_Col. A. A. G. and Chief of Staff_.

[D] Belle Boyd had a most remarkable career. Her life story, with the
account of her daring exploits, is more like romance than reality.
She was born in Martinsburg, Va., in May, 1843, and was little
more than a school girl when the war broke out. Her father, John
Read Boyd, was an officer in the Confederate army. The act which
first brought her into notice was the shooting by her of a Federal
soldier who assailed her mother--she seized her father’s pistol and
shot him dead. She then threw all her energy into the struggle. On
information furnished by her, Stonewall Jackson drove Banks out of
the Shenandoah Valley, for which service Jackson sent a special
dispatch thanking her. Her daring led to her capture and imprisonment
in the Old Capitol for three months. She was then exchanged for
Colonel Corcoran, of the 69th New York Regiment. She went South,
was commissioned as Captain in the Confederate army, and served as
courier and in the Secret Service.

After the battle of Gettysburg she went home, was arrested and sent
to Carroll Prison, Washington, D. C., where she was confined for
seven months, and sentenced to be shot, but through the efforts
of influential parties she was exchanged for General Nathan Goff,
of West Virginia. She afterward sailed from Wilmington, N. C., in
the steamer _Greyhound_, with important dispatches for England,
but after a chase the steamer was captured by the Federal cruiser
_Connecticut_, and Belle was brought back, court-martialed in Boston,
and again sentenced to be shot. Her sentence was afterward commuted,
and she was escorted to the Canadian border by a deputy marshal, with
the understanding that if she ever returned to the United States she
would be put to death.

She died in Kilbourn, Wis., in June, 1890.

Superintendent Wood, of the Old Capitol Prison, is reported as
saying of her: “Her face was not what would be called pretty--her
features indicated firmness and daring, but her figure was perfect,
and a splendid specimen of feminine health and vigor. She was a good
talker, very persuasive, and the most persistent and enthusiastic
Rebel who ever came under my charge. Her father sent her, from time
to time, large sums of money, most of which was expended for the
comfort of the Confederate prisoners in the Old Capitol.”

[E] It was in a corner of this yard, a few years later, after the
close of the war, that poor Wirz, condemned and tried by a Military
Court-Martial, was judicially murdered.

[F] Regarding the Oath, a writer in the _New York Freeman’s Journal_
vented his feelings thus:

THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

Parody on the Soliloquy of Hamlet.

To swear or not to swear, that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in a man to suffer
Imprisonment, exile and poverty,
Or take the oath amidst a sea of troubles,
And by submission, end them? To swear, to lie,
Once more; and, by a lie, to say we end
Starvation, nakedness and all the ails
That Rebs are heir to--’tis a perjury
Devoutly to be wished. To swear--to lie;
To lie!--perchance a change; aye, there’s the rub,
For in that change the angry Rebs may come,
When from these lands the Feds are driven out,
Must give us pause; there’s the respect
That makes a man of honor hesitate.
But who would bear at the dead hour of night
To be ’roused from his sleep--dragged out of bed--
To be locked up in jail--to hold his tongue--
Before a mock tribunal to be tried,
And then condemned for deeds he knew not of,
When he himself these evils might avoid
By perjury? Who would detectives bear--
To look about before he opes his mouth,
But that the dread of bayonets and chains--
The provost-marshal, from whose iron grip
No victim e’er escapes, puzzles the will,
And makes us swallow every oath that comes,
Than fly to evils that we dread still more?
Thus, love of ease makes _patriots_ of us all!
And thus our sympathies are sicklied o’er
With confiscation, banishment and death!
With this regard, we doff our principles,
And swallow Abe, the Nigger and the Oath!

NED CRACKER.

[G] See page 115.

[H] The Confederate iron-clad _Virginia_ (_Merrimac_) was abandoned
and blown up off Craney Island, Virginia, on the 11th of May, 1862,
after the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces.

[I] In the official records, War of the Rebellion, reports of
surgeons and medical directors to the Commissary-General of Prisoners
verifies the statements made by the Confederate prisoners as to the
wanton shooting of prisoners, the prevalence of scurvy and great
number of deaths from same, and to the unnecessary sufferings of
prisoners from causes which could be remedied.

[J] John H. Barnes joined Mosby, and while scouting with Lieutenant
Williams and a few men was captured, taken to Washington and put in
the Old Capitol Prison; was tried by court-martial and sentenced to
be shot. This sentence was commuted to imprisonment in penitentiary
for twenty years. He was afterward released, but was so broken down
that he died soon after his release.

Frank Fox joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company
C; was especially mentioned for conspicuous gallantry in Colonel
Mosby’s report of fight with Cole’s Battalion, February 21, 1864;
was mortally wounded September 3, 1864, in fight with Sixth New York
Cavalry, taken prisoner, and died some days after at Sandy Hook, Md.

Albert Wrenn joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company
B, October 1, 1863; wounded and horse killed at Berryville, August
13, 1864; died Washington, D. C., November 6, 1910, and buried at
Chantilly, November 8, 1910.

Philip Lee also joined Mosby.

[K] See page 154.

[L] The “Mosby Man” here mentioned, was Joseph Nelson, afterward
Lieutenant of Company A, 43d Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s
Rangers.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.