Iowa Old Press
Burlington Weekly Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
Jan 7, 1865
From Our Prisoners in Dixie
Columbia, South Carolina
Nov. 9th, 1864
DEAR ALMIRA:- I suppose you have heard that we were
captured on the 13th ult. at Tilton, and perhaps imagined that as prisoners of
war we have suffered a great many hardships. In this you would be mistaken, as
we have been very well treated and are getting along finely. I have no idea
where we will be exchanged. The enlisted men are at Camp Lawton, Ga.
None of the Germanville boys were hurt in the fight.
Jacob Kerr was not captured. I am well and have been ever since I was captured.
I am only allowed one page, so you will have to be
satisfied with a short letter. If you should answer this, you must be brief and
write nothing contraband. Put a United States and a Confederate stamp on the
envelop and leave it unsealed. Direct to Aaron Park, 1st Lieut. Co. D, 17th Iowa
V.' Infantry, Columbia, S.C., in care of Gen. Foster, via Hilton Head.
I send my love to mother. Your affectionate
husband, AARON PARK.
--
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
Nov. 14, 1864
MY DEAR WIFE:- I expect it will be a long time before I
can get home to see you, and I may have hardships and privations to endure; but
I feel sure that I can stand it all, and would rather lay a year in prison than
have our Government submit to anything dishonorable to effect an exchange, and
as far as I know all the others here are of the same mind in that respect.
The rebel treatment is inhuman. The enlisted men are
put into a stockade containing some forty acres, surrounded by a fence fourteen
feet high, composed of pine logs twenty feet long, six feet in the ground, and
fourteen out. They have no shelter from the storms, dews and frosts. Many
of them have no blankets and are scantily clothed-some are almost naked. Their
rations consist of corn meal, molasses, a very little rice and meat.
This stockade is near a little place called Millen,
Ga., and is called Camp Lawton.
I am afraid we will never see near all of our brave
boys that were put in there the first of the month.
Our camp is about two and a half miles west of
Columbia. There is no stockade around us. We are all huddled together in an old
field, and have no shelter excepting what we can make ourselves out of pine
boughs and such things as we can pick up around camp. Sometimes we can get a
special guard to go out to the woods with us for poles and brush. We have to
carry all our wood about a quarter of a mile, under guard.
Our rations consist of corn meal and molasses; once in
a while some rice, but no meat. There has not been a pound of meat issued to a
prisoner at this camp, and I don't suppose ever will be.
There are sutlers but no money to buy from them. Butter
is $12 a pound, three small apples $1, five small turnips $2.50, four small
radishes $1, sweet potatoes $20 a bushel, $8 Confederate money for $1 in
greenbacks. I suppose I can consider myself lucky; I managed to save about $170
in greenbacks and if I should get sick I can buy something to eat. The rebs
don't furnish anything to cook in or eat out of. I gave $9 for a knife and fork
a few days ago, and as soon as the sutler gets them on, I must buy a tin cup and
plate, for which I will have to pay $12.
I sent a letter by mail to you a few days ago, and I
had to tell lies to get it through. I told you we had not suffered any, and had
been well used. If I had told you that we were marched 20 to 25 miles a day, and
had nothing to eat but parched corn and sugar cane stalks, the letter would have
been burned by the rebel provost marshal. I thought it better to tell a
falsehood and let you know that we were still alive and well, than to send you
no news.
This letter I expect to send through by Lieut. Tower,
of our regiment, who expects to be exchanged on the convalescent list. He has a
wooden leg and will carry some letters in it until he gets into our lines and
then send it by mail.
I am well and have been ever since I fell into rebel
hands. I will give you a better account of this when I get out.
ERNEST A PARK,
Co. D., 17th Iowa.
[submitted by C.J.L., Sept. 2003]