Click here for this soldier’s biography:
https://micivilwar.com/authors/bibbins-charles-d/
Regiment: 1st Michigan Sharpshooters
Battles Mentioned:
Historical Figures:
Oakland, June 20, 1919.
My dear O. T.,
Your several letters and clippings received,
and regarding your offer to supply me with a copy of the Prison
Book if I return the address of same, I could’nt think of allow-
ing you to do it, you have done too much of that kind of donations
already, I thank you just the same, and appreciate your kindness,
but I’ll have to accept the will for the deed and send for it my-
self, and we will both read it.
As to the monument at Andersonville, I presume some-
body thought that the erection of a monument to the memory of
Henry Wirz was the proper thing to do, or it would’nt have been
done, but we don’t all have that opinion, I understood it was
his daughter that started the thing going, and there must have
been several others that thought about as she did, or the monument
would not have been built. At the time I was stopping in Ander-
sonville, the only structure at the station was a big wooden Ware-
house where the supplies for the Camp was stored, no Station House
or building of any kind at the Station proper, except the Warehouse
heretofore mentioned. Captain Wirz headquarters was nearly half
a mile away, near the Prison Camp, it consisted of two or three
Cabins built of logs, regular log houses; I guess they were very
comfortable, at least they looked that way to me! And I guess the
Captain enjoyed them much more than he would our quarters in the
Stockade. When I left the Prison for the last time, I was in charge
of a squad of 15 men, – or rather it was 15 when I was elected to
lead them as Sergeant of the squad, but six of them had fallen by
the wayside, and as these ragged, hungry, dirty looking humans – myself
at their head, looking more dirty and hungry than the rest, or at least
no better – crawled up the steps of the platform of the Warehouse – I
say crawled up the steps, as we were all too weak to take a chance of
walking up straight, for fear that our weak legs might let us topple
over – the great Martyr. “Captain Wirz,” was standing on the platform
at the head of the steps – there was only four or five steps – with a
pleasant look on his grizzled, bewhiskered face, (as pleasant as it was
possible for a beast like him to look, he probably saw retribution
coming) and he saluted me with “Come right up Sergeant, take your men
right into the Warehouse and help yourselves to anything you find there,
take all you want, you are all going home to your folks right away!” but
he had fooled us so often with talk of that kind that we had our doubts
about home, however, the Warehouse was foremost in our minds, and we got
into it before we drew another breath; In one corner was at least three
or four car loads of white flour in sacks – something we never saw in
the stockade – and in another corner about the same amount of sugar cured
hams – something more that we never saw or heard of in the stockade –
there was two or three Rebel sergeants in charge, and they were dealing
this out separingly, they allowed me to take one ham and half of a
sack of flour – about 50 lbs I should judge – for the 9 of us, that was’nt
much, but we were satisfied to get anything, and accepted these rations
with great joy; The Hams were in bad condition, maggots galore, I picked
out one that seemed to have the fewest maggots in it, and we went into
our sleeping coaches – Cattle Cars- that stood waiting for us, these
cars had not been cleaned out since last used for cattle, and the manure
mixed with a little straw was about six inches thick on the floor of the
car, and quite fresh! We pulled the straw under us as much as we could
and prepared for our feast; of course we could’nt use the flour in our
“Pullman,” and these rations was to last five days – or longer – so we
brushed the fly blows off the ham, and picked out the maggots as well as
we could and devoured nearly half the ham 1
st day; We all thought that
Capt. Wirz was’nt such a bad fellow after all, but it seems that others
later on could’nt see him in that light, hence his finish! I think I
said “Sugar cured hams, the Lord forgive me, Sugar cured hams was’nt
in it with the ham we got on that day, you may know so, because we were
willing to forget and forgive the old Captain for the privilege of just
smelling of it!” Another thing I forgot to mention, in the cow dung on
the bottom of the car, was whole kernels of corn that had passed thru
the animal, I saw a man picking them out and rubbing them off as much as
he could with his hands, and eating them! It did’nt seem strange to me,
I would probably done the same thing myself if I had’nt had the ham, and
while in the stockade I saw a man picking up beans that had passed through
some man and eating them after a rain had washed them out on the sand, so
feed out a cow sh-t was’nt so bad compared with that; Did you ever hear
of prisoners of this late War ever being reduced by starvation like that,
we were naked, so to speak, I had a pair of pants that was worn off up to
my knees, and the waist of a dress coat, which was my entire wardrobe,
but then I got 25c a day for the rations I missed while in prison, and
about 50 years afterwards got six magnificent dollars per month too, so
I cant have much of a kick coming! But the pension was’nt for being in
prison! Do you think prisoners of war deserve anything more than those
that served their country in some office or quartermasters department
in Washington, or some other Seaport? And do you think they will ever
pass a bill giving said prisoners of War (Civil War I mean) an increase
on account of being prisoners? I hear you murmur I think they will – NOT!
I’m going over to lunch with Gerard tomorrow, wish you could be with us!
But the Monument still stands, I would like to Yours Sincerely, CDB..,
shake hands with the boy the put the German Colors on it.
The trouble with us old Civil War veterans is,
that we happened so long ago that people of this
late day don’t remember that we ever done anything,
maybe we did’nt! We might just imagine we did!
Like other crazy people do! We are surely hasbeens!
