From the National Tribune, 12/31/1891
His Prison
Experience.
John P. Brook, Co. I, 35th Ohio, Ashland, Neb.,
enlisted in September, 1861 and served with his regiment until captured at
Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863, along with several hundred of the boys, while near
Horseshoe Ridge. They were marched to Ringgold, and then to Dalton, from whence
they took cars for Richmond and were placed in Pemberton Prison, opposite Libby.
Here they were again searched and robbed, having twice before been subjected to
the same process on their journey to Richmond. They searched even he seams of
the clothing, and kept such articles of wearing apparel as they cared to; in
some cases leaving the boys scarcely enough to cover their nakedness. The
writer’s blanket and what little money he had were taken. On entering the
prison the writer obtained a small piece of board, which constituted his
bedding. By placing a brick under each end of the board it made a pillow, and in
the day time by setting the bricks on their ends and placing the board on them
it made quite a comfortable seat. After six weeks’ confinement they were taken
to Danville, where they remained five months, after which they were taken to
that larger hell, Andersonville, where, during the Summer, 13 of the 16 of the
writer’s regiment were starved to death. In September he was removed to
another murder camp (Florence), and was paroled on Dec. 10, 1864, and turned
over to the United States authorities under a flag of truce and taken to a
steamer in Charleston Harbor. The writer is a physical wreck, a pensioner, and,
as some of the enemy would have it, a coffee-cooler and perjurer, and a deadbeat
but he considers the source.
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