111

H.A. Johnson.

Letter on his capture at Gettysburg, and imprisonment at Belle Isle.

Annapolis, MD, 1 September 1863
Autograph Letter Signed to friend Samuel [Valpey, of Lynn, MA]. 7 pages, 7¾ x 4¾ inches, on 2 folding sheets; short separations at folds, minimal dampstaining.

Hannibal Augustus Johnson (1841-1913) of Hallowell, ME was a sergeant in the 3rd Maine Infantry when he was captured at Gettysburg.  Here he recounts his capture, while on parole after being exchanged. 

"I was taken prisoner on the 2nd of July at Gettysburg, and rather than being taken again, I would die in trying to escape from the enemy, but this time they got me cornered and I had to be surrendered or be shot. . . . We went into the fight with 197 men and lost 111 of them. . . . We did not know the rebels were whipped until the 5th, for on that day there army passed us going for the river as fast as they could go. . . . The Rebels told us that Gen'l Lee was going to give the Potomac army one of the worst whippings that ever an army got, that there army was going to winter in New York & Philadelphia. . . . When there army was retreating, we had fine times asking the guard if that was the way to these northern cities. If it was, it would be the long way. . . . They said that they expected to fight nothing but militia in Penn . . . but Gen'l Mead was up & dressed, and also the men under him." 

He arrived in Richmond on 21 July after a grueling march with the retreating rebels. Confederate prison in Richmond, as expected, draws poor reviews here: "For what little time I was with them, I lost 26 pounds of flesh, for they did not give us enough to keep a cat alive. . .  We were at once put into Libby Prison and here again were searched, . . . taken on to Belle Island in the James River, and the worst place I think in the Confederacy, for here we were crowded together like cattle and had but little to eat." Each afternoon 100 men were given to share "6 buckets of rise soup, which was less than a pt to a man, and for 6 weeks this was my food. Now, do you wonder I lost flesh? . . . If ever I have charge of any prisoners, I will take everything of value from him, and if his boot are better than mine, off they come, for this is the way we were treated. . . .  There are now about 4000 men on the island, and they come on faster than they are taken off." 

Johnson later rejoined his regiment, was captured again, escaped, and mustered out as a first lieutenant. After the war, he was a dry goods dealer in Massachusetts. In 1906, he published his memoir, "The Sword of Honor; a Story of the Civil War."

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