JOHNSON’S ISLAND.

By COLONEL THOS. 8S. KENAN, Forry-Tuirp Reciment N, C. T.

I was in the three days’ battle (1, 2 and 3 July, 1863,)
commanding the Forty-third Regiment, at Gettysburg, and
was wounded in the: third day’s fight in a charge on Culp’s
Hill, on our extreme left. On the retreat I was captured
with other wounded Confederates, taken to a Federal hospi-
tal at Frederick City and thence to Baltimore where I re-
mained until able to walk on crutches; thence with about
thirty others I was carried to Johnson’s Island, arriving there,
I think, on 28 August, 1863.

Johnson’s Island is in Lake Erie, about two and a half
miles north of Sandusky City, Ohio. Its area is perhaps a
mile long and a half mile wide, or thereabout, and the area of
the prison grounds, located near the southern end of the
island, was about 200 by 300 yards, with a block-house at each
end where the big guns were kept in readiness to open on the
prisoners in the event of a general uprising. The grounds
were enclosed by a strong plank fence twelve or fifteen feet
high, with sentinel beats on the parapet. A United States
war vessel lay in the offing whose services could be brought
into requisition if necessary. There were thirteen roughly
constructed wooden buildings two stories high, with entrances
to the upper stories by stair-ways on the outside—six of the
buildings on either side and one at the lower end midway the
grounds, and bunks arranged in vertical tiers in each build-
ing. Nearly 3,000 prisoners of war, mostly officers, represent-
ing almost every command in the Confederate army, were
guests of the United States Government at this place for
about fifteen months to two years—the period of imprison-
ment of some being less. Hope of exchange was abandoned,

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