754 NortH Caroyina Troops, 1861-’65.

follows: Confederates under sentence of court-martial, 310;
Federal deserters, 963; political prisoners, 164.

POLITICAL PRISONERS.

In September Judge Sidney S. Baxter came to Salisbury
as commissioner to make inquiry into the cases of the politi-
eal prisoners. He was eminently qualified from his humane
disposition, integrity and talent to discharge the duties of his
delicate mission. His voluntary efforts to assist Major Gee,
during the next month, in relieving the suffering thousands
of the prisoners who were crowded into the stockade, suf-
ficiently attest the fidelity with which he addressed himself
to the interest of those unfortunate men whom he was spe-
cially commissioned to look after.

Colonel Gilmer’s health was not sufficient for the duties
of the post. I have never heard from any source any com-
plaint against the manner in which he discharged his duties
as commandant. In September, 1864, he resigned, and the
office of commandant was filled by the appointment of Major
John H. Gee, of Quincy, Florida. Chief Justice Dupont, of
Florida, being in Richmond, soon after this appointment, was
told by General Braxton Bragg that there were “a number
of hard cases at Salisbury, and Major Gee was appointed to
that place on account of his prudence and discretion.”

About the last of September Major Gee received a dis-
patch from Richmond ordering him to make provision im-
mediately for a very large number of prisoners. Being a
very humane man, he was greatly shocked by the order, for
he knew it would be impossible to take care of so many. But
bad as the state of affairs at Salisbury, it was vastly worse at
Richmond. There the population had become so numerous,
and the drain by the army had been and still continued to be
so enormous that the question of bare subsistence had become
ene of alarming interest. One of our Senators stated that,
accepting an invitation to eat at the President’s table, he
found nothing but corn bread and fried bacon for the bill of
fare. The condition of many of the citizens was deplorable,
and the remnant of the great Army of Northern Virginia
was compelled to bear hunger while doing four fold service

SALISBURY PRISON. 755

against a vastly outnumbering army. No wonder then that
the protest of Major Gee was unheeded.

Determined to do the best he possibly could with the lim-
ited means at his command, he addressed himself with earn-
est endeavor to the task of putting the prison in condition to
receive the coming thousands. And that task was indescrib-
ably arduous. ‘There were scarcely any axes, shovels, tools,
lumber, wells, tents or any other requisite in the place or
within his reach. He put a number of men to work with the
best implements that could be gotten, to dig more wells. He
required them not only to dig by day, but by candlelight at
night. The carpenters were also ordered to enlarge the stock-
ade. But before these improvements could be accomplished
immense trains of prisoners began to arrive. By 5 October
about 5,000 had come. One train, probably the first, brougit
between one and two hundred officers of various rank, from
Brigadier-General down. On the 5th I visited the prison in
company with ‘several ladies. The ground was then firm and
quite dry, and the place appeared well adapted to the purpose
for which it was used. But that was the last time that the
place had the appearance of aught but misery and wretel.-
edness. The officers’ and privates’ respective portions of
the grounds were separated by only a line of sentinels—the
former occupying the eastern quarter, with the old wooden
buildings.

The prisoners were always trying to escape, and not unfre-
quently they succeeded. Occasionally they would be ar-
rested again by citizens and brought back. Frequently they
would reach the mountains, find plenty of friends to supply
and direct them, and make their way across the mountains to
the Federal lines.

PRISON HORRORS.

When the officers arrived an attempt was made by robbers
to “mug” them under cover of the darkness, as they had done
many before; but an alarm was given and they did not ef-
fect their design. These “muggers,” as they were termed in
the prison parlance, were a regularly organized band of des-
perate characters, ready to rob the living or the dying, or to