Prisoner of War

Located in the Paddle Wheel Boat

The river is muddy today. It must be the rain. And the water is higher. I’ve seen it that way before. I haven’t been back here since the summer of 1861 when I went to visit my family at Shepherdstown, Kentucky.

That’s why you see me standing here in what’s left of a rebel uniform. I was working at Prescott Landing, up near St. Paul, in the express business. When I went home, I got talked into joining a company there with a bunch of the boys. Who would have thought then that the war would have lasted more than a month.  Most of those boys were killed or starved to death the next year or two. Weren’t many left when I was captured and sent to the Camp Douglas prison at Chicago.

Like near froze to death there. And those fine Chicago ladies and their beaus came to stand on the platform by the fence to look at us poor boys huddled in that damned mud hole. They just stood there and laughed and pointed. 

Well, no more war for me. The next time they get to fighting, I’m not coming.