New Era Newspaper, Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas November 26, 1864 FROM TYLER TEXAS Fort Smith, Arkansas, November 24, 1864 Editor New Era: Sir:- As many of the readers of your paper have friends in the military prison Camp Ford, near Tyler, Smith County, Texas, it may be interesting to some of them to know how they are treated, and as I am recently from there, I ask a place in your columns for the following: The prison is an area of eight acres enclosed by logs set on end six feet high inside of which the men have erected rude cabins and temporary sheds which partly protect them from the weather. There is a spring of good water inside and the men are seldom or never permitted to go without the enclosure. Rations are issued to the prisoners every morning and consist of three articles; one quart of meal, one and a quarter pounds of beef and three-fourths ounces of salt to each man. The meal is coarse and unsifted. The beef is generally good. There are no vegetables allowed and hundreds of the men have scurvy. The rations are insufficient, and to a Federal Soldier, are certainly a poor substitute, for those allowed by his government. If the commanding officer was so disposed he could do better for our men but they say anything good enough for the d—d Yankees, and while their men had half rations of flour and bacon issued them we were issued cracked corn and beef. Wood is issued in small quantities scarcely sufficient for cooking purposes, and under the present commander the men are not permitted to go to the neighboring woods for any. Owing to the inferior quantity of the rations and the want of medicines many brave fellows who have nobly fought for their country have died here, and many more will die if not soon exchanged. The hospital which is outside the stockade is a rude, comfortless building, erected without a nail, and is continually falling down. It does not turn the rain, neither is there a chimney to it, and the patients are compelled to lay without a fire, or a mattress under them, and some who were weak and emaciated have died of the cold. The sick are allowed half rations of flour, bacon and sugar, but are not supplied with proper medicines, consequently, some days, as many as five die. Although two parties have been exchanged there are yet 2,600 remaining at Tyler and 500 at Camp Gross, 200 miles west of Tyler, and had not our government sent 1,200 suits of clothes, the men would have been naked. Every party of prisoners taken to Tyler are robbed by the guards on the way, and some of the men who were captured with the train at Cabin Creek, came in without their pantaloons and boots. Some who became foot sore and unable to travel had a rope tied around their necks and dragged along. Private Selick of Company H, 2nd Kansas Cavalry, was shot dead June 17th, on the way from Camden to Shreveport, because he could not travel as fast as the guards. In the stockade men are shot down and during the four months that I remained there four men were shot and not the least notice taken of it. Kansas troops are treated worse than any others, and the party, 120 that were captured with Major Mefford and Lieutenant DeFrieze were not permitted to have any shelter erected and were obliged with only six blankets amongst them to lay on the ground. With all the hard things the men have to endure they are cheerful and have their jokes. On one occasion the mill became out of repair and the Q M issued us corn on the cob, the reason being explained to the boys. They said nothing about it the first day, but the second day seen it was corn they gathered around the Q M and made him promise to bring hay and oats the next time. The next day, however, they received their everlasting meal. The men amuse themselves playing chess and other games, and there are three turning tables in full blast, to the great astonishment of the Rebs. In the month of July, under Colonel Border’s Command a great many made their escape. On the 28th of September a tunnel 80 feet long was completed and 28 made their escape, but the guard detected, and in the morning they started five blood hounds on their trail and recaptured 11 of them. One was severely torn. Since then they have dug a ditch eight feet around the stockade and escapes are few. The men are counted twice per day, and so particular are they that when a man dies the officer of the day had to examine the coffin before it is removed for burial. M F Parker, 1s Sergeant, Company C, 6th Kansas, and Private J J Jones, 5th Kansas and myself, succeeded in making our escape on the 27th of October. Our outfit consisted of eight pounds of bread and four pounds of bacon and a blanket apiece. We crossed the Red River November 7th, above the mouth of Mill Creek, and traveled north, near the Choctaw line and were getting along well until the night of the 17th of November, when in the neighborhood of Waldron, we were recaptured by a company of bushwhackers and barely escaped being killed. They told us they were bushwhackers, and that they killed every Kansas and Arkansan that fell into their hands; and that since the 1st of April they had killed sixty Federals. They treated us well, and after robbing our clothes told us they would not kill us but would send us back to Tyler. They took us back nine miles the following day and the next day would have turned us over to Miller, Captain of a similar company, but I happened to know th! e gentleman, and that if we were turned over to him it would be all over for us. So I gave them the slip, that night, and succeeded in getting in here on Monday, 21st inst., being without anything to eat for three days. Parker and Jones made their escape from the bushwhackers on the 19th and came in on the 22nd. We were 26 days on the road. We lived on acorns, and corn when we could get it, but only found it at one place this side of the Red River. A bushel of corn is worth more than a bushel of Confederate Money. The country is depopulated for sixty miles south of Fort Smith. Robert Henderson. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: [email protected] 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/