Resource Portals To Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War by Lonnie R. Speer, published by Stackpole Books JOHNSON'S ISLAND 'The POWs confined at Johnson�s Island found the Ohio winter even worse. The prison's population had declined to 72 prisoners toward the end of the exchange cartel, but immediately climbed to more than 2,000 when the cartel collapsed. From then on the average population remained around 2,500 for some time before gradually increasing to over 3,200 the following year. In nearly every prison memoir about Johnson's Island there are complaints about suffering from the cold. The winter of 1862-63 had been unusually mild for the area, but those that followed were unusually intense. " It was just the place to convert visitors to the theological belief of the Norwegians that Hell has torments of cold instead of heat," complained prisoner Henry K. Douglas.10 Each room in the barracks was outfitted with a wood-burning stove. "I was confined in one room with 70 other Confederates," argued one prisoner. "The room was provided with one antiquated stove. Fuel given us was frequently insufficient ... and in our desperation we burned every available chair, box, and even parts of our bunks.... Some of us maintained life by forming a circle and dancing with the energy of despair." December and January of 1863-64 were especially brutal. The temperature stood at twenty-two degrees below zero and remained there for several days. The prisoners suffered intensely from frostbite and several died. "Water froze in our canteens under our heads," exclaimed prisoner R. E Webb, who, along with many others, often used his as a pillow. "I was afraid to walk from one end of the enclosure to the other for fear my blood would congeal and I would freeze to death. " Lake Erie was just a few yards from the other side of the prison gate. In the dead of winter, when the well pumps froze, the guards opened the big, 4eavy gates and fifty prisoners at a time were allowed to the lake's edge to fill their canteens. It soon became a daily routine, with set times of 10 A.M. to noon and 2 to 4 pm., but due to the cold, the ice often had to be broken up each time to get to the water. "I once saw 1500 Federal troops march in perfect security from Sandusky to Johnson's Island across the firmly frozen harbor," recalled prisoner Henry E. Shepherd. It wasn't long before the POWs realized the extreme cold of the region could be used in their favor. "There was but a single hope of escape, and that was by means of the dense ice which enveloped the island during the greater part of winter." When the bay was free of ice, the Michigan, a sloop of war, lay constantly off the island with her guns trained upon the prisoner barracks. During the dead of winter, it was no longer there. The sentry patrol along the shore, likewise, was missing. Winter was the only period Johnson's Island was not secured against escapes. "Repeated efforts were made," recalled Colonel Thomas S. Kenan, Company A, 43rd North Carolina, "but their plans were [usually] discovered by the guards." First Lieutenant J. E Cross, Company B, 5th North Carolina boasted, "I secured a Federal uniform from one of the guards, and made the attempt, but was detected and returned to prison and punished.� "Lieutenants William T. Williamson of Benton, Florida, and J. B. Murphy of Columbia, Tennessee escaped into Canada." Lieutenant Archibald McFadyen, Company A, 63rd North Carolina noted." There were only twelve successful escapes from the island during its existence as a military prison. The first didn�t occur until the prison was nearly two years old, on the last day of December 1863. It became one of the most daring, and involved Lieutenant Colonel John R. Winston of the 45th North Carolina Regiment and two others. "They had been engaged for some time," reported Kenan, "in making preparations for escape in securing additional clothing, ladders, etc." On the intensely cold night of 31 December, 1863, when the thermometer was several degrees below zero and the sentinels on the walls were in consequence forced to remain in their boxes for protection, they saw their opportunity and took advantage of it. "They scaled the wall without being seen by the guards, and walked on the ice to the opposite shore."" The three made their way toward Canada on New Year's Day in the frigid, near-record, cold. Winston was the only one to succeed. "The others," continued Kenan, "were recaptured, with hands and feet frozen. The cold winter of the region also brought a special form of recreation to the prisoners of Johnson's Island. With the abundance of snow, the prisoners often engaged in great snowball battles. "They divided themselves into two teams, declared Captain Decimus U. Barziza, 4th Texas Infantry, "and further separated into companies and battalions." In one particular skirmish, prisoner Isaac Trimble, a major general who lost a leg in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, commanded his "army" against the at " of prisoner M. Jeff Thompson, the "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." The pitched battle carried on for three or four hours until the participants' hands became numb.