| Dr. Shaw
was one of the few lucky ones. Cavalry soldiers Francis Honnell of Port Jefferson,
Nehemiah Baldwin, 16 year old Thomas Powell, and Levi Bird were imprisoned, along with
Shelby County soldiers James Morris, George Ragan, William Borum, Thomas Duncan, Alfred Swander, George Baldwin
and Theophilus Ailes. All died in southern prisons. 99th Ohio soldier Joseph Wilkinson survived an incredible 18 months in Libby and Andersonville. Of the latter, he said after the war: "Our clothing had become so ragged and tattered it scarcely covered our nakedness. Mortality thinned our ranks, and our prison was a charnel house. Rations were reduced. For four months one pint of coarse corn meal was a daily ration." The June 29, 1924, edition of the "Shelby County Democrat" carried a personal account of life in Andersonville by William Brown, who was then 85. "I was a strong youth of average weight when I entered Andersonville. When I was released I weighed only 75 pounds. We each received one oyster can of corn gruel a day for five days, the other two days we got nothing at all. One time a dog got into the stockade...and it was soon a case of 'doggone' when we got him. The dog meat enabled us to live pretty well for a few days afterward." Brown still had in his possession a medal given to the survivors of the prison bearing the motto "Death before dishonor." |
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