"The Dark Clouds of War" -- Part Four

 

“The Dark Clouds of War”

The Civil War Diary of John Zimmerman of Alexandria, Virginia (1861-1865) 

Transcribed, Edited and Narrated by Jack Sullivan

Foreword:  Beginning in 2012, I was tasked at the Historical Division of the Alexandria VA Library with transcribing into a computer the hand-written diary of John Zimmerman, a local confederate soldier who kept a diary throughout the five years of the Civil War.  While it was anticipated that the diary would be put on the library website, that did not occur and the sesquicentennial of the conflict has passed.  Believing that this fascinating document is worthy of more attention, I have prepared a summary in seven parts that will be posted here every four days  throughout Apri

        Part Four:  A Prisoner:  Washington, DC & Point Lookout, MD 

Zimmerman was now a Yankee prisoner of war. Although he expressed thoughts of escaping to his diary, he did not attempt it. He and his fellow prisoners were ultimately marched to Warrenton, Virginia, where on July 27 the captive rebels were loaded onto a train for Washington, one that took them into Alexandria.  

We reached Alexandria about 7 P.M., the train stopping in front of Uncle Burton Richard's house, cor Duke & Fayette Sts., and soon we had a great crowd of friends & relatives rushing to the cars to see us.  After an absence of over two years there was, of course, great rejoicing and very many questions asked and answered.  I saw Mother, sister Alice & brother Willie, Aunt Susan and Richards and many others.  After a delay of about an hour we changed cars and moved on to Washington, amid a great waving of handkerchiefs and leavetaking as we slowly moved off.  We anticipate a happy day tomorrow when our relations and friends come to see us as all promised to do.  I was happy to see Mother, sister & brother.  My great regret was not seeing Sister Laura.  But what wonderful changes we noted during our very brief stay & in passing through of our old historic and much loved town.  It...has been through much of the war the base of supply for the great Northern Army and, of course, there is great bustle and activity in supplying their army and the constant movement forward of great and small bodies of troops and munitions of every kind. 

The Yankees proved to be very lenient toward the captured Confederates, perhaps hoping the soldiers would defect.  They allowed visits by relatives and friends and gave the prisoners meals somewhat more elaborate than the Southern army provided, as Zimmerman recorded on July 28, 1863:

Throughout the entire day we Alexandrians have been kept busy, writing to and receiving our relatives and friends who have come up to see us.  Many from Washington also came to visit us, each bringing us something for our comfort or enjoyment - money, clothing, eatables, till our every want is about supplied. Sister Laura, Brother Will, Aunt Susan, Cousin Horace Johnson and many others called.  John Summers sent me a large valise containing a complete suit of clothes, shorts.  Am sorry indeed that Mother could not come.  They required her to take the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. and she refused to do so.  During the early part of the day they were permitted to enter the building and converse with us, but in the afternoon they were compelled to stand without the gate and talk to us. 

 

We are now quartered in the “Soldier's Rest,” near the Baltimore & Ohio Depot and but a short distance from the Capitol.  This building is used as its name indicates for a temporary rest for US soldiers passing to & from their Army.  It is a large frame building about one hundred feet long and twenty five feet wide and in rear of it is a large yard enclosed by a high board fence.  Guards are stationed at the gate and around the outside of the building to prevent our wandering off.  Another proof of their consideration for our comfort and happiness:  a few steps off are several other large buildings for mess houses and quartering troops in transit to & from the Army.  About 12 PM we were formed in line & roll called and we were then marched to the mess hall where we were furnished with dinner.  The mess hall is about eighty feet long & about twenty five feet wide and was decorated with wreathes and festoons of cedar and box.  It contained tables running the entire length of the building.  In front of each man as we stood was a plate and bowl and on each plate a thick slice of bread, two slices of boiled salt pork.  The bowls were used for drinking coffee, of which large wooden buckets full were ranged at intervals along the long lines of the tables and each one could help himself to as much as he wanted.  This of course we greatly enjoyed as the coffee was delicious and we rarely see or taste it in Dixie.

On the evening of July 30, 1863, Private Zimmerman and other prisoners were marched down to the wharf in Washington and embarked on the steamer, John Brooks, to Point Lookout, Maryland, the peninsula of land where the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay come together.  He was among the first prisoners to arrive there in a location which was just beginning to be developed as a large Yankee prison camp.  He enjoyed the view of the river and bay.  In early diary entries he complimented the Union soldiers for trying to make the prisoners comfortable.  They were allowed to bathe in the Bay daily, catch crabs using a tiny piece of salt pork, and hunt on the beach for oysters.  When some of his fellow Confederates objected to work details and some were punished, Zimmerman had a different perspective:

 So I shall, when detailed for work in about the Camp for our comfort, will do it faithfully and without murmuring as I would in our own army.  I am trying to keep always before me for my line of conduct, that I am a Confederate soldier and so will do nothing unworthy of the name and cause, and will be true to my convictions and principles.  But will also bear in mind that by the fortunes of war I am a prisoner of war and so will obey very strictly all orders & try to so conduct myself as not to bring reproach upon our cause or upon myself as a Southern Soldier and gentleman.

With time, conditions changed drastically. As the population of the camp expanded and escapes from Point Lookout become more common, high walls were erected around the compound and earlier privileges were rescinded. The quality of the food deteriorated. Smallpox and other diseases became rampant in the camp.  A bright spot was mail.  For a time Zimmerman was able to correspond regularly with his mother, siblings and friends in Alexandria.  Packages containing food, clothing, books, writing paper, “greenbacks” (Union money), and other items were showered on him by family and other Alexandria residents who knew of his plight.  Among those he recorded sending items were his former employer J. H. Parrott, Mrs. J. B. Daingerfield, Miss Hattie Henderson, Miss Elizabeth Hazard, and Miss “Lizzie” Smythe.  Although Zimmerman was an Episcopalian, an Alexandria Catholic priest, Father Krause, sent him religious books to be given to Catholic prisoners.  He often distributed the largesse to his fellow prisoners, especially to those from Alexandria in the camp hospital.  Visiting the hospital on November 4, he found Willie Packard, the son of Dr. Joseph Packard of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.  Over the next few days Zimmerman wrote:

Again at the hospital.  Wilie Packard very low.  Dr told me he could not live. I wrote to his father....I have spent much of the day at the hospital with poor Willie Packard.  In the morning he was delirious but was conscious in the afternoon and I read and conversed with him.  I hope he will recover but he is very ill....Willie Packard better today.  Was moved down to the Gen Hospital on the Point...Much shocked to hear of the death of Willie Packard.  He died on Monday at the Gen Hospital on the Point.  Heard his Mother came down today.  Have not seen her but would like much to do so and tell her of his illness in our camp.  

As winter bore on, the situation in the camp deteriorated further.  Many prisoners had inadequate clothing for the cold and wind.  Sickness was rampant.  Packages from relatives and friends were curtailed as was correspondence from the outside. The prevailing mood among prisoners at Point Lookout was boredom while hoping for an exchange.  Excitement occurred on February 25 when the New Hampshire troops that had been guarding the prisoners were relieved by black soldiers.  Zimmerman never expressed racist feelings to his diary and was strongly in favor of the South recruiting slaves as soldiers and freeing them at the end of the war.  This changing of the guard, however, clearly bothered him:

At last we are guarded by Negro soldiers and we have had great excitement in our prison Camp all day and I expected serious trouble to occur before night but thus far (7 PM) only one prisoner, Pat Suddith of my Regt (Co K) from Warrenton Va has been hurt.  He was struck brutally over his head by an officer with a large sized Colt revolver, causing the blood to flow freely but without breaking his skull.  We heard early this morning the Negro soldiers were to be put on guard and many assembled at the main gate to see them relieve their white comrades and how each would act.  The White guards were as angry as we were and we expected trouble - some saying they would desert at the first opportunity.  

I think this was the cause of those attempting to desert last night from the Regt next to us (5th N.H.).  We heard the noise and commotion and the firing and this morning could see two dead Yanks lying on the Beach and later we were told several other Yanks were wounded.  I think they were trying to escape in a boat.  About nine AM, the hour for relieving the guard, the Negroes arrived and were marched up on the platform surrounding the camp on the outside of the wall and overlooking the Camp and its prisoners.  Some of the White guards refused to give the Negroes their instructions when relieved and the sergeants had to do it.  Four of the new Negro guards were then brought into Camp to relieve the guards at the Mess houses.  They all had their guns and also had large Navy revolvers in their belts.   They were accompanied by two Yankee officers and an orderly, all mounted and armed.  One of the officers, seeing Suddith laughing at the comical appearance of the much scared Negroes in uniform, cursed him, calling him a traitor and telling him the Negroes were better than he was and struck him over his head with a large Colt revolver which he held in his hand, making an ugly scalp wound which bled profusely.  

Throughout the day they have had squads of Negroes marching through the camp streets, holding revolver in their [hands.]  This seems to have been done purposely by the Yanks to insult us and probably to pick a quarrel so they could have an excuse to fire on us, and their conduct throughout the entire day seemed to point decidedly to that end.  They tell us if a Negro is hurt they will take one of the prisoners out and hang him .  During the day the gunboats laying off the Camp have been in position to fire on our Camp and their Regts of Infantry and Artillery have also been held ready for the same purpose.  Should we say or do the least thing to furnish the squads of Negros patrolling our streets with an excuse to fire on us, I fear some of the daring and reckless ones during the night will throw things at the Negro patrol and they will then fire into our Camp.  A detail was ordered out to unload vessels on the Point but when a Negro guard was put over them, they refused to work but the Yanks by force compelled them to work.  Some of the Negroes guarding us, I am told, are owned by some of the prisoners here and others were recognized and are well known to other prisoners.  

I must now stop as the Negroes are patrolling the streets with arms in their hands and calling out, “Put out dat 'ar light in dar.”  But the day will long be remembered by us and if our lives are spared we will make the Yanks pay dearly for the great and wholly unnecessary insults heaped on us today. [End of Part 4]