{"id":7862,"date":"2022-09-20T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=7862"},"modified":"2023-12-06T20:31:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T02:31:18","slug":"mfdj-9-20-2022-taking-it-out-on-the-bloodhound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=7862","title":{"rendered":"MFDJ 9\/20\/2022: Taking It Out on the Bloodhound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Narrow Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n

Between February, 1864 and April, 1865 it is estimated that 45,000 Union prisoners were confined in the Confederate stockade, Camp Sumter, near Anderson Station, Georgia, forever to be remembered as Andersonville. Of that number, approximately 25,000 men survived their prison experience and returned home to tell their tale of suffering. It is unknown how many survivors, with their health and lives shattered, died as a direct result of their captivity after returning to civilian life. Close to 13,000 Union soldiers did \u201cgive up the ghost\u201d at Andersonville, and it was the ghost of Andersonville that haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

The following is the account of:
\nPrivate Ichabod Preston
\nCompany D, 85th New York Infantry, Fourth Corps.
\nAge: 25.
\nCaptured at Plymouth, N.C. on April 20, 1864.
\nEntered Andersonville on May 1, 1864.<\/p>\n

Early in June, I was taken sick with typhoid fever and removed to the hospital, where I remained about three months, and made a narrow escape from death.\u00a0 When I became convalescent I was detailed as an assistant hospital steward, and served quite a long time.\u00a0 I was then assigned to the duty of getting out the medicine at the drugstore, and was provided with a pass which permitted me to leave the stockade at any time during the day.\u00a0 I was in habit of going over to the depot, and in that event to visit three boys of Company H, of my regiment.\u00a0 They were on a detail in the commissary department.\u00a0 While visiting them one day, I slipped over and gave a piece of poisoned sponge to a bloodhound.\u00a0 I did not dare to mention the fact to anybody while I was at Andersonville, for one could hardly trust his best friend there.\u00a0 I heard a rebel sergeant say the next day that it was a damned Yankee that had done it, and that he would give $100 to find out who it was.\u00a0 The sergeant’s name was Smith –\u00a0 Crooked Neck Smith, we used to call him.\u00a0 I wonder if he would give as much now?\u00a0 It was my intention to give the rest of the dogs a similar dose, but was afraid of being caught.\u00a0 Detection would have meant death to me, beyond a doubt.\u00a0 But for those dogs I would not have staid [sic<\/em>] in that prison hell as long as a whole year, as I did.\u00a0 I always believed I could out-general the rebs but for the dogs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Culled from:\u00a0Andersonville Giving Up the Ghost: Diaries & Recollections of the Prisoners<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Asylum Inmate Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

In The Library Eclectica, I have a book entitled\u00a0The Faces of Madness: Hugh W. Diamond and the Origin of Psychiatric Photography<\/a>\u00a0(edited by Sander L. Gilman), 1977. \u00a0It contains a wonderful collection of photographs of asylum inmates taken in the 1850\u2019s by pioneering medical photographer and psychiatrist Dr. Hugh W. Diamond.\u00a0 Here’s one of the inmates:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Narrow Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Between February, 1864 and April, 1865 it is estimated that 45,000 Union prisoners were confined in the Confederate stockade, Camp Sumter, near Anderson Station, Georgia, forever to be remembered as Andersonville. Of that number, approximately 25,000 men survived their prison experience and returned home to tell their tale of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9757,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862\/revisions\/9757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}