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The bitter cold cut into the prisoners’ gloveless hands.  Empty stomachs added to the misery.  Confederate guards shouted “Keep moving!” as they prodded men toward another freezing hellhole.  Lt. Colonel A.H. Sanders, 16^th Iowa Infantry, asked himself, how will I keep my men alive?

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The “sunny South” was none too pretty the day Confederates captured Addison H. Sanders and his men outside of Atlanta.  Guards marched them to Andersonville.[i]  This began the chess game of moving prisoners advancing Yankees got too close.    

After a week in Andersonville, the men stayed in Charleston, South Carolina, until Yellow Fever broke out.  The number of prisoners increased at every stop, and Lt. Col. Sanders found himself the senior officer among Union POWs. 

In the middle of a downpour, they arrived at an empty lot in Columbia, South Carolina.  The next day, they moved to an open field outside of town.

Guards distributed 13 axes among the 1,400 prisoners, telling them to cut down brush and trees and make their own shelters.  Many Union officers, with greenbacks in their pockets, bought axes from a Confederate sutler.[ii]  Six weeks later, they moved again. 

The next stop was Greensboro, North Carolina, and then Raleigh, deep in the throes of an unusually cold winter.  Typical rations were one pint of gritty unbolted cornmeal (about 1,162 calories) and a little sorghum molasses.  Lack of warm clothing, shelter, and food began to show on the men.  Finally, they arrived in Goldsboro.[iii] 

Sanders, at this point, had charge over several hundred officers and 400-500 enlisted soldiers.  He observed that continuing hunger “makes children of men, both in muscle and mind.” 

Many freezing prisoners were slowly dying.  Confederates finally began to negotiate with Union authorities, hoping to release the prisoners on parole. 

Greensboro tailor Alexander McLacklan heard that hundreds of POWs had arrived.  McLacklan, who belonged to a Bible society, flew into action.  He and his family – along with other Christians – grabbed food and went straight to the prison-pens.   

McLacklan’s group cooked soup and meals, and fed the starving men.  Sanders said they alleviated “a great deal of suffering” and saved “many, if not very many lives.” 

The men were paroled on March 1, 1865.  Less than two months later, safe in Iowa, Sanders wrote the editor of the Davenport Gazette, praising Alexander McLacklan.  The editor forwarded the letter to the New Berne Times in North Carolina. 

Sanders wrote of McLacklan, “I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of this gentleman while I was a prisoner in the ‘Confederacy.’”  He called McLacklan “not only a good Union man, but a gentleman of the most genuine, humane feelings.”

The New Berne Times published Sanders’s letter “with pleasure” because Iowans would learn “that there were some good Samaritans even in Dixie.”[iv]

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I wish you, my readers, peace and good will.  Thank you for reading my blog.  Please write any questions or comments below. 

[i] Muscatine Journal, September 9, 1864, p. 2, col. 2.

[ii] Addison H. Sanders letter, “Inside View of a Southern Prison,” Muscatine Journal, December 30, 1864, p. 4, col. 1

[iii] “Out of the Jaws of Death,” Davenport Morning Democrat, March 18, 1865, p. 4, col. 3.

[iv] New Berne Times, May 9, 1865, p. 2, col. 1