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william w. warner, company c William W. Warner, captain of Company C, was held in esteem by the officers of the 12th Iowa much in the same way the enlisted men admired Quartermaster Joseph B. Dorr, but Warner’s fame was owed to his repeated attempts to escape from Southern prisons. The following letters, were written during his captivity — a rarity. Even more unusual, some detail his attempts to escape and his recaptures. It is especially fortunate that these letters made it past prison guards, because Warner was later wounded in the first attack upon Vicksburg. Though he lived several months more, he died of his wounds December 22, 1863, in Memphis. The letters are transcribed from the originals at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines (Misc. Personal — 118, Box 73 [W125/W3945], Folder 16. W 2481). Letter: April 29, 1862 Selma, Alabama April 29th 1862 Dear Father Knowing that you must be anxious to hear from me. I embrace the present opportunity of writing you. I wrote from Talladega. We came from that place to this about a week ago & are now quartered in the third story of a Hotel. We are as comfortably situated as we could expect. Yet I imagine that I can see that the confinement is making drafts on my health. Yet I am far from being sick. Several [of] the officers are sick more seriously unless it be one who is thought to be homesick. I have been a prisoner three weeks, it seems three months. Time passes very slowly. Nothing to read & nothing to do except it be to play cards & this an amusement that has little attraction for me. We have no exercise except walking our rooms. The Captains of the 12th room together, fine comfortable men they are. I can hear nothing from the rest of the prisoners not here, no communication allowed. We purchased some fine strawberries nearly a week ago. They are plenty now at fifty cents per { 156 } ...

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