Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison

CHAPTER XXVI

CHAPTER XXVI I HAVE A L R E A D Y S P O K E N OF poor Miss McDonough. Shewas taken prisoner last summer, upon the charge of having murdered a Federal officer. At the time of this alleged murder, Miss McDonough was nowhere in the vicinity,and it was only in hopes that her brother would be advised of her arrest, and surrender himself in her stead, that this shameful seizure was made. James McDonough was a Lieutenant in Mosby's command, somewhere in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and Captain B.was shot by him (not murdered) when, during a skirmish, he refused to surrender himself prisoner. It was for this justifiable act of war she was made to suffer. Miss McDonough was compelled to remain in a room* perfectly stifling with noisome smells. Add to this the fact, that she was continually fretting for fear that her brother would deliver himself up for her. Can it then be wondered at that she should have died there, far away from her friends and those sheloved? During my sojourn in the Carroll Prison, I one evening called upon Mrs. , a lady prisoner from Galveston, Texas, who tended Miss McDonough with motherly care during her illness. Poor Mollie was then in a state of semi-insensibility, and was barely conscious of what was going on about her, when W , the superintendent of the prison, burst into the room, shouting out at the top of his voice, "Hoo- * The same in which Belle Boyd was held so long. B E L L E BOYD IN C A M P AND P R I S O N 255 ray! Jem McDonough's caught, and will swing, by ! before the week isout." Miss McDonough slowly raised herself in the bed until nearly upright , stared wildly about her for an instant, and, uttering a piercing shriek, fell insensible upon the floor. I sprang forward, but Mrs. was beside her before me; and I, turning full upon the author of this outrage, remarked excitedly, "By ! Colonel W , if I ever catch you in Virginia when I get a command, you shall swing for this, sir!" Another instance of Yankee brutality and vindictiveness was related to me by the young gentleman himself, Mr. R. Coyner, a private in the old /th Virginia regiment of cavalry. At the time of his capture he was on furlough at Moorfields, Virginia. On the nth of October, 1863, he was taken prisoner by a force of Federal infantry, under CaptainJarbon , and conveyed to Petersburg, Western Virginia, when he was handed over to Colonel Mulligan, who not only paroled him, but treated him with kindness and attention. Here he remained until the 24th of October, when he was sent, under a strong guard, to New Creek Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where he arrived late at night on the 25th. Here his sufferings began. He was thrown into a large, damp cellar, where were huddled together about seventy Yankee deserters, murderers, and bounty-jumpers, where he waskept until the 26th, subsisting upon hard biscuits and cold water, which were served to them twice during the day.On the 26th he was taken from thence and carried to Baltimore. Upon his arrivalhe was placed in Campbell's slave-pen, then under the charge of the infamous Colonel Fish, who was afterwards sentenced to the Albany Penitentiary for various crimes. Early on the morning of the 27th, Mr. Coyner was again ordered out ofhis place of confinement, and conducted, still under guard, to Fort McHenry, which he reached about eleven A.M., of the same day, and was immediately placed in what is known as the "Solitary Cell." Here the company was as select as that at New Creek Station,comprising as it did murderers and thieves, and other wretches of the deepest dye.In this solitary cell, where he was doomed to pass a weary interval of time, no windows admitted the light of day, no lamp was permitted at night. The apartment, or rather den,was cold and noi- 256 B E L L E BOYD IN C A M P AND P R I S O N some; its walls thick with mildew, the floor covered with filth of every kind, and literally swarming with insects; none of the prisoners held here being ever allowed to leave the place for any purpose whatever. Here...