My New Book of Old Poetry

[L Verge]

I had posted earlier that I would be attending a program about Point Lookout Prison Camp, and so I did this past Saturday evening. The speaker was Dr. Brad Gottfried, a Civil War scholar and author and recently retired college president. His research has focused on primary source materials from prisoner records, diaries, letters to family, and Union correspondence - chiefly between Stanton and the head of Union prisons, General Hoffman. The latter citations made this Southern blood boil, when I saw in black and white directions given by the Secretary of War to send either no supplies, clothing, blankets, or shelters to the prison or to send only inferior (his words) products. The very things that he stated are reflected in the writings by the prisoners.

We all know that the deprivations, both North and South, were horrible for the prisoners; but the North did have the production capabilities to care for prisoners better than the South did - but, it appears, chose not to.

I did share my family story of great-great uncle James Mitchell Beasten, whose wound, incurred from grave-digging details, never healed as well as my great-grandmother's story of being unable to get clothing and food to her brother because such things were forbidden at the camp -- even though she lived but fifty or so miles from Point Lookout. Dr. Gottfried backed up that history of forbidden packages. Some reports have claimed that forbidding some from getting help stopped possible fights among the men who might attempt to steal. The more likely reason, however, was pure revenge by the captors and aimed not only at the prisoners, but at the surrounding civilian population, which was heavily pro-Confederate, despite being citizens of Maryland, a state which did not leave the Union.

Lane, I was also able to tell the story of Fr. Tabb. Dr. Gottfried had not heard about his poetic skills, and I touted your book. There were over fifty people in attendance, including several who shared family stories such as mine as well as several who are on a committee trying to complete documentation on all of the Confederate prisoners held at the camp.

I now travel most of the time in a wheelchair; remind me sometime to tell you the tale of travelling up and down a two-story handicap ramp in the dark with someone who is not skilled at steering my wheels...