[or-roots] The (un) Cival War

[Cecil Houk]

Jacob Houk was my paternal gr grandfather:

By Florense Courtny Melton. 1926
     [Jacob] Houk was a prisoner thirteen months lacking two days.  He was in Salsbury two months.  Then he was taken to Libby Prison and was kept there five months.  Then he was taken to Andersonville stockade and was there six month lacking two days.  He was carried out to the operating table three times to have his leg amputated.  A quarrel among the surgeons saved him his leg.  He lost one toe. The treatment the soldiers endured was terrible to think of.  It took a Prussian officer, Captain [Henry] Wirtz, to devise such fiendish rules.  At first several thousand men were penned up on fifteen acres.  A stream ran through it.  Part of it was clear, but part was muddy.  They had to use the muddy part.  Guards were stationed on the top of the stockade to shoot anyone who was seen dipping the clear water.  Houk said the sweetest morsel of meat he ever tasted was a Norway rat, killed, cocked and eaten while there.  Another article of food they drew as a ration was a pint of buggy peas.  They would put them on in cold water.  When the bugs would come to the surface, they would skim them out, and cook the peas and eat them. 

[Note: Many of the Union prisoners released from Andersonville died aboard the SULTANA when it blew up on the Mississippi River at 2 A.M., April 27, 1865.] 

Cecil


Cecil Houk, ET1 USN Ret.
PO Box 530833
San Diego CA 92153
FAX 619-428-6434
mailto:cchouk at cox.net
ANDERSON - BLAKELY - FORD - HOUK - KIMSEY - MOE - RULAFORD - SIMPSON
Searchable GEDCOM: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk
My web page MENU: http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/
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