[or-roots] War is hell

[Cecil Houk]

More from Florence Courtney Melton ( I hope the hyper links are still valid):

     In the summer of 1861, [Jacob] Houk enlisted; also George French, Mary's intended husband.  Baxter was not old enough to enlist.  That was all that kept him at home.  Mother worked in the house and outside, and she cried a great deal.  She would read the papers until midnight.  My two sisters taught school.  Mother kept Frank Houk.  [Note: Baxter Franklin Houk was the first of Jacob's son's.  He was born  28 JAN 1860 in nr Shakopee, Scott Co., MN.]  The spring of 1863 some of the boys came home on furlough, and Mary and Mr. French were married in April.  I believe the twentieth.  [Note: my record have 31 MAR 1864]  That summer he was wounded in the battle of Chattanooga and died some time later at Rome, Georgia.  Brother Jake was taken prisoner about this time but was held for only a few months.  In 1864 Baxter enlisted.  Mother's cup of sorrow was running over.  [Jacob] Houk was a prisoner and hadn't been heard from for months.  George French was dead.  Her two boys were gone.  Baxter was only eighteen.  Father could not be trusted to go in the field nor anywhere alone.  One day, I remember well, Father lay down to rest a few minutes and had one of those spasms.  It was on his mind to go to the field, and go he would.  Mother was washing; she had to go with him.  He was out of his head.  She told me to stay at the house and take care of Frank until she came back.  I think I was seven.  We stayed alone all that afternoon.  It was near sundown when she came back. 

     [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.] 

     Well, the war came to an end.  The boys came home.  Baxter was brought home with a southern malaria.  No one thought he would live, but Mother.  Brother Jake went to Missouri and bought a load of apples.  Why he was gone our folks had a run of typhoid fever.  Sarah and Father were sick at one time, and lay for weeks.  The nursing depended on Mother and Mary.  Houk had to ride for the doctor and supplies.  Baxter recovered enough so that he could do some of the chores, and tried to gather corn.  About the time the first ones could sit up, Mother and Mary took the fever.  Houk and I were the only ones to escape.  Frank took it, and Mary cared for him until she got so sick she had to go to bed herself.  I had to practically live out of doors.  If the sick folks even saw me they were sure I was making noise that disturbed them.  So I stayed out of doors and picked chips and carried wood to the door.  I ate tomatoes from morning until night.  There were quantities of them going to waste in the garden.  The neighbors all had sick of their own - hardly enough well ones to care for the sick.  Late that fall Houk completed the house he had began in August.  They moved to their own home the last of November.  It was very hard for the boys to settle down after four years in the south.  They farmed 1866 and 1867.  The winter of 1867/68 was very cold. 


The following spring (1868) these people headed west to Oregon.  Jacob and Sarah Houk settled near Lebanon, but the rest returned to the Walla Walla Valley of Washington.  My grandfather, William Houk, was born 3 weeks after the clan reached Linn County (Sand Ridge, east of Lebanon).



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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