Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
lot of 4, includes a post war cabinet card of Commodore P. Eppert with imprint of Martin, Bloomington, Ill.; a 21pp typed carbon copy manuscript entitled A Lecture Delivered By C.P. Eppert Late Sergeant of Company D Sixth Indiana Cavalry At Opera Hall, Olney, Ill. Saturday, March 3rd 1883, of Olney Post, G.A.R. Theme: My Suffering and Hardships in Andersonville and Florence Military Prisons. This lot also includes small group of newspaper clippings about the horrors of Andersonville prison.
The manuscript tells his story, about being captured with Stoneman's cavalry near Macon, Ga. in the summer of 1864. Eppert explains the circumstances: Leaving Macon, the command started to return to the army. On the way back we were defeated a second time, and as Sherman says, "Stoneman became bewildered and surrendered." About eleven hundred men escaped the result of this miserable blunder, by cutting through the lines after the white flag had been raised, but most of whom were afterward captured --- myself among the number...I was captured late in the evening in company with five others, and not long thereafter our miseries began.
After capture, he and his fellow prisoners were compelled to march over 100 miles to the nearest railroad station at Athens. From there they were transported by train to Augusta, and marched to Macon. Here he learned from a captured 88th OVI soldier turned CSA soldier that his brother, who had been in the 88th, had died at Andersonville that May and that they were being marched to that camp for internment. In describing Andersonville and Florence he states in fact human tongue can not picture a place so horrible as each of those prisons were.
Nonetheless, he goes on to give a fairly detailed description of Andersonville and states These two hundred and seventeen days were the saddest of my life. He continues to describe the site with headings such as the Stockade; The Death Line; Disease; Burial of the Dead; Rations; Cooking Our Food.
After this they were told that the regiment was to be paroled and moved, but they were transferred to Florence prison and not paroled. Shortly there-after, he escaped, but was soon recaptured. He tells the story of the prisoners holding their own vote for the 1864 Presidential election with Lincoln winning by a large majority. Gives a detailed description of the many attempts at tunneling out of the camp, but few were successful.
Most of his account is quite horrible, but some more so than others including the following: One afternoon a prisoner attempted to escape from the hospital enclosure (Andersonville) the hounds were at once put on his track, and before he could reach the creek; he was overtaken by them; what little flesh he had was torn into shreds; this scene was witnessed by myself as well as hundreds of others, the poor victim died of his wounds the next day.
After a period in Florence, the nearness of Sherman's Army forced their captors to move them by train to Andersonville, but Eppert and a comrade, with the help of some slaves who gave them food, made their escape from the train, which he described as being guarded by little more than boys, and they made their way back to Union lines by staying in swamps and woods and traveling by night for a month.
A fine unpublished account of the horrors of Confederate prisoner of war camps.
Condition: Photo, VG, document toned, else VG.
Auction Location:
6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
Additional Fees:
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