Description:

Confederate
New York, NY, ca. 1912
Annotated 1st Ed. of "Elmira Prison Camp" by Berry Benson, Confederate Soldier who Escaped
Annotated Book

A heavily annotated copy of "Elmira Prison Camp" by Confederate Sergeant Berry Benson. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. First Edition. Large Octavo, 6.5" x 9.75", xvii, 465pp including an Appendix and Index. With 62 illustrated plates throughout. Chapter XIV ("Sergeant Benson's Story, Told by Himself," pp. 209-253) recounts Benson's escape from Elmira by tunnel (he had been taken prisoner at Spotsylvania). With many annotations by Benson throughout in pencil, offering insights into camp life and dispelling rumors or fiction about the camp. Signed "Gerald Rich 1925" on the front pastedown. Bound in blue cloth with gilt titling on the front cover and spine. Light toning to internal page edges. A spot of staining to the front cover. Lightly bumped and worn corners. Soundly bound.

Highlights from Benson's commentary include:

On the fresh water supply: "Except when the rats fell into the wells and drowned; then the water stank."

On rats being trafficked as currency: "I never saw rats sold, but I heard of their being eaten, as they should have been."

On townspeople getting beef deemed unworthy for prisoners: "This is no argument. The U.S. had to pay for it at a contract price; why should it accept inferior meat? The citizens bought it at a price - its value. They had no contract."

On rations: "The treatment by the first captors was haphazard - we might be given nothing, or fed to surfeit, as I was in Alexandria jail."

On his escape: "It would have been silly to choose a 'bright moonlight night'. May 2/63 and Oct. 13/64 being nights of full moon, (page 239), Aug. 27/64 must have been a dark night…Nobody went out, or stuck his head up. Berry Benson. Only Trawlek made a little hole. 216."

On disease due to a corn meal diet: "I have never seen any such assertion - but that pellagra is. And that I think quite untrue. If so, why did we not die of pellagra at Oranges, where we ate the sour corn meal, such as the prisoners at Andersonville were given. Though the meal at A. may have been fresh, or nearly so, being where the corn was raised. We got it at Orange when it was old. The strong healthy negroes of the South was raised on corn meal.

Berry Greenwood Benson (1843-1923) was a native of South Carolina and was present during the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861. He enlisted in the Confederate Army, and although just eighteen, Benson was named corporal of Company H, First South Carolina Regiment. He saw action during the Seven Days Battles, Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg before he was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Benson was invalided home but returned to duty at the end of that year and served as a scout. Benson was first captured on May 16, 1864, and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland. However, two days into his imprisonment, he escaped by swimming across the Chesapeake and the Potomac, attempting to reach Confederate lines. He was unsuccessful and was recaptured on May 31, and this time was imprisoned at Old Capitol Prison, Washington, D.C., and then transferred to Elmira Prison in New York. Once there he joined a group attempting to tunnel out. After one unsuccessful attempt, the prisoners tried again and on October 7, 1864 at four o'clock in the morning, he and nine companions escaped via a tunnel sixty-six feet long which they had been digging for about two months. Heading south, Benson rejoined his regiment and would continue to serve with the Army of Northern Virginia until the surrender at Appomattox Court House. Benson's likeness has been immortalized on top of a monument in downtown Augusta, Georgia, which was dedicated in 1878 to honor the Confederate dead.

Elmira Prison was in use from July 6, 1864, until July 11, 1865 and was dubbed "Hellmira" by its inmates. During those 12 months, 2,970 of the 12,100 prisoners died from a combination of malnutrition, continued exposure to harsh winter weather, and disease from the poor sanitary conditions on Foster's Pond, combined with a lack of medical care.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 6.5" x 9.75"
  • Medium: Annotated Book

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