The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 20
672 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
captured at Calcasieu in May, 1864, may not be much exagger-
ated. According to him, among his band of 11 i "strong, healthy
men," six died in June and July, nine in August, nineteen in
September, twelve in October, twenty-one (or almost one-third
of those alive November i) in November, and twelve in De-
cember-in all, seventy-nine deaths. He claimed, moreover, that
"no epidemic prevailed at any time more than that engendered
by filth and neglect; but the prisoners died victims to low and
short diet, neglect, exposure, and abuse.""
The absence of Confederate records relating to Camp Groce
makes it difficult to ascertain the truth. Little is known of the
Confederate effort to provide medical attention to the prisoners.
In 1863, a prisoner who was ill remained under the care of the
men of his mess. At that time there were two doctors at Groce,
Assistant Surgeon J. W. Sherfy, formerly of the Morning Light,
and a Doctor Roberts of the Confederate service. They kept a
small office outside the prison, visited the prisoners twice daily,
and made up prescriptions for them in the evening."' Four officers
and eighteen men died during 1863, while at least four hundred
prisoners were held at Groce. This would indicate an over-all
death rate of six per cent.22"
30Testimony of John Read, House Committee Report No. 45, 40th Cong., 3d
Sess. (Serial No. 139g), 928; John Read, "Texas Prisons and a Comparison of
Northern and Southern Prison Camps," Personal Recollections of the War of the
Rebellion: Addresses Delivered Before the Commandery of the State of New York,
Military Order of the Loyal Legion (New York, 1912), IV, 258. Read's paper,
read before the New York Commandery on December 7, 191o, contains numerous
demonstrable errors and is of little value, but the monthly death figures given
there total the same as the aggregate figures found in his testimony of 1867.
According to Read, only thirty-two men of his group of 111 survived, but he
seems to make no allowance for escapes, of which there were probably some. The
Bellville Countryman, July 12, 1864, p. 1, notes that two prisoners who had
escaped from Groce were "at large." Official reports indicate that the number of
white army and naval prisoners taken at Calcasieu Pass was twenty-eight and 13o,
respectively, and that the Confederates delivered only fifty-five of the naval pris-
oners from Groce into Union hands off Galveston, Texas, on December 19, 1864.
Oficial Records, Series I, Vol. XXXIV, Pt. 1, 913; Series II, Vol. VII, 1248.
31Nott, Sketches in Prison Camps, lo2; Bosson, Forty-second Massachusetts, 423.
Nott felt that the two surgeons were "excellent and faithful."
22Ibid., 426. The truth about the deaths at Groce in 1864 may never be known.
At least six hundred and fifty prisoners were sent there in that year, but the
Confederates seem to have been able to present only 450 for exchange at Galveston,
on December 12 and 19g, 1864. There were, however, a number of minor escapes
and apparently two sizeable ones, thirty on one occasion and "some forty" on
another. While it appears that most of the prisoners were recaptured, some were
not returned to Groce. Bringhurst and Swigart, Forty-sixth Indiana, 144-146.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/38/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.