Any civil war expert peas?

CHAPTER ONE

FORT DELAWARE14

The prison was a parallelogram, a level area about twice as long as broad, traversed by ditches of sea water, some 4 feet wide, bounded on three sides by continuous rows of buildings made of plank nailed upright was an opening in the rear between the building and a building used as a Mess Hall. In the rear was another building some thirty feet from the main building, and in the read of this a space, with a ditch of sea water passing through it; on each side of which was a space surrounded by a plank wall or partition, and washed by the bay, overlooked by a plank way on which the sentry was posted. This space was used by the prisoners, for cooking and washing; a plank bridge in rear of the Mess Hall built over the ditch lead to the resort of the prisoners, built over the waters of the bay, and also another return way over the same ditch. These buildings were divided by plank partitions, each from 60 to 80 feet long, and named and marked Divisions No. 1, 2 etc. On one side of this parallelogram, and separating it from a similar space, with the same style of building and occupied by the privates was a wall, or rather plank partition, some ten to fifteen feet high, along on the top of which was a plank way, where were posted, and where walked the Sentry. In each of these divisions were there rows of bunks the lower resting on the ground, and very damp. These bunks faced each other, being constructed along the sides with a passage some 6 to 8 feet wide between them, and in the midst a large Coal Stove. This Stove even when red hot owing to the openings between the upright planks, did not warm the Division, which was so cold that of a cold night, even those in a few feet, one could not sleep comfortably, while those 10 feet away could only sleep by catches, and the bulk of the prisoners crowded the stoves by turns all night, and most of the day in cold weather. We were allowed a blanket each, and but few had any more clothing by the officials.15 What we had was mostly sent us by friends, or humane associations, in the North. Some of them private combinations acting through individuals. The prisoners necessarily suffered greatly from cold, and the worse clad would wrap their blankets around them and crowd the Stoves night and day sometimes producing difficulties among them, in their eagerness to get near the stove.






from Chapter Two...
RATS AND RAT EATING

On the raised plank walkway seperating (sic) the two prisons the sargeant (sic) or some other would often appear and call out, "Money or boxes." He would then, when the prisoners came around, give out the names listed and either give them a memorandum of what he had for them, or take them through the gateway etc. These calls were termed "Money calls or box calls" as the case might be. In the banks of the ditches and under the plank walkway were rat holes and numbers of rats. The sargeant (sic) or some one would come around often with a squad of men with force pumps and hose and rat tarriers, sticks etc. The hose would be put in the rat holes, the force pump applied and the rats would run out and be killed. Numbers were sometimes caught in this way. When money or boxes were to be delivered you could hear all over the prison yard "Money call or box call" (I will say comparatively flew ever heard this call for themselves.) Not long after my arrival I heard a cry "Rat call! Rat call!" I went out to see what this meant. A number of prisoners were moving and some running up near the partition, over which a sargeant (sic) was standing and presently he began throwing rats down. The prisoners scrambled for the rats like school boys for apples, none but some of the most needy prisoners, and the needy were the large majority, would scramble for these rats. Of course but few were lucky enough to get a rat. The rats were cleaned, put in salt water a while and fried. Their flesh was tender and not unpleasant to the taste.