William J. Hardee
From The New-York Times November 10, 1861:
STORY OF AN EXCHANGED PRISONER
From the Louisville Journal, Nov. 5.
We have had an interview with Mr. P.H. LIPPERT, of the Twenty-fourth Illinois Regiment, who was taken prisoner some months ago, about twenty miles from Centerville, Mo., while acting as a messenger bearing dispatches. He was arrested by rebel Missourians and placed under charge of Gen. HARDEE’s command in the southeastern part of the State, where he was exposed to great privations and sufferings. In company with twenty other Union prisoners he was lodged in a horse-thief jail at Bloomfield, for nearly a month. This place was an apartment 16 by 18 feet in dimensions, and 7 feet high, with two air holes on two sides. In this cage the twenty were cooped during the hottest weather, without any effort being made to remove their excrement, which of course produced the foulest stench. Their food was dough and water, and even that in insufficient quantities, and they were never once taken into the fresh air, which produced great sickness. While there three Union men were hung, and five shot, because they refused to take the oath. These villainies were committed by Capt. WHITE and his Texan Rangers. From Bloomfield, Mr. LAPPERT was taken to New-Madrid for a few days, during which he received no food at all, and was nearly starved; thence he was transferred to Columbus, with seven prisoners from Cape Girardeau, and placed at work on the fortifications; and they were so engaged, being driven to the works in gangs, like slaves, at the time of the engagement between the batteries and the Union gunboats, exposed to all the fire and bursting shells, but providentially none were injured. They were by this time greatly in need of clothes and blankets, and their wants were contumeliously neglected by Gen. POLK, after his attention had been called to them. Mr. LIPPERT was finally exchanged when Col. BUFORD went down under a flag of truce, and he soon reached Paducah. There he was most hospitably received by the boys of the Eleventh Indiana, and he desires to return thanks to them all, and particularly to Capt. RUGG, for their soldierly attention to a comrade in distress. From Puducah he was forwarded to Louisville, by Gen. SMITH, and will start immediately to join his regiment, which is Col. HECKER’s.
A Bit of Tit-For-Tat
Rebels held in Missouri State House dungeon
