Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by Ellicott R. Stillman, Co. B, 85th New York Infantry. New York, 1865. Two pages, folio. Docketed to verso.

A rare and revealing questionnaire distributed to New York veterans regarding their imprisonment at Andersonville and other Confederate prison camps. Here, Sergeant Major Ellicott R. Stillman notes that he was captured at Plymouth, North Carolina, and recalls that during the 40–50 mile march to confinement he was “met with good treatment... but decidedly the reverse in prison.”

When the document presses for detail, Stillman states with blunt candor: “Occupation consisted chiefly in destroying vermin. Bad treatment of guards.” Stillman describes witnessing “several shot for speaking to the guards & some for accidentally placing hands on the railing comprising ‘Dead line’ saw one man shot at Andersonville for string to get some mouldy bread over the dead line. Saw one cripple shot by orders of Werz.” The reference to Captain Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville later executed for war crimes, places Stillman’s testimony among the stark firsthand accounts that helped shape the prison’s lasting reputation as the most infamous of the war.

Stillman had enlisted at Canadice, New York, on 26 August 1861 and was mustered into Company B, 85th New York Infantry. The regiment served through the Peninsula Campaign at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, and the Seven Days battles before Richmond. Captured at the Siege of Plymouth on 20 April 1864, Stillman endured several weeks of confinement before parole. Rejoining his regiment, he participated in Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign and mustered out with the unit on 7 June 1865.

Few such questionnaires survive, and Stillman’s account offers direct testimony to the brutality of Andersonville.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison]