Sunday, February 1, 2026

Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop, Sunday, July 26, 1864

Attended meeting this morning near the big pine trees in the southeast part of the pen, preaching by Sergeant B. N. Waddle, of 126th Ohio. Some of those active in carrying on the meetings are Rev. T. J. Sheppard, B. N. Waddle, M. H. Miller, 22nd Mich. Cavalry, and Robert H. Kellogg, of 16th Connecticut Regt., Thomas A. Cord, U. S. Infantry, also Boston Corbett. Some who show extraordinary talent as singers, are J. O. Turner, David Atherton, 65th N. Y., John W. Kerr, L. H. Cummings, Massachusetts; G. W. Pomeroy and others. There is often a chorus of nearly a hundred voices, some evenings, of fine singers.

Called on W. H. Harriman in the afternoon. He is so affected with scurvy that he cannot stand. The doctor tells him that they have no medicine that will cure; he is expecting to go to the hospital tomorrow; bade us good-bye, grasping our hands, in tears. He said: "Ever hoping for the best I shall not forget you and Thompson. We shall not meet again; I hope I shall have better treatment, at least better fare. If I am exchanged I will write your people, you do the same." (I heard nothing definite from Harriman until July, 1865, when his sister, Anna E. Harriman, wrote me from Zanesville, Ohio, that he died in October, 1864).

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 93

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