Got up bright and
early. Never slept better. Getting rested up. We talk continually. Both Bucks
are great talkers, especially David. Cooked and ate our breakfast, and would
you believe it the ham is all gone. incredible, the amount of food we eat.
Wonder it don't make us all sick. Sweet potatoes getting low. Dave fixing up
his dead fall for hogs. Has rolled some heavy logs together forty rods away
from our house, and fixed up a figure four spring trap, with the logs for
weight to hold down the animal which may be enticed into it. Has scattered corn
in and around the trap, and we wait for developments. Hogs are very shy of us
and surroundings. Are apparently fat and in good order. Plenty of roots and
shack which they eat, and thrive thereon. Buzzards are very curious in regard
to us. They light on the limbs in the trees, and if their support is a dead
limb it breaks and makes a great noise in the still woods. Two or three hundred
all together make a terrible racket, and scare us sometimes. The weather is
very fine, and this must be a healthy climate. Dave is going out to-day to look
around. As I have said before, he is a scout and understands spying around, and
won't get caught. If we had a fish hook and line or a net of some sort could
catch fish to eat. That would be a grand sport as we can see nice large fish in
the water. The main road is away about one and a half miles we think by the
sound of the teams which occasionally rumble along. Often hear shouting on the
road as if cattie were being driven along toward Savannah. Once in a while we
hear guns fired off, but it is no doubt hogs being killed. We also hear folks
going up and down the river, but cannot see them. After dark we have no fire as
that would expose us, it is so much plainer to be seen in the night. The river
is wide; should think a third of a mile, as we can view it from away up the
stream. The cane that grows in the river is the same as we have for fish poles
at the North, and are shipped from the South. Have added some repairs to the
house and it is now water tight, we think. Made a bed of soft boughs, and with
our three blankets have a good sleeping place. Dave got a tall cane and
fastened up on the house, and for a flag fastened on a piece or black cloth—the
best we could do. That means no quarter; and it is just about what we mean,
too. Don't believe we would be taken very easy now. I am getting fat every day,
yet lame, and have come to the conclusion that it will be a long time before I
get over it. The cords have contracted so in my right leg that they don't seem
to stretch out again to their original length. That scurvy business came very
near killing me. Later. — I also
went out of our hiding place, and saw away out in a field what I took to be a
mound where sweet potatoes were buried. Came back and got a pair of drawers,
tied the bottom of the legs together, and sallied forth. The mound of potatoes
was a good way back from the house, although in plain sight. I crawled up, and
began digging into it with a piece of canteen. Very soon had a hole in, and
found some of the nicest potatoes that you can imagine, of the red variety,
which I believe are the genuine Southern yam. Filled the drawers cram full,
filled my pockets and got all I could possibly carry, then closed up the hole
and worked my way back to camp. Eli was alone, Dave not having returned from his
scouting trip. Had a war dance around those potatoes. Believe there is a bushel
of them, and like to have killed myself getting them here. After I got into the
woods and out of the field, straightened up and got the drawers on my shoulders
and picked the way to head-quarters. We don't any of us call any such thing as
that stealing. It's one of the necessities of our lives that we should have
food, and if we have not got it, must do the best we can. Now if we can catch a
porker will be fixed all right for some days to come. Think it is about the
time of year for butchering. We don't expect to be here more than two or three
days at fartherest, although I shall hate to leave this beautiful spot, our
nice house and all. Listen all the time for the expected battle at the bridge,
and at any unusual sound of commotion in that direction we are all excitement. Later.—Dave has returned. He went to
the main road and saw a negro. Was lucky enough to get a Savannah paper three
days old in which there was nothing we did not know in regard to Sherman's
coming. The negro said yankee scouts had been seen just across the river near
the bridge, and the main army is expected every day. The rebels will fall back
across the river and contest the crossing. Fortifications are built all along
clear to Savannah, and it may be reasonably expected that some hard fighting
will take place. Savannah is the pride of the South and they will not easily
give it up. Dave did not tell the negro that he was a yankee, but represented
himself as a conscript hiding in the woods to keep from fighting in the rebel
army. Was glad to see supply of potatoes and says I will do. Has freshly baited
his trap for hogs and thinks before night we will have fresh pork to go with
the potatoes. Later. — We went
around a drove of hogs and gradually and carefully worked them up to the trap.
Pretty soon they began to pick up the corn and one of them went under the
figure four, sprung it and down came the logs and such a squealing and
scrambling of those not caught. The axe had been left near the trap standing up
against a tree, and Dave ran up and grabbed it and struck the animal on the
head and cut his throat. How we did laugh and dance around that defunct porker.
Exciting sport this trapping for fresh pork. In half an hour Dave and Eli had
the pig skinned and dressed. Is not a large one probably weighs ninety pounds
or so, and is fat and nice. Have sliced up enough for about a dozen men and are
now cooking it on sticks held up before the fire. Also frying some in a skillet
which we are the possessor of. When the hogs run wild and eat acorns, roots and
the like, the meat is tough and curly but is sweet and good. We fry out the
grease and then slice up the potatoes and cook in it. Thanks to Mr. Kimball we
have plenty of salt to season our meat with. The buzzards are after their share
which will be small. And now it is most night again and the “Astor House”
larder is full. Seems too bad to go to bed with anything to eat on hand, but
must. That is the feeling with men who have been starved so long, cannot rest
in peace with food laying around. My two comrades are not so bad about that as
I am, having been well fed for a longer period. Have sat up three or four hours
after dark, talking over what we will do when we get home, and will now turn in
for a sound sleep. It's a clear moonlight night, and we can hear very plain a
long distance. Can also see the light shining from camp fires in many
directions, or what we take to be such.
SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p.
149-52
