Alpheus+Pike+poems

Poems of Alpheus Pike

Five by Three I Brave soldier was Captured by the Rebels Placed in the most horrible of horrible prisons That hell on earth, Andersonville The stark reality of my depravity Struck my comrades and I as soon as I walked in the Overcrowded Underfed prison Many died and were buried Side by side In a ditch Five feet wide by

Three feet deep But the prison would not consume me Not yet I would return to normal life Injustices at Camp Sumter would eventually Claim me As a victim of that Horrible of Horribles, Hell on Earth, Andersonville

-Kyle Puckett

I was caught and not during true battle, Apprehended while rifling through Confederate arms. The feelings of dread, fear, and apprehension wearing down on my already exhausted body, While I started to realize what I had gotten myself into.

I was to be imprisoned at Andersonville. The most notorious Confederate prison. The tales I have heard from fellow soldiers would be nothing compared to the real thing.

Unseasoned cornbread, rotten ham, yellowed bacon, bug-infested peas. Overcrowding, disease, and malnutrition. I once recall a soldier cooking beans that a sick comrade had vomited on the floor.

This ordeal would leave me a changed man, To take nothing for granted To enjoy the little things But most of all to enjoy every moment of life because no one really knows if it could be your last.

Adam Haile-Mariam

=__Alpheus Pike__=

A boy, a brother, a son, a soldier, That’s what I am. A prisoner.

I fought, for freedom. Among abandoned Confederate equipment, I was searching, looking for rifles to protect my life But alas I was doomed to live a life not fit for a stray cat.

Andersonville. Where maggots and rotten meat scraps “sustained” me. No shelter, dirty water, time was blurred Overcrowding.

Ivory, my brother was there as well. Disease plagued us all. My hunger was never sufficed My eighteenth birthday had passed and yet I was still incarcerated.

November 1, 1864 At last I was free Bloomington, to there I returned. But I never was quite the same

Partial blindness, heart disease My life was theirs And here I lay, A boy, a brother, a son, a soldier, a prisoner -Lauren Miller

My father wanted me to come home But I wanted to fight for freedom. I wanted to help do the right thing, But there was a great price to pay.

16 years old I was When I was put into hell on earth, Andersonville.

Rotten food, Starvation, Vermins, And just too many dang people. Death everyday, Hope disappearing day by day.

November 1st,1864 My fight for freedom paid off. Went to Bloomington to get an education Like my father always wanted. I then worked on the tracks as a conductor.

I never left hell on earth, The prison life, And the military life, Put an end to my long struggle.

-Karthik Patil