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Good Lord Willing the husband and I will be there with bells on. My sister may be coming with us and we'll probably set up somewhere in the campground while he does his thing. We've been looking forward to this for quite sometime.

When Thoughts Turned to Ravens

It's early morn and I can see,

the soaring of a single bird.

It lights atop a gnarled tree,

and mocks me in some unknown word.

It's screeching seems of no concern

to others who will overturn,

debris of man for mouse in hole,

while watching guards on day patrol.

We men in gray have no more shame,

we eat the rats to feed the soul.

When will the raven call my name?

The bird has called to others now,

they all sit glaring from a limb.

There high above on leafless bough,

they mock, and call, and fly to him.

A hapless soldier died in sleep,

for here a life is very cheap.

A whippoorwill will never sing,

but hawks and buzzards talons cling

to bits of flesh that they can claim.

Dead, swollen men will feel no sting.

When will the raven call my name?

The beady eyes of death are near,

they need not scour woods nor plain.

We fought with courage, had no fear,

but here we live and die with pain.

They pull apart the flesh of men;

these bloated bodies, six then ten.

A prisoner sings with sad lament,

there's one less man, there's one more tent.

The birds will mock the sick, the lame,

their wings flap slowly in descent.

When will the raven call my name?

The night is filled with hooting owl,

while phantoms dance across my dreams.

The ravens rip at throat and bowel,

and muffle death amid the screams.

I shiver in the driving snow,

and think of home, so aprops,

where songbirds fill the Southron night.

But now it seems there's nothing right.

The birds here wait for sick and maim,

and death comes quickly in their flight.

When will the raven call my name?

Still here within these prison walls,

we watch the sky for his return.

Amid the snowstorms and the squalls,

the men pray more and often yearn

to see the Lord as he descends.

A preacher points and he pretends

a raven is the mourning dove.

He prays for peace and speaks of love.

We all know it's a loosing game,

yet still we watch the skies above.

When will the raven call my name?

The vulture, raven, bride and groom,

the scavengers of death and doom

have come for bodies to reclaim.

Do hummingbirds still seek the bloom?

When will the raven call my name?

......is Point Lookout the prison where so many of the 43rd Tenn. Inf. died and are buried? Jreb

I would be honoured, Unreconstructed.

I've got a new number by my name. I was messing with this silly computer and messed things up.

Drats and Double Drats!!!!!! We have had to change our plans, what with hurricane Hannah moving up the coast, the hubby and I have decided to sit this one out this year. No sense in taking any chances. Good Lord willing maybe next year.

Point Lookout POW Camp (Camp Hoffman) was established after the Battle of Gettysburg to incarcerate Confederate prisoners. It was in operation from August 1863 through June 1865. Being only 5' above sea level, it was located on approx. 30 acres of leveled land at the southern tip of Maryland, in St. Mary's County, and surrounded by water on three sides by the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. It was the largest prison camp in the north.

Before the war, Point Lookout was a fashionable resort hotel and a summer bathing place with over a hundred cottages where the elite spent their leisure time. In 1862, with erection of additional buildings, it became a military hospital for the care of union soldiers, as well as a supply depot for the Army of the Potomac. In August 1863, the large building with outbuildings arranged in spoke fashion (Hammond Hospital), became the care center for wounded/sick Confederate prisoners as well as for union men.

During the two year span of operation, Point Lookout saw approx. 50,000 POWs pass through her gates. These were military and civilian, men and women, black and white. It's also interesting to note that the youngest POW at Point Lookout was Baby Perkins. He was born there. His mother was captured at the Battle of Spotsylvania with her artillery unit.

Prison conditions were deplorable. Rations were below minimal causing scurvy and malnutrition. Prisoners ate rats and raw fish. It's recorded that one hungry Rebel devoured a raw seagull that had been washed ashore. Soap skim and trash peelings were often eaten when found. Lice, disease, and chronic diarrhea often resulted in an infectious death. Prisoners were deprived of adequate clothing, often no shoes in winter or a blanket among sixteen or more housed in old, worn, torn sibley tents. Even the Point's weather played havoc with the prisoners. Because of it's location, it's extremely cold with icy wind in the winter and a smoldering sun reflecting off the barren sand in summer was blinding. High water often flooded the tents in the camp area. The undrained marshes bred mosquitoes. Malaria, typhoid fever and smallpox was common. The brackish water supply was contaminated by unsanitary camp conditions. There was a deadline approx. 10' from the approx. 14' wooden parapet wall. Anyone caught crossing this line, even to peek through the fence, was shot. Prisoners were also randomly shot at during the night as they slept.

Mjr. Brady was the Provost Marshall and Mjr. Gen. Benjamin (Beast) Butler would review the prison camp. Many times he galloped through the crowd of men, hitting them as he sped by. The sixty gun Minnesota was within a short distance from the shore to guard the prisoners.

***** Among the sites at this prison were: 1830 Lighthouse, Hammond Hospital, the Nuns housing, Fort Lincoln, guard quarters, officers quarters, stables, contraband quarters, union quarters/tenting area, burying grounds, smallpox hospital, stockade, etc.

***** At present, a near 4,000 are accounted for as having died and are buried in the Point Lookout cemetery. Their graves have been moved twice since the original burial. They now rest in a mass grave under an 85' towering obelisk monument erected by the federal government. Huge bronze tablets circling this monument depict names of those so far recorded. Also in this well kept cemetery is a smaller 25' monument erected by the state of Maryland to the memory of the prisoners

Enjoyed the pictures. Thanks, LL

I don’t know about TN 43rd but Point Lookout was a Federal prison. Prisoners did not have shelter on banks of Potomac near Chesapeake Bay. Number of prisoners who died were high and could be as much as Andersonville or more. But since the South surrendered the history has been written by you know who.

Allegedly they had no shelter intentionally because the Rebels were across the River and could see the mistreatment but do nothing about it. The Potomac at this point is salt water a few miles wide. St Mary's county Maryland.

Wow I sent this post about 2 months ago

Stageman,

"Wow I sent this post about 2 months ago" Email posts can take months to be posted at MSN. Not everything like: links, pictures, etc., show up. That is why, I recommend that you read and post, directly at the forum. Teresa

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