Henry Hankins, a long time resident in and near this place, died August 31, 1916. He was
a veteran of the Civil War. In speaking of his army experience, Mr. Hankins, a member of
Co. F 14th NJ Regiment, says that he was taken prisoner at the battle of Monocacy,
where he was wounded in the right foot, also in the right arm and over the left eye.
The
next morning the Confederates took him with other wounded comrades to Ellieville in a
cart drawn by a cow and a bull. The trip ended in Richmond, where he spent seven
months and twenty-one days in Libby Prison. After entering the prison he says he did not
have a taste of meat until he was released. He saw others eating horse meat and roasting
it over the fire on a stick. After getting settled in prison, their diet was a pint of corn meal
without any salt, but sometimes baked with salt. When they served the corn meal they
carried out the dead, which averaged about nine every 24 hours.
Mr. Hankins says the men
could not see much of the outside world on account of the dead line, there being guards
both on the inside and outside of it. The men he said laid in tiers at night, head to head,
with boards to lie on, but no clothing to cover them. The average age of them that died
was from 40 to 45 years. This Union soldier says that a number of men belonging to Jersey
regiments were in prison. In speaking of the last part of his prison life he says: On the
22nd of January about 1300 men were paroled for sixty days. We were taken by boat to
Philadelphia to a hospital, most of us being nearly naked. When I grew stronger Uncle
Sam gave me a furlough of sixty days. When I reached home I weighed 82 pounds.
It
was a hard task for anything to stay on my stomach. It was over six months before the
corn hulls were out of my system. It might be stated that when Mr. Hankins entered
Libby Prison his weight was 150 pounds. Mr. Hankins was well known at the time of his
writing, April 13, 1916, as an expert hog killer. He began this career in 1869 until 1905.
He killed as many as 203 in one day.