By Carla Charter

He was confined in the prisons Millen, Libby, Savannah and Andersonville. While there a chain of lightning opened a rock giving water to the parched and starving prisoners—Obituary of William N. Dexter, Orange Enterprise and Journal-Jan 9, 1920

“May 15th (1864) near Drury’s Bluff the 27th Regiment was hard at work constructing breastworks of logs, rails and dirt, with only a dozen shovels, while firing was constantly going on. May 16, a heavy fog prevailing the enemy made a furious attack; and it was so difficult to tell friend from foe, that the 27th regiment was unexpectedly surrounded and a large part of it captured. Of the 252 men of this Regiment that were made prisoners, thirty belonged to Company B from Athol,” according to The Record of Athol, Massachusetts, in “Suppressing the Great Rebellion” by John Foote Norton, published in 1866.

Among those captured were William N. Dexter of New Salem, who first joined the Union Army on Oct. 11, 1861, enlisted in Athol into Co. B and served in the Army of the James under General Burnside. He participated in 15 battles during the war, including those of Roanoake Island, Newberne, North Carolina.

As a prisoner of the confederates, Dexter was confined in the several prisons, including Lawton Prison in Millen, Ga., Libby Prison, in Richmond, Va., an unknown prison in Savannah, Ga., and in the notorious Andersonville Prison near Andersonville, Ga.

Gilbert Streeter, who served in the 27th Regiment Volunteers Co. C—also captured at Drewry’s Bluff and an Orange resident—recalled his experiences at Andersonville in a Jan. 30, 1936 Orange Enterprise and Journal article.

“I’ve drunk quarts of muddy water thickened with raw cornmeal. Cornmeal and raw beans, that’s all we had to eat and plenty of days we didn’t get even that. I got the scurvy. Another young fellow from Shelburne Falls gave up and died,-gave me his watch to take back to his folks. But when my teeth started to fall out I figured I better do something if I was to get home. I sold the watch for $225 Confed money,-and with $25 of it bought a bushel of raw sweet potatoes. I ate ‘em raw and cured the scurvy.”

There were 45,000 Union soldiers who came through Andersonville and nearly 13,000 of these soldiers died, according to Ranger Caitlyn Price at the Andersonville National Historic Site.

While at Andersonville, according to Dexter’s obituary, “a chain of lightning opened a rock giving water to the parched and starving prisoners.” Price said this refers to a place called Providence Springs at the prison site. According to legend, she continued, there was a heavy rainstorm with lightning at Andersonville in the summer of 1864. The heavy rain washed away some ground and unearthed a spring which is still there to this day.

Dexter was paroled Nov. 19, 1864, and given an honorable discharge from the service Jan. 2, 1865. For a year he was a helpless invalid from the sufferings he endured in the Confederate prisons, according to his obituary in the Orange Enterprise and Journal, published on Jan. 9, 1920.

When Dexter recovered, he then by horse and covered wagon traveled, selling seeds as far as Kentucky. Returning home, he eventually became a businessman, owning a store in North New Salem, a grocery store in Orange and The Dexter House in Wendell. The Dexter House, according to information from the Wendell Historical Society, was a favorite of loggers and sawmill workers in the area.

More information about Andersonville Prison can be found at Andersonville National Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/ande/index.htm. More information Wendell History including the Dexter House can be found at www.wendellhistoricalsociety.org/ourtown.html

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.

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