Private Jacob Parrot, Company K 33d Regiment Ohio Volunteers

Jacob Parrot was duly sworn and examined, as follows:

            By the Judge Advocate-Question. What is your position in the military service?

            Answer. I am a private in Company K, 33d Ohio Regiment.

            Question. What is your age?

            Answer. I will be twenty years old next July.

            Question. In what part of Ohio did you reside?

            Answer. I lived in Hardin county.

            Question. You have heard the testimony of Mr. Pettinger. Will you state whether, as far as the matters to which he has deposed have come to your knowledge, they are true, according to your best information and belief?

            Answer. Yes, Sir; they are.

            Question. You were a member of the expedition of which he has testified?

            Answer. Yes, Sir.

            Question. Will you state the circumstances of your capture and the treatment you received?

            Answer. There was a man named Robinson, of our party, who was captured with me. We took to the woods after we left the train, and after a time we came down out of the woods. When we came out on the railroad there were four citizens there, who saw us and took us. We were taken to Ringgold, where a company of Confederate soldiers were stationed. When we got into the hands of an officer, one of them took me out and questioned me, but I would not tell them anything. An officer and four soldiers took me out and stripped me, and bent me over a stone and whipped me. They stood by me with two pistols, and said if I resisted they would blow me through. I was whipped by an officer, a lieutenant, who was with the party, and who had on the uniform. He gave me over one hundred lashes with a raw hide. He stopped three different times during the whipping, let me up, and asked me if I would tell and when I refused to do so he would put me down and whip me again. He wanted me to tell who the engineer of the party was, and all about the expedition, but I would not do it. I did not tell him anything about it. The engineer was one of our soldiers, who was finally captured with the rest.

            Question. Were other persons present when you were flogged?

            Answer. Yes, Sir; there was a crowd there. It was right by the side of the railroad, and the people there wanted to hang me. They got a rope and would have hung me, but for a colonel who came up.

            Question. Did you have any trial of any sort?

            Answer. No, Sir.

            Question. Your companion was with you at the time?

            Answer. Yes, Sir.

            Question. Why was he not whipped?

            Answer. I do not know. He told the regiment that he and belonged to. I suppose, as I was the youngest, they thought that they could make me tell the most; but I would not tell them anything not even the regiment I belonged to.

            Question. Will you state the circumstances under which you joined the expedition?

            Answer. My captain called me out of the tent and asked me to take a walk with him. We walked down toward the guard quarters, and he asked me if I would go on a secret expedition, and told me that, if I agreed to go, I should go up to his tent in about half an hour and report to him. I went up and told him I would go.

            Question. Did he know the precise object of the expedition?

            Answer. No, Sir; he only knew that it was a secret one, and so told me.

            Question. Will you state how long you felt the effects of the flogging you received?

            Answer. I was very sore for about two weeks afterward; my back was very weak, and I have not got over it yet.

            Question. Was any disposition manifested, upon the part of the Confederate authorities, to relieve you from the effects and sufferings produced by this flogging?

            Answer. No, Sir; except a short time before I came away from Richmond, when I got a doctor to look at my back, and he put some mustard plasters on it, which, I think, helped it some.

            Question. Were you with Mr. Pettinger, and the others of your party present here, during the confinement of which he has spoken?

            Answer. Yes, Sir.

            Question. At what age did you enlist?

            Answer. I enlisted a year ago last Fall, when I was a little over eighteen years old.

            Question. Have you a father and mother living?

            Answer. No, Sir.

            Question. Will you describe particularly the manner in which you and your fellow-prisoners were chained in the jail at Chattanooga?

            Answer. We were all handcuffed together. I and some others had trace-chains around our necks secured by padlocks; we were secured in that way, two by two.

            Question. Will you state the character of the food furnished you in your prisons?

            Answer. At Chattanooga we got some wheat flour mixed up with a little water and baked, and some spoiled pickled beef. That was all we got, and we had a very small supply at that. We had it only twice a day.

            Question. What was your condition in other respects, so far as ventilation and light were concerned, while you were in the prison at Chattanooga?

            Answer. We had scarcely any light at all. Frequently we could not see to pick up a pin off from the floor. The windows were very small, and the room was so close, and we were so warm, that we had to take our clothes off entirely. We were covered with vermin. The room was so small that we could not all lie down, and we had to rest ourselves by leaning against the walls. We were not allowed to leave the room under any circumstances while we were confined in it.

            Question. Were you searched when you were taken?

            Answer. When I and my companion were taken we were searched, and our money all taken from us before we were taken to Chattanooga. It was taken from us by some of the officers, and never returned to us.

 his                     

            JACOB    χ     PARROT,

            mark.                 

            Company K, 33d Ohio Volunteers.

Ohio boys in Dixie: the adventures of twenty-two scouts sent by Gen. O. M. Mitchell to destroy a railroad; with a narrative of their barbarous treatment by the Rebels and Judge Holt's report, New York: Miller & Mathews,1863

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