From the National Tribune, 12/28/1893

Taken to Belle Isle.

A few incidents are related by Comrade Michael Larkin, Co. F and I, 19th Mass., now living at Milford, Mass., and he would like to know if Comrade Faulkner, of Atchison, Kan., who was taken to Belle Isle, remembers any of them. Comrade Larkin was taken at White Oak Swamp June 30, 1862, with many others, and removed to Richmond and drawn up in line to be reviewed by the "elite" of that city, including Jeff Davis and his Cabinet. When the Confederate Gen. Roger A. Pryor, who rode up in front of the line, found that they were from Massachusetts, he made some insulting remarks, and told them that they ought to be shot down in their tracks. When they were marched through the city to Castle Thunder they were pelted with potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and the like. They were searched, robbed, and removed to Libby, and from there to Belle Isle. On their way they were taken in company with some supposed spies through a tunnel bridge, and barely escaped death from an express train by rolling down an embankment. On the island they were divided into squads of 100 each. Comrade Larkin would like to know if anyone knows the name of the comrade who was so brutally murdered at the time by having a bayonet thrust through his heart.

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