I was born in Hadley Mass. Feb, 9, 1846
Feb. 23 1864 I enlisted into the service of the U.S. for three years or during the war. I joined the 27 reg. of Mass. vol. March 4 I went to Gallops Island Boston Harbor where I staid untill {sic] the 18, when I started for the reg. Then stationed at Norfork Va. where I arrived the 21 of March. The next day the reg. went to Julian creek where we stayed untill the 26 of April when we broke camp & started on the spring campaign. we went to Yorktown where the division was formed. We were placed in the 18 division commanded by gen. Butler. The fleet left Yorktown May 4 went round by Fortress Monroe up the James river to City Point where we landed the night of the 5. I was with the reg. through its engagements on the James river. May 16 {possibly 10} the reg. was surrounded in a bog & and taken prisoners in a fight at Drury Bluff nine miles from Richmond. We were placed on a gun boat taken up the James river to Richmond, where we were put in Libba prison & stripped of our valuables, & kept on what they called quarter rations
We remained there one week untill May 23 when we started for Andersonville geo. We were one week on the road stopping at Danville & Augusta over night. We received rations but three times on the way. They packed seventy of us in a boxcar. May 30 we arrived at Andersonvill & were placed in the stockade where we stayed untill Sept. 13 when were put on the cars, but had not {continued to second page} gone three miles, when the train smashed up, killing & wounding a good many men. We were then taken back to the pen, where we stayed untill Sept. 24 when we were taken to Savannah. There we were kept in a small pen packed full untill Oct. 9 when we were taken to Millen Geo & put into a stockade of forty acres. We were almost the first that went into it, but half of it was soon filled. We stayed there untill Nov 20 when I was paroled, taken to Savannah, & put on the steamer Atlantic & taken to Annapolis after having been a prisoner six months & four days. I was reduced by starvation to mere skin & bones. I had the scurvy in my mouth, my gums roted away so that all my teeth were loose & also in my left leg so that the cords were contracted. The scurvy was the effect of not having {animal} vegetable food. I stayed in St. John college hospital about three weeks when I received a furlough of thirty days & came home. At the expiration of that time I reported to Dale hospital in Worcester Mass. where I stayed untill {about} May 30, 1865 when I was discharged, the war then being over. When I arrived in Annapolis the hospitals were so crowded that I was improperly cared for & as a consequence the chronic diarhea set in which reduced me very low. It was a long time befor I recovered from the effects of my hardships & exposure but I think that I am now as well as I was before going to the war
Ellis G. Kellogg
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