Private Benjamin F. Arnold (USA)

Civil War Veteran

Affiliation: Union

Rank: Pvt.

Co.: G

Regt.: 8th Vermont

Branch: Infantry

Captured at Ceder Creek Va. Oct.19. 1864, was confined at Richmond, Va.and then sent to Salisbury, N.C. on Nov. 4, 1864. Admitted to hospital on Dec. 11, 1864, suffering from diarrhea. Discharged on Dec. 29th, 1864 Returned to hospital on Dec. 29, 1864 and per record, died on the 30th of December.

Final papers report death was caused by scurvy.  

Note: Conflicting death dates of Dec. 29th and Dec. 30th given throughout report.

from Salisbury Confederate Prison Association:

 The real misery for the prisoners at the Salisbury Confederate Prison began in the fall of 1864.  The Prison compound designed for 2,500 men was forced to handle four times that many.  Due to the Union Naval blockade there was a shortage of medicine and medical supplies which resulted in terrible suffering of the prisoners and needless deaths.  Throughout the South there was a shortage of food and the Prison was no exception. Eventually, all the buildings were taken over for hospital use, and the men were forced to seek shelter that cold, wet winter under the buildings, in overcrowded tents, and in burrows dug into the hard red soil.  The death rate that had been only 2% before October 1864 skyrocketed to 28%. 

    Burials before the overcrowding had been in coffins and in separate graves.  Records exist that indicate military burial services were even given.  However, due to the large number of men dying daily after October 1864 a mass burial system was initiated.  The bodies were collected daily and taken to the “dead house” to be counted and loaded onto a one-horse wagon.  At 2:00 PM each day  this wagon of the dead would be taken about ¼ mile to an abandoned cornfield where the men were buried. Eighteen trenches of approximately 240 feet each were eventually needed. 

Link: http://www.salisburyprison.org/PrisonHistory.htm