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A hospital for prisoners and an iron factory were located on the island, but no barracks were ever built for the
prisoners, hence the continuous exposure to weather played a large role in the death toll on Belle Isle. Prisoners were
allowed to swim in the James river surrounding Belle Isle. The rapid water was extremely perilous but some men braved
the rapids and rifle fire, attempting to escape. Some drowned or were shot, in their escape efforts, but a few did find
their freedom. A good deal of fighting went on among the men; they were just like so many hungry wolves penned together.
Bands of predatory prisoners roamed the encampment, robbing their fellow prisoners of rations, blankets, and anything else
they wanted. The commandant admitted that he could do nothing to stop the gangsters, as he had only enough men to try to prevent
escapes. The island was devoid of trees, the ground being low and sandy, exposed in winter to wind and storm, and in summer
time scorched under the heat and glare of noonday, or dank with the malarious fogs of night. The prisoners were fed as the
swine are fed. A chunk of corn bread, twelve or fourteen ounces in weight, half baked, full of cracks, as if baked in the
sun, musty in taste, containing whole grains of corn, fragments of cob, and pieces of husk; meat often tainted; and a mere
mouthful; two or three spoonfuls of rotten beans; soup thin and briny, with worms floating on its surface; the whole ration
never one-half the quantity necessary for a healthy man, and no two articles being given together. The prisoners at Belle
Isle gnawed refuse bones or broke them in pieces to make soup. They begged for stale bread from the guards; they caught and
ate rats: they devoured a dog which had strayed into the enclosure. When crowded thus, the average space apportioned to each
man, was from two feet-by seven to three feet by nine. Most of these unfortunates were obliged to lie upon the ground, to
be drenched by rain, and often frozen by the cold. During the severe winter months, while the mercury ranged below zero at
Richmond, and ice formed on the James river, our gallant boys at Belle Isle endured the days and nights, shelterless, unclothed,
sick and disease-smitten. Some crawled for protection into the ditch, heaped against each other, and of those the “outer
row” often froze to death during sleep; some dug holes in the sand, and burrowed in them; hundreds passed the cold nights
in running to and fro, to keep their blood from coagulation. Every morning numbers were found frozen stiff in the embrace
of death.
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Dubois Krom enlisted in Kingston February 4, 1865 at the age of 18, he was a Private in Co E, 80th Infantry
Regiment New York, also known as the "Ulster Guard". After the battle of Gettysburg, the 80th had been ordered to headquarters
for provost guard duty at City Point, Virginia, this where Dubois was sent when he enlisted.
The 80th continued in this service until the end of the siege of Petersburg, when it shared in the final assault, April 2
& 3, 1865. I beleive that during the assult on Petersburg was when Prvt. Dubois Krom was taken
prisoner and sent to Belle Isle Confederate Prison Camp located in the James River, between Richmond and Manchester, notorious
as a prison of confinement for Union soldiers. Holding only a few small shacks, the island afforded no protection from the
elements to the Union soldiers who were captured and taken there. Prisoners were given tents to sleep in but the
tents numbered 3000, while the soldiers held there, numbered almost 10,000 by 1863.
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The hospital and death carts were constantly bearing out loads of dying and dead. The men lost strength, spirits, and
sometimes reason. Blindness and dizziness made them faint on the least exertion. Diarrhea wasted them, scurvy ate into their
bones, vermin tortured them, and mad with fevers. A broad beach sloped to the water in front of the encampment, and the prisoners
might have enjoyed cleanliness, if denied all other indulgences. But the rules permitted only about seventy-five men to bathe
in one day, in squads of half a dozen at a time. Hence, a man’s “chance” to wash his person, when the person
was least wounded, might come but once in six months. Their condition from filth became horrible. Being forbidden to approach
the sinks at night, the densely populated quarters became loathsome with filth. The wells were tainted, the air was filled
with disgusting odors. Such was the prison at Belle Isle. From fifteen to twenty-five die every day and are buried just
outside the prison with no coffins- nothing but canvas wrapped around them.
Died as a prisoner on 06 September 1865 in Richmond, VA, he was one of 156 men in the unit to die from accident,
imprisonment or disease.
Richmond National Cemetery was established September 1, 1866, there were 210 (115 known) bodies that wer moved from Belle
Isle Confederate Prison Camp to the Richmond National Cemetery.
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