The following account of experiences of David Rodney Lockett in the Civil War was dictated to his daughter on 4 November 1933
I entered the service of the Confederate Army in 1863 at the age of 18, Company A, First Alabama Regiment.
At Port Hudson in Louisiana the Federals passed a gunboat up the Mississippi River to cut off our food supplies. Then we were surrounded and stayed 48 days. By that time most of our food had been exhausted. We then killed mules for our meat. I consider the mule meat better than the poor beef meat we had been eating. At Port Hudson we also had wharf rat meat, but not in large quantities.
In this Company I had three older brothers, one a Lieutenant. One died in prison, the remaining three of us returned when peace was declared.
While in prison at Camp Douglass near Chicago, some of our men took the loyal oath. This gave them the privilege of going out of prison to work. So one of them became a special friend of mine. Through him I obtained tobacco to sell in the prison. With this I made a small profit. The profit I made from selling this tobacco I had the privilege of buying food to eat as we were always hungry.
So one day I bought a corn meal hoecake (a kind of pancake) for .10. I sat down on the ground and ate the whole cake without even water to drink with it.
One day while selling tobacco, a Yankee prison guard stepped up behind me, placed his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Is that tobacco good?' I said, 'You may try it.' He did; and sent me to move some old straw that had been emptied from beds. But as soon as the guard was out of sight, I went back to my bunk and didn't see him any more. However, I took the smallpox from this experience and was dangerously sick.
One day while in prison I played a trick. We were lined up for our shoes to be inspected. Some way I obtained an old, worn-out shoe, and putting my worn-out shoe up for inspection I obtained a new pair. Then I sold the new pair of shoes.
On one occasion some Yankee ladies visited the prison. One lady remarked, "Why, they haven't any horns!'"
Uncle Dave was invited to the Blue/Grey Reunion at Gettysburg (held I believe 75 years after the event) but was unable to attend.
David Rodney Lockett died at 9:30 a.m. on 31 May 1938 at the age of 93 years 6 mos. in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas.
Courtesy of Charles Elliott