-^m^^^^- 5^^-fm^ Se^&^-f-t -l«-5& %% .;ew York, .ind Emeritus Professor of Ohstet- rics nnd the Diseases of Women and Children; President of the National Ophthalmological So- ciety, etc., etc. GOUVERNEUR BIORRIS WILKINS, Esq. ELLERSLIE WALLACE, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children, Jcficrson Medical College, Phila- delphia, etc. HON. J. I. CLARK HARE, Judge of the District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia. REV. TREADWELL WALDEN, Rector of St. Clement's Church, Philadelphia. PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF "LITTELL'S LIVING AGE," BOSTON. PRICK T'WENTY CEjSTTS. EXTEACTS ^,. f < FROM THE MINUTES OE PEOCEEDINGS OE THE STANDING COMMITTEE OE TIE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION. 823 Broadway, New Yoek, May 19, 1864. Resolved, That Dr. Elleeslie Wallace, Hon. J. I. Clark Hare, and the Rev. Treadwell Walden, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Vali?ntine Mott, Dr. Edward Dela- FiELD, and GouvERNEUR M. WiLKiNS, Esq., of New York, be respectfully requested to act as a Commission for ascertaining, by inquiry and investigation, the true physical condition of prisoners, recently discharged by exchange, from confinement at Richmond and elsewhere, within the rebel lines ; whether they did, in fact, during such confinement, sufier materially for want of food, or from its defective quality, or from other privations or sources of disease ; and whether their privations and sufferings were designedly inflicted on them by military or other authority of the Rebel Government, or were due to causes which such authorities could not con- trol. And that the gentlemen above named be requested to visit such camps of paroled or dis- charged prisoners as may be accessible to them, and to take, in writing, the depositions of so many of such prisoners as may enable them to arrive at accurate results ; and to adopt such other means of investigation as they may think proper. 823 Broadway, New York, May 31, 1864. Voted, to request of the Committee of Investigation on the condition of exchanged Union prisoners, the examination not only of Union prisoners, but also of some of the Rebel prisoners recently c^iptured, with reference to the question whether they have, while in the Confederate service, suffered like privations to those experienced by the Federal captives. The above is a correct copy from the Minutes. J. FOSTER JENKINS, General Secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission September, 1864. The Commissioners appointed in the foregoing resolution, by the Standing Committee of the United States Sanitary Commission, respectfully submit the following Narrative and Report — drawn from the mass of evidence collected by them, and printed in the Appendix — as the result of their inquiry and investigation. V. MOTT, EDWD. DELAFIELD, GOUV. MOR. WILKINS, ELLERSLIE WALLACE, J. I. CLARK HARE, TREADWELL WALDEN. 2 COPIES PHOTOGRAPHS OF UNION SOLDIERS AFTER THEIR RETURN FROM IMPHISONMENT AT BELLE ISLE. Accurately copied from the Original Photographs taken at United States General Hospital, Division No. 1, Annapolis, Maryland, and now in the possession oM,he United States Sanitary Commission. '\ .^ THE NARRATIVE AND REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. Reports of Cruelties in the Beginning of the War — Mutual Recrimination of Nortli and South — La- ter and more Authentic Reports — Heart-rending Condition of Returned Prisoners — The Congress- ional Inquiry — Tlie Sanitary Commission Appoints a Commission of Inquiry — Range of the Investi- gation — Visit of the Commmissioners to Annapo- lis and Baltimore — Appearance of the Returned Prisoners — Living SIceletons — Testimony Taken — The Claim of the Rebel Government and Peo- ple — The Humane Principles of Modern War- fare. Ever since -the outbreak of the war, the country has been full of painful rumors con- cerning the treatment of prisoners of war by the rebel authorities. Every returned pris- oner has brought his tale of suffering, aston- ishing his neighborhood with an account of cruelty and barbarity on the part of the en- emy. Innumerable narratives have also been published and widely circulated. The public have been made very uneasy by these reports. One class have accepted them as true ; another have felt them to be exaggei'ated ; still another have pronounced them wholly false, — fictions purposely made and scattered abroad to inflame the people against their enemies, and doing great injus- tice to the South. On the other hand, rumors have crossed the border, of an outraged public sentiment in the South, precisely on the same account : reports abounding tliere of cruelty and bar- barity to the rebel soldiers in our hands. It has been repeatedly announced that what- ever restrictions or privations have been suf- fered by Northern men in Southern prisons, were in retaliation for these. In the beginning of such a prodigious con- test, as this has proved to be, breaking out in the midst of a people unaccustomed to war, and quite removed from extensive military traditions and examples, it was natural that many irregularities should have occurred, and many usages of warfare been disregarded on both sides ; and that in the matter of prison- ers especially, where either region was sud- denly inundated by many thousands, great abuses should have taken place, until accom- modations could be provided, and arrange- ments perfected. But these early days of ill-preparation have long passed away. The war has lasted more than three years. Both sections have become accustomed to it, and are familiarized with the ideas, habits, and laws of military life. The passionate fury of one side and the pcb- triotie indignation of the other, have had time to settle down, at least so far as to ac- cept this condition, and make every civilized provision known in modern warfare, for the mitigation of its horrors and inhumanity. And yet the painful rumors, so rife at the outbreak of the war, instead of subsiding with its early tumult, have lately increased to an extent which has seriously alarmed and aroused the public. The tales of cruelty and suffering have become even more heart-rend- ing. Months ago we heard reports that our men were starving and freezing in the South- ern prisons. In the late temporary resump- tion of the cartel, boat-loads of half naked living skeletons, foul with filth, and covered with vermin, were said to have been landed at Annapolis and Baltimore. Men, diseased and dying, or physically ruined lor life, unfit for further military service, had been received in the stead of soldiers of the enemy returned in good condition, and who had been well fed, well clothed, and well sheltered by our Government during their captivity. But many reasons were circulated to ac- count for such a difference. It was alleged that these emaciated men were the victims of camp dysentery, or similar distempers, and of food, which, however good in quality, and sufHcient in quantity, was averse to the Northern constitution. Again it was alleged that the rebel army Avas, itself, suffering for want of food and clothing, and that the very guards to these prisoners had fared no better. There were many among us who were willing to credit any statement which would mitigate or excuse the infamy of permitting such a condition of things. For the sake of humanity and the American name, they hoped that the worst could not be proved. But there were others to whom the proof was sufficient, and who were convinced that the whole was a horrible and pre-determined scheme, contrived for the purpose of deplet- ing our armies, and discouraging our sol- diers. 3 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES The attention of Congress was roused, and a committee was appointed to investigate this and other alleged barbarities. Their re- port has just been published. Before, however, the result of their inqui- ries was known, the United States Sanitary Commission, as the organ of popular human- ity and philanthropy, determined to make an independent investigation ; and such a one as would, if possible, put the question at rest on all points upon which the public mind was divided or unsettled ; and furnish information so full, and so direct from original sources, that every one could arrive at a just conclu- sion. They accordingly appointed the under- signed as a Commission of Inquiry, partly be- cause they were known to be removed from any political affiliations and prejudices, and partly because three of their number were supposed to be professionally competent to read the unerring testimony of nature in the physical condition of the men. Two distinct departments of evidence were thus opened. In entering upon their duties the Commis- sioners had no other wish than to ascertain the truth, and to report the facts as they were. For this they endeavored to collect all the evidence within their reach, and to hear and record all that could be said on every side of the subject. They were ac- companied by a United States Commission- er, and in every case the testimony was ta- ken on oath or affirmation before him, or in his absence, before other officers equally em- powered. The mass of evidence, printed ks an Ap- pendix, was collected during a period of sev- eral months, and is now arranged and classi- fied to facilitate the reader's reference. If it had been printed in the order in which it was taken, it would have been too irregular and apparently heterogeneous to have exhibited the total result of the investigation. But, as it now stands, it will be found united and homogeneous enough in the tragical story which it tells, without variation or self-con- tradiction, to the country and to the world. Much of the evidence, however, is made up of bare abstracts of the free and full con- versations that were held with persons ex- amined, and although all the essential facts are preserved, yet many graphic and pathet- ic minor details are omitted which escaped, or could not enter, the formal record, but sometimes were noted down by those who were present. Besides this, the Commission- ers were witnesses themselves, and saw and heard enough to overwhelm them with as- tonishment, and remove the last doubt from their minds. For this reason, and that the reader may share with them, so far as car be, the a'.most dramatic development of the inquiry, they send out these pages, not in the tbrm of a brief documentary report, simply referring to the testimony, but as a descriptive narra- tive, in which all the salient points of the ev- idence, and the results of their own observa- tion, are incorporated together. Such a nar- rative need be only an intelligible groupinc of material — its facts will speak best for themselves. The Commissioners, at the very outset, M^^re brought face to face with the returned captives. They first visited the two extensive hos- pitals in Annapolis, occupying the spacious buildings and grounds of the Naval Acade- my and St. John's College, where over three thousand of them had been brought in every conceivable form of suffering, direct from the Libby Prison, Belle Isle, and two or three other Southern military stations.* They also visited the West's Buildings Hospital and the Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore, where several hundreds had been brought, in an equally dreadful condition. The photographs of these diseased and emaciated men, since so widely circulated, painful as they are, do not, in many respects, adequately represent the sufferers as they then appeared. The best picture cannot convey the reali- ty, nor create that startling and sickening sensation which is felt at the sight of a hu- man skeleton, with the skin drawn tightly over its skull, and ribs, and limbs, weakly turning and moving itself, as if still a living man ! And this was the reality. The same spectacle was often repeated as the visitors went from bed to bed, from ward to ward, and from tent to tent. The bony faces stared out above the counterpanes, watching the passer-by dreamily and indif- fercntlyr Here and there lay one, half over upon his face, with his bed clothing only par- tially dragged over him, deep in sleep or stu- por. It Vas strange to find a Hercules in bones ; to see the immense hands and feet of a young giant pendent from limbs tliirKier than "a child's, and that could be spanned with the thumb and finger! Equally strange and horrible was it to come upon a man, in one part shrivelled to nothing but skin and bone, and in*another swollen and misshapen with dropsy or scurvy ; or further on, when the * The Commissioners would acknowledge the courtesy and hospitality of the accomplished and etficienf Surgeon in charge of the Hospital at the X;iv;d Academv, Dr. VanderKielt, by whom every facility for conducting the inquiry was heartily given. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. jiu'geon lifted the covering from a poor half- unconscious creature, to see the stomach fallen in, deep as a basin, and the bone pro- Erotruding through a blood-red hole on the ip. Of course these were the worst cases an^ong those that still survived. Hundreds like them, and worse even than they, had been already laid in their graves. The remainder were in every gradation of physical condition. Some were able to sit up, and to move feebly around their bed ; others were well enough to be out of doors ; many were met walking about the beautiful grounds of the Naval Academy — by a curi- ous and probably accidental compensation, on the part of the Government, swung to this Paradise on the Severn from the saudy little island in James river and its bleak and bitter winds. But however unlike and various the cases were, there was one singular element shared by all, and which seemed to refer them to one thing as the common cause and origin of their suffering. It was the peculiar look in every face. The man in Baltimore looked like the man just left in Annapolis. Per- haps it was partly the shaven head, the sunk- en eyes, the drawn month, the pinched and pallid features — partly, doubtless, the gray- ish, blighted skin, rough to the touch as the skin of a shark. But there was something else : an expression in the eyes and counte- nance of desolateness, a look of settled mel- ancholy, as if they had passed through a pe- riod of physical and mental agony which had driven the smile from their faces forever. All had it : the man that was met on the grounds, and the man that could not yet raise his head from the pillow. It was this which arrested the attention of some of the party quite as much as the re- markable phenomenon of so many emaciated and singularly diseased men being gathered together, all, with few exceptions, having been brought from the same prisons in the South. Every one who was questioned contribut- ed his part to swell the following account of privation, exposure and suffering. The veil is now to be lifted from two of the nearest and most noted Southern stations for prisoners. There appear, indeed, occasional glimpses of places of captivity in Danville, Virginia, and Andersonville, Georgia, but the chief interest centres upon Libby Prison and Belle Isle, at Richmond. Before, however, the narrative proceeds, two things must be borne in mind : First, that we are now penetrating into the arrangements of a people who claim, and have so far maintained, their entire indepen- dence of the United States Government; who have organized a government of their own ; who have also organized immense and powerful armies ; who had, in the beginning, so far prepared themselves, and, during the last three year^, have so far completed their preparations, as to be able to match, and all but overpower one of the strongest military establishments ever known. Let them, for the moment, be taken for what they claim to be : " The Confederate States of America, " a mighty government, and a " superior race, " first in civilization, in culture, and in courage, distinguished for all that is magnanimous, chivalric, humane, hospitable, and noble, for all the graces and refinements, and highest developments of individual and social life. Furthermore, another thing must be borne in mind : that, in these days of civilized war- ■ fare, the cowardly and barbarous usage no longer prevails of maltreating prisoners of war, but the moment a conflict is over, every sentiment of Christianity and humanity rises to mitigate the bloody horrors of the field.. The distinction of friend and enemy is no longer known. The surgeon, with the high -sense of pro- fessional duty in which he has been educat- ed, goes equally to all. The prisoners taken are not thrown into dungeons, nor shut up in jails-, but put into barracks. They are made as comfortable as the arrangements necessa- ry for their safe keeping will permit. They are sheltered, warmed, fed and clothed, in all necessary respeicts as well as the soldiers that vanquished and captured them. They become, lor the time being, part of the mili- tary family of their enemy, and are made subject to the same sanitary and other regu- lations. Their barracks are never overcrowded ; suf- ficient area is allowed for exercise and fresh air ; so much bathing is permitted, and even insisted upon, for the sake of cleanliness ; their food is in every respect the same as that consumed by the army within whose lines they are ; their clothing is all that they need. Such a thing as robbery of their pri- vate property is unknown, or never tolerat- ed if known. When sickness overtakes the prisoner he is removed to the hospital : taken from his bunk and placed upon a bed, and then, what- ever distinction existed before vanishes en- tirely : every kindness and attention, every remedy and delicacy that a sufferer needs, is freely and generously given. Such is the high principle, and noble usage, which prevails in modern warfare. The perfection of its arrangements is a mat- ter of pride and honor among soldiers, and CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES tbe proper boast of every Christian govern- ment. We now turn to the people and govern- ment at present waging war with our Gov- erament, and who, through a dead-lock in the cartel, hold tens of thousands of United States soldiers as prisoners of war. n. AJm«st invariable Robbery of Prisoners — De- scription of Libby Prison — Overcrowded Rooms — Barely room to lie down — Ragged and ver- minous Blankets — Shooting at prisoners without warning — Instances of Shooting in Libby — Same in Danville and Atlanta — Insufficient and disgusting Rations — Slow Starvation — Withhold- iiig and thieving of Boxes sent from the North — Sufferings of the Officers — The Cells — Inhu- manity to the Dead — The Mining of Libby. The first fact developed by the testimony of both officers and privates, is that prisoners were almost invariably robbed of everything raluable in their possession, sometimes on the field, at the instant of capture, sometimes by the prison authorities in a " quasi official way," with. the promise of return when ex- changed or paroled : but which promise was never t'ulfiUed.* This robbery amounted of- t»n to a stripping of the person of even neces- sary clothing. Blankets and overcoats were almost always taken, and sometimes other aj-ticles ; in which case damaged or ragged ones were returned in their stead. This preliminary over, the captives were taken to prison. The Libby, which is best known, though also used as a place of confinement for pri- vate soldiers, is generally understood to be the officers' prison. It is a row of brick buildings, three stories Wgh, situated on the canal, and overlooking the James river, and was formerly a tobacco warehouse. The partitions between the boildings have been pierced with doorways <» each story. The rooms are one hundred feet long by forty feet broad. In six of these rooms, twelve hundred United States officers, of all grades, from the Brigadier-General to the Second-Lieutenant, were confined for many Baenths ; and this was all the space that was allowed them in which to cook, eat, wash, sleep, and take exercise ! It seems incredi- bie. Ten feet by two were all that could be claimed by each man — hardly enough to naeasure his length upon ; and even this was fmlher abridged by the room necessarily ta- ken for cooking, washing and clothes-drying. * No instance of the promise being kept ap- pe«Mrs in the evidence, but there have been occa- sieos reported, though very rare, where money w»s returned, but even then in depreciated Confed- erate currency. At one time they were not allowed the use of benches, chairs or stools, nor even to fold their blanket and sit upon them, but those who would rest were obliged to huddle on their haunches, as one of them expresses it, " like so many slaves on the middle passage." After awhile this severe restriction was re- moved, and they were allowed to make chairs and stools for themselves, out of the barrels and boxes which they had received from the North. They were overrun with vermin in spite of every precaution and constant ablutions. Their blankets, which averaged one to a man, and sometimes less, had not been issued by the rebels, but had been procured in dif- ferent ways; sometimes by purchase, some- times through the Sanitary Commission. The prisoners had to help themselves from the refuse accumulation of these articles, which, -having seen similar service before, were often ragged and full of vermin. In these they wrapped themselves at night, and lay down on the hard plank floor in close and stifling contact, " wormed and dovetailed together," as one of them testifies, " like fish in a basket." The floors were recklessly washed late in the afternoon, and were therefore damp and dangerous to sleep upon. Almost every one had a cough in consequence. There were seventy-five windows in these rooms, all more or less broken, and in winter the cold was intense. Two stoves in a room, with two or three armfuls of wood to each, did not prove sufficient, under this exposure, to keep them warm. The regulations varied at different periods in stringency and severity, and it is difficult to describe the precise condition of things at any one time, but the above comes from two officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Farnsworth and Captain Calhoun. As it happens, tlrey are representatives of the two opposite classes of officers confined in the Libby. The former coming from Connecticut, and influentially connected at the North, was one of a mes» to which a great profusion of supplies, and even luxuries, were sent. The latter coming from Kentucky, and being differently situat- ed, was entirely dependent upon the prison fare. These officers were there during the same season, but never became acquainted. The accounts of each, which will bo found in the evidence side by side, are here combined and run together. From their statements it appears that the hideous discomfort was never lessened by any variation in the rules, but off;en increased. The prison did not seem to be under any general and uniform army regulations, but the captives were subject to the caprices of TO PRISONERS OF WAR. Major Turner, the officer in charge, and Richard Turner, inspector of the prison. It was among the rules that no one should go within three feet of the windows, a rule which seems to be general in all Southern prisons of tliis character and which their fre- quently crowded state rendered peculiarly severe and difficult to observe. The manner in which the regulation was enforced was unjustifiably and wantonly cruel. Often by accident, or unconsciously, an officer would (TO near a window, and be instantly shot at without warning. The reports of the sen- try's musket were heard almost every day, and frequently a prisoner fell cither killed or wounded. It was even worse with a large prison near by, called the Pemberton Buildings, which was crowded with enlisted men. The firing into its windows was a still more common oc^currence. The officers had heard as many as fourteen shots fired on a single day. They could see the guards watching for an opportunity to fire, and often, after one of them had discharged his musket, the ser- geant of the guard would appear at the door, bringing out a dead or wounded sol- dier. So careless as this were the authorities as to the effect of placing their prisoners in the power of the rude and brutal soldiery on guard. It became a matter of sport among the latter " to shoot a Yankee." They were seen in attitudes of expectation, with guns cocked, watching the windows for a shot. But sometimes they did not even wait for an infraction of the rule. Lieutenant Ham- mond was shot at while in a small boarded enclosure, where there was no window, only an aperture between the boards. The guard caught sight of his hat through this opening, and aiming lower, so as to reach his heart, fired. A nail turned the bullet upward, and , it passed through his ear and hat-brim. The officers reported the outrage to Major Tur- ner, who merely replied, " The boys are in want of practice." The sentry said, " He had made a bet that he would kill a damned Yankee betbrc he came off guard." No no- ti<'0 was taken of the occurrence by the au- ' thorities. The brutal fellow, encouraged by this im- piiaity, tried to murder another officer in the same way. Lieutenant Hugglns was stand- ing eight feet from the window, in the second story." The top of his hat was visible to the guard, who left his beat, went out into the street, took deliberate aim, and fired. Prov- identially he was seen, a warning cry was uttered, Hugglns stooped, and the bullet buried itself in the lieams above. Very much the same thing is mentioned as happening in the prison buildings at Dan- ville. A man was standing by the window conversing with private Wilcox. At his feet was the place where he slept at night, close under the window, and where his blanket lay rolled up. He had his hand on the casement. The guard must have seen his shadow, for he was invisible from the regular beat, and went out twenty feet to get a shot at him. Before the poor fellow could be warned, the bullet entered his forehead, and he fell dead at the feet of his companion. Almost every prisoner had such an inci- dent to tell. Some had been shot at them- selves a number of times, and had seen others repeatedly fired upon. One testifie.s that he had seen five hundred men shot at. ' The same brutal style of " sporting " while on guard, seems to have prevailed wherever thelicense was given by this cruel and un- necessary rule. Captain Calhoun, mentions that while he and his companions were on their way to Richmond from North-eastern Georgia, where they were captured, they stopped at Atlanta, and just before they start- ed, a sick soldier who was near the line, be- yond which the prisoners were not allowed to go, put his hand over to pluck a bunch of leaves that were not a foot from the boundar ry. The instant he did so, the guard caught sight of him, fired, and killed him. Another instance of equal skill in " shoot- ing on the wing," will be noticed in the cai>e of the soldier who only exposed his arm an instant in throwing out some water, and wai wounded, fortunately not killed, by the reb- el bullet. Something of the same kind was related in the course of conversation, but is not in the evidence, as happening at the Libby, when an officer was shot white waving his hand ia farewell to a departing comrade. But there were cruelties woi-se than these^ because less the result of impulse and reck- le.t^sness, and because deliberately done. There opens now a part of the narrative which is as amazing as it is unaccountable. The reader will turn to the heart-rending scenes of famine which the testimony before the Commission has exposed. The daily ration in the officers' quarter, of Libby prison, was a small loaf of bread about the size of a man's fist, made of Indian meal. Sometimes it was made from wheat flour, but of variable quality. It weighed a little over half a pound. With it was given a piece of beef weighing two ounces. But it is not easy to describe this ration, it was so irregular in kind, quality and amount. Its general character is vividly in- dicated by a remark made in conversation, by one of the officers : " 1 would gladly," said he, with emphatic sincerity, '' gladly have pre- ferred the horse-feed in my father's stable." CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES During the summer and the early part of the tall, the ration seems to have been less insufficient, and less repulsive than it after- wards became. At no period was it enough to support life, at least in health, for a length of time, but however inadequate, it was not 6o to such a remarkable degree as to pro- duce the evils which afterward ensued. It was about the middle of last autumn that this process of slow starvation became intolerable, injurious, and cruel to the extent refeired to. The corn bread began to be of the, roughest and coarsest description. Por- tions of the cob and husk. were often found . ground in with the meal. The crust was so thick and hard that the prisoners called it iron-clad. To render the bread eatable, they grated it, and made mush of it, but the crust they could not grate. Now and then, after long intervals, often of many weeks, a little meat was given them, perhaps two or three mouthfuls. At a later period, they received a pint of black peas, with some vinegar, every week. The peas were often full of worms, or maggots in a chrysalis state, which, when they made 8oup, floated on the surface. Those who were entirely dependent on the prison fare, and who had no friends at the North to send them boxes of food, began to suffer the horrible agony of craving food, and feeling themselves day by day losing strength. Dreams and delusions began to distract their minds.* Although many were relieved through the * The very same phenomenon occurred during the celebrated Darien Exploring Expedition, under Lieutenant Strain, some years ago. The whole party suffered starvation; a number of them died, and the remainder were rescued wlien they had become emaciated and debilitated nearly to the point of death- " From the time that food became scarce to the close, and just in proportion as famine increased, they revelled tn gorgeous dinners. Truxton and Mauray v/ould pass hours in spreading tables loaded with every luxury. Over this imaginary feast they would gloat with the pleasure of a gourmand." — Darien Explor. Exped., Hai-pers' Monthly, vol. x., p. 613. The party separated. Strain and Avery being the least exhausted and going on before the others to obtain succor if possible. '♦ At length starvation produced the same sin- fular effect on them that it did on Truxton and lauray, and they would spend hours in describ- ing all the good dinners they had ever eaten. For the last two or three days, when most reduced, Strain said that he occupied almost the whole time in arranging a magnificeut dinner. Every luxury or curious dish that he had ever seen or heard of composed it, and he wore away the hours in going round his imaginary table, arrang- ing and changing the several dishes He could not force his mind from the contemplation of this, 80 wholly had one idea — food — taken possession «f it." — Darien Explor. Exped., Harp. MonUdy, vol. X., p. 750. - generosity of their more favored fellow pris- oners, yet the supply from this source wae, of course, inadequate. Captain Calhoun speaks of suffering " a burning sensation on the inside, with a general failing in strength." " I grew so foolish in my min- cess as certain as poison, and as cruel as the torture or burning at the stake, because nearly as agonizing and more prolonged. This spectacle is daily beheld and allowed by the rebel government. No supposition of negligence, or thought- lessness, or indifference, or accident, or in- efficiency, or destitution, or necessity, can account for all this. So many and such posi- tive forms of abuse and wrong cannot come from negative causes. The conclusion is unavoidable, therefore, that " these privations and sufferings " have been " designedly inflicted by the military and other authority of the rebel govern- ment," and cannot have been " due to causes which such authorities could not control." Further than this, the Commlssionei-s are not required to express an opinion. Whether * For the full account see Supplement, page 74. 24 or not they are the result of an infuriated and vindictive animosity against the Federal government and people, or the result of a pre-determined policy, deliberately formed, to discourage and affright our soldiers, to de- stroy them, or to disable them for further military service, or to compel our Govern- ment to an exchange on other than the terms to which it is in honor and by necessity com- mitted, the public are in a position to decide. The Commissioners have now performed their painful task. It has not been a grate- ful duty to narrate facts so unworthy of any people, especially of one heretofore so highly respected, so much admired, and in so many respects a credit to the American name. That name is shamed and dishonored by their exposure. But there is one source of pride and con- gratulation ; that, whatever abuses may have been developed on the Northern side of this war, none of them were originated or sanc- tioned by the government. In every case they have been the impulsive acts of sub- ordinates here and there ; and such are in- cident to any conflict. The noble and mag- nanimous manner in which the government treats the enemies to its peace and pros- perity, when they have become helpless pris- oners in its hands, is. alone, a sufficient mani- festation of the spirit which animates it in waging this war. No sentiment of anger or resentment has actuated it from the begin- ning. The condition of its prison stations and hospitals is the best and proudest exponent of the cause of humanity which it seeks to maintain. This praise will be awarded it by the historian and by posterity, when the story of this stupendous struggle shall be written. Can as much be said of the cause which stands in opposition to it ? The facts of this narrative, and of others that will be yet more complete, will also enter into the future his- tory of this conflict, but will form its most tragical chapter. It will in that day be known whether the spirit which animates the South is not also the spirit which has generated the cause of the South. The spirit ■which animates a cause gives the character fco that cause. A people like an individual is estimated by its actions and by its motives. Perhaps the world will yet discover a strange and reciprocal working of influences in the production of that which now opposes the republican progress of this government. Perhaps the social theory, already so widely accepted, may yet be fully established,- which attributes the alienation of the South- ern people to a simple diflcrence of feeling on a question of humanity. A too positive denial of humanity to another race, and a too positive contempt for a poorer class of CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES their own race, have fostered those per- I verted principles, which Avould undermine j a government filled^with a more generous j idea, and excite a hatred toward the people ! who would uphold it. As an exponent of the inhumanity of the Southern cause, it is not unjust, tlierefore, to point to its prisons a!id hospitals, where disregard of the sacred- ness of human life, and the cry of human suf- fering, has such an extraordinary manifesta- tion. And in the face of all this, the confederate congress, with the approval of tlie confeder- ate president, issued, on the l4th of June last, a manifesto, of Avhich the following is the concluding declaration : " TFi? commit our cause to the enlightened judgment of the rcorld, to the sober reflections of our adversaries themseh-es, and to the sol- emn and righteous arbitrament of Heaven." Can this appeal, to both Divine and hu- man judgment, be really sincere, or is it only a rounded and rhetorical termination of a state paper? Is the rebel government re- ally so unconscious of this barbarous warfare, that it confidently expects the respect and sympathy of the civilized world ? Is it re- ally so unconscious of vindictive cruelty, that it confidently expects a revulsion in its favor from a community whose fathers and brothers and sons lie piled by thousands in pits and trenches, not on the battle-field but in the neighborhood of prisons and hos- pitals ? Is it really so unconscious of crime that it claims even the favorable judgment of Him, unto whom all hearts are open, from whom no secrets are hid, and who reijuires of man to deal justly and to love mei-cy ? Is it really anxious to stand before that bar whose final discrimination between good and evil it has been revealed, shall i-e?t upon the sin- gle fact of humanity or inhumanity, whether the passions of anger and hate have been con- trolled, whether enemies have been forgiven, whether privation and suffering have been relieved ? Tn view of the powerless captive, hungry, naked, sick and wounded, does it re- ally await " the solemn and righteous arbitra- ment " of Ilim, to-day, who will hereafter say to the cruel and the unmerciful : " I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in : naked and ye clothed Me not : sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not " ? Let the Southern conscience listen ! Let it remember that the judgment of Heaven is on the side of humanity, and against cruelty and oppression ; that a wrong done to a man is a wrong done to Gnd, who will make the cause of the sufleriiig His own, and will avenge Himself on His enemies : " Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 25 did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me ! " And here the Commissioners leave the snb- {'e:'t. Their inquiry was orisjinated, and has >een pursued, in the hope that it might, by awakening further attention, be one of the means which would bring about an abandon- ment b}' the rebel goverimient of its prison and hospital system. The many and simulta- neous exposures which have been made, may possibly induce, at least, a prudence which may work the same result as a better motive. Already there are symptoms of some such movement, and of an admission, even at this late moment, of the misery that has been produced, a movement and admission wheth- er made from necessity or self-interest does not yet appear.* * It has not been thought necessary to allude to the subject of the suspension of the cartel of exchange, as it had but little bearing on the points to be inves- ti;^ated. But the lately published letter from Major General Butler, Commissioner of K.xchange, to the Confederate Commissioner, Ould, is of interest and importance at the present juncture. It will be found printed entire in the supplement. The following- extract from General Butler's letter But whatever the event may be, this in- (juiry will have worked its be/t purpose, if its facts should ever reach that nobler portion of the Southern people, who are really chiv- alrous and really religious, who have not been comiaitted to these abuses, who have been kept in ignorance of them, and lead to a protest and revulsion that will compel their government to a repudiation of the iniquity, and to a course more worthy of a civilized and christian people. has a connection with the above remark in the re- port : " I unite with you cordially, Sir, in desiring a speedy settlement of all these questions, in view of the great suflering endured by our prisoners in the hands of your authorities, of which you so feelingly speak. Let me ask, in vieiu of that suffering, luhii you have delayed eight months to amzoer a proposition, which, by now accepting, you admit to be right, just, and humane, allowing that suffeiingto continue so long ? One cannot help thinking, even at the risk of being deemed uncharitable, that the benevolent sym- pathies of the Confederate authorities have been lately stirred by the depleted condition of their ar- mies, and a desire to get into the tield, to efl'ect the present campaign, the hale, heartv, and well-fed prisoners held by the United Statcs,'in exchange for the half-starved, sick, emaciated, and unserviceable soldiers of the United States now languishing lu your prisons." The following paper having been read before the Commission, by Dr. Wallace, it was, on motion of Dr. Delafield, adopted by the Commission, and ordered to be ap- pended to their Report. ' MEDICAL REPORT. Food — Quantity of Food for a Man— Character of Food — Kelation of Food to Temperature — Ration of the Soldiers — Treatment of Rebel Prisoners at U. S. Stations — Rations — Clothing, Shelter and Fuel — Condition of Rebel Prisoners — Treatment of Union Prisoners in Rebel Hands — Rations of Union Prisoners— Quantity of Ration — Character and Quality of tlie Ration — III Efl'ects of the Kations — No Variety in rations of Union Prisoners — Comparison of rations of Union and of Rebel Prisoners — Consequence of Deficient Food — Diseases Produced by Insufficient Food— Insufficient nutriment is Starvation — Privations other than of Food — Crowd Poisoning — Uncleanliness Com- pelled— Condition of Union Prisoners — Clothing and Warmth vs. Starvation — The Sick and Feeble liable to Freeze — Men Frozen — Numbers diseased as above — Management of the Sick — Star- vation in Flanders — Cause of condition and Mortality of returned Union Prisoners — Treatment of Sick Union Prisoners — Mortality in Rebel Hospitals for Union Prisoners — Mortality in U. S. A. Hospital— Mortality at Belle Isle — Mortality at Andersonvllle — Mortality at Fort Delaware- Mortality at Johnson's Island — Additional Mortality — Kindness of Rebel Surgeons. To Dr. Valentine Mott, Chairman, etc. Mr. Chairman : — According to the direction of the Com- mission, I lay before you certain considera- tions relating to the treatment adopted by the authorities of the States in rebellion to- wards United States soldiers held .by them as prisoners of war, with the view of determin- ing the influence of this treatment upon the hygiene and mortality of its subjects. I shall ground my remarks upon the evidence ap- pended — upon the opinions of reliable scien- tific authorities — and to some, though slight degree, upon our own personal observation. Food. In investigating the subject before us, the question otfood takes rank as of first im- portance ; and, in considering this point, there are certain well established facts relating to the subject of alimentation, to which we must refer. 26 Quantity of Food for a man. In deciding upon the quantity of food re- quisite for the due support of a man, Profes- sor Dalton* says that " any estimate of the total quantity should state also the kind of food used," as the total quantity will necessa- rily vary with the quality, since some articles contain much more alimentary material than others." And Surgeon-General Ilammoudf Character of Food. says, " it is necessary that the food of man should consist of a variety of substances, in order that the several functions of the or- ganism may be properly carried on ; no fact in dietetics is better established than this." And Professor DunglisonJ speaks to the same end thus : " man is so organized as to be adapted for living on both animal and vege- table substances, and if we lay aside our mixed nutriment, and restrict ourselves wliol- ly to the products of the one or the other , kingdom, scurvy supervenes.§ ' Dalton states that the amount of solid food required during twenty-four hours by a man in full health and taking free exercise in the open air, is, of bread, nineteen ounces ; meat, sixteen ounces ; and butter, three and a half ounces ; in all, thirty-eight and a half ounces." Hammond places the amount of solid food " required to maintain the organism of a healthy adult American, up to the full meas- ure of physical and mental capability, at about forty ounces, of Avhich two-thirds should be vegetable, and one-third animal." Moreover, due variety in the food is but second in importance to sufficient quantity. (See Pereira on food and diet.) In fact, t\i^ last named physiologist declares that " no matter how nutritious food may be, it is far better to exchange it for that even less nu- tritious, than to continue an unvarying same- ness." Relation of food to temperature. And as to the relation of food to tempera- ture : " In temperate climates, the seasons exercise an influence, not only over tlte qual- ity, but the quantity of food taken into the sys- tem. Most persons eat more in winter than in summei'. The cause is doubtless to be found in the fact, that, in cold weather a greater quantity of respiratory food is required in order to keep up the animal heat, than in hot weather, when the external temperature more nearly approaches the tempei'ature of the body. || " He who is well fed," observes * Human Physiolopy. t Treatise on Hygiene. i Human Health. § Professor Wood, in his Treatise on Practice of Medicine, defines Scurvy to be a disease in wiiicli " tlie blood is depraved, and the system debilitated, witti a tendency to hemorrhage and to local conges- tions." 11 Hammond's Hygiene. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES Sir John Ross, " resists cold better than the man who is stinted, while the starvation from cold follows but too soon a starvation in food.' And Sir John Franklin, in his narrative of a journey to the Polar sea, writes, "«o quanti- ty of clothing could keep us warm whiU- we fasted." " In tropical climates and in hot seasons, the system requires a smaller (juati- tity of food than in colder countries and in cold seasons." * Individuals whose business requires much bodily exertion, or that they should spend much of their time in the open air, eat more than those of sedentary habits. And we have, from the authority of Carpen- ter, in his work on Human Physiology, that " a considerable reduction in the amount of food suflaclent for men in regular active ex- ercise, is, of course, admissible where little bodily exertion is required, and where there is less exposure to low temperatures." Ration of the soldier. The ration of the British Soldier is, at home stations, sixteen ounces of bread and twelve ounces of uncooked meat ; at foreign stations, four ounces more of meat are al- lowed. Any extras are bought by the sol- dier out of his own funds. The French sol- dier in the Crimea had forty-two and five- eighths ounces of solid food, about ten and a half ounces of which were animal, the rest vegetable. In time of peace his ration is less. " The American soldier is better fed than any other in the world. This is proved by the healthy condition of the troops. Scur- vy, 0716 of the first diseases to make its ap- pearance ivhen the food is of inferior quality, has prevailed to so slight an extent, &c."f His ration of solid food J is about fifty-two and a half ounces, with a fair range for variety ; and extra issues of pickles, fruits, and special vegetables, are made, when the medical offi- cers deem them necessary. This ration is more than the man is generally able to con- sume, and the surplus is resold to the govern- ment for his benefit. Treatment of Rebel Prisoners at U. S. Stations. — Rations. The rations issued for the rebel soldiers held by our government as prisoners of war, were the same as for the United States gar- rison troops and soldiers on active service, except the bread ration, which was four ounces less ; and the amount given, was, of solid food, forty-three ounces, besides extra vegetables, etc., sometimes, which were (see Captain Clark's evidence) procured by sale of the surplus, as above noted in the case of the Federal troops. No material change was made until the first of June, 1864, since which date the amount given was reduced to * Pereira, Food and Diet. ! Hammond's Hygiene. Aj98uming soft bread sad &csh beef as the basis. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 27 thirty-four and a half ounces, while the range for variety of articles remained unchanged, and from the exflpBe of the rations issued, the surplus fund for the use of the prisoners was larger than before. That this amount will be sufficient for comfort and health in the warm weather, and under the inactive life (jf tlie prisoner, we must infer from the state- ments of Pereira, Hammond, and Carpenter (above), and may likewise consider proven by the foct, that at Fort Delaware, even in the cold weather of the pas-t winters, the prisoners could not consume all that was given them, and that large quantities of food were secreted, and wasted by them.* By authority of the War Department, the same Regulations as are observed at all sta- tions, where prisoners of vrar are held,f and of course at all such stations, the same gen- eral condition of things must prevail. Clothing, shelter, and fuel. Our evidence exhibits that all needful clothing and blankets^ in some cases even to excess, as well as good and adequate shelter, with sufficient fuel for comfortable warmth, were furnished by the United States Govern- ment to the rebel prisoners. Condition of Rebel Prisoners. In our visit to Fort Delaware we passed through the barracks and enclosures contain- ing about eight thousand prisoners. We ob- served that these men were in good physical condition, and presented the aspect of health and strength ; as was the case at other sta- tions, as seen by the appended evidence. The careful attention to cleanliness urged, and sometimes even enforced, by the United States officers in charge, doubtless contributes to their general good condition in no small degree. We were unable to observe any dif- ference between the treatment of the rebels and the United States soldiers in the hospi- tal at Fort Delaware, or in Lincoln Hospital near Washington. The evidence proves the same arrangements of ward, and bed, and diet, to have been made, with all other nec- essary appliances, for the rebel as for the Union soldier, in the time of sickness, at all stations where prisoners of war are held by the United States Government. Treatment of Union Prisoners in rebel hands. When we come to investigate the testimo- ny in relation to the treatment of United States soldiers while prisoners in the hands of the rebels, we find a most serious differ- ence from the state of things above described. Rations of Uraon prisoners. We learn from those returned that the ra- * See also letter from Quartermaster-General Moiss, .'ippcnded. * See Appendix. tions given them varied at different timenan9 places, but their declarations all concur in this, that they had not food enough to sus- tain their strength, nor to satisfy their hun- ger ; and though these men were held cap- tive at various times, and for a varying peri- od, and at various places, yet their average statements are the same with little limitation. Quantity of ration. Wheat bread was given to some of them for a short time, but the bread was generally made of corn meal. The largest daily ration of wheat bread, of which we have evidence, would weigh about eleven (11) ounces, and the smallest but little more than three (3) ounces. The largest daily ration of corn bread was in bulk from thirty-one .(^0 ^'^ thirty-two (32) cubic inches, representing rather more than twelve (12) ounces of corn meal, while the smallest represented but foui (4) ounces. The ration of meat was, in a few instances, from four (4) to six (G) oun jC'^, but generally about two ounces, though in some cases it was less than this. The meat was irregularly given ; not often daily, and to some, only at intervals of days, or even several weeks, and when meat was served, the bread was, in many instances, diminished. About half a pint of soup, containing sweet potato, or generally beans or peas in amount about two ounces, was sometimes given, with or without meat In different cases. The beans and peas were occasion- ally given raw and dry. The maximum amount of solid food for one day, described, was . . 10 oz. bread. G oz. beef. With half a pint of soup made of the water In which the beef was boiled, and con- taining about tv^o ounces of beans or peas, and, therefore representing 2 oz. Total, 18 oz. The minimum amount was about . . . Total, 4 oz. bread. 1 oz. beef. 5 oz. And so between five (5) and eighteen (18) ounces the rations varied, and in the article of meat, especially, was the great deficiency. Character and Quality of the Ration. But It is necessary to note the character also of the rations. The quality of the wheat bread appears to have been good, but that of the corn bread decidedly the reverse. It was made of meal which was 28 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES coarsely ground and rough, contained all the hull (or bran), often whole grains of corn, with fragments of cob or of husk in- termingled ; frequently ill-baked, or over- baked, and sour and mr.sty withal. The soup was, by universal declaration of the witnesses, repulsive in odor and dis- gusting in flavor. It appears to have been made of the water in which the beef was boiled. Gravel and sand were the least objectionable of the impurites found in it. The beans and peas issued were generally worm-eaten, and contained these insects in quantities, so that they would be floating on the surface, or intermixed thi-oughout the mass of soup and beans. Ill effects of the Rations. Dunglison, in the work before quoted, says that " Corn bread, with those unaccus- tomed to its use, is apt to produce diarrhoea, in conse(iuence probahly of the presence of the husk,* with which it is always more or less mixed, &c.," and it is " but little adapted for those liable to bowel aflfections, &c. And Dr. Hassall says, " In those unaccustomed to its use, maize is considered to excite and to keep up a tendency to diarrhoea." Every one is aware of the laxative influ- ence of so-called bran bread,f which is due to the physical action of the hull of the grain upon the delicate lining membrane of the stomach and bowels, acting thereupon as an excitant or irritant, though tempered by the bland influence of the wheaten flour. Now what must be the result when the meal is of corn, and coarse, and intennix- ed with hull and grain entire, with husk and cob in fragments, among our Northern troops, who are, for the most part, " unaccus- tomed to the use of corn meal " ? We see by the evidence, that some of the men observed the influence of this bread, in producing the diarrhosa with which so many were afflicted. The character of the soup, as above de- scribed, would stamp it as entirely unfit for food, and upon men already suffering from diarrhoea, the evil influence of such a com- pound is but too plainly to be imagined. The evidence shows that some could not eat it, though hungry to starvation. No variety in Rations of Union Prisoners. The average amount of meat allowed was so small that it is not worthy of special con- sideration ; and as to the variety and change of diet, upon which all physiologists lay so great stress, — it is not in the Record, — there was none of it. * Prof. Dunglison informs me that by the word husi:, he intends to imply that which is commonly denominated bran. t See Pereira, Food and Diet. Comparison of rations of Union and of Keb^l i)ri8- oners. How do these amounts ^^d qualities com- pare with the maximum Wty-three ounces, or the minimum thirty-four and a half oun- ces, of standard Government food, of excel- lent quality, and abundant room lor variety, cAid extra issue of fresh vegetables according to necessity, which the United States Govern- ment allows its prisoners? The question may be answered by contrasting the exhaust- ed, the attenuated, the melancholy, the im- becile, the dying, and the dead. Union sol- diers, returning home from Richmond, with the cheerful, healthy, and vigorous South- erners, held at, or released from, the various United States stations referred to in the ap- pended testimony. Consequence of deficient food. Let us look now at the consequence of de- ficiency of food, as explained by students and observers of the subject. In the Medical and Surgical history of the British army which served in Tnrkey and the Crimea, we find that " during January, 1855, by the deficiency of food, the efficien- cy of the whole army was seriously com- promised. Disease was simply the more overt manifiistation of a pathological state of the system, which was all but universal, and merely indicated the worst gi-ades of il. Fe- ver and affections of the bowels represented the forms in which morbid actions were usu- ally presented, while gangrene and scurvy indicated those privations and that exposure from which these diseases were mainly de- rived." Again, " in starvation the tissues of the body are consumed for the production of heat, and rapid loss of weight is the conse- quttuce. The other vital processes all in- volve decomposition of the substance of or- gans, and add to the loss which the body un- dergoes. From insuflicient food for a few Diseases produced by insufficient food. weeks, disease is almost invariably induced ; typhus and typhoid fever, scurvy and ancemia are the consequences." * Dr. Carpenter, in his Human Phj^siology, says, " the prisoners confined in Mill Bank Penitentiary, in 182S, who had previously received an allowance of from thirty-one to thirty-three ounces of dry nutriment daily, had this allowance sud- denly reduced to twenty-one ounces, — ani- mal food being almost enCirely excluded from the diet scale. They were at the same time subjected to a low grade of temperature, and to considerable exertion ; in the course of a few weeks the health of a large proportion of the inmates began to give wav, Tlie first symptoms were loss of color, and diminution of health and strength, subsequently diar- * Hammond's Hygiene. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 29 rhcea, dysentery, scurvy, and lastly adynamic fevers, or headache, vertigo, convulsions, maniacal delirium, apoplexy, &c. After death, ulcerations of the mucous lining of the alimentary canal were very commonly found ; fifty-two per cent, were thus affected. That the reduction of the allowance of food was the main source of the epidemic, was proved, * * * &c." Insufficient nutrition is starvation. We appeal here to Chossat's Inquiries, re- sulting in the proof of this curious effect of insufficient nutrimeiit, that it produces an in- capability of digesting even the small amount consumed. " So that, in the end, the results are the same as those of entire deprivation of food, the total amount of loss being almost exactly identical, but its rate being less." Privations other than of food. But in addition to a starvation diet, our evidence furnishes proof of confinement to overcrowded rooms, without proper ventila- tion — of want of clothing — want of skelter — and denial of suitable means of warmth, whether by blankets or hy fuel, and this even during the fall, winter, and spring just passed. Crowd-Poisoning. " Overcrowding, imperfect ventilation, and want of cleanliness, are three conditions usu- ally associated, and may be designated by the single term Croivd-Poisoning." * The evidence exhibits that about twenty square feet was, in some instances, all the superficial space permitted to each man confined in pris- on. And, on Belle Isle, it would appear that for a time there was little variation from the same area. " The air of crowded camps and habitations becomes contaminated through emanations given off during respiration, through effluvia from the skin, and by the decomposition of the various excreta. The nitrogenized matter earned into the air from the skin, and the products arising from the decomposition of the excreta, are sources of deadly mischief. The effects of overcrowd- ing are not only manifested by the increased violence and the adynamic character of all diseases occurring among those exposed, but the development and severity of the ady- namic fevers appear particularly connected with this cause." t And again, "To the or- ganic matters emanating from the human l)ody, more than to any other cause, the in- jurious results of overcrowding are to be as- cribed." " The proofs are ample, that the emanations from the human body are of a decidedly del- eterious character, when present in large * Woodward ; Camp Diseases, t Woodward. tt amounts in the atmosphere inhaled. They are absorbed by the clothing, and even the walls of the room take them up and retain them for a long time." * "If animals be kept crowded together in ill-ventilated apartments, they speedily sicken." f " The continued res- piration of an atmosphere charged with the exhalations of the lungs and skin is the most potent of all the predisposing causes of dis- ease." X Uncleanliness compelled. Dut Dr. Woodward alludes to " want of cleanliness " as one of the elements of ordi- nary crowd-poisoning. Far more than ordi- nary was this " want " in the rebel prisons, especially on Belle Isle. A reference to the evidence will show that accumulation of filth of the most noisome character was compelled by prison discipline ; that Important accom- modations were denied during the night hours, resulting in unavoidable soiling of the quarters of the prisoners, while the means of bathing, though convenient, were to so great an extent denied the prisoners, as to produce, in a large number of them, a con- dition of the skin, which is not only a disease in itself, but Is also a cause of disordei's vari- ous and grave. § Condition of Union Prisoners. We observed the surface of the bodies of a number who suffered thus ; it was of most remarkable aspect, appearing as though It had been covered with a heavy coat of com- mon varnish, which had dried, and cracked, and was pealing up in scales of every size. To the touch, It was as sand-paper of irreg- ular quality. The cuticle — both effete and living — lay In masses, separated by fissures of varying extent and depth, through which watery and bloody fluids were seen exuding. The soles of the feet were like the sole of a plasterer's shoe — white, brown and yellow ; the cuticle dried and broken, and laminated variously. The functions of the skin, upon which physiologists lay so great stress, are here al- most entirely unperformed, and hence we have " gastric disturbances, and diarrhoeas," with suppression of that aeration of blood — that true respiration, which, physiologists tell us, takes place through the skin. Hence the lungs are overtaxed, and congestions are in- duced. And when to this we add the depraved state of the blood of the suflTerers, and their exposures to cold, and wet, and storm, by day and night, we have, in full quantity, those general and special condi- * Hammond, t Dunglison. 1 Carpenter. § See Surgeon Ely's evidence. 30 tionp, which induce pulmonary diseases of every grade and character. Clothing and warmth vs. starvation. On the question of clothing and warmth ; from what has been shown above, a corollary is direct!}' deducible, viz.: That if food be in limited quantity, low temperature should be avoided, and external warmth duly main- tained. " Artificial Avarmth may be made to take the place of nourishment otherwise re- quired. And there is adequate ground for considering death by starvation, as really death from cold. The temperature of the body is maintained with little diminution till the fat is consumed, and then rapidly falls, unless it be kept up by heat externally ap- plied." * Now not only was external heat not granted by the rebels to their prisoners, but their blankets were generally taken from them, as also some of their personal clothing. The sick and feeble liable to freezing. Further, " tJie sick and feeble will not bear the low temperature, which, to those in good condition, acts as a healthful stimulant. In d'tseases attended with deficient poicer of cir- culation, congelation of the tissues is liable to orcur, from the effects of a temperature which could not give rise to it in a healthy suliject." We see that diarrhoea, scurvy, — and these two disorders existing coincidently " in the majority of cases of diarrhosa," — congestion of the lungs of atonic character, and "debilitas," (as the medical records of the hospital have it,) all stand out promi- nently in the evidence, as being an almost constant condition among those who have been prisoners in Danville, Va., Richmond, Va., and especially on Belle Isle. The au- thorities hereinbefore quoted show that these formidable disorders are the legitimate off- spring of the treatment to which our men have been subjected while in the hands of the rebels. Shall we be surprised that dis- eases obey the laws of their production, or that they flourish, luxuriant and rank, in a soil specially prepared for their reception ? And are not all these " diseases attended with deficient power of circulation " ? Are not the sulijects of the same " sick and fee- ble " V Is it all surjjrising that they cannot bear the low temperature of a winter on Belle Isle, — clad only in worn-out or scanty cloth- ing, — with intidequate or with no shelter, — with little fire, or generally none at all, — and having no resting place but the ground, in mud and frost and snow ? Nay, is it not a cause for wonder that "congelation of the tissues" was not even more common among them ? Our evidence tells of many men freezing on Belle Isle, to loss of limb, and more, of life. * Carpenter. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES Men frozen. We saw cases of " amputation by frost, " at the United States Hospitals, at Baltimore, and Annapolis, and the " Quarterly Report of the hospitals for the Federal prisoners, Richmond, Va.," (appended,) shows that of two thousand seven hundred and seventy- nine patients admitted in January, February, and March, 18G4, there were fifteen cases of gelatio, (or freezing,) and fifty of gan- grene from frozen feet 1 And from the same Numbers diseased as above, document we find that two thousand one hundred and twenty-one, out of the two thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine, were affected with debility, adynamic fevers, diarrhoea, dysentery, diseases of the chest, and scurvy — the very effects proved above to be produced by starvation, cold, over- crowding, filth, and exposure ; and, as al- ready mentioned, the testimony of the United States surgeons at Annapolis and Baltimore shows that the great majority of our soldiers received from rebel prisons suffered under the same affections. These surgeons further Management of the sick, declare, that these diseases did not yield to ordinary medical treatment ; that they were most successfully managed by " nullifying the cause," that is, by nutrition and stimulation, with especial attention to cleanliness and fresh air, medical agencies being only acces- sories, and sometimes not resorted to at all. Starvation in Flanders. M. Fleury (cours d'hygiene) says : " Sous le nom defevre de famine, M. de Meersman a trace un tableau complet et methodique de I'etat morhide que deoeloppe V alimentation in- suffisante, et qu'Il dit avoir observe en 1846 etl847 dans les Flandres beiges." He then recounts the article, which is too long to bear quotation here, but it is a most singulaidy ac- curate description of that which our soldiers returned from rebel prisons state in regard to their own feelings and sufferings, — of those conditions which the United States surgeons at the Baltimore and Annapolis hospitals have delineated to us, — and which we wit- nessed and observed in our visits to the insti- tutions above mentioned. Cause of condition and mortality of returned Union prisoners. It is utterly incorrect to charge the bodily attenuation, the mental imbecility, and the startling mortality which prevail so largely among the men from the prisons of the South, upon the mere diseases of which they are the subjects. If a man swallow a poisonous dose of arsenic, he will sufier pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, hoe morrh ages,, and convulsions, even imto death ; are these " more overt manifestations," — these necessary consequen- TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 31 ces of the morbific agent applied— to be considered as the causes of the death ? Or shall we go to the true first cause direct, and say " the man died by poisoning by arsenic " V So have our men died,— from cold and exposure, from crowd poisoning, from starva- tion and from privation, while the way to death was roughly paved with disease of body ai\d of mind,— mere minor manifesta- tions of those allied powers of evil. Treatment of sick Union prisoners. But we further find a similar treatment, — similar in kind, though modified in degree,— dealt out to the wounded and the sick on Belle Isle and in Richmond. The evidence of those who have been under the care of the surgeons at these stations is corroborated by the° testimony of Colonel Farnsworth, and by that of Surgeons Ferguson and Richards. The latter lay stress upon the ofiensive, and "utterly unfit," character of the beds and bedding, and declare that the diet was " en- tirely msuffieient to give them a proper chance of recovery," and state further that there was a deficiency of medical supplies in the hospital for Federal prisoners, while the evidence is before us that at General Hospi- tal No. 4, Richmond, the Confederate soldier had " as much good food as he could eat, with good bedding and sheets ;" and evidence to the same end appears in relation to " Con- federate hospitals in the field." Mortality in Kebel Hospitals for Union Prisoners. On the subject of the mortality of Union prisoners in rebel hands, we find that the " Quarterly Report," above referred to, ex- hibits a record, which, though startling and fearful, is yet easily explained by the fore- going considerations. For what can be ex- pected of men worn out, almost unto death, by the want of those things which are nec- essary for the body,— and then further re- ^ duced by disease, — when subjected to such ** privations and noxious influences as those described by Surgeons Ferguson and Rich- ards ? This "Report" shows a mortality among the sick of rather more than fifty per cent f* How does this compare with that at the United States General Hospital at Annapolis which is only eighteen per cent ? Mortality in U. S. A. Hospital. Yet the cases at Annapolis were all brought by flag-of-truce boat from City Point, Virgin- ia, and were of the same general class as those in the " Hospitals for the Federal Pris- oners, Richmond, Virginia." Mortality at Belle Isle. Further, we find that " a Confederate official, whose evidence cannot be questioned, declared that of the numbers remaining at » Four deaths only occurred from wounds. Belle Isle, then about eight thousand (8,000), about twenty-five died daily, and that it would be but a few weeks before the deaths would count fifty a day." From this, we have a mortality at Belle Island in a ratio of one hundred and fourteen per cent, per year, with double this amount in prospect. Mortality at Andersonville. Again ; the Macon Journal and Messen- ger says that " there are now over twenty- seven thousand (27,000) prisoners at Ander- sonville, Georgia, among whom the deaths are from fifty to sixty a day," or in a ratio of about from sixty-eight to eightij-one per cent, per year.* Mortality at Fort Delaware. Tui-n now to the mortality among the reb- el prisoners at Fort Delaware, where, in ad- dition to the more ordinary causes of sick- ness and death among soldier-pri#ners_, we find " small-pox, the majority of the prison- ers not having been vaccinated before they came here." Also, a " prostrated condition of the prisoners from Vicksburg, a great many of whom had to be carried, on their arrival here, from the boat to the hospital, and many of whom represented that they had been limited to half and quarter rations during the siege of Vicksburg ; " and _" pris- oners°from Vicksburg and the Mississippi Valley laboring under miasmatic influences, under which a great number of them died." Yet with all these extra causes of death, the mortahty for the entire year just closed, amounts to less than twenty-nine per cent., and when these special causes ceased to exist, it diminished rapidly, and during the three months of April, May, and June, it had fal- len to heloio a ratio of ten and a half per cent, per year, and was still diminishing, while the sum total of prisoners was yet increasing. Mortality at Johnson's Island. Again; at Johnson's Island, Sandusky bay, Ohio, — the climate of which station has been stigmatized by our enemies as insalu- brious, and in high degree pernicious to the constitution of the Southerner,— the deaths among the rebel prisoners during the year I863,°with the prevalence of measles and small-pox, amounted to less than nine per- cent.; and during May and June of this year, there were but six deaths, that is, in the ratio of less than tioo per cent, per year. By such contrasts of mortality at United States stations, and at rebel stations, argu- ment and comment are struck dumb. * Since this was written a sworn statement has come to our hands, (a copy of which will be found in the vSupplem.8nt,) wlience it appears that the mortality at Andersonville had increased rapiilly, and had" advanced in fa-ct to a ratio from one, hun- dred and thirty-fiw to one. hundred and f fly-two per cent, per year. 32 Additional Mortality. There are still others, who are destined to fall victims to what we are compelled by the evidence to consider a carefully devised plan for the destruction of Union soldiers, by weap- ons as surely, though not so mercifully, fa- tal, as shot and shell and bayonet. We refer to such, as, being broken down in mind and intellect, and vitiated in bodily vigor, and diseased beyond hope of recovery, by all the morbific causes which the rebel authorities have arrayed against them during their im- prisonment, — and who being discharged from their country's service for disability, — will, in weeks and months to come, swell the local lists of mortality in the districts of their own homes. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES. Kindness of Kebel Surgeons. We have been much gratified to find, not only from the sworn testimony, but liom pri- vate conversation with a very large number of our returned prisoners, that the treatment and attention they received at the hands of the rebel surgeons was kind and sympathiz- ing ; their necessities were evidently as faith- fully ministered to by these medical officers, (with one exception only), as the provision made by the authorities of the rebel govern- ment would allow. Respectfully submitted, ELLERSLIE WALLACE. July, 1864. TO THE READERS OF THE LIVING AGE, AFTER THEY SHALL HAVE PEEUSED THE REPORT OF THE SANITAEY COMMITTEB Now that you have read — with a sorrow and indignation which words cannot speak, and which can only be expressed by tears, and sobs, and teeth closely set together — the record of cruelties inflicted upon your fathers, and brothers, and sons who went forth at the call of their country to uphold her Constitution and Laws, — it is important that you should have a clear knowledge of the origin of these horrors. They seem to have been prompted by fiendish malignity and ingenuity. But the perpetrators did not arise from the bottom- less pit. They were born of women. They were originally like yourselves. And if sub- jected to the same temptations, you would Ixjcome even as they are, and as many Northern men have already become. These human beings (for such they are) have had their worst propensities magnified and inflamed by tlie possession of despotic and irresponsible power. Cut off, by their own intolerance and fierceness, from the so- ciety of all who believe in the Declaration of Independence, and from the influence of the public opinion of Christendom (of which they heard only enough to irritate them), they have herded together, and have " bred in and in " their defiance of the laws of God and man, and their hatred and cru- elty, until they seem to have been delivered over to believe that they have a Divine right to do as they please, not only to their slaves, but to all mankind who differ from them. These effects have legitimately flowed from Slavery. You must remove the cause, if you wish to have peace and union. But this cause removed, by the blessing of Almighty God upon our armies, we shall dwell together in safety. The Capital and Industry of the Free States will make the South the Garden of America; will make her production an hundred-fold ; and once more, " As a band of brothers joined, ~ Peace and safety we shall find." APPENDIX REPORT OF THE SANITARY COMMITTEE: B£INa THB EVIDENCE TAKEN BY THE COMMISSION BBIiATING TO TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS BY THE REBELS. EVIDENCE OP OEEICEES AND SOLDIEES OE THE UNITED STATES AEMY* EETUENED AETEE CONFINEMENT IN EEBEL PEISONS. Testimomj taken at Annapolis^ Maryland, at United States Army General Hospital, Di- vision No. 1, May 31, A.D. 1864. Commissioners Present. — Dr. Valen- tine Mott, Dr. Edward Delafield, Gouveraetir M. Wilkins, Esq., Dr. Ellerslie Wallace, Hon. J. I. Clarke Hare, Rev. Treadwell Walden. TESTIMONY OF PRIVATES AND NON-COM- MISSIONED OFFICERS. Private Joseph Grider, sworn and ex- amined : — I come from East Tennessee, near Knox- ville ; enlisted In the 3d East Tennessee in- fantry. I was taken prisoner near home, betrayed by a citizen, 30th October, 18G3. I was taken to Atlanta, Georgia, and then taken to Richmond. I am fifty-eight years of age ; my health was pretty good when I was "last captured. The first time I was balled and chained at Macon, Georgia. I escaped from Macon, Georgia; was taken as a spy ; some papers found on me — re- cruiting papers. Was put In Libby Prison fii-st, kept there about three weeks, then was removed to Danville. I first escaped August 31st, and afterwards was retaken. I then had my uniform on as I had before when I was taken as a spy. When I reached Rich- mond my health was only tolerable good. * The term " United States Army " ia used here and elsewhere for convenience, and includes both the regular and volunteer service. THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII which was occasioned by the treatment I had previously received. During while I was escaping I lived on stolen corn and stolen pigs ; I broiled the meat in the mountains ; I was in Libby about three weeks; was In Danville over five months. Left Danville 16 th of April to come here. In Libby my daily ration was corn bread — very rough. It was not sieved -— plenty of whole grains in it; (witness gives the measure, which amounts to about 31 f cubic inches). There were corn husks also In the bread as large as my two fingers. \ kepta journal, but it was taken from me ; it was in the haversack. Had meat sometimes, about every other day, about two ounces. Tlie bread weighed from a half pound to three- quarters — for two men — as some of our men weighed It. I could have eat up my rations and'my partner's and not had enough at that, when I was well. It was just the diet that made me sick ; the bread was not done half the time. Everything was taken from me but my dress coat, shirt, pants and boots ; slept on the floor; walked many a night to keep warm ; there were two hundred and fourteen men In the room I staid In ; we laid close to- gether, about a foot apart. Rations at Libby not the same as at Dan- ville ; at Danville we got black bread, which we drew until it gave out, then we had corn bread. There were lots of men who walked t Representing a fraction more than twelve ounces of raw corn meal. 1262. 33 34 all night to keep warm. At Danville we got bigger of the black bread than common ; I threw it up, I couldn't eat it. It is made of cane seed ; I never knew it to be eaten be- fore. I was in Danville about four weeks before the diarrhoea came on me ; I had lost flesh before and since my capture. My healthy weight is from two hundred and twelve to two hundred and fourteen pounds. I went into the hospital when I had the diarrhoea ; there got pea-soup and a slice of white bread, size of half my hand. I found bugs in the soup, that was boiled out of the peas. I was there twelve days before they gave me any medicine, or told me what was the matter with me. My diarrhoea had stopped some time be- fore I was exchanged ; I afterwards had the pleurisy. I have gained fl-esh since I came here. They abuse the Tennesseans worse than other prisoners. Our food was about the same. They would not let you look out the win- dows. They shot seven men for looking out ; one was shot on my floor ; his name was Ro- bert McGill; he got well; he had just put his hand out to throw out some water. It was Avarm enough in the day-time wh.en we were stirring about. Sometimes we were allowed to go to the privy and sometimes we were not. We have been kept from it so much as three days, until we fouled the floor — this was for punishment for taking a little slat or such thin;?, by those who were on the lower floor. I can eat two such corn cakes as I got. JOSEPH GRIDER. Sworn lo and subscribed before me, iMay 3 1 St, 18(.H. D. P. Brown, Jii., Uaited States Coinmissioner. Private Jackson O. Broshers, sioorn and examined : — Age, twenty years ; height, six feet one inch ; ordinary weight from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and seventy-five pounds. I have weighed but one hundred and sixty pounds ; improved for a while in weight in the army. I enlisted from Spencer county, Indiana, in the 65th Indiana; cap- tured December 16th; in prison at Belle Isle, and at Pemberton buildings in Rich- mond. Was clad with great coat and blanket when taken. They were taken from me ; they gave me no blankets or covering. I wore a jacket, shirt, drawers, &c., while in prison. The prison was not a very good place to stay ; it was a tent ; I staid in it at Belle Isle; the rain came in; suffered from the cold; It was cold weather; had some little lire part of the time ; 1 had a Sibley I CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES tent very much torn ; the fire was in the centre. I saw a good many men — over three hundred — without shelter for some weeks ; I slept on an old coat I got from a rebel; no man ever said he was comfortable In pris- on ; our men would sleep upon what they could get ; I have a chronic diarrhoea ; had corn bread in prison ; before I came away they gave us more ; I had enough for a while of such as was given us ; no whole grains in my bread ; it was white corn bread ; had pork once ; don't know how often I had beef; don't think seven times ; was In Belle Isle about two and a half months; got a piece of meat about the size of my two fin- gers. I judge It had worms in it by the holes I saw ; before I came away, I got enough of such as it was, but at first I did not. I lost my strength I think for the want of food ; It was a mouth and a half that we had no meat ; had not been sick before I entered the army; most of the men complained of being hungry ; they appeared ravenous when the rations were broujght In. I have gained strength since I have been here ; I have the diarrhoea ; had it about two weeks before I came from prison ; I thiuk I lost my strength before the diarrhoea began ; lost my flesh afterward ; the worst of my weakness was after the diarrhoea commenc- ed ; could not have walked three miles with- out resting before the diarrhoea came on. I did not suffer from the want of air, but the want of room ; I suffered from cold a great deal ; about fourteen to fifteen men sleep in a Sibley tent In our army. I got some crackers that they said came from the Sanitary Commission, a cap, over- coat and canteen ; the other men got some clothing, too, that they said came irom the Sanitary Commission. My rations were somewhat less than thla bible.* JACKSON O. BROSHERS. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Corporal William M. Smith, sworn and examined : — I am twenty-two years old ; from Ken- tucky ; enlisted in the 8th Kentucky regiment September 24:th, 1861 ; was captured Sep- tember 20th, 1863 ; taken to Richmond, Vir- ginia; was captui-ed at the battle of Chat- tanooga. I was put in Smith's building, after being * Which being measured, contains 31 J cubic inches. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. some six days at Belle Isle ; in Smith's build- ing about two months. Had on good clothes -when taken in ; they took blankets and oil cloth, extra shirt and drawers, &c., from me ; while we were in Richmond, there were some Sanitary clothes sent there ; they were needed mighty bad ; the rebels have taken a heap of Sanitary clothing, I think. At Belle Isle, laid out on the naked ground ; it rained some two days. I took the small-pox in Danville ; I was then taken to the hospital ; I wore the same clothing I had before I got it ; I wore the same clothes when I came on here ; I believe I had a shirt and my dress coat washed ; I washed my drawers myself. I came here the second of May. My health was pretty good when taken prisoner ; when I left I was taken out of the hospital ; I guess it was the small-pox, erysip- elas and diarrhoea which brought me down. When I was in prison, before I was taken sick, got a piece of corn bread about the size of this bible, (the same referred to by the other witness ;) got meat three or four days in the week ; when sick, got a small piece of wheat bread — as much as I could eat then — a piece of beef with it, about two ounces ; sometimes a little beef soup, with red peas in it, and rice ; we had coffee made out of rye — sometimes, once a day — most every day ; I took the small-pox first ; I was there about a week before I took it ; felt pretty well be- fore; did not get enough to eat before ; hun- gry all the time. WILLIAM M. SMITH. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May31st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Sergeant Alfred P. Jones, sworn and ex- amined : — I am twenty-seven years of age ; am from Worcester, Massachusetts ; I enlisted Sep- tember 14th, 1861, in Boston, in the 1st Mas- sachusetts cavalry ; was taken prisoner in Virginia, at Aldie, June 17th, 1863; was taken to Libby prison June 24th, 1863. Was in prison two days and one night; then taken to Belle Isle, and remained there some thirty days when I was exchanged ; I was protected from the weather by a tent — it was full of holes ; some were as well off and others were not — some laid on the bare ground — some four hundred ; had no blan- ket or overcoat when I went there. I sold my India rubber cover to a rebel to buy bread with. A good many who went to the prison when I did, had their blankets taken from them ; the men said they wanted the clothes for 35 their own soldiers ; I used to see the rebel ofncers dressed in our uniforms. Most of the men seemed to have coughs, and were very weak. The prisoners complained of a want of food ; it was a general complaint ; I walked the streets many a night ; I could not sleep from hunger ; all complained. At the time I was there in June and July, 1863, the food was very fair, but in small quantities ; received one-fourth of a loaf in the morning of wheat bread, which was three inches by three and three-fourths, by one and three-fourths. We had this twice a day ; about two small mouthfuls of meat. For supper we had a half pint of bean soup ; don't remember finding any worms in it ; there would be sand or gravel in it ; there was no deficiency in water. We were al- lowed to go out in squads to bathe. There were squads let out to bathe and wash their clothes. I had nothing to sleep on ; It was warm in the day time, cool at night. I heard many complain of cramp and pains. I lost flesh and strength, and so did the others, from want of food. ALFRED P. JONES, Sergeant Co. C, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 1801. Dl P. Brown, Jr. United States Commissioner. Private William D. Foote, sworn and ex- amined : — ■ I was born in Canada, and enlisted in Buffalo, New York, on 31st October, 1862, in the 9th New York Cavalry ; I am twenty- eight years of age ; have been in the army about a year and eight months. Was in the hands of the rebels about nine months; was at Belle Isle, and in the hospi- tal at Richmond ; was well when I was cap- tured ; I was taken with diarrhcea. For first two or three months at Belle Isle the quality of rations was very good ; hardly sufficient to sustain life in quantity. It was wheat bread, almost four inches square, not exceeding half an inch in thickness, a small portion of beef — call it two mouthfuls. We had this quantity of bread twice a day, and a small tincupful of bean soup, which had black bugs in it, which would float on the top. We then got corn bread, about half the size of this Bible, (the same one previously referred to,) twice a day. I was seven weeks I had no shelter at all ; the latter part of the time had a tent full of holes. The latter part of October received blan- kets, &c., from our Government; my blankets and clothes had been taken from me. 36 I lost flesh. Out of seven hundred that came to Belle Isle with me, I think there ■vverc about two hundred got shelter ; we were exposed to the weather. There was no name for our hunger. When a bone would be thrown away by some, it would be taken up often by others, and boiled to get something out of it. All who were there failed in strength and fli'.-h as I did, fi-om starvation, I think. There were no sheds put up for us. I should judge it was the corn bread which caused the diarrlicsa. It appeared to disa- gree with me, for when I had wheat bread, I kept my health perfect. The corn bread gave me pain in my bowels ; often got whole grains and husks in the bread, I am positive, as I am on my oath ; the proportion would be small ; after that, we got rye and corn mixed, of a better quality of bread. WILLIAM D. FOOTE. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, liUM. D. F. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Private Robert Morrison, sworn and examined : — I was enlisted from the northwest part of Ohio, in Pendleton, Putnam county, Riley township, in the 21st Ohio Volunteers; I was taken prisoner at Chattanooga, September 20th, 1863 ; I was removed to Richmond ; was two or three days on our way ; I was stout andhealthy when I reached Richmond ; I forget the name of the prison into which I was put — I remember, it was Pemberton ; I remained there about a month, was then removed to Danville, Virginia, remained there till I was brought here ; was placed in buJfdiEss at Danville. Ou" blankets were taken from us ; our othy- clothing was left to us: had no over- coat ; had no watch ; we saved our money ; I put it in the sole of my boot ; they searched us for it ; we had a stove — got wood once in a while ; it was not very comfortable. My health v/as first-rate before I entered the service ; I was in the army about nine- teen months before I was captured ; had no bowel complaint or any other sickness while in our army ; when I went into the army my weight was one hundred and twenty-five pounds. I got a chunk of corn bread daily, the size of this Bible* ; it satisfied me and more too, because I couldn't eat it ; sometimes it was but about half baked; it was of a yellow color ; it was of a musty taste ; had a very small ration of meat about as large as three of my fingers in breadth, and about two laches in thickness. * The same before referred to. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES I was about two months in \ ri;»n before I took sick ; my first sickness was fever and ague ; I had not had it before for some years ; I have a little bowel complaint now, it does not trouble me much ; I had the lung fever afterwards. I got some eggs then ; when I got so as to be up and around I was sent back to the prison ; I then took the diar- rhoea ; that came on in about three weeks after my return to the prison ; it reduced me down — was sent back to the hospital ; got wheat bread then, an egg, small piece of meat, potatoes, salt meat, some soup not very good ; there was rice in the soup ; was in a bed when I had the lung fever ; I could go into corn bread pretty fast at first ; the meat was pretty good — fresh meat ; I was there about six months; if the corn bread had been good, with the meat, it would have been plenty ; had not been in the habit of eating corn bread ; it was kind of musty. In the corn bread there were some grains of corn. A hundred and fifty men in the' room where I was. In a warm evening the room was very close ; we had brooms to sweep the room ; the privy was handy ; the room we were in was about sixty by sixty feet ; we had as much food as we wanted, such as it was. There was about a foot between each man as we lay ; we had a small yard we could walk around, about fifteen or sixteen feet wide, by one hundred and fifty feet long ; I think it was the corn bread and fresh meat that gave me the bowel complaint ; I was not used to the corn bread. I am twenty-three years of age. ROBERT MORRISON. Sworn to and subscribed before me. May 31, 1801. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Testimony taken at United States Army Gen- eral Hospital, Division No. 2, Annapolis, Maryland, May 31, 1864. ALL THE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT. Private George Dingman, sworn and ex- amined : — I am fifty-four years of age ; I am from Michigan; enlisted in the 27th Regiment in 1862; I had always good health till cap- tured ; was taken at Strawberry Plain ; taken to Richmond, thence to Belle Island about the 26th of January ; had no shelter but the heavens ; was taken by some one into a tent ; had the rheumatism. No shelter was provided by the authori ties ; some hundreds had no shelter, som\. had ; no fire ; had nothing to sleep on but them blankets I brought ; had blankets when taken prisoner. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. (A ration produced) ; this was the rations I got ; sometimes we got this twice and some- times three times a day (the ration weighs two ounces of bread and three-sixteenths of an ounce of meat ; both are now perfectly dry which causes a loss of weight); have had ♦neat more than once a day. Was at Belle Isle two weeks ; think the prisoners got a little more bread on the island than at the hospital ; my ration was two inches in length by two and a half inches wide, and about one inch thick, three times a day, or twice a day sometimes ; suffered from hunger ; could not lay in bed from rheumatism ; when the hungry feeling came I got so weak I could not walk ; once and a while had a little soup or beans raw ; no man could eat the soup unless he was starving ; it tasted nasty and briny ; I could walk when T ciune here, but had no strength. I saw the rations the rebel guards got ; ihey were four times as much as ours : they got the same kind of bread and meat, but they could help themselves out of the bag. There were complaints; the doctor was very kind, and did all he could. During January the men Avould run all night to keep warm, and in the morning I would see men lying dead ; from three to six or seven ; they were frozen ; this was nearly every morning I was there ; the men would run to keep warm, and then lie down and freeze to death ; we made an estimate and found that seventeen men died a night from starvation and cold, on an average. If I were to sit here a week I couldn't tell you half our sufferinoj. GEORGE DINGMAN. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Private Charles H. Allen, sworn and ex- amined : — My home is in New York ; enlisted in the 1 6th New York Regiment last fourth of July ; vas sickly then ; don't know when I was captured ; it was in Virginia ; was taken to Belle Isle. ! They took my clothes away; my extra clothing, my overcoat and blanket ; it was at the end of the winter { slept on the ground ; ' remained about two months without shelter, ' then went to the hospital. It was cold; suffered a great deal with cold ; some froze to death ; I only saw dead men once. We got corn bread and sometimes soup ; corn bread twice a day ; meat three or four times a week ; I got a quarter of a loaf of corn bread for each i-ation about as wide as my four fingers, and about four fingers thick. 37 I was hungry, pretty ne^srly starved to death all the time. Rations not as good at the hospital ; not so large. Had a frozen foot and diarrhoea when I went to the hospital ; think it was the beans and water which gave me the diarrhoea; I relished the bread at first, then I lost my relish for it ; was in Belle Isle about three months; from the last of the winter. Was in Belle Isle two months before I froze my feet ; I heard that a good many more were frozen to death ; about sixty I suppose ; I did not go round the tents, and therefore did not see them ; I have lost the end of my little toe (witness exhibits his frozen toe to the Commission), his CHAS. H. ^ ALLEN, mark. Sworn to aud subscribed before me, May 31st, 1804. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Private Frank Eiciielcerger, sivom and examined : — I am from Baltimore; enlisted August, 1861, in the 8th Kansas, Company A; cap- tured at Chattanooga ; health good up to that time ; taken to Richmond and placed in a tobacco warehouse ; I am twenty-two years of age ; got to Richmond 21st of October; went into prison in December, and remained till March. They took our blankets and coats away from us ; laid on planks ; on the floor ; it was warm when we were crowded. Got corn bread, rice, sweet potatoes ; meat once a week ; got rice and sweet pota- toes every other day : corn bread three inches square, one and a half inches thick, twice a day : teacupful of rice ; sometimes soup, two- thirds of a pint ; we got soup about as often as we got meat. It did not satisfy hunger ; my appetite was never satisfied ; my health declined rapidly. I got a heavy cold ; and then went to the hospital, when I had the pneumonia ; the condition of the other men was about the same with regard to their food and accom- modations ; they complained of their treat- ment while at the hospital ; got dried apples and coffee sent to us from the North. I had no pain when I suffered from hun- ger ; could not sleep on account of hunger ; did not guffer from cold a great deal ; the loaf shown to me is just like what we got; about one-third of it (loaf weighs fifteen oun- ces, and measured about thirty-one and a half cubic inches), twice a day. The rebel guards got the same kind of bread ; a great deal more ; enough to satisfy any man's hunger ; sometimes their bread 38 was better than tliis ; the bread was made of corn meal not sifted ; no grains or cob in it that I saw ; I believe some of our men did complain ; haven't heard any reason why we were not better fed. FRANK EICHELBERGER. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 18(H. D. P. BuowN, Jii., United States Commissioner. Private Daniel McMann, stoorn and ex- amined:— I am from New York ; enlisted in the 43d New York ; captured at Gettysburg ; was sickly when captured; taken to Richmond; placed in Belle Isle. Took my coat and blanket away; gave us no covering : some laid out on a bank ; reached Belle Isle in July ; a number of men had to lie out on the bare ground — two hundred ; I was there till after Christmas. I suffered from cold very much, and so did tlie men more than I ; we had cold rain storms ; some men froze to death in a ditch. It was not much better in the tents ; I saw men carried out of the tents in blankets, dead ; saw this more than once ; I suppose they died mostly from hunger and cold. We got about one-third the loaf shown, of corn bread (loaf weighed, and weighs fit- teen ounces) twice a day ; sometimes but once ; meat once regularly ; a small piece about as big as my four fingers together. Went into the hospital after Christmas, and remained till last of March ; rations worse in hospital ; as much bread, meat and soup given to us the same day at the hosj)i- t?l ; they were bad and wc could not eat thecc ; a hungry man could not eat the meat and soup ; there is but one man here who was in the ward with me at the hospital. Suffered from luinger at Belle Isle ; heard others complain ; had the measles and a touch of the diarrhoea ; my strength did not keep up till I got the diarrhoea ; when I would go down to the river to get a drink, I could hardly stand or get back ; river about fifty yards off. My guards were not hungry, for they would sometimes throw bread in to the pris- oners; have picked it up myself; it was better bread than ours ; not so coarse. I saw a man kill a dog and eat part of it, and he sold the rest of it ; I got some, his DANIEL ^ McMANN. mark. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, ISiH. D. P. Bkown, .[r.. United States Commissioner. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES Private Walter S. Smith, sworn a'ld eX' amincd: — Am from New York ; enlisted August 27th, 1861, in the 48th New York ; captured at Morris Island, July 18th taken to Co- lumbia, S. C. ; never had any blanket ; ra- tions were corn bread — enough — small piece of meat and rice ; done very well there ; from there taken to Richmond — Libby Prison. Was put on Belle Isle in two days after . tents torn, holes in them ; about half of our men slept outside — fifty ; it rained through the tents. Some laid out in the snow and frost; I laid on the ground ; the men that laid out, some had blankets and some had none ; some froze to death ; many had their feet frozen ; all that slept out suffered from cold some in tents suffered from cold . I saw men that had frozen to death in the night ; I saw this seven or eight times. We had wheat bread when we first went there ; about eight inches by four and a-haif, by an inch and a half or more thick ; meat ration four or five times a week, as big as my three fingers, each time, for three or four months ; after that got none, except once in a while : I had a chronic diarrhoea ; kept my strength pretty well till then ; lost flesh before. The corn bread was very poor— ground with cob ; on the days they gave us mi-at, they gave us less bread ; when we had meat, the bread ration was about one-half the size of the loaf produced here, (same as before referred to, weighing fifteen ounces) ; we got half of this loaf (for the whole day) when we got meat; two-thirds when we had no meat; we never got as much as the whole loaf; when we came away, they gave us rations to last through the day— one loaf; we got soup four or five times a week at first ; soup and meat same day ; latter part of time, scarce any soup. The guards fared better; they got meat when we did not ; they got a third more bread ; our rations not sufficient to keep down hunger ; suflered the last three months ; had the diarrhoea twice ; got it the last time, three or four days before I came away ; the men suffered very much who had been on the island for some time ; felt no pain when hungry ; never kept from sleeping from hunger ; left Belle Isle, 1 7th of March ; think thirty or forty died while I was there. I have heard the men running round the tents to keep warm at all hours of the night ; the river was frozen a little while I was there ; the current is rapid. The water would freeze two or three inches in the bucket at night ; the main street of the camp would be very mu.h filled with men lying there. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. From the general talk from the ^nen in the camp, I think that the statement, that seventeen men would die on an average a night, is likely to be correct. WALTER S. SMITH. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Testimony taken at United Slates Army Gen- eral Hospital, Division No. 1, Annapolis, Maj-yland, June 1st, 18G4. ALL THE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT. Private Wm. W. Wilcox, of Cleveland, Ohio, sworn and examined: — I enlisted August, 1862, in the 124th Ohio Volunteers. Taken prisoner at the battle of Chicka- mauga, Ga., September, 18G3; taken to Tunnel Hill, Ga. ; was in good health at the time of capture ; thence to Richmond, Va. ; placed on Belle Isle. They took everything except the natural clothing, even to knife, on body ; no blankets given us ; I hid my money and they did not get that. No shelter provided ; slept on bare ground ; no covering in tlie least ; was put on the Isle the last day of September, or first of Octo- ber ; staid there eleven days ; men came when I did ; had no shelter ; were turned in- to an enclosure in which there was no shel- ter ; I suppose there were two thousand without shelter. Removed to the city of Richmond ; we were all removed there ; placed in Smith's tobacco factory ; no covenng nor bed until the blankets were sent to us by the United States; received the blankets about the 1st of December. Removed to Danville, and placed in to- bacco warehouse; windows broken out; mis- erable cold place ; we took the blankets with us from Richmond ; so cold, we suffered ; no means to keep warm, except by walking around ; the cold prevented sleeping to a great extent ; a man could not sleep alone comfortable with one blanket. 1 There was a great deal of stealing of ?/lankets by the guards ; the men traded their blankets for rice ; the guards would bring rice to the window, from fifteen to twenty pounds, and offer to exchange for our blankets ; they would come to the win- dows and say, " stick your blanket out so I can get hold of the end of it ;" then two or more of the guards would jerk the blanket away and not give the rice ; this was not a general thing, though it was often done ; the motive of the men for doing this, was, they were so near starved out that they were ready to take anything ; the guard would pass in bags of sand in place of rice and take blankets. When we first came there, our bread was made from middlings, shorts and bran, such as we feed our cattle ; it was a combination of most everything, corn-hulls, bran, and refuse fiour ; got about half pound : the bulk was only one-quarter larger than the loaf shown, but was lighter than this ; I should say from two to three ounces lighter. Our beef, when we first went there, would range from four to six ounces a day. Our soup was made from sweet potatoes ; about half pint in quantity, and the liquor the beef was boiled in ; some days we would not get any soup ; the soup was hardly pal- atable. There was a difference in our rations ; we drew this black bread for about a week, then drew corn bread ; the corn bread was about the size for a ration as the loaf shown here ; I should judge our rations were heavier than that loaf, about two to three ounces, (loaf weighs now twelve ounces and a fraction). In every ration there was cobs, whole corn, as hard as on the cobs, sometimes husks as long as my finger; the loaf was sweet when we first got it ; not sufficient to satisfy hunger. The way it affected me was to make me so weak I would become blind ; if I'd get up to move as far as across this room, I would be- come blind and everything would got dark, and I would fall from weakness ; my strength kept declining all the time before I got the dian-hoEa ; did not have much diari-hcea until the first of March. I was removed to the hospital about the middle of December, from Danville ; I had no disease I know of but weakness, swelling of the legs, with purple and' inflamed and yellow spots ; the skin cracked and water ran out of my legs ; rations better at the hos- pital, when I first went there, than they were in prison ; we were allowed no privilege at all in prison. After we tunnelled out, we were only al- lowed to go to the privy six at a time ; the floor was in one mess — filthy ; an ordinary one-horse wagon load of human excrement on the floor every morning. Not allowed to look out the window ; was shot at twice for looking out ; a man was shot alongside of me, while standing at the win- dow ; he was standing two feet from the win- dow, with his hand on the casement ; the sen- try could not see him from the sentry's beat ; I presume the sentry saw his shadow ; he stepped out of his position to shoot at him, perhaps twenty to twenty-five feet ; the sen- try shot him in the head and killed him in- stantly ; I suppose I have seen five hundred men shot at • our orders were not to put our 40 heads out the windows ; this man had not put his head out at that time; he had rolled up his blanket and was standing; over the place where he slept on the floor; his name was Alexander Opes, of the 101st Indiana. Witli one exception, we were treated very well by the physicians ; never heard any fault found of any physician but Dr. Moses, of Charlcstown ; don't know his first name ; when once we had mouldy bread given to us in the hospital. Dr. Fontlcroy made a fuss about it and had it changed. WM. W. WILCOX. Sworn tc and subscribed before me, June 1st, 1»(54. D. P. Browx, Jr., United states Commissioner. ; Private William D. Foote, recalled: — The first case of death I remember, was a Massachusetts man, who died from frozen feet ; from the looks of them you could hardly tell they were feet ; he laid in the next bed to me ; they first took ofi" the toes of one of the feet, and then took off the foot; in a few days he died from amputation ; he was in the same ward ; brought in the middle of No- vember. Saw no man frozen to death on Belle Isle ; saw any number of men brought in with frozen feet, who afterwards suffered amputation ; ten or twelve persons were so brought in ; two or three of the amputated cases died ; I speak of what occurred in my ward. WILLIAM D. foote. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 1st, 18C4. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Private Hiram J. Neal sioorn and exam- ined : — I am from Maine ; enlisted in the 4th JIaine Regiment ; taken prisoner at Bristow Station, in October, 18G3 ; taken to the Pemberton prison, from there to Belle Island, which I reached 24th February ; remained until January 18th, blankets taken from me ; nothing given in their place ; after eight days, we had tents at Belle Island. At first the men had to lay out till they could find tents ; had nothing to sleep upon. About one-fifth of the men were permitted by the rebels to retain their blankets ; had no straw or board to lie on ; tents old and rotten — full of holes; those in the tents managed to keep warm, though they couldn't sleep ; those out of the tents, from three to six hundred, tried to run about to keep warm. Saw many with frozen feet carried off; in one morning saw eleven corpses, three frozen etilT. Near first of January, deaths occurred CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIE.S eight or ten in twenty-four hours, principally in the night; I deem the causes of those deaths to have been exposure and starvation. ^Vhen I left, January 18th, there were about five thousand men there ; I was trans- ferred to the hospital for diarrhoea and dis- ability. Rations not sufiicient to satisfy hunger; waked up one night and found myself gnaw- ing my coat sleeve ; used to dream of having something good to eat. I had a pain in my chest and bowels; had the diarrhoea when I was captured ; had a pain in my b .rvels then ; had about four move- ments of the bowels a day bi-fore captured; not able to do duty all the time ; I had be^^n thirty-six hours on the march witli one night's rest just before I was captured; was in the fight about an hour. HIRAM J. NEAL, Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 1st, 18G4. D. P. Browx, Jr., United States Comniissioner. Private Charles F. Pfouxstiel, sioom and examined: — I am a German ; enlisted in 2d Maryland, September 24, 1862 ;'captured in Tennessee; imprisoned in Belle Island ; reache'hen they coukl not contain all the sick some sick were removed to Richmond hospitals. These tents were awful places for human be- ings to be placed in — without floors, a heap of^ straw for a bed, logs of wood for pillows — men died with less attention than many a man pays to a favorite dog. The hospitals in Richmond were much better, being in buildings, and were furnished with bunks and straw beds — some of them with sheets. But though treated with kindness, compared with Belie Island, the want of proper medi- cines was visible, and many died for the want of the most simple remedies. Upon the 25th of October, 1863, two offi- cers, (Major Hewsten, 132d New York, and a Lieutenant 4th New York Cavalry,) es- caped from the hospital. Immediately, upon its being known, all the sick who were well enough to sit up or stand, were removed from the room and placed in an empty room un- der our prison. Here they were kept for twenty-four hours, without food or blankets, as a punishment, it was said, for not reporting the contemplated escape of the officers named. From this ti-eatment, Surgeon Pierce of the 5th Maryland died. The officers in the room above, removed a portion of the floor and furnished the sick with food and drink, and shared their blan- kets with them. This coming to the knowl- edge of M?vjor Turnei', we were de])rived of rations for one day — October 29th, 1863. 46 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES This was not the action of the surgeons of the Libby, for, witii one exception, they were kind and attentive, and did all in their pow- er for our conilbrt, but of the commander of the department, Brigadier-General Winder, and of Major Turner, commander of the prison, who, I am informed, was dismissed from We-:t Point, by orders from the Secre- tary of War, having been convicted of for- gery. I was informed by men whom I knew — Ward and Winship of the 18th Connecticut and Ferris and Stone of the 1st Connecticut — that the enclosure in Belle Isle was a mass of filth every morning, from the inability of the men to proceed to the sinks after even- ing. Many of the guards would fire upon the prisoners for the least violation of the rules. The men were in a miserable condition and looked sickly, worn out — starvation and ex- posure was expressed upon their features. Trusting that the above will assist you in your report, I am respectfully yours, CHARLES FARNSWORTH, Sworn to and subscribed before me, this ISth day, of July, A. D. 1864, David Young, Justice of the Peace. Testimony taken at Washington, D. C, June 2d, 18G4. Commissioners Present. — Mr. Wilkins, Dr. Wallace, Mr. Walden. Surgeon Nelson D. Ferguson, sworn and ex- amined : — Surgeon 8th New York Cavalry; resi- dence, Jefferson county, N. Y. ; captured 12th May, 1863 ; taken to Libby Prison same day ; remained there twelve days ; found Union officers there ; my treatment same as officers received ; daily rations, when first entered, were four inches by four inches by two of unbolted bread, which was coarse and sour about half the time ; a ration of beans, worm-eaten, once a day ; about seven quarts to fifty-three or fifty-four men, or a gill to each man was served ; no other food was fur- nished by the Confederates ; what other they had was bought with their own money. (The ration of light bread of a common so-dier in the United States Army is twenty- two ounces, and twelve ounces of pork or twenty of beef; besides that, our soldiers have thirty pound of potatoes for one hun- dred rations, or nearly a third of a pound per day to each man, besides cofi'ee and sugar, &c., &c.) The food furnished us was insufficient for Liialthful support of life. When I reached the Libby Prison there were say twenty-five Union officers, no more, in the prison, recently captured ; all the for- mer occupants had been removed, as I am informed (and believe) by the rebels, to the number of seven hundred or over ; when I left the prison on the 28th, there were sixty- nine Union officers there. I spent four days in Hospital No. 21, where loounded Union prisoners (very fevf sick) were under treatment ; I was there partly as a visitor, and also did partial duty as a sur- geon in the ward ; I was too ill to do full du- ty ; I had better rations in the hospital than in prison, for I had rye coffee and a little meat, say two ounces daily, very poor bacon ; the wounded men had the same ration of bread, no beans, two ounces of meat, rye coffee, occasionally a little sugar, and one gallon milk and one gallon whiskey, divided among two hundred and sixty men, or about a tablespoonful of whiskey and milk per man ; they had no other nutriment or stimulation. I consider the nourishment and stimulation they received entirely insufficient to gi\e them a proper chance for recovery. I am surprised that more do not die. There were many bad cases among them that must in- evitably sink under this treatment after a few days, and thcn-efore I cannot state the true proportion of deaths. The condition of these men was such that any medical observer' would im])ute it to insufficient stimulation and nutrition. The condition of the wounds generally was very unhealthy, not tending to heal, pale and flabby, and the tissues lax — just such a condition as we expect to see where the patient is improperly nourished by deficient nutrition. These wounded have all been brought there since the battle of Spott- sylvania Court House. When I was captured, I was brought into a rebel fort. It was raining. I had on a rubber blanket ; the blanket was taken irom my shoulders by a lieutenant, by the author- ity and consent of the commanding officer. I remonstrated against his taking my private property, and appealed to the commanding officer for protection, and to protect my rights. He replied, " Damn you, you have no rights." It was not possible for him to have been ignorant of the fact that I was a medical officer. Some two or three hours af- terwards, when I was about to leave the fort for Libby Prison, the lieutenant remarked to me, " I hope I have treated you kindly." I replied, " I have always treated your men and officers with kindness and consideration, but you have treated me harshly." I don't think he made any reply. The Provost- Marshal took away my sabre. I told him it was my private property, and that he ought not to take it away, and his answer was, " It TO PRISONERS OF WAR. don't make any difFerence, I have a friend to whom I intend to give it." I liave had wounded rebels under my hand for treatment on various occasions. The course I have always adopted is, to take care of my own men first, then the rebels, givino; them equal care and attention of every kind. I have taken my own private rations and given them repeatedly to wounded rebels. All other medical officers of our army have done likewise, as far as my observation has extended. I have been in tTie service two years and eight months, and I have been in all the cav- alry fights of the Army of the Potomac since I entered the service. The buildings in Richmond occupied for hospital purposes are well suited for such purposes, being large, convenient, and well ventilated. The wards are well supplied with water, and tolerably cleanly. The pris- on (Libby) had just been thoroughly cleaned and was well white-washed. In the prison, we had one blanket as bed, and one as cover. No one can appreciate, without experience, the condition of the officers in the prison during the twelve days of my stay. Their faces were pinched with hunger. I have seen an officer, standing by the window, gnawing a bone like a dog. I asked him " what do you do it for ? " His reply was, " It will help till up." They were constantly complaining of hunger. There was a sad and insatiable expression of the face impos- sible to describe. The bedding in Hospital No. 21, where the privates were confined by wounds, was vei-y dirty. The covering was entirely old dirty quilts. The beds were offensive from the discharges from wounds and secretion of 47 the body, and were utterly nnfit to place a sick or wounded man on. On the faces of the wounded there was an anxious, haggard expression of countenance, such as I have never seen before. I attribute it to want of care, want of nourishment and encourage- ment. There is a deficiency of medical sup- plies, such as bandages, lint, sticking-plaster, and medicines generally in this hospital, whether from actual want of these articles, or from unwillingness to supply them, I do not know. N. D. FURGUSON, Surgeon Sth N. Y. Cavalry Sworn and subscribed before me, at Washington, D. C, this 3d day of June, A. D. 1804. M. H. KENDIG, Kotary Public. D. W. Richards, M. D., siaoi-n and ex- amined : — Residence, Northampton County, Pa. ; employment. Assistant Surgeon in 145th Pennsylvania Volunteers ; taken prisoner May ibth, 1863; taken near Spottsylvania Court House, and conveyed to Prison Hos- pital No. 21, in Richmond, on the 20th of May, and left there 28th May. I have heard Dr. Furguson's deposition, as made before this Connnittee. I corroborate that testimony as relating to the condition and treatment of wounded prisoners. I know nothing further in regard to this mat- D. W. RICHARDS; Assistant Surgeon 145th P. V. Sworn and subscribed before me, at Washington, D. 0., this 3d day of Juiui, A. D. 1864. M. H. N. Kexdig, Notary Public. EVIDENCE OP UNITED STATES ARMY SURGEONS, IN CHARGE OF THE EOUR HOSPITALS AT ANNAPOLIS AND BALTIMORE, MD., TO WHICH RETURNED UNION PRISONERS WERE BROUGHT FROM RICHMOND, VA. ALSO, EVIDENCE OBTAINED FROM EYE-WITNESSES. Tealimonxj of Surgeon B. A. VanderKieft, in charge of United States Army General Hospital Division No. 1, Annapolis, Mary- land. Taken at the Hospital, May 3lst, ■ 1864. Commissioners Present. — Mr. Wilkins, Dr. Wallace, Mr. Walden. I have been the recipient of all the pris- oners returned from Richmond since the 1st of June, 1863, except one steamboat load which were four hundred to five hundred. I have received, I should judge, nearly (?^00) three thousand ; these are in a debilitated condition, badly clad, and down-spirited, on account of ill-"ti-eatment by starvation and exposure, as they all on inquiiy agree in stating, and as I am convinced is the case by their actual condition on their arrival, and by rations shown to me, whi';h they unanimous- ly state arc the only ones given them. They unanimously statcthat their blankets, overcoats, watches, and jewelry and money have been taken fromthem,partially by their immediate captors, but also in a quasi-offi'-ial way, telling them that they will be restored 48 CRUELTIES OF EEBEL AUTHORITIES when they are released, -vyhich, as far as I know, and have been informed, have never been done. of adequate shelter, exposure during the fall and winter. The diseases most common amonir these The returned prisoners state that the of- j returned prisoners are scurvy, diarrhoea, ficials, sucli as guards and nurses, often re- and congestion of the lungs, which are not ceive money from them, such as they may amenable to the ordinary Treatment in use have been able to secrete, with the promise in civil life or in hospitals of our own army that they shall have the equivalent returned | They are most successfully mastered by in food, which promise is not performed. i high nutrition and stimulation, with cleanli- Colonel Palmer de Cesinola (4th New I ness and fresh air — medicinal treatment York Cavalry) told me that while acting as | being of small assistance in the recovery of distributing commissary of articles of Ibod ' the sufferers, and often being entirely dis- and clothing sent by United States Govern- pensed with. ment and United States Sanitary Commis- The medical records in ray office show sion, he observed that some of our prisoners that this system is the only valid and effec- at Richmond and Belle Isle, in order to re- j tive mode of management, thus proving by ceive a less cruel treatment and to obtain ' the countei-acting effect of good food, air, larger rations, were acting as shoemakers for the Rebel (jovcrnment. He at once told those men tliat such action was disloyal, as by so doing they indirectly assisted the re- bellion. The result of this remark induced the rebel authorities to deprive him of the privilege of being longer a distributing com- missary. Almost in all cases I find that our men state that when they were captured, they were in very good condition as to general physical health ; but I do not even need such a statement, as I am well acquainted with the regulations which govern the medical de- partment of our army, " to send to the rear every man who is not perfectly able to bear arms," and if a few feeble men have fallen into the hands of the rebels, they belong to the class called " stragglers," which certainly belong to the minority. From my experience of fifteen years of constant medical and military service in Northern Europe, the East Indies, and Med- iterranean, as well as in our own army since September, 18G1, I afhrm that the treatment to which our men have been subjected while prisoners of war in the hands of the enemy, IS against all rules of civilized warfare, and that I would prefer to fall into the hands of the Chinese of Borneo, called " Anack Baba," who murder their prisoners, than to fall into the hands of the rebels, where the lives and comfort of prisoners of war is a matter of such cruel indifference, to say the least, if not indeed, as one might almost be justified in supposing, a matter of determined policy. If I may believe the statements of our re- turned prisoners, the diseases under which they are suflerini when they come into my hands, are attributable to the following causes, one or more : deprivation of clothing, deficiency of food in quantity and quality, want of fresh air, on account of overcrowd- ing in prison buildings and consequent una- voidable unclcanliuess, and mental depres- sion, the result of the above causes, and want cleanliness, and stimulants, that these dis- orders are the result of the causes above stated. I swear the above statement to be true. B. A. VANDERKIEFT, Surgeon U. S. Volunteers in Charge. Sworn and subscribed before me, tliis sixth day of June, in the jear of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and si-^ity-four, (June Gth, 180-1.) [seal.] H. p. Leslie, Notary Public for and in the County of Anne Arundel, JIaryland. Testimoni/, hy Letter^ of Surgeon Willium S. El>/, Executive Officer U. S. A. General Hospital Division, No. 1, Annapolis, Mary- land, June Gth, 1864. Dr. Ellerslie Wallace, Philadelphia, Penn. Doctor : — I am in receipt of your com- munication of the 2nd inst, and would reply as follows : — I am an Assistant Surgeon of Yolunteers in the service of the United States, and have been on duty in this hospital since October 3d, 1863, as executive officer and medical officer in charge of a ward. I have been present on the arrival of nearly every boat- load of paroled prisoners since my connec- tion with this hospital commenced. I remember distinctly the arrival of the flag-of-truce steamer " New ¥ork," Novem- ber 18th, 1863, and was present and assisted In unloading the men. I went on board the boat and saw bodies of six (6) men who had died during the passage of the steamer from City Point, Va., to this place. No words can describe their appearance. In each case the sunken eye, the gaping mouth, the filthy skin, the clothes and head alive with vermin, the repelling, bony contour — all conspired to lead to the conclusion that we were looking upon the victims of starva- tion, cruelty and exposure, to a degree ua- , paralleled in the history of humanity. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 49 I have nerer seen more than the above from tlie coarsest quality down to that mode- numbi^r of dead in any sin^^le ai'rival ; but at rately fine. other dates, and on several occasions, I have Diaphoretic action in many such cases, I seen two (2) and three (3) dead on board have found almost unattainable. When we the boat, and have repeatedly known four consider the importance of the cutaneous (4) or six (6) to die within twelve (12) secretion, relative to a state of health, it hours of their reception into hospital. The cannot be denied that, in many instances same condition evidenced in the cases of the under attention, this is the prime exciting six (6) referred to above, has characterized cause of the diseases of the pulmonary and nearly every Instance, and leads us irresisti- abdominal organs, which arc so constantly bly to the conclusion that death has been found among our Richmond patients. owing to a long series of exposure and hard- 1 A great many post-mortem examinations ships, with a deprivation of the barest neces- of paroled prisoners who have died in our sities for existence. I hospitals, have been made by myself and I have known paroled prisoners of war to others. The thoracic organs ai-e seldom be admitted to this hospital with barely suf- found healthy. The pectoral muscles are so ficient clothing to cover their nakedness. I much wasted as to render the walls of the cannot say that I have seen any single case chest, to a certain extent, transparent. The where a patient was admitted without either lungs frequently are found filling but half hat, coat, shoes, shirt, or stockings, but I the pulmonary cavities. Old pleuritic ad- have repeatedly seen men without one (1), hesions, in all degrees of extent, are general- two (2), or three (3) of these articles, and ly seen; almost invariably there is a local think that lean say, that when they possess- stasis or congestion of blood, posteriorly and ed all, it was an exceptional case. It is our about the roots of the lungs; the heart is rule to strip each patient to his skin, and pro- found flaccid, and often its walls are attcnu- vide all with entirely new clothing, because ated ; when taken out and laid down, it rags, filth and vermin preponderate so large- flattens from its own weight, is seldom filled ly as to render any further use of the various with a substantial clot, and generally con- articles of apparel upon the bodies of pa- tains but a very little dark, thin blood. Tu- tients reaching this point from Richmond, bercular deposit is sometimes very extensive, Va., unhealthy, and in opposition to the and in cases where there is no external ap- simplest principles of hygiene. pearance favoring the scrofulous diathesis, Patients, when asked the manner in which leading mo to the conclusion that it has they lost their clothing, reply that they were I been engendered ofttlmts, in a previously robbed of what they had when captured, or I healthy subject, by the deprivation of good, else, that during their Imprisonment, often- wholesome food, and the combination of times extending over many months, their unhealthy influences, to which so many of our clothing, piece by piece, wore out, and that prisoners of war succumb. The liver is un- they had no opportunity to procure a , usually pale in color, and of ana;mic aspect; change. I the intestines are sometimes much diseased, It is impossible for any, save those who j but frequently healthy. I have known many Lave seen the condition of paroled men soon j Instances of marked chronic diarrhoea, re- after their release from captivity, to have i suiting fatally, yet disclosing no organic in- any idea of the s^a/s o/'//ze sZ;m covering their I testinal changes or morbid appearances, — bodies. In many cases that I have observed, ' favoring the supposition that the diarrhoea the dirt incrustation has been so thick as to is often only a symptom of a want of tonicity, require months of constant ablution to re- ' not of organic disease. cover the normal condition and function of I consider the frequency of pulmonary the integument. Patients have repeatedly congestions among our patients from Rich- stated, in answer to my interrogations, mond owing to the altered condition of the " that they had been unable to wash their fluids of the system, especially the blood : its bodies once in s/c (6) mou?7«s ;" that all that fibrinous portion becomes diminished, and time they had lain in the dirt, and, as might i stagnation takes place in the most depending naturally be expected, the filth accumula- portions of the lungs, giving us what we term tion was constantly increasing. Frequent- j a hypostatic pneumonia, depending on the ly, the entire cuticle must die and be de- want of tone in the vessels and consequent tached before any healthy action can be ; enfeebled circulation, recovered. i The treatment which I have found most I know not how to better compare the ' effective in aiding the restoration to health cutaneous condition of these men in its dif- of our reduced Richmond patients, is, very ferent morbid states, than to liken it, in briefly, as follows : — Quinine, iron, and cod- feeling, to the effect produced upon the liver oil, (in their different preparations and fingers by passing them over sand-paper combinations), in snia/Z doses; liquid concen- THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII. 1263. 50 trated nourishment, a rigid enforcement of cleanliness, and regularity in eating and drinking, and, if possible, the hygienic ad- vantages of a tent ward. Our records exhibit a mortality among our patients from Richmodd of 18 per cent. I am, Doctor, very respectfully. Your obedient servant, WILLIAM S. ELY, Assistant Surgeon U. S. Volunteers. Personally appeared before me this sixth day of June, 1S64, William S. Ely, Assistant Surgeon U. 5J. Volunteers, and took oatli that the statements above made are true to the best of his knowledge and belief. [Seal.] Henry P. Leslie, Notary Public, Anne Arundel Co., Md. Testimony of Surgeon G. B. Parker, in charge of United States Army General Hospital, Division No. 2, Annapolis, Maryland. Taken at the Hospital, May i\st, 1864. ALL TUE COMMISSIONERS PRESENT. Surgeon G. B. Parker, sworn and exam- ined: — I have been in charge of this hospital one year. During this time I have received a large number of prisoners in exchange. Their condition has been very low, very feeble, since last June. The large propor- tion of the cases i-eceived here are marked '^ Debilitas." It was not specific disease with them ; where it was, it was coupled with debility. The majority of the diseased cases were diarrhoea caused by bad diet — of insufficient and bad quality ; they have resulted from the want ot" variety of diet. This will pro- duce scurvy. I have seen an hundred of the rations served to the men. I do not consider the rations I have seen sufficient for the support of life for any long time. We give our men twenty ounces of beef on'a march, per day, and twenty-two ounces of bread. Fourteen ounces of meat and ten ounces of bread will keep any man from starving ; less than twelve ounces of bread and ten ounces of meat per diem would pro- duce disease, and, if long continued, would fail to keep life up to the standard in a great majority of men. Lower than this would end in debility and decline ; in proportion as you vary a man's diet, so is his general healrh.* The majority of the men did walk from the landing here. We did not receive the worst cases. In the main, the diseases were * A ration which had been given to one of the men, produced and weighed : — weight two ounces of bread, iind t'lree-alxteeuths of an ounce of meat in k8 dry state CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES produced by insufficient and a bad quality of diet. Their stomachs were not able to retain a sufficient quantity of solid food when the men first got here. I was led to the belief that the diarrhoea was produced by bad diet. I found nutrition was the most successful treatment. Have had cases of frost bite here result- ing in mortification of the ends of the toes. Those were cases from Richmond — eight or ten cases. Though the men would be strong enough to walk from the dock up here, at the same time they wei'e in that debilitated condition that a slight change of air would cause con- gestion of the lungs, and death. Stimulants and tonics are largely used. There were a good many cases of scurvy. In the majority of cases of diarrhoea, there would be scorbutic symjitoms. I had at one time eight returned prisoners who lost their teeth. I suppose this was owing to the treat- ment these men had received, and their diet. At the hospital we give each man twenty ounces of bread per day, and one pound of meat, including bone ; could not give the percentage of bone ; we also give vegetables. In the winter we give cabbage, potatoes, rice and beans, molasses, tea, butter. A healthy soldier would get no butter. Twelve ounces of meat and twelve ounces of bread per day, rejecting the other articles, would be insufficient to preserve good health. G. B. PARKER. Sworn to and subscribed before me, May 31st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. June 1st, 1864. Commissioner Present. — Hon. J. L Clark Hare. Surgeon G. B. Parker, icho tvas before stoor7i, recalled : — A great many of those whom I mentioned yesterday as suffering from debility and no specific disease, afterwards recovered. Seve- ral cases where their appearance was really favorable died very suddenly. On exami- nation, post mortem, they were found ex- sanguinated to a wonderful degree ; the evi- dence of which was In large white fibrinous clots in the left side of the heart, and extend- ing into the aorta. This was found to be the case with the majority of those who died. In other cases, as I mentioned yesterday, they would take on acute disease, generally congestion of the lungs, and die within twenty-four hours after the attack. G. B. PARKER, Assistant Surgeon U. S. Armj. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 51 Testimony of Surgeon De Witt C. Peters^ in charge of Jar vis General, Hospital, Bal- timore, McL, taken at Baltimore June 1st, 1864. Commissioners Present: — Dr. Mott, Dr. Delafield, Judge Hare. De Witt C. Peters, sworn and examin- ed: — I am an Assistant-Surgeon of the United States Army, stationed at Jarvis General Hospital, Baltimore. On or about the 16th of April, 1864, I received at the hospital over which I had charge, some two hundred and fifty paroled prisoners of war, recently returned from Belle Island and Kichmond. The greater majority of these men were in a semi-state of nudity. They were labor- ing under such diseases as chronic diarrhcea, phthisis pulmonalis, scurvy, frost bites, gen- eral debility, caused by starvation, neglect, and exposure. Many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting even the date ot their capture and every thing connected with their antecedent history. They resem- ble, in many respects, patients laboring un- der cretinism. They were filthy in the extreme, covered with vermin. Some had extensive bed sores caused by laying in the sand and dirt, and nearly all were extremely emaciated ; so much so that they had to be cared for even like infants. Their hair had not been cut, nor the men shaved in many instances lor months. On inquiry of these men as to what was the matter with them, the invari- able answer was starvation, exposure, and neglect, while prisoners on Belle Island. They informed me, that while on Belle Island during the inclement months of the past winter, there were congregated at one time in a space less than three acres, one hundred and ten squads of prisoners, each numbering one hundred persons. Less than half of these had old worn-out Sibley and other tents for shelter. The remainder were obliged to accommodate themselves as best they could. But a few of them had blankets. These were issued to them by our Govern- ment under flag of truce. Some had over- coats. Many had no shoes except patches that they had contrived themselves. Those that escaped freezing to death dur- ing the cold nights, did so by exercising and by huddling together in heaps like hogs, al- ternating places with those more exposed in the heaps, and with those in the tents, until at last they were obliged to go to the hos- pital. They informed me, that each morning, numbers were found frozen to death, who had probably died from other causes — ex- haustion. They stated to me further, that they believed this system of slow starvation was carried on to prevent other men from enlisting in our army. The ration allowed them was a small piece of corn bread, the meal of which con- tained also the cob, a little rice soup very rarely, and sometimes, but rarely, a small quantity of meat — a few ounces ; they con- fessed that they had eaten dog meat when- ever they were so fortunate as to capture a dog. In the hospitals, according to the statement made to me by Hospital Steward James, United States Army, they fared a Uttle better, although, even there, they had an insufficiency of- food, and tiro beds were filthy and covered with vermin. He states that at hospital No. 21, where he was serving as one of the apothecaries during three months, January, February and March, there were admitted two thousand seven hundred of our men, of whom nearly four- teen hundred and fifty died.* They lacked medicines and all appliances needed for the sick. The patients in the hospital had one advantage over prisoners of war on Belle Island : that was, they were allowed to buy a loaf of bread the size of a man's fist, for which they paid five or six dollars Confed- erate money. Out of the two hundred and fifty men re- ceived by me, so far, fifteen have died ; the post-mortems of which have made apparent diseases of nearly all the viscera to a re- markable extent. I received one man incurably insan*?, caused, as I was informed and believe, by joy, produced by the news that he was to be exchanged. ' I found, from excess of habit, they had become like savages in their hab- its, and lost the decencies of life, and had to be taught like children the decencies of society. The health and constitutions of the ma- jority of these men are permanently under- mined. Under proper care and treatment, which consisted in their not eating too much, a spare but concentrated diet, may have ral- lied. In one instance a boy gained forty' pounds in two weeks; he still has phthisis and can hardly stand exposure or active ex- ercise. A case of scurvy occurred among others which is the worst I ever saw or read of; a man turning red or nearly black from head to foot ; he died in twenty-four hours. I think nine'tenths of the men weighed under one hundred pounds ; they appeared to be articulated skeletons; covered with simply integument ; had dropsy and oedema * The quarterly report from whicli these figures are taken, was obtained and brought home by a returned Union prisoner. It will be found oa pages 68—9. f;9 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES in tlie feet, caused by weakness ; and were the most pitiable objects to behold. They had an uncontrollable appetite. DE WITT C. PETERS, Assist. Si.Tgeon United States Army, in charge of Jai'vis Hospital, Ualtimore, Md. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June Jst, I,si4. J^. P Browx, Jr., United States Commissioner. Testimony of Surgeon A. Chapel, in charge of West's Buildings Hospital, Baltimore, Md., taken at Baltimore, June 2, 18G4. Commissioners Present: — Dr. Mott, "Dr. Delafield, Judge Hare. Surgeon A. Chapel, affirmed and exam- ined : — I am Surgeon in charge of West's Build- ings Hospital, Baltimore. On the 18th of April, 1SG4, I received at the hospital one hundred and five of the paroled prisoners from Richmond, brought to this point on the flag-o!-truce boat " New York. " These were the worst cases received at tliis point by that boat ; none of them being able to stand alone. All were brought into the hospital upon stretchers. Nearly all were in an extreme state of emaciation, filthy in the extreme, and cov- ered with vermin. Some of them so eaten by the vermin as to very nearly resemble a case of scabbing from small-pox, being covered with sores from head to foot, so as scarcely to bo able to touch a well portion of the skin with the point of the finger. Their appearance was such in the way of filth and dirt, as to convince any one that they had not had an opportunity for ablution for weeks and months. Several were in a state of semi-insanity, and all seemed, and acted, and talked, like chil- tVen, in their desires for food, &c. Very few of them had blankets or clothing, some in a state of semi-nudity. Upon being questioned upon the causes of their condition, the testimony was uni- versal: — starvation, exposure, and neglect, while prisoners at Richmond and Belle Isle. Their universal declaration was, in refer- ence to their living, that they were provided with only one small portion of corn-bread per day, which was made simply from corn- meal and water, without salt, not larger than a man's liand ; it was about an inch and a quarter thick. This was the portion for the day. They sometimes got small portions of meat once a day, two days in a week. Several of them told me that they bad been able to get occasionally a small piece of the flesh of a dog, which they had cooked and eaten with great relish, and tbat they had caught rats and eaten them in the same way. Many of them believed that the meat issued to them was cut from the bodies of mules. They said, while on Belle Isle they-had no means of shelter, but were obliged to huddle together in heaps, to protect them- selves from the inclement weather ; — oflen one or two blankets in thickness covering five or six persons; — often lying one upon another in tiers, and changing places as they became tired out. They state that they had little or no shelter while prisoners at Belle Isle. We were obliged to treat them as children, in regulating their diet in the hospital, hav- ing to restrain their over-eating, and confine them to a concentrated but nourishing and generous diet. Several cases had no disease whatever, but suffered from extreme emaciation and star- vation. The limb of one of these men could be spanned with the thumb and finger, just above the knee. This patient, a boy of nineteen years old, would not weigh over fifty pounds then, though in health probably one hundred and thirty-five pounds. This was not a solitary instance, many others being extremely emaciated. IMany present- ing the appearance of mere living skeletons, with the skin drawn tightly over the bones. Many of them were laboinng under such diseases as dropsy, pulmonary consumption, scurvy, mortification from cold, several having lost one-half of both feet from this cause. Several were afHicted with very severe bed-sore?, caused by lying in the sand with- out shelter. One man, unable to lie in any other way but on his face, and lived about four weeks in this way. Up to the present time, of the number received, (one hundi-ed and five), forty-two have died. AH gave evidence of extensive visceral disease, of which starvation, cold, and neglect, were undoubtedly the primary cause. Some of the cases sank from extreme debility, without any evidence of disease as the cause of death. A. CHAPEL, Surgeon U. S. A. Affirmed to and subscribed before me, June 2d, 1S(J4. D. p. Brown, Jr., United Slates Commissioner. Testimony of Miss D. L. Dix, taken at Bal- timore, Maryland, June 1st, 18G4. Miss D. L. Dix sworn and examined : — Last winter I was at Annapolis and ex- amined many hundred returned prisoners. I inquired of these men exactly the manner in which they were fed and treated on Belle TO PRISONERS OF WAR, Island, examined them individually, and by eixes and sevens. I saw no disposition on the part of these men to exaggerate their Bufferings. Inquiring from what causes they had suf- fered most severely, whether rapid marches, exposure to inclement weather, lack of ap- parel, or hunger, — the^answer was invari- ably, " From hunger wliilc at Belle Island." I inquired the amount of animal food allowed a day, when tliey had any at all ; they re- plied that an iron-bound bucket, 'filled with packed meat, was the allowance for one hundred men ; the weight of bucket and meat would be twenty-five pounds. When cooked this afforded a very small quantity for each man. As Winter and Spring advanced, the only food supplied was corn-meal mixed with water and roughly baked. This bucket of meat I speak of was allowed them about twice a week, with a very little rice in the autumn. I understand that in the hospitals they occasionally had a little boiled rice, to which was sometimes added a very small quantity of brown sugar or molasses. I gatlicr from Confederate authority as well as from our returned prisoners, — and a Confederate official whose evidence cannot be qucsiioned in that matter, declared, that the sole sustenance at Belle Island was corn- meal and water, — that of the numbers re- maining at Belle Island, then about eight thousand, about twenty-five died daily; that the mortality in Georgia was still greater, and that it would be but a few weeks before the deaths would count fifty a day. Another fact which he affirmed as a rea- son for withholding so much from our prison- ers, sent by their friends and the Govern- ment, was the cruel and severe restrictions imposed on their men in our hands. I had visited those very prisoners to whom he referred at Point Lookout ; they were supplied with vegetables, with the best wheat bread, and fresh or salt meat three times daily in abundant measure — the full Gov- ! ernment ration. In the camp of about nine thousand rebel prisoners, there were but four hundred re- ported to the sui'geon ; of these, one hundred were confined to their beds, thirty were very sick, and perhaps fifteen or twenty would never recover. The hospital food consisted of beef tea, beef soup, rice, milk, milk punch, milk gruel, lemonade, stewed fruits, beef-steak, vegeta- bles and mutton ; white sugar was employed in cooking. The supplies were, in fact, more ample and abundant than in hospitals where our own men were under treatment. To return to the condition of the Federal prisoners on Belle Island, there was at no 53 time adequate shelter for the entire number till late in spring, when the number had been greatly reduced by transfer to Georgia, exchanges and death. I was told that in the morning it was not uncommon to find men dead from exposure and rain. I have repeatedly seen the exchanged prisoners reduced to the lowest extremity through want of iboJ. Of more than four hundred landed in Baltimore, some little time since, nearly, if not the entire number, were suffering from the cfl'ccts of hunger ; more than one hundred of these were taken a few yards across the wharf, to the hospital, on stretchers ; seven died before they could be taken into the building, and seven more that same night. Their clothing was filthy to the last degree ; they were covered with vermin ; they were the merest bund'es of bones and skin, and some bones piercing the flesh. The cries of these poor men for food were pitiful in the extreme. In addition to their other sufferings, many had lost portions of their feet by frost. The minds showed the v/eakness of -the body. Some were reduced to idiocy. They would entreat for an apple or a bit of r«eat to look at, if they could not be allowed solid food. Many of these poor creatures died, and others, I understand from surgeons, are en- feebled for life. Many of these prisoners when brought on the flag-of-truce boat, were observed to clasp their hands and fix their gaze upon the American flag : " It is enough, thank God, we are at home." A remarkable trial of disinterestedness : Rev. M. Hall said, '• What can I do for you, my boys?" " Ilastan ex- changes and bring away our comrades." A gentleman of Washington, who had been permitted to convey a body for burial to the South, on board the flag-ot-truce boat, remarked that all the rebel prisoners were in vigorous health, eijuipped in clothes fur- nished by the United States Government; many of them with blankets and haversacks, while we received in return not one able- bodied man at that time. I have witnessed this fact myself, on other occasions on the flag-of-truce boats. The rations served to the prisoners on Belle Island, whether drawn from supplies furnished by the Federal Government, or through the individual liberality of North- ern citizens, Avere never dispensed in suf- ficient quantities by the Confederate author- ities to satisfy hunger. I have seen tons of provisions shipped on the flag-of-truce boat from the North, for the relief of our prisoners at Richmond. Little or nothing came from the South for rebel 1 prisoners at the North. Clothing and blank- 54 ets were sent by our Government to the pris- oners in quantities, but not fully distributed. One reason wiiy our men were so wholly destitute of clothinji at a late season, was the temptation they were under to give them away for a biscuit, or a small quantity of food, to save them from starvation. D. L. DIX. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 1, ISW. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. I certify that the foregoing testimony was taken and reduced to writing in presence of the respective witnesses, and by them sworn or affirmed to in my presence, at the times, places, and in the manner set forth. D. P. BROWN, JR., United States Commissioner. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES Testimony of Joseph B. A hhott. Special Re- lief Agent United States Sanitary Com- mission, taken at Washington, D. C, June 3rd, 1864. CoMMissioxERS PRESENT. — Mr. Wilkins, Dr. Wallace, Mr. Walden. Joseph B. Abbott, aged twenty-eight years, Agent of Special Relief Department, United States Sanitary Commission. Holds his com- mission as Chief Assistant, Special Relief Department, United States Sanitary Com- mission. Is a native of New Hampshire, has been a resident of North Carolina, resided in North Carolina nearly four j'ears, prior to the war. Has been engaged with the United States Sanitary Commission since March 12th, 1862. During the past Spring, since February, my position has given me means of observa- tion of returned prisoners from Richmond, Belle Island, Danville, Salisbury, and Co- lumbia, but directly from Richmond. I first came in contact at Fortress Monroe with prisoners on flag-of-truce boats, from City Point to Annapolis. The men had no blank- ets, but what were said to have been fur- nished them at City Point by the United States Government. Very few had coats ; many had no shirts ; pants, poor, ragged and dirty ; clothing all dirty ; skin very filthy, and covered with vermin. One man had convulsions all the time during the trip. As- sistant Surgeon Dr. Fry told me that they were caused by vermin. The man was much emaciated ; vermin very thick upon his body — common body lice. He was scratching as at lice, and throwing them off him and slap- ping them with his blanket. This is a general statement of all my ob- servation. My experience extended over three boat loads. No difference in the condition of the prisoners' clothing. The condition of the men on the last boat as to physical state, was worse than all previous. Two or three boat loads have arrived since my services ceased. JNIr. Thompson, one of the United States Sanitary Commission Agents, accompanied the men on these boats. Mr. Thompson is now at White House, Virginia, on the Pa- munky river. Cannot communicate with him by tetegraph. In general aspect and condition of re- turned prisoners, all were more or less ema- ciated. Of the first boat load, three-fiiths very much so. Of second and thii-d boats, four-fifths very much so. The condition of some of those who were less emaciated than others was owing to their having money with which they purchased provisicni. 1 believe the fact from statements made by there en my inquiry. My attention was drawn to the fact by the Assistant Surgeon. I could pick out the men that had money by their physi- cal condition. Clothing was usually taken from them by their captors before their arrival at Rich- mond. Money was taken from them official- ly just before entering prison, except those that had succeeded in secreting it. I believe these facts from statements made by the men. They were also credited with the amounts, and were told that when released the amounts would be returned. I heard of no soldier who had it returned to him. In case of of- ficers it was sometimes retm-ned in Confed- erate currency. On the first boat load there was about one hundred and fifty on cots sick, — with diar- rhoea generally. ]\Iany of these one hun- dred and fifty men had the scurvy ; great many suffering fi-om pneumonia. Often heard the physician say that these disorders were due to confinement, exposure, and bad food. In all I saw some ten or twelve dying on the boats. From the last boat I saw five come off on shore in a dying state. I saw one man die on the boat ; the Doctor said his death was caused by starvation. Saw one already dead on the boat at Fortress Monroe. The Doctor said his death was caused by eating. He died from eating too much after he had been starved. He ob- tained this over amount of food after having come into our hands. The Doctor said that he had to be very cautious in giving them their rations, or they would injure themselves by getting too much ; that several had died in consequence of eat- ing too much, which they obtained from their comrades, who were too feeble and too fai gone to eat the rations which were given them. Some would secrete their rations and TO PRISONERS OF WAR. trj' to get a second ration. The Assistant Surgeon told me that the one I had seen dead had eaten three rations which he had obtained from his comrades. The prisoners on board the boats stated that their diseases and sufferings, such as I witnessed, were caused by want of protection fi-om wet and cold, and by insufficient and bad food : this was their invariable state- ment. The Union prisoners were not at all vin- dictive, and expressed a desire to have the rebel prisonei-s well clothed and fed ; this was the case with all the men I spoke to on the subject on the tliree ])oats. My reason for making this inquiry was the remark of the Union prisoners in regard to the healthy condition of the rebel prisoners who were exchanged. Some of them re- marked that it would make the condition of the Union prisoners worse if they attempted to retaliate, and would do no good. The general idea as expressed by the men was, 55 that they did not wish to ave the rebel pris- oners treated as they had been. I have been on the battle-field and in hos- pitals and witnessed much suffering, but never did I experience so sad and deplorable a con- dition of human beings, as that of the pa- roled Union prisoners just from Belle Island, and the rebel prisons of the South, emaciated by starvation, with impaired minds, vision, powers of speech and hearing, occasioned by want of sufficiency of wholesome food, ex- posure to the cold and inclement storms of wind and rain. I believe from what I have seen and experienced among our unfortunate pris- oners on board the flag of-truce boats, that their barbarous treatment and sufferings which they endured while confined in the military prisons of the South can hardly be exaggerated. J. B. ABBOTT. Sworn and subscribed befbre me at Washing- ton, D. C, this 3d day of June, A. D. ISfri. M. H. N. Kendig, Notary Public. QUARTERLY REPORT 0/ the Hospitals for the Federal prisoners, Richmond, Va., furnished by Surgeon-Gerierat, C. S. A., April 1, 1864. Obtained by a paroled and returned Federal prisoner. DISEASES. Febris Cont. Communis ' Int. Quart '' " Tertiana " Remittent " Typhoides Erysipelas Rubeola Variola ) Convales- Varioloides | cents . . Diarrlioea Acuta .'•■. " Chronica .... Dysentery Acuta " Chronica . . . Dyspepsia Enteritis Gastritis Hepatitis Chronica .... Icterus Parotitis Tonsillitis Asthma Bronchitis Acuta " Chronica .... Catarrhus Epidemicus . Laryngitis Phthisis Pulmonalis . . . Pleuritis Pneumonia Anfemia Cerebritis Epilepsia Bleningitis Neuralgia Paralysis Tetanus Bubo Syphiliticum Cystitis Gonorrhoea ^. Nephritis .". OrchiiUs Syphifttis Primitiva. . . . " Consect .... Jan. Feb. Mar. 2 1 3 7 1 46 45 1 .35 2 8 10 207 1 1 1 1 3 100 13 DISEASES. Anasarca Ascites Hydrothorax Rheumatism Acute .... " Chronica . Abseessus Anthrax Ulcus Contusio Gclatio Vulnus Incisum Lumbago Vulnus Sclopiticura. . . . Otitis Debilitas HcBmorrhois Morbi Cutis .Scorbutus Tumores Dry Gangrene from frozen Feet Total Total Deaths Jan. Feb. Mar. 12 20 881 1 501 j2779 11396 A true copy. (Signed) A. R. ROOT, Colonel Conuaanding, Camp Parole, A true copy. B. A. VANDERKIEFT, Surgeon U. S. Vols, in charge U. S. General Hospi- pital, Division No. 1, Annapolis, Md. The Commission have received a letter from Col. A. K. Root, Commanding, &c., stating that he has satisfactory evidence of tlie authenticity and relia- bleness of this " Quarterly Report." 56 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES EVIDENCE EELATING TO UNITED STATES STATIONS FOE EEBEL PEISONEES. Letter from Quartermaster-General, M. C. Meigs, United States Army. Quautkrmastkr-Genkkal's Office, Washington, D. C, July Gth, 18G4. Dr. Elleslie Wallace, Philadelphia. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th ult., in which, in behalf of a Committee of the Unit- ed States Sanitary Commission, you make inquiry in relation to the condition and treat- ment of rebel prisoners of war in our hands. In reply, you are respectfully informed that such prisoners are treated with all the consideration and kindness that might be ex- pected of a humane and Christian people. The rations allowed to them are ample and of good quality. The reduction recently made in the prisoner's ration was for the purpose of bringing it nearer to what the rebel authorities profess to allow their sol- diers, and no complaint has been heard of its insufficiency. Suitable provision has been made by the Government for supplying the prisoners with all necessary clothing and blankets ; and at each depot there is a sutler, authorized to sell to them, at reasonable rates, certain prescribed articles of comfort and conveni- ence, such as our soldiers desire to purchase. Fuel is provided by the army regulations, and is liberally furnished. Shelter is not denied to any " during the inclement and cold season," and for those who require them, comfortable hospital ac- commodations, and skilful medical and sur- gical attention are provided. The Commissary-General of Prisoners in- forms me that he has heard of no order to shoot prisoners for being at the windows or near them, and he does not believe that or- ders of that character have any where been given. He has heard of no prisoners being shot under such circustances. General Butler did, in the early part of this year, offer to exchange prisoners, grade for grade, and man for man, of those at Point Lookout, and two other places, but the pro- position was not acceded to by the rebel au- thorities. Your inquiries are thus substantially an- swered. I enclose copies of the orders of the Com- missary-General of Prisoners, regulating the conduct and treatment of prisoners of war, and the rations thej[ now receive.* I am, very I'cspcctfully, Your obedient servant, M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General. * Printed in this Appendix. Testimony taken at Fort Delaware, June 2lst, 1864. Commissioners Present. — Dr. Wal- lace, Judge Hare. Captain Gilbert S. Clark, sworn and examined: — I came to this post 18th March, 1862, and the Subsistence Department at this post has ' been under my charge since May, 1862. The rations v/ere as follow : Bread — 18 ounces per ration ; or, Corn Meal — 20 ounces per ration. Beef — 1 pound per ration ; or. Bacon or Pork — | pound per ration. Beans — 8 quarts per one hundred men ; or, Hominy or Rice — 10 pounds per one hun- dred men. Sugar — 14 pounds per one hundred men. Rio Coffee — 7 or 9 pounds per hundred men. Adamantine Candles — 5 per one hundred men ; or. Tallow Candles — C per one hundred men. Soap — 4 pounds per one hundred men. Salt — 2 quarts per one hundred men. Molasses — 4 quarts per one hundred men, twice per week. Potatoes — 1 pound per man, three times per week. When beans were issued, hominy or rice not Issued. These were the rations to which the pris- oners were entitled. Bread was Issued, In point of fact, and not corn meal. Fresh beef was Issued, during this time, four times a week. When we had to give them hard bread they received a pound. When fresh beef was given, a pound and a quarter was given, and a less proportion of salt meat. This was done by orders of the command- ing officer, with a view to the sanitary condi- tion of the men. According to instructions for the Commis- sary-General of Prisoners, a fund was creat- ed by selling all surplus rations, under regu- lations, and with this fund were purchased vegetables In addition to the regular rations. The order referred to, under which this course was adopted, was as follows : CIRCULAR. " V. A general fund, for the benefit of the prisoner, will be made b}' withholding from their rations all that can be spared without Inconvenience to them, and selling this sur- plus, under existing regulations, to the Com- missary, who will hold the funds In his hands, TO PRISONERS OF WAR. and be acountable for them, subject to the commaudinji ofBeer's order to cover pur- chases. The purchases with the fund will be made by or thi-ough the Quartermaster, with the approval or order of the command- ing officer, the bills being paid by the Com- missary, who will keep au account book, in %vhich will bo carefully entered all receipts and payments, with the vouchers; and he will keep the commanding officer advised, from time to tiine, of the amount of this fund. At the end of the month he will furnish the commanding officer with an account of the fund lor the month, showing the receipts and (Usbursements, which account will be for- warded to the Commissary-General of Pri- soners, with the remarks of the commanding officer. With this fund will be purchased all such articles as may be nc^cessary for the health and comfo;t of the prisoners, and which would otherwise have to be purchased by the Government : among these articles are all table furniture and cooking utensils, articles for policing uurposes, bedticks and straw, the means of improving or enlarging the baiTacks accommodation, extra pay to clerks who have charge of the camp, post- office, and who keep the accounts of moneys deposited with the commanding officer, &c., &c." The provisions, according to my return, actually issued, were the same as for the garrison troops. The rations detailed above were the rations actually given to the men. The amount drawn on the books, for their account, was larger — and as large as that issued to the gamson, with the exception of flour oi bread, which was eighteen ounces instead of twenty-two ounces. When I say actually issued, I mean when entered on my returns as issued. The difi'erence between the amount thus issued, and the amount given as above, was sold and converted into a fund for the benefit of the prisoners, as I have stated, according to the order of which I have given an extract. This fund was expended and applied for tfceir use in the purchase of extra vegetables and articles of comfort. This course is pursued towards our own troops in camp and garrison ; the surplus which they do not use being sold for their benefit to the Commissary of Subsistence, and regularly entered, and the proceeds ap- plied to their use. ^ The surplus rations sold for the prisoners were about the same as those sold for the garrison at the same time, showing that the amount actually consumed by the prisoners ■was about the same, per man, as that con- sumed by the garrison. When hard bread ii issued, prisoners not unfrequently leave a 57 portion of it on the table. A large amount of bread has been found stowed away by them in the barracks. The rations are pre- cisely the same as that used for garrison, and of very good quality. My expenditures for vegetables alone, for the use of the prisoners, out of the fund arising from the sale of the surplus rations, amounted, at times, as high as trom $2,000 to $3,000 a month. For instance, I would buy extra fjuantities of potatoes and onions, turnip?, cabbage, pickles, carrots. I have frequently asked my overseers li the prisDners complained of not having enough, and if they did, to give them more, and to let no man want, as 1 could af!brd to do from the savings. During all the timii I have been here, I have scarcely heard a complaint. No material change was made in the rations given to the prisoners till the first of this month, (June '64) ; since this date, the following has been the ration given the prisoners : The rations issued on the returns remain- ed the same as before. The amount fjiven was reduced to the following quantity, by order of the Secretary of War : "B." " RATION : "Pork or Bacon, . . 10 ozs. (in lieu of fresh beef.) . 14 " 16 " 14 " (in lieu of Flour or Soft Bread.) . 16 " (in lieu of Flour or Bread.) . 12i^ lbs. ' Fresh Beef, . . . Flour, or Soft Bread, Hard Bread, . . . Corn Meal, . . . Beans or Peas, . . or. Rice, or Hominy, . 8 " Soap, 4 " Vinegar, 3 qts Salt, 3J lbs. Potatoes, 15 '• . to 100 I rations. J Sugar and coffee, or tea, will be issued only to the sick and wounded, on the recommen- dation of the surgeon in charge, at the rate of twelve (12) pounds of sugar, five (5) pounds of ground or seven (7) pounds of green coffee, or one (1) pound of tea, to the one hundred rations. This part of the ra- tion will be allowed only for every other day." The difference between the ration given and the ration issued continues to be sold, and the proceeds applied to the benefit of the prisoners, as before. The consequence is that the sirrplus fund for their use is larger. I refer to the circulars issued by the War Department, April 20th, 1864, and June 1st, 1864, as containing the regulations under 58 which T am now acting, hereto appended, marked " A " and " B." The bread, as now issued, is made one- fifth of corn meal and four-fifths of flour. This change was made at the request of the prisoners. 1 use the same quality of bread. GILBERT S. CLARK, Captain and C. S. Vol. bwom to and subscribed before me, June 21st, 1S64. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. " A." "Office OF CoiniissARY-GENEKAL of Prisok- KRs, Washington, April 20, 1864. " [Circular.] " By authority of the War Department, the following Regulations will be observed at all stations where prisoners of war and political or State prisoners are held. The regulations wiU supersede those issued from this office July 7, 1861 : L The Commanding Officer at each sta- tion is held accountable for the discipline and good order of his command, and for the security of the prisoners, and will take such measures, with the means placed at his dis- posal, as will best secure these results. He will divide the prisoners into companies, and will cause written reports to be made to him of their condition every morning, showing the changes made during the preceding twenty-four hours, giving the names of the "joined," "transferred," "deaths," &c. At the end of every month Commanders will send to the Commissary-General of Prisoners a Return of Prisoners, giving names and details to explain " alterations." If rolls of " joined " or " transferred " have been forwarded during the month, it will be sufficient to refer to them on the re- turn according to Ibrms furnished. II. On the arrival of any prisoners at any station, a careful comparison of them with the rolls which accompany them will be made, and all errors on the rolls will be corrected. When no roll accompanies the prisoners, one will immediately be made out, containing all the information required, as carrect as can be, from the statements of prisoners themselves. When the prisoners, are citizens, the town, county and State from which they come will be given on the rolls under the headings — Rank, Regiment, and Company. At stations where prisoners are received frequently, and in small parties, a list will be furnished every fifth day — the last one in the month may be for six days — of all prisoners received during the preced- ing five days. Immediately on their arrival, prisoners will be required to give up all arms and weapons of every description, of wtich the Commanding Officer will require CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES an accurate list to be made. When pris- oners ar.? forwarded for exchange, duplicate parole rolls, signed by the prisoners, will be sent with them, and an ordinary roll will be sent to the Commissary-General of Prison- ers. When they are transferred from one station to another, an ordinary roll will be sent with them, and a copy of it to the Com- missary-General of Prisoners. In all cases, the officer charged with conducting prison- ers will report to the officer under whose orders he acts, the execution of his service, furnishing a receipt for the prisoners deliv- ered, and accounting by name for those not delivered ; which report will be forwarded, without delay, to the Commissary-General of Prisoners. III. The hospital will be under the im- mediate charge of the senior Medical Officer present, who will .be held responsible to the Commanding Officer for its good order and the proper treatment of the sick. A fund for this hospital will be created as for other hospitals. It will be kept separate from the fund of the hospital for the troops, and will be expended for the objects specified, and in the manner prescribed in paragraph 1212, Revised Regulations for the Army of 1863, except that the requisition of the Medical •Officer in charge, and the bill of purchase, before payment, shall be approved by the Commanding Officer. When this "fund" is sufficiently large, it may be expended also for shirts and drawers for the sick, the expense of washing clothes, articles for poli- cing purposes, and all articles and objects indispensably necessary to promote the sani- tary condition of the hospital. IV. Surgeons in charge of hospitals where there are prisoners of war will make to the Commissary- General of Prisoners, through the Commanding Officer, semi- monthly reports of deaths, giving names, rank, regiment, and company ; date and place of capture ; date and cause of death ; place of interment, and No. of grave. Ef- fects of deceased prisoners will be taken possession of by the Commanding Officer, the money and valuables to be reported to this office (see note on blank reports), the clothing of any value to be given to such prisoners as require it. Money left by de- ceased prisonei'S, or accruing from the sale of their effects, will be placed in the Prison Fund. ^V. A fund to be called "The Prison Fund," and to be applied in procuring such articles as may be necessary for the health and convenience of the prisoners, not ex- pressly provided for by General Army Re- gulations, 1863, will be made by withholding from their rations such parts thereof as can be conveniently dispensed with. The Ab- TO PRISONERS OF WAR. straet of Issues to Prisoners, and Statement of the Prison Fund, shall be made out, com- mencing with the mouth of May, 1864, in the same manner as is prescribed for the Abstract of Issues to Hospital and Statement of the Hospital Fund, (see paragraphs 1209, 1215, and 1246, and Form 5, Subsistence Department, Army Regulatious, 1863), with such modifications in language as may be necessary. The ration for issue to prisoners will be composed as follows, viz. : Hard Bread, 14 oz. per one ration, or 18 oz.. Soft Bread, one ra- tion. Corn Meal, ' 18 oz. per one ration. Beef, 14 " " " Bacon or Pork, 10 " " " Beans, 6 qts. per 100 men. Hominy or Rice, 8 lbs. " " Sugar, 14 " " " R. Coffee, 5 lbs. ground, or 7 lbs. raw^, per 100 ^ men. Tea, 18 oz. per 100 men. Soap, 4 " " Adamantine Candles, 5 candles per 100 men. Tallow Candles, 6 " " " Salt, 2 qts. " Molasses, 1 qt. " " Potatoes, 30 lbs. " " When beans are issued, hominy or rice will not be. If at any time it should seem advisable to make any change in this scale, the circumstances will be reported to the Commissary-General of Prisoners for his con- sideration. VI. Disbursements to be charged against the Prison Fund will be made by the Com- missary of Subsistence, on the order of the Commanding Officer ; and all such expendi- tures of funds will be accounted for by the Commissary, in the manner prescribed for the disbursements of the Hospital Fund. When in any month the items of expendi- tures on account of the Prison Fund cannot be conveniently entered on the Abstract of Issues to Prisoners, a list of the articles and quantities purchased, prices paid, statement of services rendered, &c., certified by the Commissary as correct, and approved by the Commanding Officer, will accompany the Abstract. In such cases it will only be ne- cessary to enter on the Abstract of Issues the total amount of funds thus expended. VII. At the end of each calendar month, the Commanding Officer will transmit to the Commissary-General of Pi'isoners a copy of the " Statement of the Prison Fund," as shown in the Abstract of Issues for that month, with a copy of the list of expend!- 59 tures specified In preceding paragraph, ac- companied by vouchers, and will endorse thereon, or convey in letter of transmittal, such remarks as the matter may seem to re- quire. VIII. The Prison Fund is a credit with the Subsistence Department, and at the re- quest of the Commissary-General of Prison- ers, may be transferred by the Commissary- General of Subsistence in manner prescribed by existing Regulations for the transfer of Hospital Fund. IX. With the Prison Fund may be pur- chased such articles not provided for by re- gulations as may be necessary for the health and proper condition of the prisoners, such as table furniture, cooking utensils, articles for policing, straw, the means for improving or enlai'ging the barracks or hospitals, &c. It will also be used to pay clerks, and other employees engaged in labors connected with prisoners. No barracks or other structures will be erected or enlarged, and no altera- tions made, without first submitting a plan and estimate of the cost to the Commissary- General of Prisoners, to be laid before the Secretary of War for his approval ; and in no case will the services of clerks or of other employees be paid for without the sanction of the Commissary-General of Prisoners. Soldiers emploj^ed with such sanction will be allowed 40 cents per day when employed as clerks, stewards, or mechanics ; 25 cents a day when employed as laborers. X. It is made the duty of the Quarter- master, or, when there is none, the Commis- sary, under the orders of the Commanding Officer, to procure all articles required for the prisoners, and to hire clerks or other em- ployees. Ail bills for service, or for articles purchased, will be certified by the Quarter- master, and will be paid by the Commissary on the order of the Commanding Officer, who is held responsible that all expenditures are for authorized purposes. XI. The Quai'termaster will be held ac- countable for all property purchased with the Prison Fund, and he will make a return of it to the Commissary-General of Prisoners at the end of each calendar month, which will show the articles on hand on the first day of the month ; the articles purchased, issued and expended during the month ; and the articles remaining on hand. The return will be supported by abstracts of the articles purchased, issued, and expended, certified by the Quartermaster, and approved by the Commanding Officer. XII. The Commanding Officer will cause requisitions to be made by his Quartermas- ter for such clothing as may be absolutely necessary for the prisoners, which requisition will be approved by him, after a careful in- 60 quiry as to the necessity, and submitted for the approval of the Commissary-General of Prisoners. Tiie clothing will be issued by the Quartermaster to the prisoners, with the assistance and under the supervision of an officer detailed for the purpose, whose cer- tificate that the Issue has been made in his presence will be the Quartermaster's voucher for the clothing issued. From the 30th of April to the 1st of October, neither drawers nor socks will be allowed, except to the sick. When army clothing is issued, buttons and trimmings will be taken oif the coats, and the skirts will be cut so short that the pri- soners who wear them will not be mistaken for United States soldiers. XIII. The Sutler for the prisoners Is entirely under the control of the Command- ing Officer, who will ref^ulre him to furnish the prescribed articles, and at reasonable rates. For this privilege the Sutler will be taxed a small amount by the Commanding Officer, according to the amount of his trade, which tax will be placed in the hands of the Commissary to make part of the Prison Fund. XIV. All money In possession of prison- ers, or received by them, will be taken charge of by the Commanding Officer, who will give receipts for It to those to whom it belongs. Sales will be made to prisoners by the Sutler on orders on the Commanding Officer, which orders will be kept as vouch- ers in the settlement of the iiidividual accounts. The Commanding Officer will procure proper books In which to keep an account of all moneys deposited in his hands, these accounts to be always subject to in- spection by the Commissary-General of Prisoners, or other inspecting officer. When prisoners are transferred from the post, the moneys belonging to them, with a statement of the amount due each, will be sent with them, to be turned over by the officer in charge to the officer to whom the prisoners are delivered, who will give receipts for the money. When prisoners are paroled, their money will be returned to them. XV. All articles sent by friends to prison- ers, if proper to be delivered, will be care- fully distiibuted as the donors may request; such as ai-e Intended for the sick passing through the hands of the Surgeon, who will be responsible tor their proper use. Contri- butions must be received by an officer, who will be held responsible that they are deliv- ered to the person for whom they are in- tended. All uniform, clothing, boots, or equipments of any kind for military service, weapons of all kinds, and intoxicating li- quors, including malt liquors, are among the contraband articles. The material for outer clothing should be gray, or some daik mixed CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES color, and of inferior quality. Any excess of clothing, over what is required for imme- diate use, is contraband. XVI. When prisoners are seriously 111, their nearest relatives, being loyal, may be permitted to make them short visits; but' under no other circumstances will visitors be admitted without the authority of the Commissary-General of Prisoners. At those places where the guard is inside the enclo- sure, persons having official business to trans- act with the Commander or other officer will be admitted for such purposes, but will not be allowed to have any communication with the prisoners. XVII. Prisoners will be permitted to write and to receive letters, not to exceed one page of common letter paper each, pro- vided the matter Is strictly of a private na- ture. Such letters must be examined by a reliable non-commissioned officer, appointed for that purpose by the Commanding Officer, before they are forwarded or delivered to the prisoners. XV^III. Prisoners who have been reported to the Commissary-General of Prisoners will not be paroled or released except by authori- ty of the Secretary of War. W. HOFFMAN, Col. 3d Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. Official; W. T. Haut, Assistuut Adjutant General. S. R. Craige sworn and examined : — I have been Quartermaster here since August, 1863. The amount of clothing Is- sued to the prisoners from September 1st, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, by the Quarter- master's Department, will appear from the following statement prepared by me ft-om the books : Quartermaster's Office, Fort Delaware, June 21st, 1804. Capt. S. R. Craige, A. Q. M. Volunteers. Statement of Clothing issued to Prisoners of War, from Sept. Ist", 1863, to May 1st, 1864: 7175 Pairs Drawers (Canton flannel). 6260 Shirts (Flannel). 8807 Pairs Woolen Stockings. 1094 Jackets and Coats. 3840 Pairs Bootees. 1310 Pairs Trowsers. 4378 Woolen Blankets. 2680 Great Coats. The principal part of the clothing was is- sued In October and November, 1863, and every prisoner not having an overcoat and blanket of his own was provided with one. AH that were in want of clothing received it. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 61 The barracks were kept comfortable by stoves; no stint in fuel that I know of ; the attendants kept the fires up. Three hun- dred tons of coal provided by me, were con- sumed by the prisoners in the wniter and spring. This, in addition to wood used lor bak;n<-, and to the coal supplied by bapt. Clarkf I am satisfied the prisoners were as comfortable as could be. . ,„^ S. R. CRAIGE, Captain and A. Q. M. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June '^ 1st, 18G4. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Captain G. S. Clarke, recalled: — I have purchased and used for the prison- ers about one thousand tons of coal durin^ the winter. I would say, in my judgment, that the barracks were sufficiently warm during the season requiring fires. 1 was J^nartermaster here, as well as Commissary, until Captain Craige assumed the Quarter- master's Department. The desitute prisoners were supplied with sufficient clothing during the time I acted as Quartermaster. ^x a-ot- GILBERT S. CLARK. Attest : _ ^ D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Captain George W. Ahl, sworn and exam- ined : — My rank is Captain; Acting Assistant Adjutant-General for six months, and Commissary of Prisoners for about a year and a half. Q. Can you state whether the rations is- sued to prisoners at this post were actually given them in full ? A. To the best of my knowledge and be- lief they were. ^ • . r Q Were the rations issued sufficient tor their subsistence? had they at any time saved any rations, and was there any waste ,of their rations at any time ? ' A. The rations issued to them were at all times -sufficient for their subsistence ; and August 1863, 8,822 prisoners, of whom 169 died. 327 377 156 82 78 42 62 74 62 42 September, 1863, 6,490 October, 1863,2,987 November, 1863, 2,822 December, 1863,2,765 Tanunry, 1864,2,600 February, 1864,2,655 March, 1&64, 5,712 April, 1864,6,149 Mav, 1864, 8,126 To "June 21, 1864,8,536 The , David's Island, New York, June 17th, 3 864. We, the undersigned. Acting Assistant Surgeons U. S. A., employed in De Camp General Hospital, depose and say, that we * The paper (A) here referred to, is the "Dset Tablk fokGenekal, Hospitals, United Sta tl? Akmy." TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 65 have heard read the depositions of Augustus Van Cortlandt and George W. Edwards, Acting Assistant Surgeons U. S. A., of this date, and from our personal knowledge and actual experience confirm all that the said affidavits set forth as to the treatment of re- bels, sick and wounded, during their confine- ment in this hospital. We further depose that we have been members of the Medical Staff in this hospital, during and subsequent to its occupation by the rebel prisoners. The Medical Staff numbered twenty-three Acting Assistant Surgeons, while the pris- oners were on the island. We would further depose that there were ample provisions of nurtes ; one nurse to every ten patients in the hospitals ; and that the following provisions were made for the calls of nature : each pavilion was furnished with from two to four water-closets, and chairs and bed-pans were furnished for pa- tients unable to reach the water-closet. The tents were furnislied with bed-pans and chairs. Ample structures were made upon the beach for those able to walk. John Howe, M. D., Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., further deposes and says, that on or about the first day of August 18G3, while attending his duties in Pavilion 14, there was then and there present, the Rev. Brooks, Alabama Chaplain in the Confederate service, and prisoner of war, who addressed the rebel prisoners and said to them, " Well, boys, keep up your spirits, for you are getting a great deal better treat- ment here than you would get at home." JOHN HOWE, M. D., Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A. WILLIAM BADGER, GEORGE BADGER, A. N. BROCKWAY, WM. C. FRYER. Sworn to before me, Warren Webster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hospital. Deposition -of the Rev. Robert Lowry, C!haplin, U. S. A., Minister of Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of New York, under Bishop Potter. Entered ui>on ray duties here July 4, 1862, and have continued here until this time. In my intercourse with the prisoners, I was guided systematically by the same rules with which I visited Union soldiers. The prisoners were equally well lodged with our own men. I remarked at the time of their arrival how neat and comfortable a provision had been made in the tents and pavilions for their comfort, with an ample supply of beds and bedding. I met the first transport at Philadelphia, THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII. and returned on the same with them to Dat vid's Island. The prisoners were in a mos- filthy condition, miserably clad, and covered with vermin. Each man received a bath and was immediately furnished with clean clothing, the old clothing being removed and burned. In the prosecution of my duties I was frequently present at their dinners, which were ample, superior, both as respects quan- tity and quality, to anything I have ever seen in hospital diet. The diet furnished to them was superior even to that of our own patients. This resulted from the fact that many little luxuries were furnished by private donation. There were other comforts and conveniences afforded them beyond those o£ food, clothing, and shelter. A library of two thousand volumes, that had been previously used by our own sol- diers, was at once thrown open to them, and every facility afforded for the use of the vol- umes. Being present as librarian, and tak- ing each man's name as he received his lx)ok, the library was used by them far more than by our own people. As had been my ])rac- tice, I went through the tents and pavilions with bibles and prayer books, making the special inquiry to every man, " Are you sup- plied V" And furnishing books in all cases where they were required. Religious services were held in the chapel twice every Sunday, and two or three times during the week, at wliich they were invited to be present, and attended in such numbers that the chapel was always crowded, the ca- pacity of the chapel being three hundred, and some occasions numbers stood at the win- dows during the entire service. I was supervisor of the post office, and offi- cially appointed to examine the contents of letters, which were mailed and forwarded on my approval. Paper and envelopes were furnished gratuitously, and post stamps, when needed, were supplied to the extent of one hundred and fifty dollars, to my knowledge, gratuitously. From three to five hundred letters were forwarded daily after the first arrival of prisoners. The common expression in their letters as to their condition was that " we have every- thing we need, and could not be better off." Funeral service was always performed over the dead, using the service of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church over the remains of the dead. A i-ecord was uniformly made of the names, company, and regiment, of the deceased, and date of death. This record was made iudependentlv of a formal Hospi- ROBERT LOWRY, tal register. Cliaplain U. S. A. Sworn to before me, Warren AVebster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in cliarge. 1264. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES 66 JOHNSON'S ISLAND, NEAR SAN- DUSKY, OHIO. Testimony taken at Washington, D. C, June 3, 1864. Commissioners Present. — Mr.WIlkins, Dr. Wallace, Dr. Walden. Surgeon Chas. P. Wilson, examined: — I was Acting Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. I was stationed at Johnson's Island, three miles from Sandusky, from the last week of October, 18G3, to the last week of January, 1864. My duty was to attend to our men guarding the rebel prisoners, and also to attend at the Small-pox Hospital for rebel prisoners, and at the Post Hospital for our garrison ; my position enabled me to see the general condition and the general treat- ment of the prisoners. There could not be a more healthy or pleasant place than this island. Kelly's Island, a popular place of resort for pleasure and health, is about six miles from this island, and no better for these objects. The buildings were good ; in good order ; they were new ; say two years old ; conven- ient and comfortable ; they might have been better ventilated ; the buildings were frame, and lined inside ; they had rows of bunks, as in barracks, in three tiers — just the same as our men have in most of our barrf^cks. The rebel prisoners all had blankets, either their own or furnished by the United States Government, and were generally furnished with clothing by the United States Govern- ment — pants, shoes, hats, blouses, and under- clothing and stockings, — until a short time before I left, then these were furnished to those only who actually needed them. I have several times seen of an afternoon boxes carted in, and these articles distributed from the boxes among the prisoners, accord- ing to their wants. I was there in extremely cold, weather, when the supplies were teamed on the ice from the main land to Johnson's Island, a distance of three miles ; the prisoners were provided against this severe weather by wood hauled every day for their use in stoves. I consider that the wood was sufficient for comfortable supply, except for, say two or possibly three days, when the teams were engaged in bringing lumber and provisions for jidditional troops ; during these two or three days the supply of wood was scant, and was the subject of complaint. No prisoners were frost-bitten or came un- der medical treatment from cold and expos- ure, except some who attempted to escape. They all fared as well in this respect as our men do in barracks generally. The sick men all bad ticks filled with straw as beds ; the hospital building for the rebels was lined and plastered. There was abundant supply of good water from the lake by pipes and pumps ; when the pipes froze they could go to the lake, under guard, and supply themselves, bringing it up in suitable vessels ; they always had plenty of water to wash themselves and their clothes. The rations of the prisoners were the same as those furnished to our own soldiers accord- ing to regulations. The prisoners did not consiime all their ra- tions, for I know that there was a large pris- on fund formed from the savings. During the hours of the day the prisoners were allowed to be in the open air as much as they pleased ; there was abundant room for them all to take as much exercise as they required for health ; they played games in the open air. The surgeon in charge treated the sick rebels as he treated our sick ; there was no difference at all, except when special articles of diet were sent to our men by their friends. Some four hundred and sixty rebel pri- vates were sent to some other prison in No- vember ; most of them had been on John- son's Island for some months ; when they left, taking them as a whole, their physical condition was excellent. You could not have found the same num- ber of prisoners anywhere in better condi- tion. C. P. WILSON, Surgeon 13Sth Kegimcnt O. N. G- Sworn and subscribed before me, at Washington, D. C, tliis 3d day of June, 1804, M. H. N. Kendig, Notary Public. Depositions taken at Sandusky, Ohio. Major T. Woodbeidge, M. D., Surgeon in charge, sworn and examined: - Q. What has been and is now your posi- tion In the army of the United States ? A. I am Surgeon of the 12Stli Regiment O. V. I., and Surgeon in charge of the De- pot for Prisoners of War on Johnson's Is- land, near Sandusky, Ohio. Q. How long have you held this position ? A. Since the establishment of the prison. I came to the island in February, 1862. The first prisoners came in April, 1862. I have had medical supervision of the prison from then until now. Q. What is your opinion of Johnson's Island as to health and salubrity ? A. I believe Johnson's Island to be as favorable to health as the climate of New- port or Saratoga in summer, and as that of TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 67 Cincinnati or Dayton in winter. The lati- tude is about 4U° North, longitude 82° 42' West. Height of lake above tide-water five hundred and sixty-five feet. The island rests upon a bed of Devonian limestone, which rises gradually from the shore to the centre, terminating in a ridge of limestone rock, thus affording complete natural drain- age. The water used is principally that of the bay, which comes in fresh constantly from Lake Erie. Q. What diseases, if any, are peculiar to Johnston's Island or the neighboring islands in Lake Erie ? A. I know of no diseases peculiar to those islands or prevalent in them. Johnson's Island is a small one, containing only about three hundred acres of land, and previous to the establishment of the prison, if I am cor- rectly informed, was not inhabited by more than one family at a time ; but the Peninsu- la, with Kelley's Island and the Put-in-Bay Islands, have been inhabited for between thirty and forty years. I have conversed frequently with some of the oldest citizens of the peninsula and the islands, but have never heard them speak of any liability to diseases, but such as is common to other parts of Ohio. Q. Is there any truth in the assertion made by rebel authorities that residence on the island for a few months produces in a great number of prisoners dangerous and fatal pulmonary disorders ? A. Not the slightest. Q. What has been the rate of mortality among the prisoners ? A. In 18G2 — from April to December in- clusive — the number of deaths was thirty- seven. During the year 1863 measles and smallpox Avere brought into the prison by prisoners sent from Alton and other prisons, and many wounded at the battles of Gettys- burg, augmenting our mortality list above what it would otherwise have reached. The number of deaths for 1863 was ninety-seven. This makes, from the time of the first arrival of prisoners in April, 1862, to January 1st, 1864, (tweftty-one months,) a mortality list of one hundred and thirty-four, out of an aggregate of six thousand four hundred and ten, received into the prison in that time. As there were exchanges and removals of prisoners, the number in prison never ex- ceeded twenty-seven hundred at any one time.* Many of the prisoners came here with health impaired, by bad diet, exposure, and often by wounds received in battle. I The bill of mortality owes little to the cli- mate of the post, when jwe consider that men ] * In May, 1804, there were two thousand one hun- * The average number of prisoners for the entire dred and thirty-four, and in June, 1801, two thou' of the year 1863 was eleven hundned and fifteen. | sand three hundred and nine. in prison, away from home and friends, are weighed down by anxieties and despondency, thus making the treatment of disease more difficult. Q. Please state the number of prisoners now at the post ? A. About two thousand three hundred and six.* Q. Please state the number of deaths dur- ing the past two months. A: In the month of May there were five deaths ; in the month of June only one. Q. What accommodations arc provided for the care of the sick ? A. The hospital building is one hundred and twenty-six by thirty feet, with a trans- verse hall six and a half feet wide in the centre. There are four wards, each fortj'- eight by thirty feet. There are eighty beds in all, giving to each patient, when the wards are full, seven hundred and twenty cubic feet of atmospheric air. The dispen- sary is furnished with all the medicines and stimulants furnished to hospitals for our own soldiers, and more than double the quantity is used by prisoners than by the same num- ber of our troops. I have always had the assistance of competent Confederate sur- geons, who cheerfully aid by g\ving their time to this duty. When there are no com- missioned surgeons in prison, there are 'sur- geons holding commissions in the line who do this duty. The cooking for the hospital is done by the most experienced and skilful cooks we can find in the prison. In addition to rations, the sick are fur- nished with flour, potatoes, corn-meal, milk, butter, eggs, chickens, t^a, &c.. &c. Tlie bedding is amply sufficient to malic each pa- tient comfortable. A pest-house is built outside the prison, to which all cases of smallpox, measles, or other contagions, are removed on first development. J. WOODBRIDGE, Surgeon 128th O. V. I. Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before me at Sandusky, Ohio, this 5th day of July, 1804. [seal.] Henry C. Bush, Notary Public in and for Erie County, Ohio. Surgeon Evertman examined : — Q. What position do you now hold at De- pot Prisoners of War ? A. I act as chief medical officer of United States forces and military prison. Q. How long have you held that position ? A. Since the 17th of May, 1864. Q. What is your o'pinion of the general 68 CRUELTIES OF REBEL ADTHORITIES healthfulness and salubrity of Johnson's Is- land? A. The general condition of the troops and prisoners of war at this post has been unusually good and hea'thy. The hospital in the prison, during the past two months, scarcely ever had more than thirty inmates among an aggregate number of two thou- sand one hundred prisoners of war. The prevailing diseases, during this time, were diarrhoea, acute and chronic ; a fi}w cases of dysentery, and a small number of intermit- tent fever. I consider the island as healthy as any locality I have ever visited. Q. Have you knoAvn any undue tendency to pulmonary disorders on this or the adjoin- ing islands, or any part of the surrounding country ? A. I have not, at least not during the time that I have been stationed here. In the early part of the spring there were some few cases of pneumonia and bronchitis, but not any more so than would be expected even in a climate further south than this. Q. What proportion of pulmonarj' com- plaints furnished in your hospital reports ? A. For the past six months the ratio has been as follows : Sick Treated. January, ... 64 February, . . 66 March,. .... 46 April, .... 91 May, 62 June, .... 80 Total, 409 Pulmonary Diseases. 10 5 7 1 2 5 30 Q. What is the appearance of the prison- ers generally at this time ? A. Their appearance is very good. The prisoners confined at this depot are all rebel officers, but have very little pride to keep themsehes or their quarters clean. Q. Do the prisoners seem to gain or de- cline in health after their arrival here ? A. As a general thing their health im- 'proves. ]Mo?t of the prisoners are robust and in good physical condition. 'HENRY EVERTMAN, Surgeon U. S. Vols., Chief Medical Officer. Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before nio at Sandusky, Ohio, tliis 5th day of July, ISOi. [seal.] Henuy C. Bush, Notary Public iu and for Erie County, Ohio. Deposition taken at Kelley's Island. George C. IIxs-stisg-tos exaniined : Q. How long have jou resided on Kol- ley's Island V A. Since the fall of 183S, with the ex- ception of one year, from the fall of 1844 I to the fall of 1845. Have been acquainted on the Island since 1835. I Q. What me ms have you of furnishing a statement of the chnra-ter of the climate and sanitary condition of Kelley's Island, and the neighboring islands, and the sur- rounding country ? A. I have been in the habit, during the entire period of my residence on the island, of noting extremes of temperature, and such casual phenomena as would, in my opinion, have any bearing on the general health of the place ; and for more than five years past have made three records daily of everything conncL'ted with the changes of the weather, in the manner prescribed by, and under the direction of, the Smithso- nian Institution. Q. Please state the latitude, longitude, and height above tide-water, of Kelley's Is- land ; its population, and the general char- acter of the island for salubrity. A. My place of observation is in latitude 41° 35' 44" N., longitude 82^ 42' 32'' W. The level of Lake Erie is 5G5 feet above tide- water, and the island may in some places rise fifty or sixty feet above the level of the lake ; but I think the mean height of the is- land would not vary much from twenty-five feet above the level of the lake. The popu- tion, in April last, was six hundred and fifty- one. As to the salubrity of the climate, the matter will be best determined by the statis- tics given in answer to the next question. Q. What has been the percentage of mortality, annually, on your island V A. In answer to this question I give an abstract from the records of the " Cemetery Association." This association was organ- ized in May, 1853, since which time the whole number of interments has been 43 From this deduct, lost from vessels and washed ashore, 4 Died in Nashville, from w'ds in battle, 1 — 5 Whole number of interments in 1 1 years, 38 To this add, died here and taken else- where for interment, 5 Whole number of deaths in 11 years, 43 From diseases reported as follows ; — Killed by premature blost 1, drowned 2, 3 Old age 3, intemperance 1, dropsy 1, . 5 Still-born and infants but a few days old, 8 Dysentery and summer complaint, . . 9 Inflammation of bowels, 3 Diseases affecting respiratory organs, . 5 Throat affection, age 76, age 50, . . . 2 Fevers (one contracted in army hospital), 3 Childbirth 1, congestion of brain 1, . . 2 Fits 1, not specified 2, 3 43 TO PRISONERS OF WAR. The average population of the island for this period of eleven years has been, as ap- pears by the returns of the township asses- sor, 428, which would give an annual mor- tality of 3.9 ; but if we deduct casualties 3, still-born and infonts, which, although born alive, had not vitality enough fairly to com- mence the journey of life, 8 ; and one from disease contracted in hospital in Nashville, 1, it Avill reduce the number of deaths proper- ly chargeable to disease and old age to thir- ty-one, or an annual mortality of 2 82 in a population of 428. This would be an annual mortality from all causes of one per cent., and fi-om disease, including old age, an annu- al mortality of less than seventy-three-hun- dredths of one per cent. (0.724.) By comparing these results with the tables of mortality in different sections of the coun- try, the salubrity of our climate and the immunity from the ordinary diseases of the country enjoyed by the inhabitants of this island as compared with other localities, may be easily deduced. Q. What is the distance of Kelley's from Johnson's Island, and is there any difference in the physical or sanitavy peculiarities of the two islands ? A. Johnson's Island is about seven miles nearly due south from Kelley's Island, and I am not aware of any natural causes which should make any difference in the salubrity of climate or sanitary condition of the two localities, unless the difference in the water between Sandusky Bay and the open lake (the latter being considered rather more free from impurities) might be considered a dif- ference, so far as it is used for culinary pur- poses or as a beverage. Q. Is there any undue tendency to pul- 69 monary disorders among the inhabitai ts of these islands ? A. By reference to the answer to a pre- ceding question, it will be seen that the whole number of deaths from diseases affect- ing the respiratory organs in a period of eleven years, and in a population averaging four hundred and twenty-eight, was but tive, and of this number one was a transient per- son ; leaving but four cases in eleven years among those who could be properly called residents. Q. Has Johnson's Island ever had a bad repute for unhealthiness ? A. I have never heard Johnson's Island called unhealthy. Q. Have you ever known any very fatal diseases among the inhabitants of Lake Erie? A . The Asiatic cholera has passed through the lake region as an epidemic four times^ I think, since it first made its appearance on this continent in 1832. I am not aware of any other very fatal diseases having prevailed in the lake region since my first acquaint- ance with it in 1 830. State of Ohio, / Erie County, \, * *• Before me, the subscriber, a Notary Pub- lic in and for the County of Erie and State of Ohio, personally came G. C. Huntington, who, being duly sworn by me according to law, deposes and says that the statements above made are compiled from official and other reliable data, and that they are true according to his knowledge and belief. GEO. C. HUNTINGTON. Subscribed and sworn to before me, July 4tll, A. D. 1804. [seal.] a. S Kelley, A'otary Public. EVIDENCE OF SOLDIEES OF THE REBEL ARMY CONFINED AT UNITED STATES STATIONS. Testimony taken at Lincoln Hospital, Wash- ington, D. C, taken June 4, 1864. Commissioners Present. - Dr. Wal- lace, Mr. VValden. WxLLiAM H. Ferguson; 11th Mississippi infantry , twenty-six years old ; private in Confederate service three years ; health ^ood while in service and up to the time of nv .capture. Had walled tents somecimes. and -ftoint" iometunes when ir winter quarters Always uau this kind of covering ex,epl while in active service ; then we had n*^ tents or cabins, say froni first of May till we go into winter quarters. We commonly carry one blanket. Could have more if we wanted it. Could take captured tents and carry and use them if we chose. We were comfoi-table as far as body clo- thing and blankets are concerned ; when one coat or pants wears out we can get more from our own quartermasters. A day's ration is one and one-eighth pounds wheat flour or one and one fourth pounds •^orr meal • one and one-fourth pounds beef, iresh Ceould crenerally get fresh beef, driving rattle -^long with us), or half-pound bacon in piace of beef; we also drew during the first year of war, coffee, sugar, and rice ; second and third years had no coffee ; some- times we could get sugar and rice ; since Christmas last we got coffee again. 70 We always had plenty to eat and some- times more, while not on campaign ; but on campaign, then we always had enough, but none to spare. Since our capture we get enough grub to keep us from hunger; we don't suffer; we have a full allowance ; we are as well treated as your own men. I was wounded in my right leg just above the ankle ; healing kindly now. Kindly treated by the officers and subordi- nates since our capture. I have not been, and never have seen any of our boys, robbed or otherwise ill-treated by the Union men ; I have seen and heard some occasional rough talk and swearing at us, but nothing more than that ; this was from a few ot the privates ; not a general rule. We have had civil talk and argument as a common thing with the Union soldiers on the subject of the war. I was captured 5th of May, 1864. Our food in the Confederate army was of good quality. Our corn meal that we had was very good ; we had generally white, sometimes yellow meal ; it was bolted or sifted, and of fine grain. We never had grains of corn or bits of cob in our meal. WILLIAM H. FERGUSON, Company D, 11th Mississippi Volunteers. I have been in the Confederate service two years and six months ; was captured on fifth of May, 1864. Was wounded through the right slioulder and chest. I am improv- ing in strength ; and I suppose I am gaining flesh now, though I am not as strong or fleshy as when I was captured. I have been present at the statements made by William H. Ferguson, 11th Missis- sippi Volunteers ; I have heard them aU ; I substantiate their accuracy from my experi- ence and observation as to our condition in the service, though I was attached to a differ- ent corps of the army. W. O. QUARLES, Company II, 3d Alabama Regiment, Infantry. Larkin a. Griffin, native of South Carolina; home in Florida; belong to 1st South Carolina rifles. The statement made by William H. Fergu- son has been read and shown to n>e. It agrees with my observation and experience except as noted below. I have been in Confederate service nearly three years ; my health was always excellent while in the ser- vice'; I was well and strong when wounded and captured; captured on 12th May, 1864. During the winter of 1862 and 1863, we CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES had full rations of bread, but only half ra- tions of bacon for about three months. Our corn meal was very finely ground, but the hull was not sifted out. In a few isolated cases our captured men were directed to leave their knapsacks and haversacks behind them ; it was not a gene- ral thing at all. I never saw nor heard our men sworn at or cursed by the Union soldiers. L. A. GRIFFIN. I have seen and had read to me the state- ments made by William H. Ferguson. They are correct as proved by my own experience and observation generally. I haTe been in the Confederate service three years ; my health and strength while in the service was good during the third year ; better than before. We had coffee always, except during 1863, up to about Christmas. A Union lieutenant once damned me and told me I was not worthy of a place. I re- plied, " I hoped the Lord would forgive him and make him a better man." PLEASANT H. REESE, Company I, 13tii Georgia Regiment. I have seen and had read to me the state- ments made by William H. Ferguson. They are correct as proved by my own experience and observation generally. I have been in the Confederate service two years ; my health was not very good til! this last winter ; then it was tolerably good ; could do all my duties. Through last summer we did not draw coffee. JOSEPH F. DAVIDSON, Company A, 4yth Georgia Regiment. Virgil Carroll, aged twenty-one ; ar- tillery, Virginia. Clothing always good and warm. Plenty of blankets and good shelter ; shel- ter tents. Plenty to eat. Rations — coffee, sugar, bacon, meal, occasionally fresh meat, pota- toes (Irish), rice, peas, wheat bread. Always enough ; much as we could con- sume ; this especially during the last thi-ee montlis. Clothing very plentiful. Fourth year in the army ; never suffered for food or clothing. VIRGIL CARROLL. I corroborate the above statement of Vir- gil Carroll. S. P. TVVEDY, Company C, lltn Regiment, Virginia. JosuuA Barker, South Carolina, 4th Rifles. I corroborate the above statement of Virsil Carroll. JOSHUA BARKER. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 71 C. A. Bowman, North Carolina 3'2d. _Ij coiToboratc the above statement of Virgil Carroll. C A. BOWMAN. District of Columbia, ) County of Washington, ) * Personally appeared before me the within named William H. Ferguson, W. O. Quarles, L. A. Griffin, Pleasant H. Reese, Joseph F. Davidson, Virgil Carroll, S. P. Twedy, Joshua Barker, C. A. Bowman, who, being severally sworn, say that the statements set forth by them are correct and true to the best of their knowledge and belief. Given under my hand and seal at Wash- ington, D.C., this fourth day of June, A. D. 1864. M. H. N. Kendig, Notary Public. Testimony taken at De Camp General Hos- pital, U. S. A., New York, Jane 17, 1864. CoMMissioxER Present: — Mr. Wllklns. Deposition of A. B. Barron, of Habersham county, Georgia, Co. K, 24th Georgia. I have served in the Confederate service two years and three days. I arrived at this hospital two days since, and depose as fol- lows : That I have served In Virginia, and was wounded at Cool Arbor. I the Confederate service we had no tents in the field, except shelter tents ; had one blanket and one oil-cloth, and lay on the ground. i When wounded, had on a good suit and a | change of clothes, but was not robbed of money, clothes, or anything Avhich I had when taken captive. To-morrow being the last day of the week, and the time for a regular supply of cloth- ing, I expect clean clothes. Everything was in a proper state for my reception when I arrived here. I have been in the Confederate hospitals in the field ; there were straw beds and a few sheets. Rations in our service were bacon, half pound, or one pound of beef; rice, coffee and sugar occasionally; rations of bread were six hard biscuit a day, or half pound of meal or flour a day. We had a plentiful supply of wood ; our people did not suffer from cold. AVo had medical attendance and medicines as we had need. The sick were treated kindly ; there was care as to our cleanliness ; It was the best ; soap, &c., was Issued to us ; no want of salt. Since we were captured, we have been treated very well, just as well as your own boys all the time, and we have no fault to find. I was told 1 could not find it so. I was a farmer ; worked on my father's farm. I expected to be made a conscript, and volunteered in preference. ALBERT B. BARRON. Sworn to before me, Warren Webster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., iu charge of Hospital. Deposition of Wm. M. Farmer, native of Franklin county, Georgia, Company H, 24th Georgia Regiment. Business, a far- mer. I entered the service of the 'Confederate States in August, 1861 ; was wounded and taken prisoner at Cool Arbor. I had on, when wounded, a waistcoat, pants, drawers, shirt and boots, and not any- thing was taken away from me by my cap- tors. I have needed nothing since captured, hav- ing been supplied at the landing by the San- itary Commission. 1 have had plenty to eat ; no difference has been made since my cap- ture between the wounded prisoners and the Federal wounded. Rations in our service were bacon, half pound, or half pound of beef; rice, 'coffee and sugar occasionally ; rations of bread were six hard biscuit a day, or half pound of meal, or half pound of flour a day. I have always had food enough of this kind, and while in Virginia the same as elsewhere. In the Confederate service we had good tents in the winter, but on the march we had only blankets, and no shelter. I was in No. 4 General Hospital, Rich- mond, during sixteen days, in May 18G3 ; we had there as much as we could eat, with good bedding and sheets as we have here. We were better off in the hospital than in the field, as we had there coffee, sugar and soft bread. I have had every comfort and attention since I have been here. The same in all re- spects as Union solders. WILLIAM M. FARMEPu Sworn to before me, Warren Webster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in cliarge of Hospital. Deposition of Daniei. F. Prince, native of Columbus county, North Carolina, Com- pany H, 51st Regiment. I entered the Confederate service in March, 1862, and arrived here on the 15th of June last. I was wounded at the battle of Cool Arbor ; had some extra clothing in a bundle, which was cut loose by a Federal soldier at my request. I lay in a cross fire, and the Federal sol- diers dragged me out of the line of the fire Into a ditch. I was treated mighty kindly. 72 The Federals dressed my wounds, and cnriied me to White House Landing, and sent me immediately North with your own buys. In the Confederate service we always got one pound of beef or half a pound of bacon a day ; we had flour or corn bread alternate- ly, one pound of flour, or one and a quarter pounds of corn meal ; we had no tea or cof- fee ; we had salt, and a gill of peas or rice a day extra. We had three full suits of clothes a year, if needed; if more, we drew them and had to j)ay for them ; we had blankets and oil- clutiis. We had tents at stations, but no tents in the field. We had overcoats in cold weather made of wool. I have been supplied with everything I have wanted since I came here, and see no diflerence between my treatment and that of Union soldiers here in the hospital. DANIEL F. >< PRINCE. mark. Sworn to before me, Waruf.n Webster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of Hos- pital. •• Depotiilion of Joseph Whichard, Pitt County, North Carolina, Company G, 8th Regiment, North Carolina. I entered the service in September, 1861, and have served in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and at last in Virginia, where I was wounded at Cool Arbor. I had on at the time, pants, shoes, a shirt, and a pair of drawers ; my clothes were cut otf by the surgeon in order to dress my wounds, and clean ones were afterwards sup- plied to me by Union men, both on board the boat and since I have been here. I have my jacket, and the rest of my property is on the Utile stand at the head of my bed. A blanket was taken away from me when wounded, but another has been I'urnishcd. Rations, half a pound bacon, and ten hard biscuits, daily; nothing else to eat; no rice, peas, or corn meal. Was in the hospital at Wilmington, North Carolina, a year ago last May. The fare was tolerable. On a march, had an abundance, except for a day or two, when it could not be got. Have had everything I want, or have asked for, since I have been here. J. WHICHARD. Sworn to I'pfore me, Wakuen Weestei:, Assistant burgeon U. S. A. la charge of Hospital. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES Deposition of Michael Sutton, Sampson County, North Carolina, Company B, 51&t Regiment. I have been nearly three years in the Confederate service ; this is my second en- listment; I might have been drafted if I had not re-enlisted. I served near Charlestown, South Carolina, and was wounded at Cool Arbor ; had some clothes on ; no clothes now except what was furnished me by Union men ; my own clothes were bloody and had to be thrown away. I have not been robbed of anything. Rations for four days, one pound of bacon, and eighteen ounces of corn meal ; same Aveight of flour, but rarely; had rice and peas, half pint of rice, and a short half pint of peas a day. Meal not always good, but lumpy and smelt bad, and then we were rather stinted for food. Since we have been 'round Richmond we have been short ; it was enough to live upon " without enough." Been in hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina; "fare awful hard;" want of food; beds, &c., were clean. Treated well on board the vessel ; the same as Union soldiers; kind and attentive here; fared fine while I have been here ; 1 have not asked for anything but what I have got it. MICHAEL >i' SUTTON. mark. Sworn to before me, Warren Webster, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., in charge of hos- pital. Testimony taken at Fort Delaware^ June 2\st, 1864. Commissioners Present. — Dr. Wal- lace, Judge Hare. George S. Roler sworn and examined : — I am from Virginia ; was in the artillery, Ewell's Corps ; I am comfortable here ; I have just come here last evening ; came through Washington, from Spottsj Ivania Court^ House, where I was taken prisoner. Was kindly treated on the way up ; liad been in the service (Confederate) three months when taken prisoner. We had plenty of rations from Confederate Government ; they issued us meal, some flour, bacon, sugar, coffee and salt ; got meat every day, half pound bacon or a pound of beef; one and one-eighth pound of meal a day, which we made ourselves; plenty of coffee and sugar all the winter; we did not suffer for want of food. Clothing plenty all winter; that was the case of the other men as well as myself; wo TO PRISONERS OF AVAR. all had two blankets — some more; none I think less than two. GEORGE S. KOLER. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 21st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. Henry Daniel, sioorn and examined : — I have been in the Confederate service, infantry, Ewell's corps, for two years; I came here yesterday; taken prisoner at Spottsyl- vania; am from Georgia. Had plenty to eat while in the Confederate service ; had half pound of bacon, one and one-eighth pounds of flour a day during the winter; in the spring, beef one pound a day ; provisions of good quality ; besides this had meal, Irish potatoes, peas, coffee, and sugar. Had clothes enough to keep warm ; two blankets, one overcoat; the army at large had them ; nothing to complain of in the way of food and clothing. HENRY 'A DANIEL. mark. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 21st, 1864. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. William Sharp, sivorn and examined : — I have been three years in the Confederate service the 9th of next month, in Hill's coi-ps ; I am from Georgia ; taken prisoner at Spottsylvania. Treatment was not so good part of the way coming up here ; they did not give us anything to eat but four crackers a day till we got to Belle Plain, to the boat ; after that we had plenty ; the guards that were with us across to Belle Plain did not get it either; the infantry guard that fetched us to Fredericks- burg had no more than we ; the cavalry brought us, I don't know how they fared. Rations last winter in the Confederate service pretty good ; got one and one-eighth pounds of flour, one-quarter pound of salt pork, when we got sugar and coffee; when we did not get sugar and coffee, had half a pound salt pork ; sometimes we drew corn meal and got a pound and a quarter of it ; got some potatoes once and a while ; some beans occasionally, and some rice. Clothes were very good last winter ; had one blanket to each man ; some had two blankets; had overcoats. Heard no complaints of want of food or clothing, being well clothed and fed. 1 was as fat as I ever was in my life, when I was taken at Spottsylvania. 73 We had tents and cabins built during the winter. WILLIAIM M SHARP. m.trk. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 21st., 1864; D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. J. S. Moore, sworn and examined : — I have been in the Confederate service nearly three years. Taken prisoner near Spottsylvania Court House ; was treated tol- erably well on the way up here ; did not get quite enough to eat. Plenty to eat last winter and spring in the Confederate serAace ; got meal, flour, ba- con, a quarter of a pound of bacon a day, and one and one-quarter pounds of meal, sometimes sugar and coffee and potatoes; did not get beans ; got no fresh meat last spring. Was in Hill's corps. Had plenty of clothing; one blanket a piece ; overcoats ; some had two blankets. We could not carry more than one blanket a piece ; could have had more if we had chosen to carry them. Sometimes we threw them away. I came from Mississippi. Sometimes drew flour, one pound, instead of meal ; never got any more bacon than at first ; had plenty to eat all the time ; gene- rally had coffee on hand all the time ; used to have peas last fall ; was as well fed, with the exception of coflee, last winter as before. JOHN S. MOORE. Sworn to and subscribed before , me, June 21st, 1S04. D. P. Brown, Jr., United Statps Commissioner. L. S. Crews, sioorn and examined : — I entered the Confederate service last December. I was taken prisoner near Spottsylvania Court House ; came from Vir- ginia ; in Ewell's corps ; well treated coming up here ; got more than I could eat, for I was sick ; they all got plenty coming up here, as far as I know. Rations last winter in our own army were tolerable ; was on corn meal principally through the winter ; got one and one-quarter pound of corn meal a day, half pound of bacon ; sometimes molasses and potatoes ; some fish, some sugar and coffee ; drawed a little rice ; got no fresh meat ; had a little last December ; had enough food to satisfy hunger. The men were clothed tolerably well — all of the men had not blankets ; some had thrown them away ; it was so with the over- coats. I was conscripted. his L. S. ^ CREWS, mark. 74 Sworn to and subscribed before mc, June 21st, lS(Vi. D. P. BiiowN, Jr., United States Commissioner. R. D. Benefield, sworn and examined : — Taken prisoner near Spottsylvania ; was well treated, as well as could be expected on my way up here. Got about enough to eat in the Confed- erate service — one and one-quarter p.ounds of meal, and one-quarter pound of bacon ; got some sugar, some potatoes, rice, and coffee ; no beans or peas ; some sugar ; al- lowance of bacon the same all the time ; I don't recollect drawing any fresh meat ; got flour sometimes. Got tolerable plenty of clothes ; all had plenty of blankets ; some overcoats. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES The men did not suffer, as Ikn 'w of. from cold ; have been in the service since Febru- ary, 1861. Was in Ewell's corps. R. D. BENEFIELD, Company A, 37th Georgia. Sworn to and subscribed before me, June 21st, 181)4. D. P. Brown, Jr., United States Commissioner. I certify that the foregoing testimony, taken at Fort Delaware, June 21st, 1864, was taken and reduced to writing by me, in the presence of the respective witnesses, and by them sworn to and subscribed in my presence, at the time and in the manner set forth. D. P. BROWN, Jr., United States Commissioner. SUPPLEMENT. SUFFERINGS OF THE PRISONERS AT ANDERSON VILLE, GA. — MEMORIAL FROM THE PRISONERS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES— LETTER OF MAJOK^ GENERAL BUTLER, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EXCHANGE, TO COLONEL OULD, CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONER. Account of the sufferinr/s of Union prisoners of war, at Camp iSumler, Andersonville, Georgia. From tbe Sanitary Commission Bulletin. The following statement was drawn up for the Commission, and sworn to by the parties signing it. They were exchanged on the 16 th of August, and with three others were appointed by their companions in prison as a deputation to see President Lin- coln in their behalf. Deposition of Private Tracy: — I am a private in the 8 2d New York Regi- ment of Volunteers, Company G. Was cap- tured with about eight hundred Federal troops, in front of Petersburg, on the 22d of June, 18G4. We were kept at Petersburg two days, at Richmond, Belle Isle, three days, then conveyed by rail to Lynchburg. Marched seventy-five miles to Danville, thence by rail to Andersonville, Georgia. At Petersburg we were treated fairly, being under the guard of old soldiers of an Ala- bama regiment ; at Richmond we came under the authority of the notorious and inhuman Major Turner, and the equally notorious Home Guard. Our ration was a pint of beans, four ounces of bread, and three ounces of meat, a day. .Another batch of prisoners joining us, we left Richmond sixteen hundred strong. All blankets, haversacks, canteens, money, valuables of every kind, extra clothing, and in some cases the last shirt and drawers, had been previously taken from us. At Lynchburg we were placed under the Home Guard, officered by Major and Cap- tain Moffett. The march to Danville was a weary and painful one of five days, under a torrid sun, many of us falling helpless by the way, and soon filling the empty wagons of our train. On the first day we received a little meat, but the suin of our rations for the five days was thirteen crackers. During the six days by rail to Andersonville, meat was given us twice, and the daily ration was four crackers. On entering the Stockade Prison, w found it crowded with twenty-eight thou- sand of our fellow-soldiers. By crowded, I mean that it was difficult to move in any di- rection without jostling and being jostled. This prison is an open space, sloping on both sides, originally seventeen acres, now twen- ty-five acres, in the shape of a parallelogram, without trees or shelter of any kind. The soil is sand over a bottom of clay. The fence is made of upright, trunks of trees, about twenty feet high, near the top of which are small platforms, where the guards are stationed., Twenty feet inside and par- allel to the fence is a light railing, forming the " dead line," beyond which the projec- tion of a foot or finger is sure to bring the deadly bullet of the sentinel. Through the ground, at nearly right-angles TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 75 PRISON AT ANDERSONS fLLE, GEORGIA. TO PRISONERS OF WAR. with the longer sides, runs or rather creeps a stream through an artificial channel, vary- ing from five to six feet in width, the water about ankle deep, and near the middle of the enclosure, spreading out into a swamp of about six acres, filled with refuse wood, stumps and debris of the camp. Before en- tering this enclosure, the stream, or more properly sewer, passes through the camp of the guards, receiving from this source, and others farther up, a large amount of the vilest material, even the contents of the sink. The water is of a dark color, and an ordinary glass would collect a thick sediment. This was our only drinking and cooking water. It was our custom to filter it as best we could, through our remnants of haversacks, shirts and blouses. Wells had been dug, but the water either proved so productive of diarr- hoea, or so limited in quantity that they were of no general use. The cook-house was situated on the stream just outside the stock- ade, and its refuse of decaying offal was thrown into the water, a greasy coating cov- ering much of the surface. To these was added the daily large amount of base matter from the camp itself. There was a system of policing, but the means was so limited, and so large a number of the men was ren- dered irresolute and dejijressed by imprison- ment, that the work was very imperfectly done. One side of the swamp Avas naturally used as a sink, the men usually going out some distance into the water. Under the summer sun this place early became cor- ruption too vile for description, the men breeding disgusting life, so that the surface of the water moved as with a gentle breeze. The new-comers, on reaching this, would exclaim : " Is this hell ?" yet they soon would become callous, and enter unmoved the hor- rible rottenness. The rebel authorities never removed any filth. There was sel- dom any visitation by the officers in charge. Two surgeons were at one time sent by Presi- dent Davis to inspect the camp, but a walk through a small section gave them all the information they desired, and we never saw them again. The guards usually numbered about sixty- four — eight at each end, and twenty-four on a side. On the outside, within three hundred yards, were fortifications, on high ground, overlooking and perfectly command- ing us, mounting twenty-four twelve-pound Napoleon Parrotts. We were never per- mitted to go outside, except at times, in small squads, to gather our firewood. During the building of the cook-house, a few, who were carpenters, were ordered out to assist. Our only shelter from the sun and rain and night dews was what we could make by stretching over us our coats or scraps of 77 blankets, which a few had, but generally there was no attempt by day or night to pro- tect ourselves. The rations consisted of eight ounces of corn bread (the cob being ground with the kernel), and generally sour, two ounces of condemned pork, offensive in appeai'ance and smell. Occasionally, about twice a week, two tablespoonfuls of rife, and in place of the pork the same amount (two tab) •- spoonfuls) of molasses were given us about twice a month.* This ration was brought into camp about four o'clock, P. M., and thrown from the wagons to the ground, the men being arranged in divisions of two hun- dred and seventy, subdivided into squads of nineties and thirties. It was the custom to consume the whole ration at once, rather than save any for the next day. The distri- bution being often unequal some would lose the rations altogether. We were allowed no dish or cooking utensil of any kind. On opening the camp in the winter, the first two thousand prisoners Avere allowed skillets, one to fifty men, but these were soon taken away. To the best of my knowledge, in- formation and belief, our ration was in quality a starving one, it being either too foul to be touched or too I'aw to be digested. The cook-house went into operation about May 10th, prior to which we cooked our own rations. It did not prove at all adequate to the work, (thirty thousand is a large town,) so that a large proportion were still obliged to prepare their own food. In addition to the utter inability of many to do this, through debility and sickness, we never had a supply of wood. I have often seen men with a little bag of meal in hand, gathered from several rations, starving to death for want of wood, and in desperation would mix the raw ma- terial with water and try to eat it. The clothing of the men was miserable in the extreme. Very few had shoes of any kind, not two thousand had coats and pants, and those were late comers. More than one- half were indecently exposed, and many were naked. The usual punishment was to place the men in the stocks, outside, near the Captain's quarters. If a man was missing at roll-call, the squad of ninety to which he belonged was deprived of the ration. The " dead-line " bullet, already referred to, spared no offeud- * Our reg:ular army ration is : i lb. Poilc or li lbs. Fresh Boef. 18 ozs. Hard Bread, or W ozs. Soft Bread or Flour, 1-10 lb. Coffee, 1-0 lb. Sugar, 1-10 lb. Itiee, or 1-10 lb. Beans or Hominy. Vegetables — Fresh or"] MoYal'^'s?'^'' irregularly. Vinegar. J 71 CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORmES er. One poor fellow, just from Sherman's army — his name was Roberts — was trying to wash his face near the "dead-line" rail- ing, when he slipped on the clayey bottom, and fell with his head just outside the fatal border. We shouted to him, but it was too late — " another guard would haA'e a fur- lough," the men said. It was a common be- lief among our men, arising from statements made by the guard, that General Winder, in command, issued an order that any one of the guard who should shoot a Yankee out- side of the " dead-line " should have a month's furlough, but there probably was no truth in this. About two a day were thus shot, some being cases of suicide, brought on by mental depression or physical misery, the poor fellows throwing themselves, or madly rushing outside the " line." The mental condition of a large portion of the men was melancholy, beginning in des- pondency and tending to a kind of stolid and idiotic indifference. Many spent much time in arousing and encouraging their fellows, but hundreds were lying about motionless, or stalking vacantly to and fro, quite beyond any help which could be given them within their prison walls. These cases were fre- quent among those who had been imprisoned but a short time. There were those who were captured at the first Bull Run, July 1861, and had known Belle Isle from the first, yet had preserved their physical and mental health to a wonderful degree. Many were wise and resolute enough to keep themselves occupied — some in cutting bone and wood ornaments, making their knives out of iron hoops — others in manufacturing ink from the rust from these same hoops, and with rude pens sketching or imitating bank notes, or any sample that would involve long and patient execution. Letters from home very seldom reached us, and few had any means of writing. In the early summer, a large batch of letters — five thousand we were told — arrived, hav- ing been accumulating somewhere for many months. These were brought into camp by an officer, under orders to collect ten cents on each - — of course most were returned, and WG heard no more of them. One of my companions saw among them three from his parents, but he was unable to pay the charge. According to the rules of transmis- sion of letters over the lines, these letters must have already paid ten cents each to the rebel government. As far as we saw General Winder and Captain WIrtz, the former was kind and considerate In his manners, the latter harsh, though not without kindly feelings. It is a melancholy and mortifying fact, that some of our trials came from our own men. At Belle Isle and Andersonville there were among us a gang of desperate men, ready to prey on their fellows. Not only- thefts and robberies, but even murders were committed. Affairs became so serious at Camp Sumter that an appeal was made to General Winder, who authorized an arrest and trial by a criminal court. Elghty-six were arrested, and six were hung, beside others who were severely punished. These proceedings effected a marked change for the better. Some few weeks before being released, I was ordered to act as clerk in the hospital. This consists simply of a few scattered trees and fly tents, and Is In charge of Dr. AVhIte, an excellent and considerate man, with very limited means, but doing all in his power for his patients. He has twenty-five assistants, besides those detailed to examine for admit- tance to the hospital. This examination was made In a small stockade attached to the main one, to the inside door of which the sick came or were brought by their comrades, the number to be removed being limited. Lately, in consideration of the rapidly in- creasing sickness, it was extended to one hundred and fifty daily. That this was too small an allowance is shown by the fact that the deaths within our stockade were from thirty to forty a day. I have seen one hun- dred and filty bodies waiting passage to the " d 'ad house," to be buried with those who died In hospital. The average of deaths through the earlier months was thirty a day : at the time I left, the average was over one hundred and thirty, and one day the record showed one hundred and fbrty-si.K. The jiroportlon of deaths from starvation, not Including those consequent on the dis- eases originating in the character and limited quantity of food, such as diarrhoea, dysentery and scurvy, I cannot state ; but to the best of my knowledge. Information and belief, there were scores every month. We could, at any time, point out many for whom such a fate was inevitable, as they lay or feebly walked, mere skeletons, whose emaciation exceeded the examples given in Leslie's Illustrated for June 18, 1864. For example : In some case? the inner edges of the two bones of the arms, between the elbow and the wrist, with the Intermediate blood vessels, were plainly vis- ible when held toward the light. The ra- tion. In quantity, Avas perhaps barely suffi- cient to sustain life, and the cases of starva- tion were generally those whose stomachs could not retain what had become entirely indigestible. For a man to find, on waking, that his comrade by his side was dead, was an occur- rence too common to be noted. I have seen I death in almost all the forms of the hospital TO PEISONERS OF WAR. and battle-field, but the daily scenes in Camp Sumter exceeded in the extremity of misery all my previous experience. The work ot" burial is performed by our own men, under guai-d and orders, twenty- five bodies being placed in a single pit, with- out head-boards, and the sad duty perform- ed with indecent haste. Sometimes our men were rewarded for this work with a few sticks of fire-wood, and I have known them to quarrel over a dead body for the joh. Dr. White is able to give the patients a diet but little better than the prison rations — a little flour porridge, arrow-root, whis- key and wild or hog tomatoes. In the way of medicine, I saw nothing but camphor, whis- key, and a decoction of some kind of bark — white oak, I think. He often expressed his regret that he had not more medicines. The limitation of military orders, under which the surgeon in charge was placed, is shown by the following occurrence : A sup- posed private, wounded in the thigh, was under treatment in the hospital, when it was discovered that he was a major of a colored regiment. The assistant-surgeon, under whose immediate charge he was, proceeded at once not only to remove him, but to kick him out, and lie Avas returned to the stockade, to sliift for himself as well as he could. Dr. White could not or did not attempt to re- store him. After entering on my duties at the hospi- tal, I was occasionally favored with double rations and some wild tomatoes. A few of our men succeeded, in spite of the closest examination of our cloths, in secreting some green-backs, and with those were able to buy useful articles at exorbitant prices : — a tea-cup of flour at one dollar; eggs, three to six dollars a dozen ; salt, four dollars a pound ; molasses, thirty dollars a gallon ; nigger beans, a small, inferior article, (diet of the slaves and pigs, but highly relish- ed by us,) fifty cents a pint. These figures, multiplied by ten, will give very nearly the price in Confederate currency. Though the country abounded in pine and oak, sticks were sold to us at various prices, according to size. Our men, especially the mechanics, were tempted with the offer of liberty and large wages to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, but it was very rare that their patriotism, even under such a fiery trial, ever gave way. I can-y this message from one of my companions to his mother : " My treat- ment here is killing me, mother, but I die cheerfully for my country." Some attempts were made to escape, but wholly in vain, for, if the prison walls and guards were passed and the protecting woods reached, the bloodhounds were sure to find us out. 79 Tunneling was at once attempted on a large scale, but on the afternoon preceding the night fixed on for escape, an officer rode in and announced to us that the plot was discovered, and from our huge pen we could see on the hill above us the regiments just arriving to strengthen the guard. We had been betrayed. It was our belief that spies were kept in the camp, which could very easily be done. The number in camp when I left was nt cirly thirtj'-five thousand, and daily increas- ing. The number in hospital was about five thousand. I was exchanged at Port Eoyal Ferry, August 16 th. PRESCOTT TRACY, Eighty-second Regiment, N. Y. V. City and County of New York, sa. H. C. HiGGiNSON and S. Noirot, being duly sworn, say : That the above statement of Prescott Tracy, their fellow-prisoner, agrees with their own knowledge and expe- rience. - H. C. HIGGINSON, Co. K, Nineteenth Illinois Vols. SILVESTER NOIROT, Co. B, Fifth New Jersey Vols. The Memorial qf the Union Prisoners con- fined at AndersonvUle, Ga., to the Presi- dent of the United Stales. COXFEDERATK STATES PRISON, Charleston, S. C, August, 1864. To THE President of the United States : The condition of the enlisted men belong- ing to the Union armies, now prisoners to the Confederate rebel forces, is such that* it be- comes our duty, and the duty of every com- missioned ofH<'er, to make known the facts In the case to the Government of the United States, and to use every honorable effort to , secure a general exchange of prisoners, thereby relieving thousands of our comrades from the horroi- now surrounding them. For some time past there has been a con- centration of prisoners from all parts of the raWl territory to the State of Georgia — the commissioned officers being confined at Ma- con, and the enlisted men at AndersonvUle. Recent movements of the Union armies un- der General Sherman have compelled the removal of prisoners to other points, and it is now understood that they will be removed to Savannah, Georgia, and Columbus and Charleston, South Carolina. But no change of this kind holds out any prospect of relief to OKir poor men. Indeed, as the localities selected are far more unhealthy, there must be an increase rather than a diminution of suffering. Colonel Hill, provost marshal gen- eral, Confederate States army, at Atlanta, CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES 80 stated to one of the undersigned that there were thirty-five thousand prisoners at Andcr- sonville, and by all accounts from the United States soldiers who have been confined there the number is not overstated by him. These thirty-five thousand are confined in a field of some thirty acres, enclosed by a board fence, heavily guarded. About one-third have va- rious kinds of indifferent shelter ; but up- wards of thirty thousand are wholly without shelter, or even shade of any kind, and are exposed to the storms and rains, which are of almost daily occurrence ; the cold dews of the night, and the more terrible eff"ects of the sun striking with almost tropical fierce- ness upon their unprotected heads. This mass of men jostle and crowd each other up and down the limits of their enclosure, in storms or sun, and others lie down upon the pitiless earth at night with no other covering than the clothing upon their backs, few of them having even a blanket. Upon entering the prison every man is deliberately stripped of money and other property, and as no clothing or blankets are ever supplied to their prisoner's by the rebel authorities, the condition of the apparel of the soldiers, just from an active campaign, can be easily imagined. Thousands are without pants or coats, and hundreds without even a pair of drawers to cover their naked- ness. To these men, as indeed to all prisoners, there is issued three-quarters of a poun'l of bread or meal, and one eighth of a pound of meat per day. This is the entire ration, and upon it the prisoner must live or die. The meal is often unsirted and sour, and the meat 8uch as in the North is consigned to the soap- maker. Such are tLe rations upon which Union soldiers are fed by the rebel authori- tios, and by which they are barely holding on to life. But to starvation, and exposure to sun and storm, add the sickness which prevails to a most alarming and terrible ex- tent. On an average, one hundred die daily. It is impossible that any Union sol- dier should know all the facts pertaining to this terrible mortality, a.s they are not parad- ed by the rebel authorities. Such statement as the following, made by , speaks eloquent testimony. Said he : " Of twelve of us who were captured, six died, four are in the hospital, and I never expect to see them again. There are but two of us left." In 1862, at Montgomery, Alabama, under far more favorable circumstances, the Erisoners being protected by sheds, from one undred and fifty to two hundred were sick from diarrhoea and chills, out of seven hun- dred. The same per centage would give seven thousand sick at Andersonville. It needs no comment, no elTorts at word paint- ing, to make such a picture stand out boldly in most horrible colors. Nor is this all. Among the ill-fated of the many who have suffered amputation in con- sequence of injuries received before capture, sent fi-ora rebel hospitals before their wounds were healed, there are eloquent witnesses of the barbarities of which they are victims. If to these f^icts is added this, that nothing more demoralizes soldiers and develops the evil passions of man than starvation, the terrible condition of Union prisoners at Anderson- ville can be readily imagined. They are fast losing hope, and becoming utterly reck- less of life. Numbers, crazed by their suffer- ings, wander about in a state of idiocy ; oth- ers deliberately cross the " dead line," and are remorselessly shot down. In behalf of these men we most earnestly appeal to the President of the United States. Few of them have been captured except in the front of battle, in the deadly encounter, and only when overpowered by numbers. They constitute as gallant a portion of our armies as carry our banners any where. If released, they would soon return to again do vigorous battle for our cause. We are told that the only obstacle in the way of ex- change is the status of enlisted negi'oes cap- tured from our armies, the United States claiming that the cartel covers all who serve under its flag, and the Confederate States refusmg to consider the colored soldiers," heretofore slaves, as prisoners of war. We beg leave to suggest some facts bear- ing upon the question of exchange, which we would urge upon this consideration. Is it not consistent with the national honor, without waiving the claim that the negro soldiers shall be treated as prisoners of war, to effect an exchange of the white soldiers ? The two classes are treated differently by the enemy. The whites are confined in such prisons as Libby and Andersonville, starved and treated with a barbarism un- known to civilized nations. The blacks, on the contrary, are seldom imprisoned. They are distributed among the citizens, or em- ployed on government works. Under these circumstances they receive enough to eat, and are worked no harder than they have been accustomed to be. They are neither starved or killed off by the pestilence in the dungeons of Richmond and Charleston. It is true they are again made slaves ; but their slavery is freedom and happiness com- pared with the cruel existence imposed upon our gallant men. They are not bereft of hope, as are the white soldiers, dying by piece-meal. Their chances of escape are tenfold gi-eater than those of the white sol- diers, and their condition, in all its lights, is toleral)le in comparison with that of the pris- TO PRISONERS OF WAR. 81 oners of war now languishing in the dens and pens of Secession. While, therefore, believing the claims of our Government, in matters of exchange, to be just, we are profoundly impressed with the conviction that the circumstances of the two classes of soldiers are so widely differ- ent that the Government can honorably consent to an exchange, waiving for a time the established principle justly claimed to be applicable in the case. Let thirty-five thousand suffering, starving, and enlisted men aid this appeal. By prompt and de- (!ided action in their behalf, thirty-five thou- sand heroes will be made happy. For the eighteen hundred commissioned officers now prisoners we urge nothing. Although desir- ous of returning to our duty, we can bear imprisonment with more fortitude if the en- listed men, whose sufferings we know to be intolerable, were restored to liberty and life. Letter of Major-General Butler, United States Commissioner of Exchange., to Col. Ould, the Confederate Commissioner. Headquarters Department of Virginia and North Carolina, In the Field, August — , 1864. Hon. Robert Ould, «. Commissioner of Exchange. Sir: — Your note to Major Mulford, As- sistant Agent of Exchange, under date of 10th August, has been referred to me. You therein state that Major Mulford has several times proposed " to exchange prison- ers respectively held by the two belligerents, officer for officer and man for man," and that " the offer has also been made by other officials having charge of matters connected with the exchange of prisoners," and that " this proposal has been heretofore declined by the Confederate authorities." That you now " consent to the above proposition, and agree to deliver to you (Major Mulford) the prisoners held in captivity by the Confeder- ate authorities, provided you agree to de- liver an equal number of officers and men. As equal numbers are delivered from time to time, they will be declared exchanged. This proposal is made with the understand- ing that the officers and men on both sides Avho have been longest in captivity will be first delivered, where it is practicable." From a slight ambiguity in your phraseol- ogy, but more, perhaps, from the antecedent action of your authorities, and because of your acceptance of it, I am in doubt whether you have stated the proposition with entire accuracy. It is true, a proposition was made both by Major Mulford and by myself, as Agent of third series, living age. vol. xxvii. Exchange, to exchange all prisoners of war taken by either belligerent party, man for man, officer for officer, of equal rank, or their equivalents. It was made by me as early as the first of the winter of 1863-64, and has not been accepted. In May last I forwarded to you a note, desiring to know whether the Confederate authorities intend- ed to treat colored soldiers of the United States army as prisoners of war. To that inquiry no answer has yet been made. To avoid all possible misapprehension or mistake hereafter as to your offer now, will you now say whether you mean by " prisoners held in captivity," colored men, duly enrolled, and mustered into the service of the United States, who have been captured by the Con- federate forces ; and if your authorities are willing to exchange all soldiers so mustered into the United States army, whether col- ored or otherwise, and the officers command- ing them, man for man, officer for officer ? At the interview which was held between yourself and the Agent of Exchange on the part of the United States, at Fortress Mon- roe, in March last, you will do me the favor to remember the principal discussion turned upon this very point ; you, on behalf of the Confederate Government, claiming the right to hold all negroes, who had heretofore been slaves, and not emancipated by their mas- ters, enrolled and mustered into the service of the United States, when captured by your forces, not as prisoners of war, but upon capture to be turned over to their supposed masters or claimants, whoever they might be, to be held by them as slaves. By the advertisements in your newspa- pers, calling upon masters to come forward and claim these men so captured, I suppose that your authorities still adhere to that claim — that is to say, that whenever a col- ored soldier of the United States is captured by you, upon whom any claim can be made by any person residing within the States now in insurrection, such soldier is not to be treated as a prisoner of war, but is to be turned over to his supposed owner or claim- ant, and put at such labor or service as that owner or claimant may choose, and the offi- cers in command of such soldiers, in the lan- guage of a supposed act of the Confederate States, are to be turned over to the Govern- ors of jStates, upon requisitions, for the pur- pose of being punished by the laws of such States, for acts done in war in the armies of the United States. You must be aware that there ie still a proclamation by Jefferson Davis, claim- ing to be Chief Executive of the Con- federate States, declaring in substance that all officers of colored troops mustered into the service of the United States were act 1265. CRUELTIES OF REBEL AUTHORITIES 82 t» be treat.cd as prisoners of war, but were to be turned over for punishment to the Governors of States. I am recitinjij these public acts from memory, and will be pardoned for not giv- ing the exact words, although I believe I do not vary the substance and effect. These declarations on the part of those whom you represent yet remain unrepeal- ed, unannulled, unrevoked, and must, there- fore, be still supposed to be authoritative. By your acceptance of our proposition, is the Government of the United States to understand that these several claims, enactments, and proclaimed declarations are to be given up, set aside, revoked, and held for nought by the Confederate authorities, and that you are ready and willing to ex- change man for man those colored soldiers of the United States, duly mustered and enrolled as such, wlio have heretofore been claimed as slaves by the Confederate States, as well as by white soldiers ? If this be so, and you are so willing to exchange these colored men claimed as slaves, and you will so officially inform the Government of the United States, then, as I am instructed, a principal difficulty in effecting exchanges will be removed. As I informed you personally, in my judgment, it is neither consistent with the Eolicy, dignity, or honor of the United tates, upon any consideration, to allow those who, by our laws solemnly enacted, are made soldiers of the Union, and who have been duly enlisted, enrolled and mus- tered as such soldiers, who have borne arms in behalf of this country, and who have been captured while fighting in vin- dication of the rights of that country, not to be treated as prisoners of war, and re- main unexchanged, and in the service of those who claim them as masters ; and I cannot believe that the Government of the United States will ever be found to con- sent to so gross a wrong. Pardon me if I misunderstood you in supposing that your acceptance of our prop- osition does not in good faith mean to in- clude all the soldiers of the Union, and that you still intend, if your acceptance is agreed to, to hold the colored soldiers of the Union unexchanged, and at labor or service, be- cause I am informed that very lately, al- most contemporaneously with this offer on your part to exchange prisoners, and which seems to include all prisoners of war, the Confederate authorities have made a dec- laration that the negroes heretofore held to service by owners in the States of Del- aware, Maryland, and Missouri are to be treated as prisoners of war, when captured In arras in the service of the United States. Such declaration that a part of the col- ored soldiers of the United States were to be prisoners of war, would seem most strongly to_ imply that others were not to be so treated, or in other words, that tho colored men from the insurrectionary States are to be held to labor and returned to their masters, if captured by the Confed- erate forces while duly enrolled and mus- tered into, and actually in the armies of the United States. In the view which the Government of the United States takes of the claim made by you to the persons and services of these negroes, it is not to be supported upon any principle of national and rrnnlci- pal law. Looking upon these men only as property upon your theory of property In them, we do not see how this claim can be made, cer- tainly not how it can be yielded. It is be- lieved to be a well-settled rule of public in- ternational law, and a custom and part of the laws of war, that the capture of mova- ble property vests the title to that property In the captor, and therefore where one bel- ligerent gets Into full possession property belonging to the subjects or citizens of the other belligerent, the owner of that property is at once divested of his title, which rests in the belligerent Government capturing and holding 'such possession. Upon this rule of international law all civilized na- tions have acted, and by it both belligerents have dealt with all property, save slaves, taken from each other during the present war. If the Confederate forces capture a num- ber of horses from the United States, the animals are claimed to be, and, as we under- stand it, become the property of the Con- federate authorities. If the United States capture any mova- ble property In the rebellion, by our regula- tions and laws, in conformity with interna- tional law, and the laws of war, such prop- erty is turned over to our Government as its property. Therefore, if we obtain posses- sion of that species of property known to the laws of the insurrectionary States as slaves, why thould there be any doubt that that property, like any other, vests in the United States? If the property in the slave does so vest^ then the "jus di-^-^»:r ^T- WT^ /'4. rr ^'-'^'iS^'' ~ 4 ^^l < :*^*;e-<-> M^y^ ^^SiT •««:_ *^-J^ ^C.: •iETj