RETURNED PRISONERS.

SENATE.

38th Congress,} 1st Session.}

{Rep. Com., {No. 68.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

May 9, 1864.—Ordered, That the report, with the accompanying evidence, be printed in connexion with the report of the committee in relation to the Fort Pillow massacre, and that twenty thousand additional copies be printed for the use of the Senate.

Mr. Wade submitted the following

REPORT.

The Joint Committee on the Conduct and Expenditures of the War submitted the following report, with the accompanying testimony.

On the 4th instant your committee received a communication of that date from the Secretary of War, enclosing the report of Colonel Hoffman, commissary general of prisoners, dated May 3, calling the attention of the committee to the condition of returned Union prisoners, with the request that the committee would immediately proceed to Annapolis and examine with their own eyes the condition of those who have been returned from rebel captivity. The committee resolved that they would comply with the request of the Secretary of War on the first opportunity. The 5th of May was devoted by the committee to concluding their labors upon the investigation of the Fort Pillow massacre. On the 6th of May, however, the committee proceeded to Annapolis and Baltimore, and examined the condition of our returned soldiers, and took the testimony of several of them, together with the testimony of surgeons and other persons in attendance upon the hospitals. That testimony, with the communication of the Secretary of War, and the report of Colonel Hoffman, is herewith transmitted.

The evidence proves, beyond all manner of doubt, a determination on the part of the rebel authorities, deliberately and persistently practiced for a long time past, to subject those of our soldiers who have been so unfortunate as to fall in their hands to a system of treatment which has resulted in reducing many of those who have survived and been permitted to return to us to a condition, both physically and mentally, which no language we can use can adequately describe. Though nearly all the patients now in the Naval Academy hospital at Annapolis, and in the West hospital, in Baltimore, have been under the kindest and most intelligent treatment for about three weeks past, and many of them for a greater length of time, still they present literally the appearance of living skeletons, many of them being nothing but skin and bone; some of them are maimed for life, having been frozen while exposed to the inclemency of the winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled to lie on the bare ground, without tents or blankets, some of them without overcoats or even coats, with but little fire to mitigate the severity of the winds and storms to which they were exposed.

The testimony shows that the general practice of their captors was to rob them, as soon as they were taken prisoners, of all their money, valuables blankets, and good clothing, for which they received nothing in exchange except, perhaps, some old worn-out rebel clothing hardly better than none at all. Upon their arrival at Richmond they have been confined, without blankets or other covering, in buildings without fire, or upon Belle Isle with, in many cases, no shelter, and in others with nothing but old discarded army tents, so injured by rents and holes as to present but little barrier to the wind and storms; on several occasions, the witnesses say, they have arisen in the morning from their resting-places upon the bare earth, and found several of their comrades frozen to death during the night, and that many others would have met the same fate had they not walked rapidly back and forth, during the hours which should have been devoted to sleep, for the purpose of retaining sufficient warmth to preserve life.

In respect to the food furnished to our men by the rebel authorities, the testimony proves that the ration of each man was totally insufficient in quantity to preserve the health of a child, even had it been of proper quality, which it was not. It consisted usually, at the most, of two small pieces of corn-bread, made in many instances, as the witnesses state, of corn and cobs ground together, and badly prepared and cooked, of, at times, about two ounces of meat, usually of poor quality, and unfit to be eaten, and occasionally a few black worm-eaten beans, or something of that kind. Many of our men were compelled to sell to their guards, and others, for what price they could get, such clothing and blankets as they were permitted to receive of that forwarded for their use by our government, in order to obtain additional food sufficient to sustain life; thus, by endeavoring to avoid one privation, reducing themselves to the same destitute condition in respect to clothing and covering that they were in before they received any from our government. When they became sick and diseased in consequence of this exposure and privation, and were admitted into the hospitals, their treatment was little, if any, improved as to food, though they, doubtless, suffered less from exposure to cold than before. Their food still remained insufficient in quantity and altogether unfit in quality. Their diseases and wounds did not receive the treatment which the commonest dictates of humanity would have prompted. One witness, whom your committee examined, who had lost all the toes of one foot from being frozen while on Belle Isle, states that for days at a time his wounds were not dressed, and that they had not been dressed for four days when he was taken from the hospital and carried on the flag-of-truce boat for Fortress Monroe.

In reference to the condition to which our men were reduced by cold and hunger, your committee would call the attention to the following extracts from the testimony.

One witness testifies:

I had no blankets until our government sent us some.

Question. How did you sleep before you received those blankets?

Answer. We used to get together just as close as we could, and sleep spoon-fashion, so that when one turned over we all had to turn over.

Another witness testifies:

Question. Were you hungry all the time?

Answer. Hungry! I could eat anything in the world that came before us; some of the boys would get boxes from the north with meat of different kinds in them; and, after they had picked the meat off, they would throw the bones away into the spit-boxes, and we would pick the bones out of the spit-boxes and gnaw them over again.

In addition to this insufficient supply of food, clothing, and shelter, our soldiers, while prisoners, have been subjected to the most cruel treatment from those placed over them. They have been abused and shamefully treated on almost every opportunity. Many have been mercilessly shot and killed when they failed to comply with all the demands of their jailers, sometimes for violating rules of which they had not been informed. Crowded in great numbers in buildings, they have been fired at and killed by the sentinels outside when they appeared at the windows for the purpose of obtaining a little fresh air. One man, whose comrade in the service, in battle and in captivity, had been so fortunate as to be among those released from further torments, was shot dead as he was waving with his hand a last adieu to his friend; and other instances of equally unprovoked murder are disclosed by the testimony.

The condition of our returned soldiers as regards personal cleanliness, has been filthy almost beyond description. Their clothes have been so dirty and so covered with vermin, that those who received them have been compelled to destroy their clothing and re-clothe them with new and clean raiment. Their bodies and heads have been so infested with vermin that, in some instances, repeated washings have failed to remove them; and those who have received them in charge have been compelled to cut all the hair from their heads, and make applications to destroy the vermin. Some have been received with no clothing but shirts and drawers and a piece of blanket or other outside covering, entirely destitute of coats, hats, shoes or stockings; and the bodies of those better supplied with clothing have been equally dirty and filthy with the others, many who have been sick and in the hospital having had no opportunity to wash their bodies for weeks and months before they were released from captivity.

Your committee are unable to convey any adequate idea of the sad and deplorable condition of the men they saw in the hospitals they visited; and the testimony they have taken cannot convey to the reader the impressions which your committee there received. The persons we saw, as we were assured by those in charge of them, have greatly improved since they have been received in the hospitals. Yet they are now dying daily, one of them being in the very throes of death as your committee stood by his bed-side and witnessed the sad spectacle there presented. All those whom your committee examined stated that they have been thus reduced and emaciated entirely in consequence of the merciless treatment they received while prisoners from their enemies; and the physicians in charge of them, the men best fitted by their profession and experience to express an opinion upon the subject, all say that they have no doubt that the statements of their patients are entirely correct.

It will be observed from the testimony, that all the witnesses who testify upon that point state that the treatment they received while confined at Columbia, South Carolina, Dalton, Georgia, and other places, was far more humane than that they received at Richmond, where the authorities of the so-called confederacy were congregated, and where the power existed, had the inclination not been wanting, to reform those abuses and secure to the prisoners they held some treatment that would bear a public comparison to that accorded by our authorities to the prisoners in our custody. Your committee, therefore, are constrained to say that they can hardly avoid the conclusion, expressed by so many of our released soldiers, that the inhuman practices herein referred to are the result of a determination on the part of the rebel authorities to reduce our soldiers in their power, by privation of food and clothing, and by exposure, to such a condition that those who may survive shall never recover so as to be able to render any effective service in the field. And your committee accordingly ask that this report, with the accompanying testimony, be printed with the report and testimony in relation to the massacre of Fort Pillow, the one being, in their opinion, no less than the other, the result of a predetermined policy. As regards the assertions of some of the rebel newspapers, that our prisoners have received at their hands the same treatment that their own soldiers in the field have received, they are evidently but the most glaring and unblushing falsehoods. No one can for a moment be deceived by such statements, who will reflect that our soldiers, who, when taken prisoners, have been stout, healthy men, in the prime and vigor of life, yet have died by hundreds under the treatment they have received, although required to perform no duties of the camp or the march; while the rebel soldiers are able to make long and rapid marches, and to offer a stubborn resistance in the field.

Your committee, finding it impossible to describe in words the deplorable condition of these returned prisoners, have caused photographs to be taken of a number of them, and a fair sample to be lithographed and appended to their report, that their exact condition may be known by all who examine it. Some of them have since died.

There is one feature connected with this investigation, to which your committee can refer with pride and satisfaction; and that is the uncomplaining fortitude, the undiminished patriotism exhibited by our brave men under all their privations, even in the hour of death.

Your committee will close their report by quoting the tribute paid these men by the chaplain of the hospital at Annapolis, who has ministered to so many of them in their last moments, who has smoothed their passage to the grave by his kindness and attention, and who has performed the last sad offices over their lifeless remains. He says:

"There is another thing I would wish to state. All the men, without any exception among the thousands that have come to this hospital, have never in a single instance expressed a regret (notwithstanding the privations and sufferings they have endured) that they entered their country's service. They have been the most loyal, devoted and earnest men. Even on the last days of their lives they have said that all they hoped for was just to live and enter the ranks again and meet their foes. It is a most glorious record in reference to the devotion of our men to their country. I do not think their patriotism has ever been equalled in the history of the world."

All of which is respectfully submitted.

B. F. WADE, Chairman.

War Department, Washington City, May 4, 1864.

Sir: I have the honor to submit to you a report made to this department by Colonel Hoffman, commissary general of prisoners, in regard to the condition of Union soldiers who have, until within a few days, been prisoners of war at Richmond, and would respectfully request that your committee immediately proceed to Annapolis to take testimony there, and examine with their own eyes the condition of those who have been returned from rebel captivity. The enormity of the crime committed by the rebels towards our prisoners for the last several months is not known or realized by our people, and cannot but fill with horror the civilized world when the facts are fully revealed. There appears to have been a deliberate system of savage and barbarous treatment and starvation, the result of which will be that few, if any, of the prisoners that have been in their hands during the past winter will ever again be in a condition to render any service, or even to enjoy life.

Your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of Joint Committee on Conduct of the War.

Office of Commissary General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C., May 3, 1864.

Sir: I have the honor to report that, pursuant to your instructions of the 2d instant, I proceeded, yesterday morning, to Annapolis, with a view to see that the paroled prisoners about to arrive there from Richmond were properly received and cared for.

The flag-of-truce boat New York, under the charge of Major Mulford, with thirty-two officers, three hundred and sixty-three enlisted men, and one citizen on board, reached the wharf at the Naval School hospital about ten o'clock. On going on board, I found the officers generally in good health, and much cheered by their happy release from the rebel prisons, and by the prospect of again being with their friends.

The enlisted men who had endured so many privations at Belle Isle and other places were, with few exceptions, in a very sad plight, mentally and physically, having for months been exposed to all the changes of the weather, with no other protection than a very insufficient supply of worthless tents, and with an allowance of food scarcely sufficient to prevent starvation, even if of wholesome quality; but as it was made of coarsely-ground corn, including the husks, and probably at times the cobs, if it did not kill by starvation, it was sure to do it by the disease it created. Some of these poor fellows were wasted to mere skeletons, and had scarcely life enough remaining to appreciate that they were now in the hands of their friends, and among them all there were few who had not become too much broken down and dispirited by their many privations to be able to realize the happy prospect of relief from their sufferings which was before them. With rare exception, every face was sad with care and hunger; there was no brightening of the countenance or lighting up of the eye, to indicate a thought of anything beyond a painful sense of prostration of mind and body. Many faces showed that there was scarcely a ray of intelligence left.

Every preparation had been made for their reception in anticipation of the arrival of the steamer, and immediately upon her being made fast to the wharf the paroled men were landed and taken immediately to the hospital, where, after receiving a warm bath, they were furnished with a suitable supply of new clothing, and received all those other attentions which their sad condition demanded. Of the whole number, there are perhaps fifty to one hundred who, in a week or ten days, will be in a convalescent state, but the others will very slowly regain their lost health.

That our soldiers, when in the hands of the rebels, are starved to death, cannot be denied. Every return of the flag-of-truce boat from City Point brings us too many living and dying witnesses to admit of a doubt of this terrible fact. I am informed that the authorities at Richmond admit the fact, but excuse it on the plea that they give the prisoners the same rations they give their own men. But can this be so? Can an army keep the field, and be active and efficient, on the same fare that kills prisoners of war at a frightful per-centage? I think not; no man can believe it; and while a practice so shocking to humanity is persisted in by the rebel authorities, I would very respectfully urge that retaliatory measures be at once instituted by subjecting the officers we now hold as prisoners of war to a similar treatment.

I took advantage of the opportunity which this visit to Annapolis gave me to make a hasty inspection of Camp Parole, and I am happy to report that I found it in every branch in a most commendable condition. The men all seemed to be cheerful and in fine health, and the police inside and out was excellent. Colonel Root, the commanding officer, deserves much credit for the very satisfactory condition to which he has brought his command.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN, Colonel 3d Infantry, Commissary General of Prisoners.

Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.

TESTIMONY.

Annapolis, Maryland, May 6, 1864.

Howard Leedom, sworn and examined:

By the chairman:

Question. To what company and regiment have you belonged?

Answer. Company G, 52d New York.

Question. How long have you been in the service?

Answer. About seven months.

Question. What is your age?

Answer. Seventeen.

Question. When and where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. At a place called Orange Grove, I think, back of Chancellorsville.

Question. How long ago?

Answer. In November last.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. Right to Richmond.

Question. In what prison were you placed?

Answer. I was put on Belle Isle first, and then I got sick and was taken to the hospital.

Question. Describe how you were treated there, and the cause of your sickness.

Answer. They did not treat me very kindly. I froze my feet on the island.

Question. How came they to be frozen?

Answer. When they took me prisoner they got away the good shoes I had on, and gave me an old pair of shoes, all cut and split open; and when I was on the island, I had just an old tent to lie under.

Question. Did you not have some blankets to put over you?

Answer. No, sir. They took away my blanket, and everything else—my shoes—even a pair of buckskin gloves I had.

Question. Did they give you anything in place of them?

Answer. No, sir; only that pair of shoes I said.

Question. You had stockings?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What kind of a tent did you have?

Answer. The tent was not very good; the rain beat right through it.

Question. How badly were your feet frozen?

Answer. Well, my toes are all off one of my feet now. [The surgeon accompanying the committee here took the dressings off the witness's feet, and exhibited them to the committee. The stumps of the toes were just healing.]

Question. What did they give you to eat?

Answer. They gave us corn-bread, and once in a while a little piece of meat.

Question. How often did they give you meat?

Answer. Maybe once a day; maybe once a week—just as they happened to have it.

Question. Did you get enough to eat, such as it was?

Answer. No, sir; I did not even get enough corn-bread.

Question. How long were you on the island?

Answer. I was on the island only a month, and in the hospital three months.

Question. How long is it since you were exchanged?

Answer. I came here on the 24th of March.

Question. There were others there with you on the island?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How did they fare?

Answer. The same as I did; we all fared alike.

Question. Were any others frozen?

Answer. Yes, sir; plenty of them frozen to death.

Question. Frozen to death?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Were their blankets taken away like yours?

Answer. Yes, sir; they had to lie out in the open ditch. They did not have as good over them as I had.

Question. Did not they have a tent to sleep under?

Answer. No, sir; no tent at all. There was an embankment thrown up, so as to keep them inside like, and they had to lie right down in the ditch there.

Question. With nothing over them?

Answer. If some of them had their blanket, they put that over them; but they had no tent, or anything of that kind.

Question. Nothing to keep off the rain and snow?

Answer. No, sir; nothing at all.

Question. Are you certain that any of them froze to death there?

Answer. Yes, sir, I am.

Question. State about the treatment you received after your feet were frozen, when you were in the hospital.

Answer. Sometimes my feet were dressed there every day; sometimes I went three or four days without dressing—just whether their nurses happened to be busy or not. When I was exchanged, I had not been dressed for four or five days.

Question. Were any of the confederate sick in the hospital with you?

Answer. Not that I know of.

Question. Do you know how they treated their own soldiers that were in the hospital?

Answer. I do not. I suppose they treated them better than they did us, though.

Question. Was your food any better in the hospital than on the island?

Answer. It was when we first went there, but when I came away it was no better.

Washington Collins, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company A, 5th Kentucky infantry regiment.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. From there to Richmond, as straight through as they could get us through.

Question. State how you were treated after you were taken prisoner.

Answer. We were treated very rough. The eatables we got on the way from the battle-field to Richmond were mouldy crackers, such as you would never try to eat, with one or two exceptions, when we got a little light bread.

Question. Where were you confined at Richmond?

Answer. We were put in tobacco factories, and kept there without clothing or blankets, until our government sent us blankets and clothing, and some provisions.

Question. Were the clothing and blankets which you had when taken prisoners taken from you?

Answer. Yes, sir; our blankets were pretty much all taken from us.

Question. Did you suffer from cold?

Answer. Yes, sir, severely.

Question. Was your money taken from you?

Answer. Those of us that had money, had it pretty much all taken away, or scared out of us.

Question. What kind of food had you after you reached Richmond?

Answer. We got, I should judge, about six ounces of light bread, and in the afternoon about two spoonfuls of black beans—worm-eaten beans.

Question. Was that all you had for the day?

Answer. I think we got, once a day, about two ounces of meat.

Question. What was the character of the meat and bread?

Answer. The character of the meat was pretty tolerably rough. I cannot exactly describe it. I never did eat any beef like some of it; and the first dose of medicine I took since I was in the army, was when I was put in the hospital at Danville. About six or seven weeks ago, before that, I was always a hearty, healthy man.

Question. Have you had any disease or sickness except that occasioned by want of proper food and clothing?

Answer. No, sir; I think not. (The surgeon here remarked, "His disease is the result of starvation, privation, and exposure.")

Question. When were you exchanged?

Answer. We left the 1st of May, I think. I have more of a life-like feeling about me now than I had when I left Richmond.

Question. Do you think you are in a better condition now?

Answer. Yes, sir; I know I am. The authorities did not think it safe for me to start; but I told them if I was going to die, I would rather die on the Chesapeake than die there.

Question. After you grew so very sick, was your food improved any?

Answer. Very little. The last food I received was light diet. When I left the hospital to go on board the flag-of-truce boat, I received about a gill of what they call soup, though in fact it was just nothing; I should say it was only a little starch and water; and then I got a little piece of corn-bread, about that large, (measuring on his fingers about two inches square,) and we got a piece of meat, once a day, about the same size.

Question. Were the other men treated as you were, so far as you know?

Answer. Yes, sir. I wish to speak of one thing. After this food was issued out, what was called the ward-master would go round in the evening with a little mush made of meal, and give some of us a table-spoonful of it. Say there were 60 or 80 patients, and there would be 6 or 8, maybe 10, of those patients would get a little spoonful of this mush; and then he would come round a little while afterwards and pour a table-spoonful of molasses over it; and just as likely as not, in a few minutes after that he would come round with some vinegar and pour a spoonful of vinegar over that.

Question. Why did he do that?

Answer. He said that was the way it was issued to him.

Question. Did he give any reason for mixing it altogether in that way?

Answer. No, sir; and there were a great many of our own men who treated us as bad as the secesh, because those there acting as nurses, if there was any little delicacy for the sick; would just gobble it up.

Question. Were all of our men suffering for want of food?

Answer. Yes, sir, all of them. In the winter time these secesh got so they would haul up loads of cabbages, all full of lice, and throw them raw into the room for us to eat.

Charles Gallagher, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Where are you from?

Answer. From Guernsey county, Ohio.

Question. To what regiment do you belong?

Answer. 40th Ohio.

Question. How long have you been in the service?

Answer. Pretty nearly three years.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. At Chickamauga.

Question. When?

Answer. On the 22d of last September.

Question. State what happened then to you.

Answer. When they took me prisoner they took me right on to Richmond, kept me there awhile, then sent me to Danville and kept me there awhile. I got sick at Danville and was put in the hospital, and then they sent me back to Richmond and paroled me and sent me here.

Question. How did they treat you while you were a prisoner?

Answer. Pretty bad. They gave us corn-bread, and not very much of it; and we had to lie right down on the floor, without any blankets, until a long while about Christmas. We had just to lie as thick on the floor as we could get.

Question. How were you treated when you were taken sick?

Answer. A little better. We then had a sort of bed to lie on.

Question. Did you have all the food you wanted?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. What kind of food did you get?

Answer. Corn-bread, a little piece of meat, sometimes a little rice-soup, and sometimes a few beans.

Question. How often did you get meat?

Answer. Along through the winter we got a little bit of fresh beef, (perhaps once a day,) and then from about March a little pork.

Question. What was the matter with you when you went to the hospital?

Answer. I got a cough which settled on me, and I had pain in my breast.

Question. Were there any other prisoners at Danville?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did they suffer at all from want?

Answer. They were pretty hungry.

Question. Did you complain to the authorities that you did not get food enough?

Answer. No, sir; it would not have made any difference. They said there that we got every ounce that was allowed to us.

Question. Did you make your wants known to any one?

Answer. Yes, sir; but they would not give us any more. They would come in and give you a half a loaf of bread, and tell you that was your day's rations; you could take that or nothing.

By the chairman:

Question. Did they give you as much as their own soldiers for rations?

Answer. No, sir; their own soldiers got a great deal more.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. What was your treatment aside from your supply of food? Was it kind?

Answer. No, sir. They just came in and shoved us round; finally, they run us all up from one floor to the second floor, and only let one go down at a time. When he got back they let another go down.

Isaiah G. Booker, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Harding:

Question. How old are you?

Answer. Twenty-one on the 13th of this month.

Question. Where did you enlist?

Answer. Bath, Maine.

Question. How long were you in the army before you were taken prisoner?

Answer. I enlisted on the 5th of September, 1861, and was taken prisoner last July.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. On Morris island, Charleston, South Carolina.

Question. Where were you then sent?

Answer. I was sent to Columbia, South Carolina, where we were kept about two months, and then we were sent to Richmond, put on Belle Isle, and staid there the remainder of the time.

Question. How were you treated at Columbia?

Answer. I was treated a great deal better there than I was at Belle Isle. We got meat twice a day, rice once, and Indian bread once. We got very near as much as we wanted to eat.

Question. How were you treated at Richmond?

Answer. I suffered there terribly with hunger. I could eat anything.

Question. Can you tell us what kind of food you got there?

Answer. Dry Indian bread, and, when I first went there, a very little meat.

Question. When were you taken sick?

Answer. I was taken sick—I was sick with the diarrhœa a fortnight before I went to the hospital, and I was in the hospital a little over a week before I was exchanged. I was released on the 7th of March, and got here the 9th.

Question. How were you treated while in the hospital?

Answer. I was treated there worse than on Belle Isle. We did not get any salt of any account—only a little piece of bread that would hardly keep a chicken alive.

Question. Did you get any rice?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Any soup?

Answer. Once in a while of mornings I would get a little.

Question. Did the physician come round to see you every day?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did he give you any medicine?

Answer. He gave me some pills.

Question. What was their manner towards you after you were taken sick and in the hospital? Were they kind, or rough?

Answer. They were neither kind nor rough, but indifferent. The corn-bread I got seemed to burn my very insides. When I would go down to the river of mornings to wash myself, as I put the water to my face it seemed as though I wanted to sup the water, and to sup it, and sup it, and sup it all the time.

Question. Did you make no complaint to the officers on Belle Isle of your food?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Did you ask them for any more?

Answer. No, sir; I knew there was no use. I do not think I spoke to an officer while I was there.

Question. Did you ever tell those who furnished you with the food you did get, of the insufficiency of it?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What answer did they give you?

Answer. That was all we were allowed, they said.

Question. Did you have blankets while you were on Belle Isle?

Answer. I had no blanket until our government sent us some.

Question. How did you sleep before you received those blankets?

Answer. We used to get together just as close as we could, and sleep spoon-fashion, so that when one turned over we all had to turn over.

Question. Did they furnish you any clothing while you were there?

Answer. No, sir; the rebs did not furnish us a bit. It was very warm weather when I was taken prisoner, and I had nothing on me but my pants, shirt, gloves, shoes, stockings, and cap; and I received no more clothing until our government sent us some in December, I think. We had to lie right down on the cold ground.

Question. Did you not have a tent?

Answer. I had none when I first went there. After a while we had one, but it was a very poor affair; the rain would come right through it.

Question. Were you exposed to the dew and rain, and wind and snow?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And before you got the tent you lay in the open air?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How did the others there with you fare; the same as you did?

Answer. Many of them had money, with which they bought things of the guard; but I had no money.

Question. Were there others there who had no money?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did they fare the same as you?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. After you went into the hospital, did you receive the same treatment as their own sick received who were in the hospital with you, or did they have any of their sick in there?

Answer. I think none of their sick were in there. I suffered a great deal with hunger when I was on Belle Isle. When I first went there I had no passage of the bowels for eighteen days, and when I did have one it was just as dry as meal.

Question. Did you have any medicine at that time?

Answer. No, sir; I took no medicine until I went to the hospital. About the middle or last of February (somewhere about there) I took a very severe cold. It seemed to settle all over me. I was as stiff in all my joints as I could be.

Question. Did your strength decrease much before you were taken sick in February?

Answer. Yes, sir; I stood it very well until about the 1st of February. After that I commenced to go down pretty fast. I know that one day I undertook to wash my shirt, and got it about half washed, when I was so weak I had to give it up.

Question. Do you think you had any other disease or sickness than what was caused by exposure and starvation at that time?

Answer. No, sir. When I was taken prisoner I weighed about 170 pounds, I think. I had always been a very hearty, stout man—could eat anything, and stand almost anything.

Isaac H. Lewis, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Julien:

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company K, 1st Vermont cavalry.

Question. When were you taken prisoner?

Answer. I was taken prisoner on the 22d of March, on Kilpatrick's raid.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. They carried me to Richmond, and put me in a tobacco house there.

Question. How did they treat you there?

Answer. Well, they did not treat me as well as they might.

Question. What did they give you to eat?

Answer. They gave me corn-bread.

Question. How much and how often?

Answer. Not but very little. They gave me a little twice a day.

Question. Did they give you any meat?

Answer. Once in a while, a little.

Question. What kind of meat?

Answer. Beef.

Question. Could you eat it?

Answer. No, sir.

[The witness here was evidently so weak and exhausted that the committee suspended his examination.]

Mortimer F. Brown, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Where are you from, and to what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. I am from Steubenville, Ohio; I was in the 2d Ohio; Colonel McCook was our colonel when I was taken prisoner.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. At Chickamauga.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. From Chickamauga to Richmond.

Question. How did you fare while in Richmond?

Answer. We lived very scantily, and hardly anything to eat. Some of the boys, in order to get enough to live on, had to trade away what clothing they could to the guard for bread, &c.

Question. What did they allow you to eat?

Answer. When we first went to Richmond our rations were bacon and wheat-bread. We did very well at first, but they went on cutting it down.

Question. How was it finally?

Answer. We received corn-bread once or twice a day—I think it was twice. After we went to Danville we fared a great deal better in regard to rations.

Question. Did you have enough to eat, such as it was?

Answer. I did, at Danville.

Question. How was it at Richmond?

Answer. Well, some had plenty to eat, but, as far as I was concerned, I was hungry most all the time. From the time we left Richmond until we drew our meat at Danville—say ten days—we had with us to eat only what they called Graham bread—nothing but bread and water for those ten days. After we got to Danville it was better. They issued us pork and beef sometimes. There, there would be times when we would be without meat for a couple of days.

Question. What was their bearing and treatment towards you, aside from your food?

Answer. We were treated tolerably kindly until we commenced our tunnelling operations; then they treated us very harshly; then they took the prisoners that had occupied three floors and put them all on two floors, and would only allow from three to six to go to the rear at one time.

Question. What is the matter with you now?

Answer. Nothing at all but scurvy. I am getting along very well now since I got here. The treatment at Danville was a palace alongside of that at Richmond.

Franklin Dinsmore, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Where did you enlist?

Answer. At Camp Nelson, Kentucky.

Question. To what State do you belong?

Answer. Eastern Tennessee.

Question. How long have you been in the army?

Answer. I enlisted on the 11th or 12th of last July; I do not remember which day.

Question. To what regiment do you belong?

Answer. Eighth Tennessee cavalry.

Question. Who was your colonel?

Answer. Colonel Strickland.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. At Zollicoffer, near the East Tennessee and Virginia line.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. Right straight on to Richmond. I was taken on the line of the railroad. We were burning bridges there to keep the enemy out.

Question. How did you fare after you got to Richmond?

Answer. They just starved us.

Question. What did they give you to eat?

Answer. For forty-eight hours after we got there they gave us only just what we could breathe; then they gave us a little piece of white bread and just three bites of beef. A man could take it all decently at three bites. That is the way we lived until we went to Danville, and then we had meat enough to make half a dozen bites, with bugs in it.

Question. What brought on your sickness?

Answer. Starvation. I was so starved there that when I was down I could not get up without catching hold of something to pull myself up by.

Question. What did you live in?

Answer. In a brick building, without any fire, or anything to cover us with.

Question. Had you no blankets?

Answer. No, sir; we had not. They even took our coats from us, and part of us had to lie there on the floor in our shirt sleeves.

Question. In the winter?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did any of the men freeze?

Answer. Yes, sir; many a man just fell dead walking around trying to keep himself warm, or, as he was lying on the floor, died during the night; and if you looked out of a window, a sentinel would shoot you. They shot some five or six of our boys who were looking out. Some of our boys would work for the guards to get more to eat, just to keep them from starving. There would be pieces of cobs in our bread, left there by the grinding machine, half as long as my finger, and the bread itself looked just as if you had taken a parcel of dough and let it bake in the sun. It was all full of cracks where it had dried, and the inside was all raw.

Question. Were you hungry all the time?

Answer. Hungry! I could eat anything in the world that came before us. Some of the boys would get boxes from the north with meat of different kinds in them, and, after they had picked the meat off, they would throw the bones away into the spit-boxes, and we would pick the bones out of the spit-boxes and gnaw them over again.

Question. Did they have any more to give you?

Answer. They had plenty. They were just doing it for their own gratification. They said Seward had put old Beast Butler in there, and they did not care how they treated us.

Question. Did you complain about not having enough?

Answer. Certainly we complained, but they said we had plenty. They cursed us, and said we had a sight more than their men had who were prisoners in our lines.

Question. Do you feel any better now since you have been here?

Answer. A great deal better; like a new man now. I am gaining flesh now.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. What was your occupation before you went into the army?

Answer. I was a farmer.

By Mr. Julian:

Question. Do you know how they treated their own sick?

Answer. No, sir.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Were other Tennesseeans taken prisoners the same time you were?

Answer. Yes, sir; there were twenty-four of us taken prisoners. The smallpox was very severe among us. Our own men said that they were just trying to kill the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians. Out of the twenty-four, there were ten of us left when they started for Georgia. No man can tell precisely how we were treated and say just how it was.

L. H. Parhan, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. From what State are you?

Answer. West Tennessee.

Question. To what regiment do you belong?

Answer. The 3d West Tennessee cavalry.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. In Henry county, West Tennessee.

Question. From there where were you carried?

Answer. From there they marched us on foot, some 350-odd miles, to Decatur.

Question. What were you given to eat?

Answer. Sometimes for twenty-four or thirty hours we would have a little piece of beef and some corn-bread.

Question. Were you a well man when you were taken prisoner?

Answer. Yes, sir; a stout man for a little man. I was very stout.

Question. Were you brought to your present condition by want of food?

Answer. Yes, sir; and sleeping in the cold. They took my money and clothes and everything else away from me, even my pocket-comb and knife, and my finger-ring that my sister gave me. They were taken away when I was captured.

[The witness, who was so weak that he could not raise his head, appeared to be so much exhausted by talking that the committee refrained from further examination. As they were moving away from his bed, he spoke up and said: "I am better now than when I came here. I have some strength now. I hope I shall get better, for I want to see my old father and mother once more."]

James Sweeney, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where did you reside when you enlisted?

Answer. Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Question. To what company and regiment do you belong?

Answer. Company E, 17th Massachusetts.

Question. When were you taken prisoner?

Answer. First of February.

Question. Where?

Answer. Six miles from Newbern, North Carolina.

Question. Where were you then carried?

Answer. To Richmond.

Question. How were you treated after you were taken prisoner?

Answer. We had no breakfast that day. We started out early in the morning—the 132d New York was with us—without anything to eat. We had nothing to eat all that day, and they made us sleep out all that night without anything to eat. It rained that night; then they marched us the next day thirty miles, to Kingston, without anything to eat, except it was, about twelve o'clock, one of the regular captains, who had some crackers in his haversack, gave us about one each, and some of the boys managed to get an ear of corn from the wagons, but the rest of them were pushed back by the guns of the guard; then we were kept in the streets of Kingston until about nine o'clock, when we had a little pork and three barrels of crackers for about two hundred of us. I got three or four crackers. Then they put us in freight cars that they had carried hogs in, all filthy and dirty, and we were nearly frozen by the time we got to Goldsborough; and near Weldon they camped us in a field all day long, like a spectacle for the people to look at, and when we got to Richmond they put us in a common for a while, and then we were taken to prison. About eleven o'clock that day they brought us some corn-bread. They gave me about three-quarters of a small loaf and a dipper of hard, black beans with worms in them. We were kept there all night. If we went near the window, bullets were fired at us. Two or three hundred men lay on the floor. I was kept between three and four weeks on Belle Isle.

Question. How was it for food there?

Answer. That night they gave us a piece of corn-bread about an inch thick, two or three inches long. Some nights we would have a couple of spoonfuls, maybe, of raw rice or raw beans; other nights they would not give us that. A squad of 100 men of us would have about 20 sticks of wood, and in order to cut that up we would have to pay a man for the use of an axe by giving him a piece of the stick for splitting up the rest. We lay right on the ground in the snow. Twenty of us together would lay with our feet so close to the fire that the soles of our boots would be all drawn, and we would get up in the morning all shivering, and I could not eat what little food I did get.

Question. What is the cause of your sickness?

Answer. Just the food we got there and this exposure. Eating this corn-bread continually gave me the diarrhœa. We would get thirsty and drink that river water. We had little bits of beef sometimes; generally it was tough, more like a piece of India-rubber you would rub pencil-marks out with. What little food we did get was so bad we could not eat it. At first, for five or six days, we could eat it pretty well, but afterwards I could not eat it.

Question. Have you been brought to your present condition by your treatment there?

Answer. Yes, sir; by the want of proper food, and exposure to the cold.

John C. Burcham, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Julian:

Question. Where did you enlist, and in what regiment?

Answer. I enlisted in Indianapolis, in the 75th Indiana regiment, Colonel Robinson.

Question. When were you taken prisoner, and where?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at Chickamauga, on the 20th of September.

Question. Where were you carried then?

Answer. The next day they took us to Atlanta, and then on to Richmond.

Question. What prison were you put in?

Answer. I was on Belle Isle five or six days and nights, and then they put me in a prison over in town.

Question. How did they treat you there?

Answer. Rough, rough, rough.

Question. What did they give you to eat?

Answer. A small bit of bread and a little piece of meat; black beans full of worms. Sometimes meat pretty good, sometimes the meat was so rotten that you could smell it as soon as you got it in the house. We were used rough, I can tell you.

Question. Did they leave you your property?

Answer. They took everything we had before ever we got to Richmond; my hat, blankets, knife. We did not do very well until we got some blankets from our government; afterwards we did better. Before that we slept right on the floor, with nothing over us except a little old blanket one of us had.

Question. What was their manner towards you?

Answer. I call it pretty rough. If a man did not walk just right up to the mark they were down on him, and not a man of us dared to put his head out of the window, for he would be shot if he did. Several were shot just for that.

Question. What is the cause of your sickness?

Answer. Nothing but exposure and the kind of food we had there. I was a tolerably stout man before I got into their hands; after that I was starved nearly to death.

Daniel Gentis, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What State are you from?

Answer. Indiana.

Question. When did you enlist, and in what company and regiment?

Answer. I enlisted on the 6th of August, 1861, in company I, 2d New York regiment.

Question. Where were you taken prisoner?

Answer. I was taken prisoner at Stevensville, Virginia; I was there with Colonel Dahlgren, on Kilpatrick's expedition.

Question. Were you taken prisoner at the same time that Colonel Dahlgren was killed?

Answer. I was there when he was killed, but I was taken prisoner the next morning.

Question. What do you know about the manner of his death and the treatment his body received?

Answer. He was shot within a foot and a half or two feet of me. I got wounded that same night. The next morning I was taken prisoner, and as we came along we saw his body, with his clothes all off. He was entirely naked, and he was put into a hole and covered up.

Question. Buried naked in that way?

Answer. Yes, sir; no coffin at all. Afterwards his body was taken up and carried to a slue and washed off, and then sent off to Richmond. A despatch came from Richmond for his body, and it was sent there.

Question. It has been said they cut off his finger?

Answer. Yes, sir; his little finger was cut off, and his ring taken off.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. How do you know there was a ring on his finger?

Answer. I saw the fellow who had it, and who said he took it off. When they took his body to a slue and washed it off they put on it a shirt and drawers, and then put it in a box and sent it to Richmond.

Question. How far was that from Richmond?

Answer. It was about 40 miles from Richmond, and about 10 miles from West Point.

Question. How were you treated yourself?

Answer. I fared first-rate. I staid at the house of a Dr. Walker, of Virginia, and Dr. Walker told me that a private of the 9th Virginia cavalry took off Colonel Dahlgren's artificial leg, and that General Ewell, I think it was, or some general in the southern army who had but one leg, gave the private $2,000 for it, (confederate currency.) I saw the private who took it, and saw him have the leg.

By the chairman:

Question. How do you know they received a despatch from Richmond to have the body sent there?

Answer. All the information I got about the despatch was from Dr. Walker, who said they were going to take the body to Richmond and bury it where no one could find it.

Question. Did Colonel Dahlgren make any speech or read any papers to his command?

Answer. No, sir; not that I ever heard of. They questioned me a great deal about that. The colonel of the 9th Virginia cavalry questioned me about it. I told him just all I knew about it. I told him I had heard no papers read, nor anything else.

Question. Did you ever hear any of your fellow-soldiers say they ever heard any such thing at all?

Answer. No, sir; and when I started I had no idea where I was going.

Question. Were you in prison at Richmond?

Answer. I was there for four days, but I was at Dr. Walker's pretty nearly a month and a half.

Question. During the four days you were in prison did you see any of our other soldiers in prison there?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How did they fare?

Answer. We all fared pretty rough on corn-bread and beans. Those who were in my ward are here now sick in bed.

Question. How happened it that you fell into the hands of Dr. Walker particularly?

Answer. The way it came about was this: In the morning I asked some officers of the regular regiment for a doctor to dress my wound. One of the doctors there said he could not do it. I spoke to a lieutenant and asked him to be kind enough to get some doctor to dress it, and he got this Dr. Walker. The doctor asked me to go to his house, and stay there if I would. I told him "certainly I would go." The colonel of the rebel regiment said that the doctor could take me there, and I staid until Captain Magruder came up there and told Dr. Walker that I had to be sent to Richmond.

Question. Where were you wounded?

Answer. In the knee.

[At this point the committee concluded to examine no more of the patients in the hospital, as most of them were too weak to be examined without becoming too much exhausted, and because the testimony of all amounted to about the same thing. They therefore confined the rest of their investigation to the testimony of the surgeons in charge, and other persons attending upon the patients.]

Surgeon B. A. Van Derkieft, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Are you in the service of the United States; and if so, in what capacity?

Answer. I am a surgeon of volunteers in the United States service; in charge of hospital division No. 1, known as the Naval Hospital, Annapolis, and have been here since the 1st of June, 1863.

Question. State what you know in regard to the condition of our exchanged or paroled prisoners who have been brought here, and also your opportunities to know that condition?

Answer. Since I have been here I think that from five to six thousand paroled prisoners have been treated in this hospital as patients. They have generally come here in a very destitute and feeble condition; many of them so low that they die the very day they arrive here.

Question. What is the character of their complaints generally, and what does that character indicate as to the cause?

Answer. Generally they are suffering from debility and chronic diarrhœa, the result, I have no doubt, of exposure, privations, hardship, and ill treatment.

Question. In what respect would hardship and ill treatment superinduce the complaints most prevalent among these paroled prisoners?

Answer. These men, having been very much exposed, and not having had nourishment enough to sustain their strength, are consequently predisposed to be attacked by such diseases as diarrhœa, fever, scurvy, and all catarrhal affections, which, perhaps, in the beginning are very slight, but, on account of want of necessary care, produce, after a while, a very serious disease. For instance, a man exposed to the cold may have a little bronchitis, or perhaps a little inflammation of the lungs, which, under good treatment, would be easily cured—would be considered of no importance whatever; but being continually exposed, and not having the necessary food, the complaint is transformed, after a time, into a very severe disease.

Question. Is it your opinion, as a physician, that the complaints of our returned prisoners are superinduced by want of proper food, or food of sufficient quantity, and from exposure?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What is the general character of the statements our prisoners have made to you in regard to their treatment?

Answer. They complained of want of food, of bad food, and a want of clothing. Very often, though not always, they are robbed, when taken prisoners, of all the good clothes they have on. There is no doubt about that, for men have often arrived here with nothing but their pants and shirts on; no coat, overcoat, no cap, no shoes or stockings, and some of them without having had any opportunities to wash themselves for weeks and months, so that when they arrive here, the scurf on their skin is one-eighth of an inch thick; and we have had several cases of men who have been shot for the slightest offence. There is a man now here who at one time put his hand out of the privy, which was nothing but a window in the wall, to steady himself and keep himself from falling, and he was shot, and we have been obliged to amputate his arm since he arrived here. These men complain that they have had no shelter. We have men here now who say that for five or six months they have been compelled to lay on the sand. I have no doubt about the correctness of their statements, for the condition of their skins shows the statements to be true. Their joints are calloused, and they have callouses on their backs, and some have even had the bones break through the skin. There is one instance in particular that I would mention. One man died in the hospital there one hour before the transfer of prisoners was made, and as an act of humanity the surgeon in charge of the hospital allowed the friends of this man to take him on board the vessel in order to have him buried among his friends. This man was brought here right from the Richmond hospital. He was so much covered with vermin and so dirty that we were not afraid to make the statement that the man had not been washed for six months. Now, as a material circumstance to prove that these men have been badly fed, I will state that we must be very careful in feeding them when they arrive here, for a very light diet is too much for them at first.

Question. You have accompanied us as we have examined some of the patients in the hospital to-day. Do their statements to us, under oath, correspond with the statements which they made when they first arrived here?

Answer. They are quite the same; there is no difference. Every man makes the same statement, and we therefore believe it to be true. All say the same in regard to rations, treatment, exposure and privations. Once in a while I have found a man who pretended to have been treated very well, but by examining closely I find that such men are not very good Union men.

Question. You say that about six thousand paroled prisoners have come under your supervision and treatment?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. State generally what their condition has been.

Answer. Very bad, indeed. I cannot find terms sufficient to express what their condition was. I cannot state it properly.

Question. You have already stated that, as a general thing, they have been destitute of clothing.

Answer. Yes, sir; dirty, filthy, covered with vermin, dying. At one time we received three hundred and sixty patients in one day, and fourteen died within twelve hours; and there were six bodies of those who had died on board the transport that brought them up here.

Question. What appeared to be the complaint of which they died?

Answer. Very extreme debility, the result of starvation and exposure—the same as the very weak man you saw here, [L. H. Parham.]

Question. We have observed some very emaciated men here, perfect skeletons, nothing but skin and bone. In your opinion, as a physician, what has reduced these men to that condition?

Answer. Nothing but starvation and exposure.

Question. Can you tell the proportion of the men who have died to the number that have lately arrived from Richmond?

Answer. If time is allowed me I can send the statement to the committee.

Question. Do so, if you please.

Answer. I will do so. I will say that some of these men who have stated they were well treated, I have found out to have been very bad to the Union men.

Question. Are those men you have just mentioned as having been well treated an exception to the general rule?

Answer. Yes, sir; a very striking exception.

Question. Have you ever been in charge of confederate prisoners?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. State the course of treatment of our authorities towards them.

Answer. We have never made the slightest difference between our own men and confederate prisoners when their sick and wounded have been in our hands.

Question. You have treated both the same?

Answer. Yes, sir. When any one of their men, wounded or sick, has been a patient in our hands, we have treated him the same as we do our own men.

By Mr. Julian:

Question. Have their sick and wounded been kept separate from ours, or have they been kept together?

Answer. In Washington they were kept separate, but at Antietam, where an hospital was established, in order to have the patients treated where they were injured, the Union and confederate patients were treated together and alike. At Hagerstown almost everybody is secesh. Well, the most I can say is, that some of the secesh ladies there came to me and stated that they were very glad to see that we had treated their men the same as ours.

Question. It is sometimes said, by the rebel newspapers, at least, that they have given the same rations to our prisoners that they give to their own soldiers. Now, I want to ask you, as a medical man, if it is possible, with the amount of food that our prisoners have had, for men to retain their health and vigor, and perform active service in the field?

Answer. I do not believe that the rebels could fight as well, or make such marches as they have done, upon such small rations as our prisoners have received.

Question. Can the health of men be preserved upon such rations as they have given our prisoners?

Answer. No, sir; it cannot, not only on account of quantity, but quality. I have seen some specimens of their rations brought here by our paroled prisoners, and I know what they are.

Question. As a general rule, what is the effect of treating men in that way?

Answer. Just what we hear every day—men dying from starvation and debility. Many of these men—mostly all the wounded men—are suffering from hospital gangrene, which is the result of not having their wounds dressed in time, and having too many crowded in the same apartment. We have had men here whose wounds have been so long neglected that they have had maggots in them by the hundred.

Acting Assistant Surgeon J. H. Longenecker, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. What is your position in the United States service?

Answer. Acting assistant surgeon.

Question. How long have you been stationed here?

Answer. Since the 27th of July, 1863.

Question. Will you state what has been the condition of our paroled prisoners, received here from the rebels, during the time you have been stationed here?

Answer. As a general thing, they have been very much debilitated, emaciated, and suffering from disease, such as diarrhœa, scurvy, lung diseases, &c.

Question. In your opinion, as a physician, by what have these diseases been produced?

Answer. By exposure and want of proper food, I think.

Question. Are you able to form any opinion, from the condition of these men, as to the quantity and quality of food which they have received?

Answer. From their appearance and condition, I judge the quality must have been very bad, and the quantity very small, not sufficient to preserve the health.

Question. We have seen and examined several patients here this morning, who are but mere skeletons. They have stated to us, as you are aware, that their suffering arose wholly from the want of proper food and clothing. In your opinion as a medical man, are these statements true?

Answer. I believe that these statements are correct. We have had some men who looked very well. How they managed to preserve their health I am not able to say; but, as a general thing, the men we receive here are very much debilitated, apparently from exposure, and want of sufficient food to keep up life and health.

Question. Are you acquainted with the case of Howard Laedom?

Answer. Yes, sir; I am.

Question. Will you state about that case?

Answer. I did not see the patient until recently, when he was placed in my charge. I found him with all his toes gone from one foot in consequence of exposure. He has suffered from pneumonia, also, produced by exposure, and there have been very many cases of pneumonia here, produced by the same cause, many of whom have died; and we have held post mortem examinations upon many of them, and found ulcers upon their intestines, some of them being ulcerated the whole length of their bowels.

Question. Have you made many post mortem examinations here?

Answer. We have made quite a number of them. We make them whenever we have an opportunity; whenever bodies are not called for or are not likely to be taken away.

Question. Are you enabled, from these post mortem examinations, to determine whether or not these prisoners have had sufficient quantities of proper food?

Answer. Not from that. Those examinations merely indicate the condition in which the prisoners are returned to us.

Question. From all the indications given by the appearance of these men, are you satisfied that their statements, that they have not had sufficient food, both in quantity and quality, are true?

Answer. These statements have been repeated to me very often, and from their condition I believe their statement to be true.

Question. How many paroled prisoners were brought here by the last boat?

Answer. Three hundred and sixty-five, I think.

Question. In your opinion, how many of these men will recover?

Answer. Judging from their present condition, I think that at least one hundred of them will die.

Question. What, in your opinion, will be the primary cause of the death of these men?

Answer. Exposure and want of proper food while prisoners.

Assistant Surgeon William S. Ely, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Harding:

Question. What is your position in the service?

Answer. Assistant surgeon of the United States volunteers and executive officer of hospital division No. 1, or Naval Academy hospital.

Question. Please state the sanitary condition and appearance, &c., of the paroled prisoners received here, together with their declarations as to the cause of their sickness, and your opinion as to the truth of their statements.

Answer. I have been on duty in this hospital since October 3, 1863. Since that time I have been present on the arrival of the steamer New York on five or six different occasions, when bringing altogether some three or four thousand paroled prisoners. I have assisted in unloading these prisoners from the boat, and assigning them to quarters in the hospital. I have found them generally very much reduced physically, and depressed mentally, the direct result, as I think, of the ill-treatment which they have received from the hands of their enemies—whether intentional or not I cannot say. I have frequently seen on the boat bodies of those who have died while being brought here, and I have frequently known them to die while being conveyed from the boat to the hospital ward. Their condition is such (their whole constitution being undermined) that the best of care and medical treatment, and all the sanitary and hygeian measures that we can introduce appear to be useless. Their whole assimilative functions appear to be impaired. Medicines and food appear, in many cases, to have no effect upon them. We have made post mortem examinations repeatedly of cases here, and on all occasions we find the system very much reduced, and in many cases the muscles almost entirely gone—reduced to nothing literally but skin and bone; the blood vitiated and depraved, and an anœmic condition of the entire system apparent. The fact that in many cases of post mortems we had discovered no organic disease, justifies us in the conclusion that the fatal result is owing principally, if not entirely, to a deprivation of food and other articles necessary to support life, and to improper exposure. On all occasions when arriving here, these men have been found in the most filthy condition, it being almost impossible, in many cases, to clean them by repeated washings. The functions of the skin are entirely impaired, and in many cases they are encrusted with dirt, owing, as they say, to being compelled to lie on the sand at Belle island; and the normal function of the skin has not been recovered until the cuticle has been entirely thrown off. Their bodies are covered with vermin, so that it has been found necessary to throw away all the clothing which they had on when they arrived here, and provide them entirely with new clothing. Their hair has been filled with vermin, so that we have been obliged to cut their hair all off, and make applications to kill the vermin in their heads. Many of them state that they have had no opportunity to wash their bodies for six or eight months, and have not done so.

Question. What have been their statements to you in their conversation with you?

Answer. Their reply almost invariably has been, that their condition is the result solely of ill-treatment and starvation; that their rations have consisted of corn-bread and cobs ground with corn, of a few beans at times, and now and then a little piece of poor meat. Occasionally one is heard to say, that in his opinion the rebels are unable to treat them in any better manner; that they have been treated as well as possible; and I have found several who stated that their physicians were kind to them and did all they could, but complained of want of medicines.

Question. Is it your conclusion, as a physician, that the statements of these paroled prisoners, in regard to the treatment they have received, are correct, and that such treatment would produce such conditions of health as you witness among them upon their arrival here?

Answer. Yes, sir; and that in many cases their statements fall short of the truth, as evinced by the results shown in their physical appearance; and these men are in such a condition that even if they recover, we consider them almost entirely unfitted for further active field service—almost as much so, we frequently say, as if they had been shot on the field.

Miss Abbie J. Howe, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. From what State are you, and what position do you occupy in this hospital?

Answer. I am from Massachusetts, and am here acting as nurse.

Question. How long have you been here?

Answer. Since the 15th of September, 1863.

Question. Have you had charge of the sick and paroled prisoners who have come here during that time?

Answer. Yes, sir; some of them.

Question. How many of them have you had charge of, should you think?

Answer. I should think I have had charge of at least 250 who have come under my own charge.

Question. Can you describe to us the general condition of those men?

Answer. Almost all of them have had this dreadful cough. I do not think I ever heard the like before; and they have had chronic diarrhœa, very persistent indeed. Many of them have a great craving for things which they ought not to have. One patient who came in here had the scurvy, and he said: "I can eat anything that a dog can eat. Oh, do give me something to eat;" and in their delirium they are crying for "bread, bread," and "mother, mother." One of them called out for "more James river water to drink."

Question. What has been their general complaint in regard to their treatment while prisoners?

Answer. Their chief complaint has been want of food and great exposure. Many of them who had clothes sent them by friends or our government, were obliged to sell everything until they were left as destitute as at first, in order to get more food. I have seen some of their rations, and I would myself rather eat what I have seen given to cattle, than to eat such food as their specimens brought here. One man had the typhoid fever, but was in such haste to get away from the hospital in Richmond in order to get home, that he would not remain there. He had the ravenous appetite which men with typhus fever have; and other men told me that they gave him their rations which they could not eat themselves. This produced a terrible diarrhœa, and he lived but a few days after he arrived here.

Question. What has been the physical condition of these, emaciated or otherwise?

Answer. Just skin and bone. I have never imagined anything before like it.

Question. Have their statements, in relation to their exposure and deprivation of food, corresponded entirely with each other?

Answer. Yes, sir, entirely so, except those who were able, by work, to get extra rations; and those extra rations were not anything like what our men have here, but it gave them as much and as good as their guards had; and they have not only been treated in this way, but they have been ill-used in almost every way. They have told me that when one of them was sitting down, and was told to get up, and was not moving quickly in consequence of his sickness, he was wounded by the rebels in charge. They have often told me that they have been kicked and knocked about when unable to move quickly. I could give a great many instances of ill-treatment and hardships which have been stated to me, but it would take a great deal of time to tell them.

Rev. H. C. Henries, sworn and examined.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. What is your position here?

Answer. Chaplain of the hospital.

Question. How long have you been here?

Answer. I have been on duty since December 7, 1861.

Question. You are familiar with the facts connected with the condition of paroled prisoners arriving here from the south?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Will you state generally what was their condition?

Answer. I think it would be impossible for me to give any adequate description, for I think all language fails to fully express their real condition as they land here. Their appearance is haggard in the extreme; ragged, destitute even of shoes, and very frequently without pants or blouses, or any covering except their drawers and shirts, and perhaps a half a blanket, or something like that; sometimes without hats, and in the most filthy condition that it is possible to conceive of either beast or man being reduced to in any circumstances; unable to give either their names, their residence, regiments, or any facts, in consequence of their mental depression, so that I believe the surgeons have found it quite impossible some times to ascertain their relation to the army. Their statements agree almost universally in regard to their treatment at the hands of the rebels. There have been a very few exceptions, indeed, of those who have stated that perhaps their fare was as good as, under the circumstances, the rebels were able to give them, but the almost universal testimony of these men has been, that they were purposely deprived of the comforts and medical care which could have been afforded them, in order to render them useless to the army in the future. That has been the impression which a great many of them have labored under. They have given their testimony in regard to their condition on Belle Isle. There were three in one room here not long since, who told me that some eight of their comrades died during one or two days, and their bodies were thrown out on the banks that enclosed the ground and left there for eight days unburied, and they were refused the privilege of burying their comrades, until the hogs and the dogs had well-nigh eaten up their bodies. Yesterday, one man told me that he was so starved, and his hunger had become so intolerable, that his eyes appeared to swim in his head, and at times to be almost lost to all consciousness. Others have stated that they have offered to buy dogs at any price for food, of those who came in there; and one actually said that when a man came in there with a dog, and went out without the dog noticing it, they caught him and dressed him and roasted him over the fire, over a gas-light, as best they could, and then ate it; and, as he expressed it, "it was a precious mite to them." Their testimony in regard to the cruelty of the guards and others set over them is to the effect that in one instance two comrades in the army together, who were taken prisoners together, and remained in the prison together, were separated when the prisoners were exchanged. One was returned here and the other left. The one who was left went to the window and waved his hand in adieu to his comrade, and the guard deliberately shot him through the temple, and he fell dead. I mentioned this fact to others of our prisoners here in the hospital, and they said that they knew it to be so. Some of them were there at the time the man was shot.

Question. Do you keep any record of the deaths here?

Answer. I have not kept a record. I have the official notice of the deaths; but inasmuch as the records are kept at the office, and we have had so many other duties crowding upon us—so many deaths here—it has been almost impossible for us to keep any record. I think it is impossible for any description to exaggerate the condition of those men. The condition of those here now is not so bad, as a class, as some we have received heretofore.

By the chairman:

Question. Has the treatment of our prisoners latterly been worse than before, from their testimony?

Answer. I think there has been no very material change of late. I think it has grown worse from the very first; but for a year past, I should judge it could not be made any worse.

Question. Just the same thing we now see here?

Answer. Yes, sir. I would give just another fact in regard to the statements made here by large numbers of our returned prisoners. On Belle Isle, their privies were down from the main camp. From 6 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening they were permitted to go to these sinks or privies, but from 6 at night until 6 in the morning they were refused the privilege of going there, and consequently, so many suffering with diarrhœa, their filth was deposited all through their camp. The wells from which they drew their water were sunk in the sand around through their camp, and you can judge what the effect of that has been. Some of these prisoners, soon after they were put on Belle Isle, not knowing the regulations there, and suffering from chronic diarrhœa, when making the attempt to go down to these privies after 6 o'clock at night, were shot down in cold blood by the guards, without any warning whatever. Several such instances have been stated to me by parties who have arrived here.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. You make these statements from the testimony of prisoners received here?

Answer. Yes, sir; from testimony that I have the most perfect confidence in. Men have stated these things to me in the very last hours of their lives.

By the chairman:

Question. Were they conscious of their condition at the time they made their statements?

Answer. Yes, sir; I think they were perfectly conscious; yet there is one thing which is very remarkable, that is, these men retain their hope of life up to the hour of dying. They do not give up. There is another thing I would wish to state: all the men, without any exception, among the thousands that have come to this hospital, have never, in a single instance, expressed a regret (notwithstanding the privations and sufferings that they have endured) that they entered their country's service. They have been the most loyal, devoted, and earnest men. Even on the last days of their lives they have said that all they hoped for was just to live and enter the ranks again and meet their foes. It is a most glorious record in reference to the devotion of our men to their country. I do not think their patriotism has ever been equalled in the history of the world.

The committee then proceeded, by steamer, from Annapolis to Baltimore, and visited the "West Hospital," and saw the patients there. As they presented the same reduced and debilitated appearance as those they had already seen at Annapolis, and in conversation gave the same account of their treatment at the hands of the rebels, the committee concluded their examination by taking merely the testimony of the surgeon and chaplain of the hospital.

"West Hospital," Baltimore, Md., May 6, 1864.

Dr. Wm. G. Knowles, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. Will you state whether you are in the employment of the government; and if so, in what capacity?

Answer. I am, and have been for nearly three years, a contract physician in the "West Hospital," Baltimore.

Question. Have you received any of the returned Union prisoners, from Richmond, in your hospital?

Answer. We have received those we have here now; no others.

Question. How many have you received?

Answer. We have received 105.

Question. When did you receive them?

Answer. Two weeks ago last Tuesday. On the 19th of April.

Question. Will you state the condition those prisoners were in when they were received here?

Answer. They were all very emaciated men, as you have seen here to-day, only more so than they appear to be now. They were very emaciated and feeble, suffering chiefly from diarrhœa, many of them having, in connexion with that, bronchial and similar affections. From the testimony given to me by these men I have no doubt their condition was the result of exposure and—I was about to say starvation; but it was, perhaps, hardly starvation, for they had something to eat; but I will say, a deficient supply of food and of a proper kind of food; and when I say "exposure," perhaps that would not be sufficiently definite. All with whom I have conversed have stated that those who were on Belle Isle were kept there even as late as December with nothing to protect them but such little clothing as was left them by their captors; with no blankets, no overcoats, no tents, nothing to cover them, nothing to protect them; and that their sleeping-place was the ground—the sand.

Question. What would you, as a physician of experience, aside from the statements of these returned prisoners, say was the cause of their condition?

Answer. I should judge it was as they have stated. Diarrhœa is a very common form of disease among them, and from all the circumstances I have every reason to believe that it is owing to exposure and the want of proper nourishment. Some of them tell me that they received nothing but two small pieces of corn-bread a day. Some of them suppose (how true that may be I do not know) that that bread was made of corn ground with the cobs. I have not seen any of it to examine it.

Question. How many have died of the number you have received here?

Answer. Already twenty-nine have died, and you have seen one who is now dying; and five were received here dead, who died on their way from Fortress Monroe to Baltimore.

Question. How many of them were capable of walking into the hospital?

Answer. Only one; the others were brought here from the boat on stretchers, put on the dumb-waiter, and lifted right up to their rooms, and put on their beds. And I would state another thing in regard to these men: when they were received here they were filthy, dirty, and lousy in the extreme, and we had considerable trouble to get them clean. Every man who could possibly stand it we took and placed in a warm bath and held him up while he was washed, and we threw away all their dirty clothing, providing them with that which was clean.

Question. What was the condition of their clothing?

Answer. Very poor, indeed. I should say the clothing was very much worn, although I did not examine it closely, as that was not so much a matter of investigation with us as was their physical condition. Their heads were filled with vermin, so much so that we had to cut off their hair and make applications to destroy the vermin.

Question. What portion of those you have received here do you suppose are finally curable?

Answer. We shall certainly lose one-third of them; and we have been inclined to think that, sooner or later, we should lose one-half of them.

Question. Will the constitutions of those who survive be permanently injured, or will they entirely recover?

Answer. I think the constitutions of the greater part of them will be seriously impaired; that they will never become strong and healthy again.

Question. What account have these men given you as to the comparative condition of those left behind? Did the rebels send the best or the poorest of our prisoners?

Answer. I could not tell that; I have never inquired. But I should presume they must have sent the worst they had.

Question. You have had charge of confederate sick and wounded, have you not?

Answer. Yes, sir; a large number of them. This was the receiving hospital for those from Gettysburg.

Question. What was the treatment they received from us?

Answer. We consider that we treated them with the greatest kindness and humanity; precisely as we treated our own men. That has been our rule of conduct. We gave them the very best the hospital would afford; and not only what properly belonged to the hospital, but delicacies and luxuries of every kind were furnished them by the hospital, and by outside sympathizers, who were permitted to send delicacies to them.

Question. It has been stated in many of the rebel newspapers that our prisoners are treated the same and fed with the same rations as their soldiers in the field. In your judgment, as a physician would it be possible for their soldiers to retain their health and energy if fed as our prisoners have been?

Answer. No, sir; it would be impossible; multitudes of them would have died under such treatment.

Question. I do not know as I desire to question you further. Is there anything more you desire to state?

Answer. I do not know that there is; it is all in a nut-shell.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Is not the disease as evinced among those men clearly defined as resulting from exposure and privations, and want of proper food and nourishment?

Answer. That is our decided opinion as medical men; the opinion of all of us who have had anything to do with these men.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. The condition of all these men appears to be about the same. Is there really any difference in their condition except in degree?

Answer. I think that is all. Some men have naturally stronger constitutions than others, and can bear more than others. That is the way I account for the difference.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Are the minds of any of them affected permanently?

Answer. We have had two or three whose intellect is very feeble; some of them are almost like children in that respect.

Question. Do you think that grows out of the treatment they have received?

Answer. I think the same cause produced that as the other.

By the chairman:

Question. Is not that one of the symptoms attendant upon starvation, that men are likely to become deranged or idiotic?

Answer. Yes, sir; more like derangement than what we call idiocy.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Can those men whose arms you bared and held up to us—mere skeletons, nothing but skin and bone—can those men recover?

Answer. They may; we think that some of them are in an improving condition. But we have to be extremely cautious how we feed them. If we give them a little excess of food under these circumstances they would be almost certain to be seriously and injuriously affected by it.

Question. It is your opinion, you have stated, that these men have been reduced to this condition by want of food?

Answer. It is; want of food and exposure are the original causes. That has produced diarrhœa and other diseases as a natural consequence, and they have aided the original cause and reduced them to their present condition. I should like the country and the government to know the facts about these men; I do not think they can realize it until the facts are made known to them. I think the rebels have determined upon the policy of starving their prisoners, just as much as the murders at Fort Pillow were a part of their policy.

Rev. J. T. Van Burkalow, sworn and examined.

By the chairman:

Question. What is your connexion with this hospital?

Answer. I am the chaplain of the hospital.

Question. How long have you been acting in that capacity?

Answer. I have been connected with the hospital in that capacity ever since the 20th of October, 1862.

Question. What has been your opportunity of knowing the condition of our returned prisoners?

Answer. I have mingled with them and administered unto them ever since they have been here, night and day. I have written, I suppose, something like a hundred letters for them to their relatives and friends, since they arrived here.

Question. Have you attended them when they were dying?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And conversed with them about their condition, and the manner in which they have been brought to that condition?

Answer. Yes, sir; I have.

Question. Please tell us what you have ascertained from them.

Answer. The general story I have gotten from them was to the effect that when captured, and before they got to Richmond, they would generally be robbed of their clothing, their good United States uniforms, even to their shoes and hats taken from them, and if anything was given to them in place of them, they would receive only old worn-out confederate clothing. Sometimes they were sent to Belle Isle with nothing on but old pants and shirts. They generally had their money taken from them, often with the promise of its return, but that promise was never fulfilled. They were placed on Belle Isle, as I have said, some with nothing on but pants and shirts, some with blouses, but they were seldom allowed to have an overcoat or a blanket. There they remained for weeks, some of them for six or eight weeks, without any tents or any kind of covering.

Question. What time of the year was this?

Answer. All along from September down to December, as a general thing, through the latter part of the fall. There they remained for weeks without any tents, without blankets, and in many instances without coats, exposed to the rain and snow, and all kinds of inclement weather. And where some of them had tents, they were old worn-out army tents, full of holes and rents, so that they are very poor shelters indeed from the storms. I have been told by several of them that several times, upon getting up in the morning, they would find six or eight of their number frozen to death. There are men here now who have had their toes frozen off there. They have said that they have been compelled to get up during the night and walk rapidly back and forth to keep from dying from the cold.