CONTENTS. PAGE. Treatment of Prisoners at Richmond-Commissary denounced by Foote...... 3 Cases of returned Prisoners-Wounded and Prisoners....................................................... Incident of Peninsular war-Testament given on field of battle.... Prison-Fort Delaware-General Ewell's Headquarters..... Statement of Mr. McIlvaine-Rev. Mr. Tiffany. Prisoners naked-Dr. Chapel-Petition from Officers at Charleston to Presi- Confession of Richmond Examiner-Deaths in hospitals at Richmond..... Prisons of the Revolution-Wallabocht Bay-Cruelty of English-General Letter from Col. Hoffman-Walker-Marsden-Preaching-Point Lookout... 19 Rejected Camp-U. S. V.-2, 5, 12 N. H. V.-Prisoners' Camp-Hammond Gen. Barnes-Drs. Hagar and Thompson-Rev. Messrs. Adams and Leonard.. Mr. Baker-Maryland Bible Society-Rev. Mr. Walker-Mr. Morgan--School 24 Exchanges-Capt. Miller, Ga., fifteen days in dead house-Capt. Little, N. C. Edey-Man without blanket-Swearing-Attention of Surgeons.. Norwegian-Union men among prisoners-North Carolinian.. Good humor of officers-Benefit of imprisonment-Nicholas of Russia-John Army-Length of trains-Culpepper-Wilderness..... Tree cut down by bullets at Spotsylvania C. H.-Richmond Sentinel...... Mr. Miller-Drury's Bluff-Kautz-Heckman-Finnegan-Point of Rocks ... Death of Col. Porter Pontoon Bridge-Crossing the James.... Raid into Maryland-Battle of Monocacy-Advance on Washington-Burn- Gen. Chambliss killed-Chapin's Farm-Fort Harrison-Death of Colonel Young Judson--Death of Schneider-Dod--Youth from Connecticut..... H. A. Wise-God made this Union-Slavery-Maryland-God rules-Dr. Pharaoh-Fearful lesson-People maddened and blinded-Conspiracy to per- Prophetic warning of Stevens-Witness for God-African Colonies-Signs... 53 English Colonies-First Slaves in Virginia-Smith-Pochahontas...... South arming Slaves-Folly-Improvement of Freedmen-Bull Run and PRISONS AND PRISONERS OF WAR. RICHMOND-ANDERSONVILLE-FORT DELAWARE-WALLA BOCHT BAY. The wounded from the battle of Gettysburg had scarcely been housed in comfortable quarters for the winter, when reports came, by various modes of communication, that our men who had been captured at Gettysburg, and other places, were suffering in the prisons of Belle Island, Libby, Castle Thunder, &c., at Richmond, for want of food, clothing and shelter. It was hard to entertain the idea that it could be true of men who had enjoyed the blessings of civilization and christianity, and who profess to have attained to a standard of humanity, civilization and chivalry beyond any of their Northern brethren. To charge such a crime upon them, for milder language is not becoming, we were very unwilling. Yet after examining into the matter with all the care, attention and impartiality possible-comparing the statements and editorials in their papers with written communications from prisoners in prison, and the personal verbal testimony of men who were privates and officers, men whom we personally knew we were left without a shadow of doubt upon the subject. Being eye-witness to the condition of those that were admitted at Annapolis from the steamer New York, from Richmond, on May 2d, 1864, also of those admitted to West's Building Hospital, on the 18th of April, we can testify that their condition was all that is sta'ed in the report of Mr. Wade, on May 9th, and that the photographs of the persons were correct When the miserable commissary was denounced in their Congress by Mr. Foote as a cruel wretch, disgracing the Confederacy, robbing and murdering by inches the prisoners-when they permitted provisions and clothing to be forwarded, it was an admission on the part of the Rebel Government of the truth of the statements to a very large degree. Convinced of the fact, and finding a door open, we gave what diligence we could in endeavoring to secure and send forward to our men in prison such articles of food, clothing, &c., as would help to make them comfortable. At first they were freely received, and in part, if not wholly, distributed. Then it was objected that they could not distribute what the Government had sent, but would that of the Commissions-then none except individual packages. When reduced to this, we took the names of individuals, and dividing the goods into moderate sized boxes, forwarded them to individuals, many of whom we were thankful on knowing that they received them. Others to whom boxes were sent, not only did not receive them, but from some we have learned that when they were released for exchange, on passing out, saw boxes directed to them, with the goods in some cases removed, and in others spoiled. To what extent our papers were guilty of exasperating them by gross representations and violent denunciations of their conduct, we cannot tell. It certainly was a duty to point out this gross neglect, resulting in starvation, when their papers admitted, urged and justified it; and must have been gross when Mr. Foote, one of their Congress, felt called upon by his humanity to denounce it publicly in that body. The history of this starvation is one of the darkest pictures of this rebellion. To capture men in war, to shoot them down in battle, to require of them even exertion to procure their food and clothing, to let them live even on rougher fare, might be admitted as an accompaniment of war. To withhold proper food when they have it-not to furnish it in quantity when they have abundance, to admit their want and open a door to receive food and clothing-then when furnished, to shift and shuffle from one point to another, to have some pretext to continue the work of starvation, exposure and death--and then for the editors of their papers to gloat over it and glory in it, is one of the most horrible things which has occurred since this horrible war was commenced, and admits of no apology. To have men suffering from want of clothing, and withhold clothing furnished to them without cost; to have men starving and dying, and let provisions rot before their eyes without letting them be given; to let their fellow-men, prisoners in their hands, for whose lives they were responsible to God, die thus, is an outrage on humanity, such as the world has scarcely ever seen, and is evidence of the strongest kind, to us, that their cause is of that character that God could not and would not prosper. In times of excitement, we are in great danger of losing sight of proper and correct principles-in a storm a sea captain may lose his reckoning; in a battle, amid smoke or fog, soldiers and officers may lose their place and be captured-the confusion of the contest may break order and discipline; in time of civil and warm political contests, men lose sight of individual rights, correct principles, and forget and neglect the duties they owe to one another; but no man has a right, no people have a right to sanction inhumanity-to pursue it with a plan and purpose. What incident in the life of the cruel Nero is more indicative of his savage temper, and indifference to human rights, than that during a general famine, when many were perishing for want of food, he ordered a ship from Egypt, the granary of Italy, with a load of sand for the use of wrestlers, that he might be amused in the contest? Among the vessel loads of our returned prisoners were men whom we had known for many years. Those in the photograph plates were true, but there were worse cases. No report can convey the impression which a man would have who saw them upon the boats. The people of the South, in general, are not to be charged with this cruelty, for in many cases we have heard from our prisoners that acts of kindness and attention to their wants have been shown in ways which speak for their humanity and ingenuity in helping them; nei ther would we charge it upon officers of standing or rank in State, or the army. The neglect the withholding and the cruelty which has placed such a picture of horrors before the world, is principally due to the officers in charge of those prisons, who have acted as commanders, provost marshals, keepers, guards and commissaries, with negligent surgeons. We would not, however, by any means, excuse the criminality against God and humanity, which in the higher officers of State permitted these men so to act, or the Government which would withhold help, or when help was offered and brought by their consent, would suffer the same to go to waste, while the men died for want. If they did not in person examine, they should have had reliable men; if neither, what excuse can they make? They could not be ignorant. We are the more explicit on this point, and make the complaint with somewhat of right, personally, because we have endeavored to have the Rebel wounded in our hands cared for in proper manner, as a duty we owe to God, to humanity, and to our nation. The Rebel wounded at Gettysburg, and in our hospitals, were taken care of as well as our own, by surgeons of the Government, and by the delegates of our Commission. Wounded and prisoners constitute two great classes in war. In this, the contest is to settle the permanency of republican institutions--the right and power of self-government-the hope of liberty in the world; whether man shall be man as made in the image of God, with rights and hopes for this world, or whether he is to be enslaved, oppressed and down-trodden under the heels of despotic power-that absolutism which craft, taking advantage of ignorance, combined under satanic influence, with power, has interfered between man and his Creator— between man and the blessings which God has entitled him to, and made him the mere creature of their will and pleasure, instead of man in the image of God, sitting beneath his own vine and fig tree, with no power to molest him. Sprung upon the people of this nation as this war was in the early part of 1861, all the facilities which belonged to the Government removed by the cunning of traitorous officers, with the permission or neglect, if not connivance of James Buchanan, the Chief Executive, the energy of the nation, its reserved power had to be called forth, and provision made for its defence. It has been done on a scale of grandeur and magnificence. For thirty years the Southern leaders had been preparing. When they made their first moves they were the strongest. When their rebellion was thoroughly inaugurated they were in their strength. The national arms and munitions of war, which then were as nothing, have gradually been growing into a perfectness in numbers and strength until the present time. In the progress of our Government's provision no department has been more carefully and permanently advanced than that which belongs to the wounded and prisoners. Beginning without hospitals and priscns, indeed without surgeons, for what were the few army surgeons to the demand? When we called the second day after a battle upon a Medical Director to ask him to telegraph for fifty or one hundred surgeons, he answered "We had enough for our wounded." Several days after the Surgeon General called for fifty to one hundred. Men could not realize the magnitude of the war, and just in the proportion of that did we need surgeons, hospitals and prisons, with all the appendages necessary to a humane caring for of the lives of our own men and of the enemy as they should fall into our hands. Torture is not an element of war. With all its horrors and sufferings and deaths, a real soldier would feel dishonored and degraded if he let his humanity leave him for the impulse and spirit of a demon. On the battle field, while the musketry has been one continued crash and the artillery one deafening roar as men advanced against the enemy, a man has been known to stop and give a drink of water from his canteen to a wounded enemy. At Point Lookout we preached from a Testament belonging to one of the Rebel prisoners, in which he had written, "Given to me by the Enemy on the field of battle, at Gettysburg." In the Peninsular war, when the English and French had been in deadly conflict, the English army overpowered, had retreated across a river, the French pursuing to its edge They had succeeded, and were passing over a rising ground on the opposite side to escape the sharpshooters of the French, who were now occupying the ground which they left. The bugles sounded for a move, when some one observed that a woman, the wife of one of the soldiers, in the confusion and haste had been left on the opposite shore, and was standing with arms outstretched imploring help. The noise of the stream and the roar of musketry drowned her cries. What was to be done? How can she be saved? While the army turned to behold her one general feeling of interest was awakened. Suddenly the ranks opened, and a man pushed forth on horseback. Pressing the spurs into his horse he dashed into the stream. The storm of bullets from the French army fell as hail around him, yet on he pressed, stemming the flood, and reached the shore where she stood. Seizing her with his strong hand he lifted her upon his horse. Turning his head he rushed again into the river. The French now, for the first time, saw for what he had braved their army single-handed. Dropping their muskets to the ground, and taking off their caps, with one huzza they joined the English army upon the other side in paying their tribute to the humanity and philanthropy of the Scotch nobleman who had perilled his life for the saving of another. This spirit has not left the men in the army on either side in this dreadful contest. Oftentimes when the officers of the Rebel army will permit, their pickets hail our men with as much freedom and cordiality as if there was no strife between them. They will trade tobacco and and papers, &c., until ordered to cease, and even then will notify our men that they may be on the watch. There are some green spots now and then in the desolations of war which show where human kindness can soften the pillow and soothe the dying hour even of an enemy sugar in arms. We are thankful that amid the terrible horrors of this war there are agencies at work in addition to the regular provision of the Government, in concert, and heartily co-operative with all those surgeons or men of the medical fraternity who are seeking to alleviate the pains, bind up the wounds and minister food and nourishment to the wounded |