Up to the month of September, 1864, forty-two thousand four hundred
prisoners had been received, and out of this number seven thousand five
hundred and eighty-seven, or eighteen per cent., had died since the
occupation of the prison--a period of about six months. During August the
manoeuvres of Sherman alarmed them so much that they thought best to
remove many of the prisoners to other stockades in Alabama and in North
and South Carolina; but yet the mortality for the remainder of the year
was for the month of September seventeen per cent. out of the number
present; October, twenty-seven per cent.; November, twenty-four per cent.;
and seven per cent. in December, when there were but five thousand
inmates. This gives nineteen per cent. average for each of those four
months, and indicates that out of the thirty-two thousand present on the
first of August, but few thousand would have been living at the close of
the year, had not Sherman compelled a reduction in the number of inmates.
Out of this number present in August, and distributed afterwards, I
believe that but few thousand survived the system of treatment at the
other prisons, and ever lived to reach home. Of these few thousand men who
were finally exchanged, a great many have since perished; which statement
will be admitted by all who have watched the phases of disease since the
termination of the war.