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.