that their prisoners were habitually strijiped of blankets and other property, on being
captured. What pillage may have been committed on the battle-field, after the excite-
ment of combat, your committee cannot know. But they feel well assured that such
pillage was never encouraged by the Confederate' generals, and bore no comparison to
the wholesale robbery and destruction to which the Federal armies have abandoned
themselves, in possessing parts of our territory. It is certain that after the prisoners
were brought to the Libby and other prisons in Richmond no such pillage was jiermit-
ted. Only articles which came properly under the head of munitions of war, were taken
from them.

The next charge noticed is, that the guards around the Libby prison were in the
habit of recklessly and inhumanly shooting at the prisoners, upon the most frivolous
pretexts, and that the Confederate officers, so far from forbidding this, rather encouraged
it, and made it a subject of sportive remark. This charge is wholly false and baseless.
The " Rules and Regulations," appended to the deposition of Major Thomas P. Turner,
expressly provide, " Nor shall any prisoner be fired ujjon by a sentinel or other person,
except in case of revolt or attempted escape." Five or six cases have occurred in which
prisoners have been fired on and killed or hurt ; but every case has been made the sub-
ject of careful investigation and report, as will appear by the evidence. As a proper
comment on this charge, your committee report that the practice of firing on our prison-
ers by the guards in the Northern prisons appears to have been indulged in to a most
tjrutal and atrocious extent. See the depositions of C. C. Ilerrington, Wm. F. Gordon,



634:



THE LOST CAUSE.



Jr., J. B. McCreary, Dr. Thomas P. Holloway and John P. Fennell. At Fort Delaware,
a cruel regulation as to the use of the " sinks," was made the pretext for firing on and
murdering several of our men and officers— among them, Lieut.-Col. Jones, who waa
lame, and was shot down by the sentinel while helpless and feeble, and while seeking to
explain his condition. Yet this sentinel was not only not punished, but was promoted
for his act. At Camp Douglas, as many as eighteen of our men are rejjorted to have
been shot in a single month. These facts may well produce a conviction in the candid
observer, that it is the North and not the South that is open to the charge of deliberate-
ly and wilfully destroying the lives of the prisoners held by her.

The next charge is, that the Libby and Belle Isle prisoners were habitually kept in a
filthy condition, and that the officers and men confined there were prevented from keep-
ing themselves sufficiently clean to avoid vermin and similar discomforts. The evidence
clearly contradicts this charge. It is proved by the depositions of Maj. Turner, Lieut.
Bossieux, Rev. Dr. McCabe, and others, that the prisons were kept constantly and syste-
matically policed and cleansed ; that in the Libby there was an ample supply of water
conducted to each floor by the city pipes, and that the prisoners were not only not re-
stricted in its use, but urged to keep themselves clean. At Belle Isle, for a brief season
(about three weeks), in consequence of a sudden increase in the number of prisoners, the
police was interrupted, but it was soon restored, and ample means for washing, both
themselves and their clothes, were at all times furnished to the prisoners. It is doubtless
true, that notwithstanding these facilities, many of the prisoners were lousy and filthy ;
but it was the result of their own habits, and not of neglect in the discipline or arrange-
ments of the prison. Many of the prisoners were captured and brought in while in this
condition. The Federal general, Neal Dow well expressed their character and habits.
Wlien he came to distribute clothing among them, he was met by profane abuse, and
he said to the Confederate officer in charge, " You have here the scrapings and Takings
of Europe." That such men should be filthy in their habits might be expected.

We next notice the charge that the boxes of provisions and clothing sent to the
prisoners from the North, were not delivered to them, and were habitually robbed and
plundered, by permission of the Confederate authorities. The evidence satisfies your
committee that this charge is, in all substantial points, untrue. For a period of about
one month there was a stojipage in the delivery of boxes, caused by a report that the
Federal authorities were forbidding the delivery of similar supplies to our prisoners.
But the boxes were put in a warehouse, and afterwards delivered. For some time no
search was made of boxes from the " Sanitary Committee," intended for the prisoners'
hospital. But a letter was intercepted, advising that money should be sent in these
boxes, as they were never searched ; which money was to be used in bribing the guard,
and thus releasing the prisonei's. After this, it was deemed necessary to search every
box, which necessarily produced some delay. Your committee are satisfied that if these
boxes or their contents were robbed, the prison officials are not responsible therefor.
Beyond doubt, robberies were often committed by prisoners themselves, to whom the
contents were delivered for distribution to their owners. Notwithstanding all this alleged
pillage, the supplies seem to have been sufficient to keep the quarters of the prisons so
well furnished that they frequently presented, in the language of a witness, " the ap-
pearance of a large grocery store.

In connection with this point, your committee refer to the testimony of a Federal
officer. Col. James M. Sanderson, whose letter is annexed to the deposition of Major
Turner. He testifies to the full delivery of the clothing and supplies from the North,
and to the humanity and kindness of the Confederate officers — specially mentioning
Lieut. Bossieux, commanding on Belle Isle. His letter was addressed to the President



CONFEDEKATE KEPOKT ON PKISONS. 635

of the United States Sanitary Commission, and was beyond doubt received by them,
having been forwarded by the I'egular flag of truce. Yet the scrupulous and honest gen-
tlemen composing that commission, have not found it convenient for their purposes to
insert this letter in their publication I Had they been really searching for the truth, Ihia
letter would have aided them in finding it.

Your committee proceed next to notice the allegation that the Confederate authori-
ties had i^repared a mine under the Libby prison, and placed in it a quantity of gunpow-
der for the purpose of blowing up the buildings with their inmates, in case of an attempt
to rescue them. After ascertaining all the facts bearing on this subject, your committee
believe that what was done vmder the circumstances, will meet a verdict of approval
from all whose prejudices do not blind them to the truth. The state of things was un-
precedented in history, and must be judged of according to the motives at work, and
the result accomplished. A large body of Northern raiders, under one Col. Dahlgren,
was approaching Richmond. It was ascertained, by the reports of prisoners captured
from them, and other evidence, that their design was to enter the city, to set fire to the
buildings, public and private, for which purpose turpentine balls in great number had
been prepared ; to murder the President of the Confederate States, and other prominent
men ; to release the prisoners of war, then numbering five or six thousand ; to put arms
into their hands, and to turn over the city to indiscriminate pillage, rajje, and slaughter.
At the same time a plot was discovered among the prisoners to co-operate in this scheme,
and a large number of knives and slung-shot (made by putting stones into woollen
stockings) were detected in i)laces of concealment about their quarters. To defeat a
plan so diabolical, assuredly the sternest means were justified. If it would have been
right to put to death any one prisoner attempting to escape under such circumstances
it seems logically certain that it would have been equally right to put to death any num-
ber making such attempt. But in truth the means adopted were those of humanity and
prevention, rather than of execution. The Confederate authorities felt able to meet and
repulse Dahlgren and his raiders, if they could prevent the escape of the prisoners.

The real object was to save their lives, as well as those of our citizens. The guard
force at the prisons wa^ small, and all the local troops in and around Richmond were
needed to meet the threatened attack. Had the prisoners escajjed, the women and chil-
dren of the city, as well as their homes, would have been at the mercy of five thousand
outlaws. Humanity required that the most summary measures should be used to deter
them from any attempt at escape.

A mine was prepared under the Libby prison ; a sufficient quantity of gunpowder
w\as put into it, and pains were taken to inform the prisoners that any attempt at escape
made by them would be effectually defeated. The plan succeeded perfectly. The pris-
oners were awed and kept quiet. Dahlgren and his party were defeated and scattered.
The danger passed away, and in a few weeks the gunpowder was removed. Such are
the facts. Your committee do not hesitate to make them knowTi, feeling assured that
the conscience of the enlightened world and the great law of self-preservation will justify
all that was done by our country and her ofBcers.

"We now proceed to notice, under one head, the last and gravest charge made in these
publications. They assert that the Northern prisoners in the hands of the Confederate
authorities have been starved, frozen, inhumanly punished, often confined in foul and
loathsome quarters, deprived of fresh air and exercise, and neglected and maltreated in
sickness — and that all this was done upon a deliberate, wilful, and long-conceived plan
of the Confederate Government and officers, for the purpose of destroying the liv^'S of
these prisoners, or of rendering them forever incapable of military service. This charge
gccuses the Southern Government of a crime so horrible and unnatural that it could



636



THE LOST CAtrSE.



never have been made except by those ready to blacken with slander men whom they
have long injured and hated. Your committee feel bound to reply to it calmly but em-
phatically. They pronounce it false in fact, and in design ; false in the basis on which
it assumes to rest, and false in its estimate of the motives which have controlled the
Southern authorities.

At an early period in the present contest the Confederate Government recognized
their obligation to treat prisoners of war with humanity and consideration. Before any
laws were passed on the subject, the Executive Department provided such prisoners aa
fell into their hands, with proper quarters and barracks to shelter them, and with ra-
tions the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to the Confederate soldiers
who guarded these prisoners. They also showed an earnest wish to mitigate the sad con-
dition of prisoners of war, by a system of fair and prompt exchange — and the Confed-
erate Congress co-operated in these humane views. By their act, approved on the„31st
day of May, 1861, they provided that " all prisoners of war taken, whether on land or at
sea, during the jDending hostilities with the United States, shall be transferred by the
captors from time to time, and as often as convenient, to the Department of "War ; and
it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, with the approval of the President, to issue
such instructions to the Quartermaster-General and his subordinates, as shall provide for
the safe custody and sustenance of prisoners of war ; and the rations furnished prisoners
of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in
the Army of the Confederacy." Such were the declared j)urpose and policy of the Con-
federate Government towards prisoners of war — amid all the privations and losses to
which their enemies have subjected them, they have sought to carry them into effect.

Our investigations for this preliminary report have been confined chiefly to the ra-
tions and treatment of the prisoners of war at the Libby and other prisons in Richmond
and on Belle Isle. This we have done, because the publications to which we have al-
luded chiefly refer to them, and because the " Report No. 67 " of the Northern Congress
plainly intimates the belief that the treatment in and around Richmond was worse than
it was farther South. That report says : " 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 Con-
federacy were congregated," Report, p. 3.

The evidence proves that the rations furnished to prisoners of war in Richmond and
on Belle Isle, have been never less than those furnished to the Confederate soldiers who
guarded them, and have at some seasons been larger in quantity and better in quality
than those furnished to Confederate troops in the field. This has been because, until
February, 1884, the Quartermaster's Department furnished the prisoners, and often had
provsions or funds, when the Commissary Department was not so well provided. Once
and only once, for a few weeks, the prisoners were without meat, but a larger quantity
of bread and vegetable food was in consequence supplied to them. How often the gal-
lant men composing the Confederate Army, huve been without meat, for even longer
intei^vals, your committee do not deem it necessary to say. Not less than sixteen ounces
of bread and four ounces of bacon, or six ounces of beef, together with beans and soup,
have been furnished per day to the prisoners. During most of the time the quantity of
meat furnished to them has been greater than these amounts ; and even in times of the
greatest scarcity, they have received as much as the Southern soldiers who guarded
them. The scarcity of meat and of ):)readstuff'3 in the South, in certain places, has been
the result of the savage policy of our enemies in burning barns filled with wheat or corn,
destroying agricultural implements, and diiving oft" or wantonly butchering hogs and



CONFEDERATE KEPOKT ON PKISONS. G37

cattle. Tet amid all tliese privations, we have given to their prisoners the rations alcove
mentioned. It is well known that this quantity of food is sufficient to keep in health a
man who does not labour hard. All the learned disquisitions of Dr. Ellerslie Wallace
on the subject of starvation, might have been spared, for they are all founded on a false
basis. It will be observed that few (if any) of the witnesses examined by the " Sanitary
Commission " speak with any accuracy of the quantity (in weight) of the food actually
furnished to them. Their statements are merely conjectural and comjjarative, and can-
not weigh against the positive testimony of those who superintended the delivery of
large quantities of food, cooked and distributed according to a fixed ratio, for the num-
ber of men to be fed.

The statements of the " Sanitary Commission " as to prisoners freezing to death on
Belle Isle, are absurdly false. According to that statement, it was common, during a
cold spell in winter, to see several prisoners frozen to death every morning in the places
in which they had slept. This picture, if correct, might well excite our horrour ; but
unhappily for its sensational power, it is but a clumsy daub, founded on the fancy of the
l^ainter. The facts are, that tents were furnished sufficient to shelter all the prisoners ;
that the Confederate commandant and soldiers on the Island were lodged in similar
tents ; that a fire was furnished in each of them ; that the prisoners fared as well as their
guards ; and that only one of them was ever frozen to death, and he was frozen by the
cruelty of his own fellow-prisoners, who thrust him out of the tent in a freezing night,
because he was infested with vermin. The proof as to the healthiness of the prisoners on
Belle Isle, and the small amount of mortality, is remarkable, and presents a fit comment
on the lugubrious pictures drawn by the " Sanitary Commission," either from their own
fancies, or from the fictions put forth by their false witnesses. Lieut. Bossieux proves
that from the establishment of the prison camp on Belle Isle in June, 1863, to the 10th
of February, 1865, more than twenty thousand prisoners had been at various times there
received, and yet that the whole number of deaths during this time, was only one hun-
dred and sixty-four. And this is confirmed by the Federal colonel, Sanderson, who
states that the average number of deaths per month on Belle Isle, was " from two to
five ; more frequently the lesser numbei"." The sick were promptly removed from the
Island to the hospitals in the city.

Doubtless the " Sanitary Commission " have been to some extent led astray by their
own witnesses, whose character has been iDortrayed by Gen. Neal Dow, and also by the
editor of the New York Times, who, in his issue of January 6th, 1865, describes the
material for recruiting the Federal army as " wretched vagabonds, of depraved morals,
decrepit in body, without courage, self-respect, or conscience. They are dirty, disor-
derly, thievish, and incapable."

In reviewing the charges of cruelty, harshness, and starvation to prisoners made by
the North, your committee have taken testimony as to the treatment of our own officers
and soldiers, in the hands of the enemy. It gives us no pleasure to be compelled to
speak of the sufi'ering infficted upon our gallant men ; but the self-laudatory style in
which the " Sanitary Commission " have spoken of their prisons, makes it proper that
the truth should be presented. Your committee gladly acknowledge that in many
cases our prisoners experienced kind and considerate treatment ; but we are equally as-
sured that in nearly all the prison stations of the North — at Point Lookout, Fort
McHenry, Fort Delaware, Johnson's Island, Elmira, Camp Chase, Camp Douglas, Alton,
Camp Morton, the Ohio Penitentiary and the prisons of St. Louis, Missouri, om- men
have suffered from insufficient food, and have been subjected to ignoniinious, cruel, and
barbarous practices, of which there is no parallel in anything that has occurred in the
South. The witnesses who were at Point Lookout, Fort Delaware. Camp Morton and



638 THE LOST CAUSE.

Camp Douglas, testify that they have often seen our men picking up the scraps and
refuse thrown out from the kitchens, with which to appease their hunger. Dr. Herrin g-
ton proves that at Fort Delaware unwholesome bread and water f)roduced diarrhoea in
numberless cases among our prisoners, and that " their sufferings were greatly aggra*
vated by the regulation of the camp, which forbade more than twenty men at a time at
night to go to the sinks. I have seen as many as five hundred men in a row waiting
their time. The consequence was that they were obliged to use the places where they
were. This produced great want of cleanliness, and aggravated the disease." Our meu
were compelled to labour in unloading Federal vessels and in putting up buildings for
Federal officers, and, if they refused, were driven to the work with clubs.

The treatment of Brig.-Gen. J. H. Morgan and his ofiicers was brutal and ignomini-
ous in the extreme. It will be found stated in the depositions of Capt. M. D. Logan,
Lieut W. P. Crow, Lieut.-Col. James B. McCreary, and Capt. B. A. Tracey, that they
were put in the Ohio Penitentiary, and compelled to submit to the treatment of felons.
Their beards were shaved, and their hair was cut close to the head. They were con-
fined in convicts' cells, and forbidden to speak to each other. For attempts to escape, and
for other offisnces of a very light character, they were subjected to the horrible punish-
ment of the dungeon. In midwinter, with the atmosphere many degrees below zero,
without blanket or overcoat, they were confined in a cell, without fire or light, with a
fetid and poisonous air to breathe — and here they were kept until life was nearly ex-
tinct. Their condition on coming out, wiis so deplorable as to draw tears from their
comrades. The blood was oozing from their hands and faces. The treatment in the
St. Louis prison was equally barbarous. Capt. William H. Sebring testifies : " Two of
us, A. C. Grimes and myself, were carried out into the open air in the prison yard, on the
25th of December, 1863, and handcuffed to a post. Here we were kept all night in
sleet, snow, and cold. We were relieved in the day-time, but again brought to the post
and handcuffed to it in the evening — and thus we were kept all night mitil the 3d of
January, 18G4. I was badly frost-bitten and my health was much impaired. This cruel
infliction was done by order of Capt. Byrnes, Commandant of Prisons in St. Louis. He
was barbarous and insulting to the last degree."

But even a gi-eater inhumanity than any we have mentioned was perpetrated upon
onr pris mers at Camp Douglas and Camp Chase. It is proved by the testimony of
Thomas P. Ilolloway, John P. Fennell, II. H. Bai-low, H. 0. Barton, C. D. Bracken, and
J. S. Barldw, that our prisoners in large numbers were put into " conden ned camps,"
where «mall-pox was prevailing, and speedily contracted this loathsome disease, and that
as many as forty new cases often appeared daily among them. Even the Federal officers
who guarded them to the camp protested against this unnatural atrocity : yet it was done.
The men who contracted the disease were removed to a hospital about a mile off, but the
plague was already introduced, and continued to prevail. For a period of more than
twelve months the disease was constantly in tlie camp, yet our prisoners during all this
time were continually brought to it, and subjected to certain infection. Neitlier do we
find evidences of amendment on the part of our enemies, notwiths'anding the boasts of
the "sanitary commission." At Nashville, prisoners recently capt?ired from General
Hood's army, even when sick and wounded, have been cruelly deprived of all nourish-
ment suited to their condition; and other prisoners from the same army have been
carried into the infected Camps Douglas and Chase.

Many of the soldiers of General Hood's army were frost-bitten by being kept day and
Qight in an exposed condition before they were put into Camp Douglas. Their suffer-
ings are truthfully depicted in the evidence. At Alton and C'amp Morton the same
Inhuman practice of putting our prisoners into camps infected by small-pox, prevailed.



CONFEDERATE REPORT ON PRISONS. 639

It was equivalent to murdering many (if tliera by the torture of a contagious disease. The
insufficient rations at Camp Morton forced our men to appease their liunger by pounding
np and boiling bones, picking up scraps of meat and cabbage from the hospital slop tubs,
and even eating rats and dogs. The depositions of Wm. Ayres and J. Chambers Crent
prove tliese privations.

The pimisliments often inflicted on our men for slight offences, have been shameful
and barbarous. They have been compelled to ride a plank only four inches wide, called
"Morgan's horse;" to sit down with their naked bodies in the snow for ten or fifteea
minutes, and have been subjected to the ignominy of stripes from the belts of their
guards. The pretext has been used, that many of their acts of cruelty have been by way
of retaliation. But no evidence has been found to prove such acts on the part of the
Confederate authorities. It is remarkable that in the case of Colonel Streight and his
officers, they were subjected only to the ordinary confinement of prisoners of war. No
special punishment was u^ed except for specific offences ; and then the greatest infliction
was to confine Colonel Streight for a few weeks in a basement room of the Libby prison,
with a window, a plank floor, a stove, a fire, and plenty of fuel.

"We do not deem it necessary to dwell further on these subjects. Enough has been
proved to show that great privations and sufferings have been borne by the prisoners on
both sides.



WHY HAVE NOT PEISONEKS OF WAE BEEN EXCHANGED ?

But the question forces itself upon us, why have these sufferings been so long con-
tinned ? Why have not the prisoners of war been exchanged, and thus some of the
darkest pages of history spared to the world ? In the answer to this question must be